When all's said and done, Marconi tonight squandered the opportunity to distinguish itself as a genuine Top 6 candidate when it failed to parlay a one-man advantage and a majority shareholding in possession into maximum points. Conversely, UTS would have to feel pleased to have taken anything away from this match which, given the proximity of the two combatants on the A-League table to both each other and the fringe of the Top 6, was effectively a six point game.
Typically, the derby finished with a tight 1-1 scoreline with Marconi ultimately unsatisfying and UTS just happy to have steadied the ship after their heaviest ever defeat last week at the hands of A-League minnows the Canberra Cosmos 1-8 (incidentally, eclipsing their previous worst defeat of 1-7 which was dealt by Marconi at tonight's venue).
In contrast to last week's visit to Parramatta Stadium, I was refreshed by the convenience and well-managed nature of the Stallions Stable. Even notwithstanding the modest crowd (even if the fashions of some of the young Italian ladies at the ground were not as modest :) - steady you Scotsmen ;)), we barely had to stop to purchase tickets at one of several ticketing stations.
Thereafter, the only evasive action required on our way into the stadium proper was to excuse ourselves through the queue of punters waiting to partake of the value-ridden $5 for a steak (or sausage) sandwich and drink deal. Even when partaking myself once we had found our seats (mine - near the scoreboard end of the main stand- albeit almost completely unhinged) I discovered that even the queue was well managed by an almost-but-not-quite-portly canteen operator (and supporting players) who determinedly (but always politely) quickly dispensed the goodies whilst keeping the punters on the move. Heck, even the condiments were out of the way so as not to stop the flow of traffic.
This is to say nothing of the availability of ground staff, security, merchandising, the proximity of the licensed premises behind the ground nor the intimate crowd atmosphere created at the ground. CONGRATULATIONS Marconi management. You're on track. Perhaps a few other clubs should be invited as guests by Soccer Australia to observe and learn from the set-up that you (and others like South Melbourne which I have recently seen first hand, and I guess Perth - note, not all non-ethnic teams!!!) have established. This, in part, is what we want Soccer Australia.
Effectively, the match opened with both teams threatening the others goal in the 14th minute, firstly with the ever-dominant Emerton shooting wide of Covic's goal after a superb build-up of his own making, and then Awaritefe skying from very close range after connecting with a low Mendez cross from the right. Oh to have had a microphone near the ensuing Catlin/Awaritefe face-off! I think Bob was reminding him to which side of the cross bar the ball was placed ;).
Just prior to his cross, Mendez opened his catalogue of class for the evening that clearly procured him the man-of-the-match award by displaying exquisite close skill to round his marker to the side of the box. Superb! But more of that later.
Typically, these matches never go to plan, and so too tonight. Of all people, it was Ante Juric - tonight, out of necessity, displaced from his customary position in Olympic's back line - that in the 20th minute found himself in (and even beyond) Marconi's defence when accepting a short through ball borne of a horrid Longo defensive turn-over.
Nearing the top of the box, Juric masterfully executed a finish more befitting of a cultured striker than a classy defender. Using the rear of his instep and a subtle but sharp turn of the ankle upon impact with the ball, in the blink of an eye Juric's shot had the advancing Covic and the ball going in different directions, and even in spite of the gentleness of the finish was turning in celebration even before the ball had fairly crawled inside the farr ;) ) post. Exquisite fiunish.
In attempting to reply immediately, the home side could do everything but finish. In the 24th minute, Casserly put his header - a sharp chance - to the wrong side of the upright from a Maloney cross, whilst seconds later, Maloney himself couldn't quite reach a well-driven Renaud cross. As it was to unfold, Marconi's crossing from the flanks progressively deteriorated throughout the night, and as such the Stallions could ill-afford to spurn good service from the wings. (By night's end, Renaud's crossing was simply unacceptable).
Almost in acknowledgment of the absence of a cultured strikeforce (Zeljko Babic out with an injured ankle and Francis Awaritefe only recently returned from a long spell), it was a case of the forwards servicing the midfield for Marconi's equaliser. In his best contribution of the night, Awaritefe, after be-dazzling the Olympic defence on the right of the box, cut a ball across the box seemingly for Mendez. Perhaps sensing Maloney unmarked behind him, Mendez dummied, allowing the ball to travel another 10m to his captain who was better positioned to strike. And that he did. From what appeared (from the other end of the field) to be about 15m from goal, Maloney precisely powered the ball wide of Catlin into the corner of the net.
