Here we go again. Big crowds, home-team resilience and a surprising result marked the start of the new A-League season.
Total attendances almost reached 63,000, 10 per cent smaller than last year's inaugural opening round but larger than any other week during the regular season. Unlike last year, when teams performed better away than they did at home throughout the competition, home teams dominated Round One.
Melbourne pulled off an upset victory, slamming Adelaide in the midfield to pull off a hard-fought 2-0 win at Olympic Park. Queensland scored three in the final ten minutes to defeat Perth in front of more than 20,600 spectators, proving that Brisbane thoroughly deserves to host the Socceroos versus Paraguay on October 7, the nation team's first game in Australia since the World Cup. New Zealand showed spirit to hold out for a 0-0 draw with Newcastle, selling a reasonable 7,000 tickets in the process, almost twice as many as last season's average. And in the Grand Final replay, the scoreline echoed a 1-0 advantage for the champions thanks largely to Clint Bolton's reflexes.
Best of Round One:
Player: Clint Bolton, Sydney (pictured) - two big saves proved the slim difference between Sydney and the Mariners
U-20 Player: Dario Vidosic, Queensland - played less than thirty minutes but ignited the Roar's devastating late burst
Coach: Miron Bleiberg, Queensland - credit for bringing on Vidosic at the expense of captain Chad Gibson
Match: Queensland Roar vs Perth Glory
Goal: Simon Lynch, Queensland - kept low on a tight-angle, an important goal that opened the floodgates to lead to Vidosic's one-two finish and McLaren's longer-range strike
4-4-2 Team of the Week:
Ante Milicic - Simon Lynch
Dario Vidosic - Fred - Kevin Muscat - Leo Bertos
Vuko Tomasevic - Nikolai Topor-Stanley - Paul Okon - Darren Bazeley
Clint Bolton
Subs: Michael Theoklitos, Sasa Ognenovski, Grant Brebner, Greg Owens
2 comments:
I was at Suncorp this Saturday for the 2nd season and found the Roar much stronger and more confident playing than last year. Being from Holland and spoilt with a lot of Ajax, I am surprised and happy that the quality of football is improving a lot in Oz. The atmosphere was great with 20,000 enjoying exciting football.
Roar have just beaten Newcastle 3-2. Great goal from Reinaldo (Man of the Match in my view) in the 5th minute. Howlers from the Captains - own goal to Chad Gibson and then Paul Okon. Roar defense looked vunerable till Chad was replaced by former Brisbane Strikers captain coach Stuart McLaren. 2-2 at half time. Dario came on in the 66th and in the 85th gluided a free kick into the box - mistake by Newcastle and goal to the poacher Lynch.
Post a Comment