An understrength Cosmos team apparantely put up quite a fight in their match against the
West Adelaide Sharks in Adelaide. The visitors were missing a number of key players through
injury as well as a few through suspension.
The big story of the game for the Cosmos was the introduction to the team of new recruit,
Alex Castro. Castro comes from the ACT Academy team and has been on the verge of moving
into the senior ranks for some time. His addition to the midfield ranks has helped the team
both in solidfying the area and in covering the injury problem the team has now.
The first half saw the visitors yet again outplay Wests as they had in each of the 1st
Round Cup ties. There were a number of chances with Castro finally taking advantage of
a sleepy defence and slotting home the opening goal from just outside the penalty box.
Even though they were a goal ahead, Canberra continued to attack, but just could not get the
second goal. In fact midway through the second half, they had the ball in the back of the net,
but it was ruled no goal as Tony Lemezina had handled the ball before scoring.
The second half was a revival for the Sharks, actually a volley revival as
both the equalizer immediately after half time and the go-ahead goal 5 minutes before the
end were scored from volleys. Jim Tsekinis scored the first off a cross from Pablo Cardoza
and Cameroon international, Cyrille Ndongo-Keller netted the second after a great cross
by Richard Alagich.
This was always going to be a hard game for the visitors, especially given all the injury
and suspensions the team had. To have been leading and to continue to play attacking football
shows both the spirit of the team and strength of the coaching and still lots of promise,
even for this season.