The final section of the half was mainly controlled by the home side, although for all their dominance they didn't seem to engage Catlin much. Aside from Tome's poor attempt at a set-piece from just outside the box, it was Marconi that threatened (and not much more) to give the scoreboard attendant some more work before the break. The best of these chances fell to Luke Casserly who engineered an opportunity for himself from midfield. Despite rounding Eagleton, and further despite generating lots of power in the shot, the strike was more spectacular than it was productive. Typically of Australian players, whilst he had Catlin fully stretched, Casserly's shot didn't require a save....perhaps more practice of firmly side-footing into the corners of the goalmouth is in order at some A-League clubs.
Maloney himself should have done better with a bullet-like header which he put the wrong side of the cross bar.
The half ended with Marconi in general, and Zoric specifically, suffering for ill-finishing. Zoric bumbled a shot from 10m out and in front of goal after a Renaud/Maloney build up that fussed too much with trying to find just exactly the right shooting opportunity when a more direct approach was required.
Half time gave the opportunity to reflect on Kim's crisp passing, the soft surface which had players sliding everywhere (one divot looked as though it had been made with a shovel) and a quick spying of Olympic's injured front-runner Derek Poimer who is *still* limping around the joint.
Special mention too to (presumably) the Bearded Bandit and his clan of 10 or so "Tifosi" who did what they could to get a rise out of the players and the Stallionettes ;). Their best (from what I could hear 50m away) was undoubtedly their taunting of the very few Olympic fans there with the "Mar-co-ni" chant, cleverly mimicking the "O-lym-pic" chant heard at Belmore and the SFS. They even, no doubt unknowingly, went so far as to limit the number of chants to no more than allowed by the "rule-of-five" - an empirically derived rule which describes the pathetic lack of staying power shown by Olympic's home fans when crying the chant - check it out for yourselves next time ;).
In returning to the staring eleven, Ansaldi had his industrious if not outstanding performance punctuated by a silly yellow card in the opening minutes of the half. To be frank, unilt the final minutes of the match, this was about as joyous as it got for the visitors.
The seventh minute of the second half marked the beginning of the period in which Marconi's (and in particular, Renaud's) crossing started to become conspicuous for all the wrong reasons. From what was to become a typical Renaud looping cross, Maloney, bursting through the middle of the park, produced an exquisite chest down at about 25m from goal from a ball effectively arriving to him from behind. Unfortunately he could only offer a luke-warm strike which really didn't bother Catlin.
Minutes later, the Stallions actually turned the class on via, unsurprisingly, Zoric, Renaud (?) and Mendez who conspired to find Maloney for a chance at a clear volley on goal. That Maloney was ultimately offside probably took something out fo the groans from the bleachers as Waylon Smithers.....err, Maloney's shot ended up near the corner flag.
Whilst the standard of play in the A-League is often berated by the hard core (indeed, all ;)) supporters of the local game, I reckon we could allay much of the negativity if we (our players) knew how to finish....Although, it's a bit of a long bow to parallel this observation to the first 10 minutes of the 29 Nov 97 match, I can't help but feel that the Iran match is proof that we really don't understand what finishing means!! Put the ball into the back of the net first guys, then we'll worry about being as speccy as the Premier League's best. I think "The Duke" best appreciates this principle for us at the moment.
(Funnily enough, I actually prefer the goals wrought of close control and intricate passing taken from close distances in which the ball (sometimes) barely rolls over the line just inside the farr post to the - albeit sensational - Tony Yeboah-style strikes from out in the car park. Too much of a purist's view perhaps????). But one thing's clear - we really need specialists finishing trainers/schools (I think we have one run for aspiring yooves by former great Des Marton in the St George district of Sydney????).
The Korean international Kim is within the throes (1 or 2 matches away) of finishing his short stint at the Stable, and from what I've seen I think Marconi would do well to realise his ambition to extend his contract. The general lack of media coverage notwithstanding, most would be aware of his defensive prowess, however, he has something to directly offer in attack as well if his 12th minute surge was anything to go by. From sweeper, Kim single-handedly conveyed the ball to Olympic's defensive line at which point he was no doubt rudely surprised by a complete lack of support. There were 5 UTS shirts and, temporarily, not one blue shirt to be seen.
