Roar Shielded through to Semi.
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.
6 comments:
was sydney watched more closely because there was a perception they got away with too much tough guy stuff in the first match? ian fyfe`s off the ball bump on zullo was one of the talking points after that first game ...
as for milligan and kruse ... what can you say? kids with potential don`t always turn into champions ... sometimes they become average / solid / okay players. the important thing is to have a broad base of young players and someone should kickon and live up to their potential.
milligan comes across a bit arrogant and lacking in hunger, and kruse looks like he has been kicked into submission. 2 weeks between games, and he isn`t really running at people ... you can`t blame it on tiredness. farina has got some work to do with his kiddies in the offseason.
if last nights reinaldo turned up every game, i don`t think the roar would have been playing in the sudden death final ... they`d be holding the premier`s plate and playing the mariners on sunday. the normal reinaldo is still useful, but if he could turn on the style (and the goals) like that every week ...
and it wasn`t just 36000 people up there, it was 36000 in the rain : )
sorry, long comment. happy queensland fan : )
clayton
Good wrap up Eamonn. Thanks.
Of course I'm overjoyed. Early on I was worried about some of Shield's decision against the Roar, but I do have to accept that there was some arguable decisions - and decisive ones - in favour of the Roar.
Noone was cheated in the end though because the Roar were better from the beginning. The stats show it all. For the sake of justice I'm glad Reinaldo popped his in before the send-off. Frankly Sydney showed enormous character for about thirty minutes after this before folding with exhaustion and despair. They may complain about the details, but they were a justly beaten team.
One minor point Eamonn. You say, "Reinaldo's goal was a match winner. No Sydney player could do that... ever." Can I say that before seeing it I would have sworn that Reinaldo could never do that. Now I have been a defender of Reinaldo because of his unique tactical holding position at point, a constant thorn in the center of defense to keep the space opening on the wings. But it is so rare that he successfully dribbles past a defender that each time it occurs Jacob and I give a special ironic cheer. His misses of well set-up goals are also legendary. So for him to dribble past two defenders then place a goal in a very tight window of possibility was completely out of character. If he could do this sort of thing with some consistency he would be a superstar.
Both before and after the goal, by the way, Reinaldo had a very ordinary game. So did the other Brazilian Marcinho. Hats off to Andy Packer, who unbelievably has staked a permanent challenge for Seo's spot, Also to Moore and Matty. Reddy was not even tested, with no Sydney shots on target. Zullo, Kruse and Massimo were all on the average side, but the collective was easily good enough, apparently enough.
Great night.
Clayton, enjoyed the long post, and interesting Milligan's reaction at being taken off...at first he seemed to smile and understand as he listened to Kosmina..but when he realised what Kossie was saying he lost it, cue tantrum and let's kick a water bottle...looked like a reaction to Kossie's comments.
Milligan was and has been very poor hard to know why, as unlike Kruse he's done it for Socceroos although made a major booboo which is starting to look normal now, and also done it for the Olyroos.
And Hamish..I thought Marcinho's first half was his best on a Roar shirt, so just shows how two fans can differ...Sydney did well, very well with the ten, but really paying for their lack of stability over the last two years, little planning, little cutting edge...
and tell Jacob..next time you see Reinaldo with the ball, you just never know..if you don't try to beat the man you never ever will.
yep you Roar fans are feeling pretty chipper today..good to see:)
If Fyfe's name was Tiatto he would have been off in this match and the last.
Makes a nice change to have ref decisions go in your favour.
Brosque whinging all the time became a joke and very unprofessional.
...I thought Marcinho's first half was his best on a Roar shirt, so just shows how two fans can differ...
Agree, although he turned to jelly in front of goal as usual.
I remember you having a (gentle!) go at me for criticising Kruse earlier in the season Eamonn, but IMO last night showed just how far he has to go. Didn't take any responsibility when Qld were losing the thread of the game early in the second half, and didn't make the most of the countless times he was played in behind the defence on the right.
Having said that, he still had some great moments though, such as the smart through-ball that set McKay away and thereby got Middleby sent.
John, agreed seeing Brosque whinging is just so annoying, seems to me reminiscent of his send-off against the Jets in another big game...seems you got to to take with the rough with the smooth and a question mark over Brosque still remains..methinks.
And Mike it would only have been a gentle go for sure..but strange to me the form of Kruse..injured these last few weeks I wonder, he played in parts, but had little energy in the second half
assumed this comes down to fitness...god help these guys if they were in Europe with 60 games a year.
Makes you wonder would they last, and they are very light Zullo an Kruse
which takes me to another thought Mike, standing to next many Socceroos at the Asia Cup..how small they were..even centre backs Neill, Kisnorbo,Cahill Bresciano Holman, Carle the list goes on
has AFL knicked all the big Aussie guys and we're left with the rest...I know Kennedy Scharzwer are exceptions but take a look at the French side all are giants.
Post a Comment