# 2008–09 Melbourne Victory FC season

The 2008-09 Hyundai A-League season was Melbourne Victory's fourth season. They finished top of the table at the end of the regular season and defeated Adelaide United in the Grand Final to take their second A-League title.

## 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

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | AUS | Michael Theoklitos |
| 2 | MF | AUS | Kevin Muscat (captain) |
| 3 | DF | AUS | Michael Thwaite (loan) |
| 4 | DF | AUS | Steven Pace |
| 5 | DF | AUS | Sebastian Ryall (youth) |
| 6 | DF | AUS | Steve Pantelidis |
| 7 | DF | AUS | Matthew Kemp |
| 8 | MF | SCO | Grant Brebner |
| 9 | FW | AUS | Danny Allsopp |
| 10 | FW | AUS | Archie Thompson (marquee) |
| 11 | FW | BRA | Ney Fabiano |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 12 | DF | AUS | Rodrigo Vargas |
| 13 | FW | AUS | Nathan Elasi (youth) |
| 14 | MF | AUS | Billy Celeski |
| 15 | MF | AUS | Tom Pondeljak |
| 16 | MF | CRC | Carlos Hernández (loan) |
| 17 | MF | CRC | José Luis López |
| 18 | MF | AUS | Leigh Broxham |
| 19 | MF | AUS | Evan Berger |
| 20 | GK | AUS | Mitchell Langerak |
| 21 | DF | AUS | Daniel Vasilevski |
| 22 | MF | AUS | Nick Ward (marquee youth) |

### Transfers

In
| Player | From | League | Fee | Date |
| Billy Celeski | Perth Glory | A-League | – | February 2008 |
| Tom Pondeljak | Central Coast Mariners | A-League | – | February 2008 |
| Nathan Elasi | Marconi Stallions | New South Wales Premier League | – | February 2008 |
| Steve Mautone* | Retired | None | – | February 2008 |
| Ney Fabiano | Chonburi FC | Thailand Premier League | US$13,500 | 1 July 2008 |
| Michael Thwaite | SK Brann | Norwegian Premier League | Loan | 1 July 2008 |
| José Luis López | Deportivo Saprissa | Primera División de Costa Rica | Loan | 14 July 2008 |
* Steve Mautone is the current Melbourne Victory Goalkeeping coach and was named as the third choice goalkeeper for the AFC Champions League
Out
| Player | To | League | Fee | Date |
| Ljubo Milicevic | Released | – | – | February 2008 |
| Steve Mautone | Retired | – | – | June 2008 |
| Adrian Caceres | Central Coast Mariners | A-League | – | July 2008 |
| Daniel Piorkowski | Released | – | – | July 2008 |
| Leandro Love | Vissel Kobe (loan ended) | J.League | – | July 2008 |
| Kaz Patafta | Newcastle Jets | A-League | – | July 2008 |

## Matches
### 2008 Pre-Season Cup fixtures

Group A :
| Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Melbourne Victory | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 6 | Advances to final |
| Adelaide United | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 5 | |
| Newcastle Jets | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 2 | |
| Perth Glory | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 2 | |

### 2008-09 finals series
## Statistics
### Goals

| Total | Player | Player | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round | Goals per Round |
| Total | Player | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | S1 | S2 | GF |
| 13 | | Daniel Allsopp | | 2 | 2 | | | | 2 | | | | | | 1 | | | 1 | | 1 | 1 | 1 | | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 | | Archie Thompson | | | 1 | | 2 | | | | | | 1 | 1 | | | | | 1 | | | 1 | 1 | | 1 | |
| 5 | | Ney Fabiano | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | 1 | 1 | | 1 | | | | | |
| 5 | | Kevin Muscat | | 1 | | 1 | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | | |
| 4 | | Carlos Hernández | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | | Tom Pondeljak | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | | Grant Brebner | | | 1 | | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 2 | | Rodrigo Vargas | | | | | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | | | | | |
| 2 | | Nick Ward | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | 1 | | | | | | | |
| 1 | | Billy Celeski | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

## A-League
### Ladder

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Melbourne Victory (C) | 21 | 12 | 2 | 7 | 39 | 27 | +12 | 38 | Qualification for 2010 AFC Champions League group stage and Finals series |
| 2 | Adelaide United | 21 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 31 | 19 | +12 | 38 | Qualification for 2010 AFC Champions League group stage and Finals series |
| 3 | Queensland Roar | 21 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 36 | 25 | +11 | 36 | Qualification for Finals series |
| 4 | Central Coast Mariners | 21 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 35 | 32 | +3 | 28 | Qualification for Finals series |
| 5 | Sydney FC | 21 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 33 | 32 | +1 | 26 | |
| 6 | Wellington Phoenix | 21 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 23 | 31 | −8 | 26 | |
| 7 | Perth Glory | 21 | 6 | 4 | 11 | 31 | 44 | −13 | 22 | |
| 8 | Newcastle Jets | 21 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 21 | 39 | −18 | 18 | |

### Finals series

| Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Preliminary final | Preliminary final | Preliminary final | Final | Final | Final |
| Melbourne Victory | Melbourne Victory | 2 | 4 | | | | Melbourne Victory | Melbourne Victory | 1 |
| Adelaide United | Adelaide United | 0 | 0 | | | | Adelaide United | Adelaide United | 0 |
| | | | | Adelaide United | Adelaide United | 1 | | | |
| | | | | Queensland Roar | Queensland Roar | 0 | | | |
| Queensland Roar | Queensland Roar | 2 | 2 | | | | | | |
| Central Coast Mariners | Central Coast Mariners | 0 | 1 | | | | | | |

### 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