Robbie Kruse works his magic again.
Queensland Roar 2. Central Coast Mariners 1
The Roar are coming, in fact so are everyone else!
The Mariners were desperate for a win against their nearest challengers and took the lead through a John Aloisi tap in.
The Fox Sports commentators claimed Matt Simon passed it across goal, but we all knew it was a dreadful dreadful shot which Aloisi tucked home.
1-0 to the Mariners and one foot in Asia.
But then it all went wrong.
Robbie Kruse attacked Dean Heffernan who is being caught out defensively time and time again this season. Kruse fired the ball in and ageing Tony Vidmar lifted a tired leg and steered it home for an own goal.
Then Kruse played the ball of the match to set Matt McKay free he and Danny Tiatto exchanged passes and Mackay scored with a deflected shot off Tony Vidmar.
Craig Moore and John Aloisi had a great battle, and great games. Matt Simon worked his socks off and caused the Roar's defence a host of problems.
Greg Owens hit the post, and had chance to level it at the death, but the Roar should have been out of sight.
Massimo Murdocha and Matt Mackay are small in height but motor all over the park and set the Roar's tempo. Even on this humid night they never stopped.
The Mariners couldn't match them and were lucky to take the lead and luckier still to remain within a goal of the Roar all night.
Thanks to Danny Vukovic. He was outstanding saving time and time again from anyone who tried to hit the ball as hard and as straight as possible for the Roar.
Robbie Kruse, for me, was the man of the match. A sheer joy to watch. Danny Tiatto played his role well.
The Mariners missed the creativity of John Hutchison or Tom Pondeljak but tried hard to earn a point.
Justice prevailed. The better team won.
A fiercely competitive game, a great crowd of 16,442, and the league minor premiership and that guaranteed place in Asia is wide open.
1 comment:
The chant went up from the Northern End, "SEO! SEO! SEO!" We can talk about the front runners, the central dominance of Reinaldo, the wit and speed of Kruse, the indomitability of Tiatto, the pocket rockets Matty and Massimo, the famous defender Moore, the vastly improved and confident Reddy. And these are the ones we hear about in the media all the time.
But a name has been slowly becoming more pronounced on the lips of the Roar fans who watch, barely encouraged by the media but just by week-in, week-out observation.
He's there every week, when in doubt, Reddy, Moore and Oggy give the ball to him knowing he'll deliver a good option without mistake, no attacker gets past him, ever, his trap is expert and his kick is precise. He never leaps up and down or raises his arms in triumph, but you can see his warm, humble smile now almost permanent.
And the media may not have properly spotted him - I guess he's not so good at interviews in English - but the fans now have him central in their sights.
SEO! SEO! SEO!
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