For a game that can turn on such tiny moments it is remarkable how often football delivers the fitting result.
It’s no slight on Western Sydney Wanderers’ impressive season to state that in this year’s A-League grand final the better team won; and so for the seventh time in 11 years the team that finished premiers has added the descriptor “champions” as well.
The post-game cardboard standee and party popper celebrations may have been underwhelming, but there was nothing lacklustre about Adelaide United’s on-field performance.
It may not have been the tense, testy affair that so often characterises finals, but all four goals spoke volumes as to the calibre of this Adelaide team.
Marcelo Carrusca and Bruce Kamau’s combination for the opener was inspired; Isaias’s free-kick was inch-perfect; and Pablo Sanchez’s cool finish was ruthless in exposing a rare Wanderers defensive lapse.
Even Scott Neville’s belter seemed to highlight the quality it would require to breach Eugene Galekovic’s goal.
If the Wanderers appeared to fall short of the captivating semi-final showing against Brisbane, then the obverse side to this was the impressive strength of Adelaide defensively.
Whereas United dissected Western Sydney with the clinical precision of a scalpel, the Wanderers’ response was that of a tooth-worn hacksaw.
Romeo Castelen, for all his mercurial talent, is often guilty of inconsistency, but he was in good company as Mark Bridge delivered a quiet performance and Mitch Nichols suffered the ignominy of being withdrawn before even an hour had passed.
These are quality players – as Brisbane can attest – and they don’t lose their ability overnight. If Western Sydney’s attack was blunt, then it was the grit of Adelaide’s collective defensive structure that caused this.
How many times did Castelen find himself with two markers? How often did we see him receive the ball in dangerous central positions?
Much has been made of Guillermo Amor’s links to the fabled Barcelona school of attacking football, but it has been defensively that Adelaide has most improved.
No coach in Reds’ history can boast a record of almost one goal conceded per game; and if you consider Adelaide shipped 17 in their first eight games, the turnaround thereafter is even more remarkable.
Seven clean sheets away from home, and 13 in all – just one shy of the all-time A-League record – mean that in almost half Adelaide’s games this season oppositions have gone home empty-handed.
To do so with world-class players is the sign of a decent manager; to do so with no better than decent players is the hallmark of a world-class coach.
Adelaide’s season has not been defined by a Diego Castro or a Bruno Fornaroli. It’s been defined by a striker maligned for his limited goal return, now in career best form; by a defensive-midfielder released by his old club, now reimagined as a reliable central defender; by two full-backs whose youthful promise threatened to dissipate into mediocrity, who are now commanding the attention once again of overseas clubs.
In addition to revitalising some of their more mature players, the Adelaide coaching staff has also led the league in developing young talent.
Isaias may have won the Joe Marston Medal for best on ground, but it was the 20-year-old Stefan Mauk alongside him in Adelaide’s engine room who is emerging as one of the A-League’s best young talents.
When James Jeggo’s mid-season departure left a gaping hole in Adelaide’s midfield, Amor didn’t panic – he didn’t rush out and sign a veteran on a short-term contract, but instead showed faith in teenager George Mells, before Mauk made the role his own.
To back and to develop young players takes faith from a coach; but it also takes faith from a board.
Gone are the days when behind-the-scenes disarray prompted then coach Aurelio Vidmar to predict the club would “never win anything”; now in his captain’s acceptance speech, the very first people thanked by Galekovic were the members of the board.
There’s a sense of coherence surrounding Adelaide these days, in its footballing philosophy and in its identity as a club, that speaks to the patient long-term planning so often lacking in increasingly results-driven football.
Amor’s philosophies may have altered subtly from Josep Gombau’s but there’s an underlying continuity to the Adelaide project that enables the playing personnel to continue to adapt and to develop.
In Gombau and Amor are two coaches who place a premium on encouraging their players to think for themselves on the field.
For A-League fans who have witnessed a production line of cookie-cutter replica full-backs; young wingers or strikers, coached within an inch of their lives in tactical formations, patterns of movement or passing, the Adelaide model is a much-needed breath of fresh air.
It was fitting that Kamau scored Adelaide’s opener – a goal that showcased not just his emerging talent, but also his increasing intelligence as a footballer.
Watching live, Wanderers fans may have questioned the defending from Scott Jamieson, allowing his winger to sneak inside him so easily. But seen in replay, it’s not a case of ball-watching – the left-back, selected in the PFA team of the year, is constantly scanning for the youngster’s run; but Kamau patiently waits and times his run for when the defender is wrong-footed, enabling him to gain a metre and attack the space in front of Jamieson.
It’s a minor detail, but just one of the many that combined to deliver an inaugural championship for Adelaide.
It’s not quite Das Reboot, but for any A-League club struggling to define its identity, it wouldn’t hurt to take notes from Adelaide’s patient revolution
