Sydney FC hero Danny Vukovic has paid tribute to his baby son, who recently had a life-saving operation, after helping the Sky Blues win a thrilling A-League grand final against Melbourne Victory on penalties.
Vukovic's wife was in the crowd at the Sydney Football Stadium with their baby son Harley, who recently had a successful liver transplant.
It was the reason Vukovic moved from Melbourne Victory in the off-season, as the family sought medical treatment and family support in Sydney.
Vukovic was on the money with a low save to stop Marco Rojas's penalty and set Milos Ninkovic up for the winning spot kick against the Victory on Sunday night.
"Things have fallen into place very nicely for me and my family," Vukovic said.
"That for me has been the main focus in the last 12 months and football has been brilliant as well."
The Sky Blues won the penalty shootout 4-2 after the two sides were deadlocked at 1-1 following extra time.
Besart Berisha had opened the scoring on 20 minutes to give Victory a 1-0 lead, before the Sky Blues forced extra time and penalties from Rhyan Grant's scrambled equaliser.
As has been the key to the Sky Blues' indestructible season, the stroke of genius was in teamwork — on this occasion it was Vukovic in tandem with goalkeeping mentor John Crawley.
"With the penalties, John Crawley, my goalkeeper coach studied all their penalty takers so he knew where they all went with their last penalties," Vukovic said.
"That's usually a good indicator of where they're going to go again.
"There were a couple he didn't know — Leigh Broxham and Carl Valeri — but the others he pointed out and he was right.
"I knew after saving [Rojas' penalty] that we were one kick away, so I was just praying Ninko would hit the back of the net.
"His last penalty was against Wollongong in the FFA Cup and he missed so I was a little bit on edge, but with the season he's had I was pretty certain he was going to."
When Ninkovic did, the pain of Vukovic's three previous grand final losses with Central Coast Mariners and Perth Glory dissolved.
It has been a long wait for the 32-year-old Vukovic, who admitted he might not have handled a fourth heartbreak in 11 years.
Ninkovic set to stay with Sky Blues
Johnny Warren Medal winner Ninkovic revealed he will likely stay with the Sky Blues for a third A-League season.
Ninkovic has been on the fence about his playing future for months, despite the club's best efforts to keep their star Serbian playmaker.
Recently, the Sky Blues have become quietly confident about retaining Ninkovic on what would certainly have to be a marquee contract given his stellar season.
And on Sunday he gave fans more reason to hope.
"I like this club too much," Ninkovic told Fox Sports.
"And I would like to see this team in the (Asian) Champions League next year. "I like these guys, I like the fans.
Ninkovic said his crucial penalty made up for previous heartache when taking spot kicks.
"When I played for Red Star (Belgrade) I missed a penalty and before that I never missed a penalty," Ninkovic said.
"But this time I scored.
"It was a very, very tough game, especially extra-time. In the first 20 minutes I get sloppy, then Berisha scored a wonderful goal.
"You never know who is going to win a penalty shoot-out but we won and I am really happy."
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