Brisbane Roar coach Mke Mulvey has admitted he was in awe of Shinji Ono's match-winning goal, crediting the Wanderers star with turning the game.
Shinji Ono has been lauded by both Brisbane Roar coach Mike Mulvey and his own coach Tony Popovic for his wunderstrike, which moved the Wanderers into the grand final in their inaugural season.
Ono, who has been out since the Sydney derby with injury, returned to the fold for the Wanderers and as Brisbane Roar were edging back into the match, left a perfectly positioned Michael Theo with no chance in the Roar goal with his left-footed strike.
Mulvey, calling the goal “outrageous”.
“I thought our response was excellent it just wasn-t to be our night tonight,” Mulvey said of his Roar side.
“But, what an outrageously brilliant goal by Ono, that was just brilliant, that knocked the wind right out of our sails,” Mulvey said.
“I thought up to that point we were coming back into it and then he scores a goal like that - it was a moment of genius and it-s not the first time he has done it.
“We didn-t give him that much space, we didn-t back off to far, and it-s a terrible thing for me to witness for my team, but it-s a great thing for these fans to witness - that somebody can do something like that in that game at that time is amazing.”
Popovic too was ecstatic with his star man, heaping praise on him and admitting that even in his mid-thirties the Japanese star can still mesmerize and surprise the Wanderers coach.
“When you see goals like that, that is special and that is why marquees are still special in this league and we have seen all marquees produce this season,” Popovic said.
“Shinji has been out of the team for a few weeks now with injury and to come in, in a pressure game of that intensity and to produce like that is why he is a special player and why we are excited to have him at this club.”
While Mulvey was full of praise for Ono he did hint that he felt 2-0 was perhaps an unfair scoreline against his team but also gave the Roar praise for their effort.
“Goals always accentuate the differences, if you look at the first goal critically, we turned the ball over when we had possession,” Mulvey said.
“But they put us under pressure and put us off our stride, no team has pressed us like that, particularly in the last ten weeks.”