2008–09 Melbourne Victory FC season

Season summary

The 2008–09 season brought the start of the A-League Youth League and the introduction of the W-League with Melbourne fielding teams in both competitions. Melbourne actively recruited, bringing in Socceroo Michael Thwaite on a one-year loan, Costa Rican World Cup player José Luis López, as well as Ney Fabiano from Asian Champions League rivals Chonburi FC.

Melbourne's season got off to an optimal start, winning the Pre-Season Challenge Cup. A 0–0 draw resulted in a penalty shoot-out, with Victory winning 8–7 on penalties against Wellington Phoenix.

After winning the pre-season cup, the Victory were held to a 0–0 draw away against Sydney FC. They reinforced their premiership favouritism by coasting to 4–2 and 5–0 victories against Wellington Phoenix and the Newcastle Jets respectively. Despite this, they succumbed 0–2 to an undermanned Sydney side at the Telstra Dome in front of 31,564 fans.

On 6 December 2008, Melbourne Victory became the first A-League club to amass total crowd figures of 1,000,000 after their away match against Perth Glory.

On 24 January 2009, Melbourne Victory won its final game of the season against Wellington Phoenix. The 2–0 win in front of 28,905 fans placed Victory ahead of Adelaide United on goals scored for the premiership title, a margin United failed to achieve in its 1–0 win over the Central Coast Mariners.

The Victory kicked off their finals campaign on 7 February 2009 in the major semi-final first leg against bitter rival Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium, a game which was won courtesy of goals from Carlos Hernández and Danny Allsopp. In the second leg Melbourne defeated Adelaide United 4–0 with goals from Archie Thompson, Hernandez, Allsopp and Tom Pondeljak, granting Melbourne passage to the Grand Final on a 6–0 aggregate.

Adelaide then defeated Queensland Roar to set up a rematch with Melbourne in the Grand Final, which the Victory won 1–0 with Tom Pondeljak scoring in the 59th minute to regain the A-League Championship and becoming the first A-League team to win their second championship, a feat since achieved by Sydney FC and Brisbane Roar.

Players

First team squad

Transfers

In

** Steve Mautone is the current Melbourne Victory Goalkeeping coach and was named as the third choice goalkeeper for the AFC Champions League*

Out

Matches

2008 Pre-Season Cup fixtures

Report

2008-09 Hyundai A-League fixtures

Ney Fabiano
Muscat

A. Thompson Allsopp
Brebner

Muscat

Summary Theoklitos

Summary Zullo

Allsopp
Vargas

Aloisi

Summary Cássio Muscat
Billy Celeski

Summary A. Thompson

Smeltz

Summary Pellegrino

Summary Song Ney Fabiano

Summary Ward Ney Fabiano Gan

Report Vargas

Summary

Rukavytsya Ney Fabiano Kemp

Hernández A. Thompson

Summary A. Thompson

2008-09 finals series

Report Summary Man of the Match: Costa Rica Carlos Hernández S. Jamieson

N. Ward K. Muscat D. Allsopp

Report Summary Man of the Match: Costa Rica Carlos Hernández C. Hernández
D. Allsopp
T. Pondeljak Nick Ward

R. Griffiths Cássio T. Dodd

Summary Joe Marston Medal: AUS Tom Pondeljak D. Allsopp

S. Ognenovski S. Jamieson F. Barbiero R. Cornthwaite T. Dodd (c)

Statistics

Goals

A-League

Ladder

Finals series

|RD1-legs=2 |RD1-date1= |RD1-team1=Melbourne Victory |RD1-score1-1=2 |RD1-score1-2=4 |RD1-team2=Adelaide United |RD1-score2-1=0 |RD1-score2-2=0 |RD1-date2= |RD1-team3=Queensland Roar |RD1-score3-1=2 |RD1-score3-2=2 |RD1-team4=Central Coast Mariners |RD1-score4-1=0 |RD1-score4-2=1 |RD2-date= |RD2-team1=Adelaide United |RD2-team2=Queensland Roar |RD2-score1=1 |RD2-score2=0 |RD3-date= |RD3-team1=Melbourne Victory |RD3-team2=Adelaide United |RD3-score1=1 |RD3-score2=0}}

2008–09 Awards

• Victory Medal
  • Kevin Muscat and Danny Allsopp
• Players' Player of the Year
  • Rodrigo Vargas
• Clubman of the Year
  • Evan Berger
• Golden Boot
  • Danny Allsopp
• Women's Player of the Year
  • Brittany Timko
• Youth Team Player of the Year
  • Matthew Theodore

References

References

1. (19 June 2008). "Thwaite Signs For Victory". Haymarket Group.
2. (14 July 2008). "Pupy Lopez Signs For Victory (At Last)". Haymarket Group.
3. (24 May 2008). "Ney Fabiano signs two-year deal with Melbourne Victory". [[Herald and Weekly Times]].
4. (6 August 2008). "Victory claim Pre-Season Cup". A-League Official Website.
5. (16 August 2008). "Sydney and Melbourne share honours". A-League Official Website.
6. (24 August 2008). "Clinical Victory blasts past Phoenix". A-League Official Website.
7. (29 August 2008). "Victory run riot". A-League Official Website.
8. (25 October 2008). "Sydney's double bonus". A-League Official Website.
9. (23 January 2009). "Victory get jump in premiers' race". A-League Official Website }}{{dead link.
10. Goraya, Raman. (7 February 2009). "Victory head home with hefty advantage". ABC News.
11. Maasdorp, James. (14 February 2009). "Victory maul Adelaide en route to home final". ABC News.
12. (21 February 2009). "Adelaide earns shot at redemption". ABC News.
13. (28 February 2009). "Victory prevail in epic". A-League Official Website.
14. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080620204127/http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=775539.html?cid=rssfeed&att= FIFA.com Fabiano leaves Chonburi for Victory] Accessed 31 May 2008
15. link. (18 May 2011 Accessed 31 May 2008)
16. Match rescheduled due to Adelaide's participation in FIFA Club World Cup