Ultimately, the ball found its way to Renaud on the left, whose resulting cross saw Awaritefe - in his personal devotion to the now absent "Half-a-yard" Harper (c) David Marshall Inc. ;) - did his best to go near enough to heading the ball without actually doing so, so as to ensure that the better-place Mendez behind him - and from right in front - was also put off his attempt.
In the same move, Francis again fails to meet a cross from the other side, and then ultimately once the ball had been knocked across for the third time dumped his close-range (but difficult) header over Augerinos wide of the post. Oh Gumby!! ;)
You're not going to believe this, but effectively the same thing happened only a minute later. This time Maloney, at full stretch, just fails to connect with a cross from the right driven across the face of goal.
Although he had been prominent up until that point, "Chi Chi" Mendez clearly made the match his own in the second half of the second half. He was at times sublime (although that is not to suggest that everything he did was spectacular or indeed, even worked).
In the 24th minute of the half, he totally did a job on J.P. De Marigny in having him sent off. Through sheer skill, Mendez had the former Stallion in knots when drawing him into a tackle he had to make but had no idea how to affect. Chi Chi left him clumsily up-ended, and in turn up-ending Mendez with a mis-timed and thinly-veiled body tackle. The resulting yellow card was JP's second after Mendez again had duped De Marigny in the first half in similar fashion at the other end of the pitch - although that time, De Marigny could have elected not to cynically handle the ball - and thus stop a potential Mendez' path to goal - on his way down.
With the one man advantage, Marconi held the balance of power for the remainder of the match but too often looked only for Mendez, who clearly was on song, but tired with the repeated demands made of him by his team mates. Beyond their well documented lack of prowess in front of goals, Marconi may have squandered the victory also because of their one-dimensional plan of attack - "Give it to Chi Chi!".
Surprisingly, Olympic gave him all the latitude he wanted. It was if they were scared to mark him for the fear of embarrassing failure. Mendez roamed the midfield and forward line at whim, and all the while given yards of space. In light of the repeated damage he was causing, surely the option was to at least close him right down (isn't Longo noted for this??) and better still, mark him from in front so as to cut supply to him altogether!!! Even just forcing the other Stallions to re-consider passes to him would have rendered a tactically better result.
Mendez carved!
Ironically, the match closed with Renaud's crossing deteriorating even more, and Olympic catching Marconi on the break to twice within minutes coming close to stealing the prize. In the 39th minute, resulting from a fast break (and no doubt a good break-fast....hee hee ) Tome unleashed a punishing drive that had Covic at full stretch down low.
With two minutes left, Tome - drawing his man ever away from the strike zone - with Emerton cleverly created a two-on-two (excluding keeper) to afford the latter a booming shot on goal which this time had Covic beaten, but unluckily cannoned off the base of the upright.
In the end, Marconi were lucky to not have lost the match...Stealing defeat from the jaws of victory indeed.
Final Score: 1-1 Juric 20 (UTS), Maloney 31 (Marconi).
Teams:
Marconi: Covic, M. Babic (Tomich 83), Ansaldi (Care 73), Longo, Casserly,
Maloney, Awaritefe, Renaud, Kim, Zoric, Mendez.
UTS: Catlin, Carter, Juric, Tome, Tsekenis, Emerton, De Marigny,
Augerinos (Rastall 82), Barbalace, Eagleton, Bayhan (Hristodoulou 71).
Cards:
Yellow: Marconi: Ansaldi (49) UTS: De Marigny (44, 69), Emerton (62),
Augerinos (81).
Red: UTS: De Marigny (69)
Best: 3 pts: Mendez (Marconi)
2 pts: Maloney (Marconi)
1 pt: Emerton (UTS)
Crowd: 6,367 (Poor turn out for a Sydney derby played on a pleasant evening).
Ref: Brett Hugo Rating: 9/10 used the advantage rule well, and more
generally, intervened only when required. (As usual, perhaps errs
on the side of "letter of the law" interpretations when it comes
to cards - but admittedly, this is in keeping with the footballing
judicial climate these days) but I thought he had a good one....
.....game that is. :)