Football gods, mojo and ugly football: How Melbourne Victory shattered Sydney FC in another grand final

Same ground, same teams, same result.

Melbourne Victory shattered minor champions Sydney FC on Sunday night, winning 2-1 in wet conditions to be crowned back-to-back A-League Women’s champions. It was a fourth-to-first repeat of last year’s final series and a match that wasn’t so much won by Victory, as it was lost by Sydney.

“I hate, you hate, we hate Victorians.” The spiteful Big Blue chant has been recycled by The Cove for over a decade and some fans find it particularly resentful. But in Sydney’s locker room, after that grand final, the chorus could almost be forgiven.

For Victory, a season dominated by illness, injury and impossibly fast turnarounds was embraced with overwhelming team spirit and hard work. They were rewarded with silverware, while their devastated opponents were left looking through the statistic sheets for answers.

Sydney dominated the game at both ends, sending 18 chances goalwards in comparison to Melbourne’s three. But their lack of execution in the final third, according to Sydney head coach Ante Juric, cost them the game.

“Execution. You need to put goals away to win,” Juric said, with little else to add.

Despite their regular season dominance over Victory – having won five of their last seven encounters – Sydney continue to struggle against their rivals when it matters most. Victory have now beaten Sydney in three for their four finals clashes.

Juric couldn’t justify the trend. Looking for an explanation, he offered: “The football Gods, weirdly, sometimes you just believe in them.”

Sydney were dominant through the first half, with Princess Ibini and Remy Siemsen’s pace in the forward line unmatchable, but Casey Dumont’s incredible effort in the goal kept their attack at bay.

At the other end of the pitch, scoring from corners seemed the only weapon in Victory’s attack arsenal and a strong finish by Amy Jackson put them ahead in such fashion shortly after half-time.

Sydney looked unfazed by the score and continued to play with the same intent. But it was Victory who, once again, capitalised on their next opportunity. Catherine Zimmerman beat Sydney goalkeeper Jada Whyman to take them two up and further convolute Sydney’s path to a premiership.

Again, however, Sydney charged with relentless intent. On this occasion, they were rewarded as Courtnee Vine followed up on a strong header from Sydney’s best on ground Charlize Rule to knock a ball past Dumont.

Passion from both sides was feverous across the final 20 minutes of play. But even after the kitchen sink had been thrown at Melbourne, they stood firm. They were unmoving atop the scoresheet and, for the second year in a row, there they stood at the final whistle.

It wasn’t an easy one to talk through in Juric’s change room.

“The girls are devastated, they’re heartbroken and that’s hard,” Juric said. “But I said, and I’ve said this for a long time, if you put everything into something and you lose … that’s winning.” Those were the only words Juric could deliver to his team.

“I’m so proud, they are so selfless and it’s hard to get that. It would have been beautiful,” Juric said.

While the party continued in Victory’s locker room, Melbourne head coach Jeff Hopkins admitted that it wasn’t an attractive match on their part, with so little football played by the darker of the blues.

“We were under some unbelievable pressure. It wasn’t a pretty game but it’s a battle of character and it doesn’t have to be pretty for you to win the game,” Hopkins said.

As now the most successful coach in the A League Women’s history, perhaps there’s something serious to Hopkins’ reflection: pretty doesn’t win you football matches.

For all of Sydney’s efforts with the ball, Melbourne’s spirit was the most important player in the match. Dumont dubs it their “mojo”.

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“There’s some big heart among that whole group, you could tell we were all down but we just have, I call it mojo, it’s just a spirit that just brings that belief that we can win and we do that for one another,” Dumont said.

Perhaps mojo is the key, as form, favourite odds or ferocity certainly couldn’t get Sydney over the line.

For most of the 5000 fans that exited heads down from Kogarah Oval, the result may have been unjustifiable. But as they and all who love this great sport know, that’s football.