Melbourne Heart and Gold Coast United played out a scoreless draw at the Melbourne Football Stadium on Saturday evening.
Melbourne Heart had the better of the game, but was unable to capitalise. Gold Coast goalkeeper Glen Moss was effective, pulling off a number of fine saves to keep his side in the match.
Heart was handicapped, missing three highly-influential attacking players. John Aloisi, Alex Terra, and Gerard Sibon, along with defender Dean Heffernan missed through a combination of injury and suspension.
Captain Simon Colosimo was also absent, Heart coach John van't Schip preferring to retain Matt Thompson in the middle of defence. That was a selection decision which obviously rankled Colosimo who sat, stony faced, on the bench until his introduction in the game's final act.
A draw between these two sides may well have been anticipated given they had already drawn a significant proportion of their games to date this campaign. The visitors especially were neither profligate up front, nor extravagant at the back, holding onto a lofty league position despite this lack of adventurousness.
Perhaps in recognition of this, the attendance was a poor one, more akin to the Gold Coast as host, rather than one befitting the city of Melbourne. Barely six thousand took their seats in a stadium which surely deserves to be graced by four times that number.
Heart has created a squad more exciting than most in this league, although - to be fair - it has taken a little time for it to amount even to the sum of its parts, far less one greater as might be expected from the combination of talent contained within it. Josip Skoko had a fine game, and tested Moss on a number of occasions, as well as managing to run the midfield as would be expected of a player of his calibre and experience.
Aziz Behic came back into the team after serving a one-week suspension, and was energetic from the back, several times showing how the irrepressible nature of young raw talent can cause consternation to an opponent.
But it was not enough. Miron Bleiberg's Gold Coast has players of pedigree of its own, Jason Culina prime amongst them. It was Culina who was Skoko's equivalent as the inventor and engineer for his side, making for an enthralling midfield battle.
Joel Porter and Bruce Djite showed flashes of promise up front for United, but too few to cause van't Schip to rethink his defensive plans, or goalkeeper Clint Bolton to become anxious.
Both defences were able to cope with the questions they faced. And Moss made up for those which proved overly-puzzling for the Gold Coast last line.
Bleiberg sought to shake things up a little at the start of the second half, making a double-change. Steve Pantelidis and James Brown came on to replace Bas van den Brink and Robson, but neither was able to change the shape of the contest to any degree. Heart continued to dominate, but failed to find the cutting edge.
It was a game however, for which what minor detail exists will quickly fade, and where the simple record of it being a scoreless draw will be ample recognition of its memorability.