| Event | 2008–09 A-League | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Date | 28 February 2009 | ||||||
| Venue | Telstra Dome,Melbourne,Victoria,Australia | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Tom Pondeljak,Melbourne Victory | ||||||
| Referee | Matthew Breeze | ||||||
| Attendance | 53,273 | ||||||
←2008 2010 → | |||||||
The2009 A-League Grand Final took place atTelstra Dome inMelbourne,Australia on 28 February 2009.
It was the final match in theA-League 2008–09 season, and was played between premiersMelbourne Victory and runners-upAdelaide United. Melbourne Victory won the match 1–0 and became the winners of the 2008–09 Championship, thus becoming the first team to win the A-Leaguedomestic treble, after also claiming the2008 Pre-Season Challenge Cup, and the2008–09 Premiership.[1]
The Grand Final was the last event to be held at theTelstra Dome, the former name of Melbourne'sDocklands Stadium. Due to a change in sponsorship, the stadium is now known asEtihad Stadium.
| Semifinals | Preliminary final | Final | ||||||||||||
| Melbourne Victory | 2 | 4 | Melbourne Victory | 1 | ||||||||||
| Adelaide United | 0 | 0 | Adelaide United | 0 | ||||||||||
| Adelaide United | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Queensland Roar | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Queensland Roar | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Central Coast Mariners | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||
With both teams down to ten men for the last 25 minutes, Adelaide were left scoreless with Melbourne taking their second A-League championship medal. Pondeljak's goal earned him the prestigiousJoe Marston Medal.
A contentious earlyred card given to the lone Adelaide strikerCristiano by refereeMatthew Breeze saw the Reds go down to ten men by the tenth minute.[2][3] However, Adelaide managed to hold back Melbourne from scoring untilTom Pondeljak scored 23 metres out from goal in the 60th minute to allow Melbourne to take the lead.
Five minutes later, Melbourne strikerDaniel Allsopp was also sent off for allegedly headbutting Adelaide'sRobert Cornthwaite in an incident in the Melbourne penalty box.[1]
Both Cristiano and Allsopp's red cards were revoked by theFootball Federation Australia in a post-match conference.[4]
| Melbourne Victory | 1–0 | Adelaide United |
|---|---|---|
Pondeljak 60' | Reports[5] |
      Melbourne Victory |  Adelaide United |
|  |
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Joe Marston Medal: | Match rules
|
| A-League 2009 Champions |
|---|
 |
| Melbourne Victory Second Title |
| Melbourne | Adelaide | |
|---|---|---|
| Attempts at goal | 15 | 9 |
| Attempts on target | 6 | 3 |
| Attempts off target | 9 | 6 |
| Attempts – Woodwork | 0 | 0 |
| Keeper saves | 2 | 4 |
| Ball possession | 50% | 50% |
| Corners | 8 | 2 |
| Fouls committed | 17 | 19 |
| Offsides | 2 | 1 |
| Yellow cards | 1 | 5 |
| Red cards | 1 | 1 |
The red card to Adelaide talismanCristiano after just 10 minutes in the championship decider against Melbourne Victory created a lot of controversy post match.[6] The Brazilian starlet had been warned before that referee Matthew Breeze would send him off if he suspected anything untoward about his heading with flailing arms. He felt as though he was a marked man all season by referee Matthew Breeze[7] " I couldn't sleep after the game."[7]
Fox Sports analyst and Former Australia international Robbie Slater claimed the referee made the wrong call, "ruined" the Grand Final and argued that the A-League should hire an elite overseas official to handle its championship game.[7]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)| Seasons | |||||||
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