Melbourne’s Kruse rues missed chances

Melbourne Victory striker Robbie Kruse rued a number of missed chances in the dying minutes of the team’s Grand Final loss to Sydney FC on Saturday.

The Victory went behind in the 63rd minute after Mark Bridge scored with a close range header but bounced back when defender Adrian Leijer scored with a header of his own with ten minutes remaining.

But the Victory could not defend their title, eventually losing 4-2 on penalties despite the fact they had plenty of chances in the final fifteen minutes of the contest.

“There were plenty of fouls in the game but you’ve got to look at the fact that we had our chances at the end there, we just didn’t take them,” Kruse said after the match. “Full credit to Sydney. We’ve been the two best teams all year but unfortunately we lost.”

Kruse was asked about the added pressure when his strike partner Archie Thompson was stretchered from the pitch with a knee injury early in the piece but he dismissed that as a reason for the loss and was confident the team would bounce back from the devastating loss.

“Obviously losing one of your key players, it’s going to be harder but unfortunately for Archie he was injured and unfortunately for us we lose him early in the game,” he added. “Of course it made it harder but we still came home strong and we had our chances there we didn’t take….that happens.

“I think the last fifteen minutes we had everything there, they were camped in their box and their half but unfortunately we had a few chances there we didn’t put away and it come back to haunt us in the end.

“It’s a bit of a toss of the coin (penalties), Mitch (Langerak) made a great save there but unfortunately we did miss but we will bounce back next year and come back bigger and stronger.”