Usually one is said to be to be with green with envy but on Friday night that all changed as I became green with anger or to put it more simply, angry with Green. Never in all my football watching life have I felt so much anger flowing through my veins as the final whistle blew. A fully justified anger as well.
Looking back at it now in hindsight it is hardly surprising that I had such a reaction considering the events of the match, a veritable rollercoaster in itself.
First we had the disastrous opening own goal that ended what was up until that stage a fairly even contest. Victory then retreated into their collective shells and conceded the space that Brisbane so duly crave. It was only going to be a matter of time before Roar found the back of the net, and on the stroke of half time there we had it as that man Solórzano again capitalised on some poor marking. Score: Melbourne 0 Brisbane 2. Emotional Level: Extreme disappointment.
The opening minutes of the second half provided much of the same as Victory again gave Roar too much space and let them dictate the play. We were looking we were never going to score, and then out of nothing Kruse scores one of his trademark goals which is quickly followed by a corner. And just as the "Short Corner Brigade" were letting out their collective groan, Carlos Hernandez whips in a perfect cross which Archie Thompson gets his head on and we' are now back on level terms. How quickly that groan turned into raucous cheering. Score: Melbourne 2 Brisbane 2. Emotional Level: Happy
What followed was almost half an hour of Melbourne Victory at their devastating best and the so-called "Roarcelona" were left in their wake. Of course we had seen it all before against both the Mariners and Phoenix in recent weeks and look out that turned out. First we had the brilliant headed finish by Thompson to level the scores which was quickly followed a cheeky finish by Kruse after Hernandez finally gave up on trying to go over the wall and just went straight through it. Score: Melbourne 3 Brisbane 2. Emotional Level: Pure and utter delirium.
And then came the moment that finally completed the rollercoaster ride of emotions as both Peter Green and Shaun Evans failed to see what almost 12,000 other people saw as Michael Theoklitos handled the ball outside his area and in the resultant chaos, Brisbane managed to equalise. Score Melbourne 3 Brisbane 3. Emotion Level: Pure anger.
Never in all my Victory days have I heard the volume of booing that rung around AAMI Park as the final whistle blew as Melbourne Victory vented their anger at the men in yellow. Whilst there was an idiotic few who threw objects, the vast majority expressed their anger verbally and it was truly intimidating. It didn't make up for a frustrating loss of two points due to erroneous decision by the man in charge, but it sure was cathartic.
And whilst many would argue that it was one of the greatest A-League games ever, I would disagree. Great games aren't decided by bad refereeing decisions; great teams decide them.
