25/02/2008 10:36 AM
Newcastle coach Gary van Egmond took the risks heading into Sunday's A-League Grand Final and in the end was rewarded with a championship.
While just one goal separated the Jets and Central Coast in the season finale, van Egmond's decision to play a three-man defence complemented by a five-man midfield enabled the Jets to control much of the game and in the end take the chance to score the goal which would prove the winner.
This match was a total contrast to the two legs of the major semi-final where Newcastle took a 2-0 lead before being pegged back with a 3-0 result in the second leg at Gosford. Those matches were played in end-to-end fashion, with both sides allowed to dominate through their respective midfields at different times of the contests.
Van Egmond admitted after the game that he wanted to change the nature of the contest, and push the Mariners into areas where they didn't feel comfortable. It enabled the Jets to stop the Mariners' direct game plan, while spending more time on the ball themselves, controlling the play.
The agenda for the match was set in the first 20 minutes. The Mariners came into the decider as favourites, but it was the Jets who controlled the play, creating two excellent chances to Matt Thompson and Mark Bridge. With the Jets' defensive midfield in charge, the Mariners, who were compressed in their defensive half, needed to take control out wide, but for the first quarter of the game, Adam Kwasnik and Greg Owens, while busy, did not really get into dangerous positions.
The Jets didn't capitalise on their early dominance and the Mariners began to build up with more patience. Kwasnik and Owens both had shots blocked, while Kwasnik also hit the side netting. However, while John Aloisi and Sasho Petrovski were not getting the ball, it was always going to be hard for the Mariners to score.
The first meaningful chance fell to Aloisi just after the break, but he couldn't take it, nodding his header wide from Kwasnik's clever cross. Lawrie McKinna said afterwards he felt his team had finally started to get a hold in midfield, and the two wide men were starting to get make an impact. The period leading up to the goal was quite bizarre, with both sides making terrible skill errors by foot. The tempo had dropped noticeably.
It was one of these errors which created the opening as the usually composed Tony Vidmar turned and lost control of the ball. Mark Bridge, forever the opportunist, saw the opening, took the ball straight at the Mariners defence, and then hammered home the goal. Significantly, it was the only time in the match where anyone had charged deep towards the opposition penalty box.
McKinna must have felt he needed to get control out wide to win the match as he subbed Kwasnik and Owens for Andre Gumprecht and Tom Pondeljak. But the same problem remained, in that Aloisi and Petrovski were not getting enough of the ball.
Looking to protect their lead, the Jets retreated further, but in the process allowed the Mariners to control the ball.
It was this period which proved van Egmond's theory was correct, that the Mariners were dangerous when given space, and the best form of defence for the Jets was to control the ball and push their rivals back. When this discipline was absent, the Mariners took control.
However, it wasn't until the contentious final moments that the Mariners even looked like scoring. Their first corner of the match prompted panic from the Jets and James Holland can count his blessings.
In contrast to the Jets' composure over 90 minutes, the Mariners lost theirs late on, and Danny Vukovic was sent off.
Van Egmond was pleased that his plan had come to fruition, and his reward for his nous and foresight is an A-League championship.