Queensland Roar defeated Sydney FC 2-0 in front of a record A-League crowd of 36,000 at Suncorp.
This game had everything. Goals, tension, dodgy decisions, delayed kick-off and a win for a home crowd, a huge home crowd.
Most influential on the pitch. Mark Shields. Missed a probable Sydney penalty, missed a clear push on Steve Corica and seconds later Robbie Middleby was sent-off for a last-man tackle, gave Taj Minniecon the easiest penalty of the season, and generally Shields left a feeling that he got the big decisions wrong.
The moment Reinaldo, skipped away from Ufuk Talay, roared towards the Sydney goal, walked past the former Socceroo Mark Milligan who gets worse every week, and tucked in a beauty from an acute angle. Cue Orange fever in the stands.
Big question. What is wrong with Mark Milligan? Since Billy Celeski waltzed past him in Sydney a few weeks ago Milligan has become an ordinary, very ordinary defender. Let's hope his loss of form is temporary.
The crowd 50,000 on Wednesday in Melbourne to watch the Socceroos and then over 36,000 at Suncorp for a domestic game. Goose pimples for football in Australia. Something really strange is happening, continuing to happen here. The young faces in the crowd encourages me, and the number of Orange shirts show, no matter how fickle, a core of support, even bandwagon support is building in Queensland, and it's big and growing. Great stuff.
Sydney FC Paid the price for signing David Zdrillic on a three year contract. One of their major signings hasn't been seen for weeks and has meant Alex Brosque has to pretend to be a forward, a leader. He's not. Steve Corica was outstanding but with ten men it was always going to be tough.
Ruben Zadkovich, so much energy, and didn't Sydney need that, but time and time again he wasted his opportunities, carrying the ball too far, failing to find a team-mate, still at least he stayed on the pitch. But Ruben hasn't really improved this season, more's the pity.
John Kosmina had limited resources and Sydney played well with the ten. A spat between Kossie and Mark Milligan, Clint Bolton and Adam Biddle showed the tension.
Tony Popovic. Guess who let Sydney down. As he has done so many times this season, particularly early on. Was Mark Rudan worse than an ageing Poppa? Loyalty in football is long gone, and so is Sydney FC's big blue man. Poppa gave a penalty away last night, harsh maybe, but what has Poppa given to this team that Rudan didn't?
Sydney are off to Hawaii on Wednesday, but have a serious rebuilding programme. Get a forward line for starters.
The Roar They won in front of 36,000. And they were good value for the win. Reinaldo's goal was a match winner. No Sydney player could do that..ever.
Robbie Kruse Played well enough, but for me lacked energy late on. A young driving winger failed to run at Sydney in the biggest game of the season with a huge crowd and space galore in front of him. Not happy Robbie.
The Roar got lucky, the rain eventually drained off the pitch, Mark Shield gave them more than they deserved, but they chased all over the park and once again their mobility caused Sydney massive problems.
Taj Minniecon Came on. The most influential substitute. Made his penalty with skill and aggressive running.
Free-kicks Marcinho, give them up mate. Never hits the target in any game I watch. Ufuk Talay much the same. Give em up lads.
Great game overall.
Final Point. The send-off of Robbie Middleby was fair enough. But I couldn't help feeling that once again my football match, my big match and anticipation was ruined. Sure I'm all for booking and even sending off any player who blocks and holds back skilful play, but disappointing unless you're from Queenland.
I wanted to see these two go head for head for the ninety with the full quota, and see how the tactical geniuses on the bench handled it.
Still a great night for football.
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