A Wee Bit Tense...

Overhyped and underplayed is invariably how grand finals end up. Players are too tense and expectations are too high for many a grand final to deliver the anticipated action. And it looked as though the dark blue v sky blue, second city but first on the ladder v first city and second on the ladder grand final was going to be just that.

Sure, it was (surprisingly) the first time Sydney and Melbourne had met in an A-League grand final. Sure, intrastate rivalries were running at fever pitch. But anyone who watched the first three quarters of the final would be forgiven for being more enthralled by the bizarre injuries that occurred (Thompson's suspected ACL injury just 12 minutes in, Bridge and Leijer's leg-tangling, crown jewel-crunching crash, and Ryall's heroic but foolhardy ground-height header that put his skull straight on a collision course with the already-committed Brebner's boot) than by the best-two-teams-in-the-comp-going-head-to-head play.

I was even tempted to break my staunch no-wee-no-matter-how-busting-you-are-until-half-time rule (originally implemented because any trip to the bathroom was the goal-scoring equivalent of a rain dance) because I was so convinced that nothing of note was going to happen in the time-it-takes-to-pee future.

I'm not going to lie. Pre-match discussions revolved as much around the notions of nervous wees and nervous poos as it did around who would win, and the lack of fluid play and the less-than-comfortable expressions on the players' and coaching staffs' faces made me wonder if they weren't grappling with some of those notions themselves. I mean, how scrappy, boring, and uptight were the first three quarters of the final?

But the adage that football is a game of two halves came into play late in the second half, when Melbourne suddenly strung some solid passing together and one-up Sydney seemed to go to pieces. Then we finally had a grand final worth writing home about. Hands up who didn't need to do nervous wees during the penalty shootout?

While no one wants to see a match decided on penalties, A-League fans couldn't argue that they got the thrilling grand final they were after — even if it did come late in the game. Bizarrely, it was Kevin Muscat, the most-experienced, tough-as-nails player who you'd expect to have the least problem with nerves in the final and in the subsequent penalty shootout, who missed. It proves that nervous wees or not, anything can happen in finals football. I can barely wait for the World Cup.