The latest episode of the A-Leagues’ new podcast My Football Passport, hosted by James Dodd, welcomes special guest Thomas Broich to discuss his unforgettable Grand Final experience with Brisbane Roar. Listen below, or on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, to hear more about his time in the A-League Men.
It’s Grand Final week in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
Defending champions Melbourne City against rivals Western United at AAMI Park on Saturday night – the first all-Victorian Australian men’s Championship decider since 1998.
As soon the A-League Men Grand Final rolls around each season, or whenever the league’s showpiece is discussed, it evokes memories of THAT decider.
Brisbane Roar v Central Coast Mariners at Suncorp Stadium in 2011.
After a scoreless stalemate at the end of regulation in Brisbane, Ange Postecoglou’s Roar found themselves 2-0 down entering the final three minutes of the additional period.
Queue the chaos in front of 50,168 fans.
Henrique gave the Roar a glimmer of hope in the 117th minute before Erik Paartalu equalised with virtually the last touch of the match – that iconic header.
Michael Theo proceeded to steal the show in the penalty shoot-out, saving two Mariners spot-kicks as Ivan Franjic, Paartalu, Matt McKay and Henrique made no mistake from 12 yards out to spark wild celebrations.
Roar legend Broich – regarded as one of the A-Leagues greatest ever players, now working at Bundesliga outfit Hertha Berlin as Head of Methodology – recalls that famous night on March 13, 2011 on the latest episode of My Football Passport.
“It was like the most dramatic game of football I’ve been involved in,” the 41-year-old told James Dodd.
Postecoglou’s red-hot Roar claimed the Premiers Plate that season, having finished eight points clear of second-placed Central Coast.
But the Mariners thought they had secured their second Championship – Adam Kwasnik bundled the ball over the line in the 96th minute before Oliver Bozanic doubled the lead seven minutes later as the Roar pushed numbers forward.
“When we were chasing the game by two goals… there’s so much talk about belief and never say die attitude but deep down, I kind of thought we’re not coming back from 2-0 down but we will try anyway,” two-time Johnny Warren Medallist Broich admitted. “We have a good side.
“We have a crazy crowd supporting us. That sea of orange – I’ve never seen anything like that before in my career.
“That atmosphere was unbelievable. They just kept pushing us. We had so much quality on the pitch. We had worked so hard all season.
“While not truly believing, I can only talk for myself, I pushed as hard as I possibly could.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Broich laid the pass for Henrique to put the ball in the back of the net after 117 minutes.
Head on his hands, Mariners boss Graham Arnold watched on anxiously as Broich stepped up to take a 120th-minute corner. What happened next remains in A-Leagues folklore – Broich’s delivery was met powerfully by Paartalu, who headed past Mathew Ryan.
“Relieved,” was how Broich felt at the end of it all.
“I was happy to be a performer again, to have an impact on a team. To live up to my potential,” said Broich, who had relocated to Australia for a fresh start after becoming disillusioned in his native Germany.
That 2010-11 season was the start of something special for Broich and the Roar under Postecoglou.
Dubbed ‘Roarcelona’, Postecoglou’s Roar lit up the A-Leagues, transforming Australian football with back-to-back Championships, including a record 36-match unbeaten streak.
The success, however, was not something Broich envisaged when he joined Postecoglou in Brisbane in 2010.
“We had a tough pre-season. We lost a lot of matches. The new style wasn’t easy to adapt to. The learning curve for the team was a steep one,” Broich recalled.
“Ange from the beginning was very demanding. You don’t get the proof of concept straight away. His idea of football was demanding of us but as footballers, if it doesn’t work straight away, we’re very critical of any approach really.
“When we found ourselves struggling, he had to do a lot of convincing. It was really because of him being that relentless in that pursuit, he was so uncompromising, he created that success in the end.
“The first couple of weeks or the first games of the season, I would’ve never thought we would achieve what we would achieve later on. It wasn’t visible from the get-go.”
Broich, who won the Joe Marston Medal after his performance in the 2014 Grand Final, added: “Every single one of us, we needed to be pushed and forced to do it at times.
“As a player, you’re kind of looking for the easy option, the easy way out. It’s so challenging to play out from the back under pressure when the opposition is playing a full-on press. If they commit six or seven men and put you under pressure from the goal kick,.
“Yet Ange was so uncompromising. There was no Plan B, there was only playing out from the back, we weren’t allowed to just kick a long ball. He was happy to accept mistakes.
“That was something we had to learn as players as well. In the past, we were sort of conditioned thinking if I make a mistake playing out from the back, it was on me or it’s my fault and next time I’m inclined to kick it long.
“He was exactly the opposite. He’s like nah I’ll take the blame. You just do what I’m telling you do to and I’ll take the blame for it. That to me made all the difference.”
