Its not often that a game at Underwood Park would be of interest to any one not listed in my address book. However tonight it was host to a titanic battle between two of the nation's powerhouses of football.
Or perhaps not.
The Olyroos are currently enjoying the Gold Coast's balmy winter days, ensconced in a training camp with local teams providing a bit of a challange from time to time. I'd gladly provide more details but secrecy surrounding the team and its preparations for the upcoming Olypmic Games is so tight, that I only discovered they were up against the local lads yesterday. Apparently they managed a 1-0 victory over Lions a couple of days ago.
Anyway, on to tonight's game....
I was expecting either a closely fought match with the Rochedale boys playing out of their skins to impress "those in high places that never visit our ground", or a bit of a goal fest as the Olyroos desperately tried to secure their places in the walk on side for the Olympics. The 2000 strong crowd ended up with a rather lack lustre affair with very few highlights, that wasn't much different to our average XXXX League games.
The first 45mins was played mainly in Rochedale's half with the Olyroos managing 3 or 4 shots wide of the net, and one that ricocheted off the left hand upright almost back to the centre circle. Rochedale ventured into the opposing penalty area perhaps twice. Mile Sterjovski opened the scoring for the Roos around the 35min mark. Nothing spectacular so far and no one playing badly....just not very exciting.
The second half began pretty much the same, though Rochedale seemed to lose some of its wariness as the game progressed and began to increase their forward forays. This paid off about 25mins into the half when the Roos failed to deal with an incoming ball. It popped out nicely for Paul Grugan to slot it firmly into the back of the net.
Fortunately for the spectators this was the kick in the pants the Olyroos needed, and the game became fairly lively with both teams pressing forward for the winner. Graham Ross pulled off a couple of spectacular saves to keep up the local hopes of at least a draw.
And bugger me...they nearly pulled it off. If only Archie Thompson hadn't calmly headed a cross from deep on the right wing smack into the middle of the Rover's goal about 5 minutes before full time. 2-1 to the Olyroos at the last whistle.
The game was played in good spirits, though a little too relaxed on both sides for my liking. Apparently the Olyroos will be playing another match against a yet to be determined local team some time in the next couple of weeks. They aren't in the group playing in Brisbane at the Olympics, and its not very likely that we'll be graced with televised games if Channel 7 run true to form, so keep your ears to the ground and get out and see them if possible.
Not much of a review and severely lacking in actual content, but that's what you get when your eyesight ain't up to scratch. Here's the teams...
Rochedale Rovers: 1 Graham Ross(gk), 2 Paul Grugan, 3 Ross Davidson, 4 Dwayne Good, 5 Damian Harris, 8 Michael Legg, 9 Matt Olley, 10 Clayton Koch, 11 Garth Dorey, 12 Ray Huth, 14 Danny Stowers, 16 Adam Watson, 17 Corey Nicholson, 18 Taro Urabe, 19 Darren Bender 20 Sean Hart(gk). Coach - Peter Bannon. Manager - Ken Russell
Olyroos: 1 Michael Turnbull, 2 Simon Colosimo, 3 Jason Burns, 4 Buddy Farah, 5 Dragi Nastevski, 6 Ivan Zelic, 7 Paul Reid, 8 Mark Robertson, 9 Archie Thompson, 10 Lujbo Milicevic, 11 Mile Sterjovski, 12 Lawrence Drake, 14 Jamie Johnson, 15 Jonathan McKain Coach - Raul Blanco. Assistant Coach - Adrian Santrac
*Subs not noted - they were allowed unlimited.
Question:- Why isn't Soccer Australia promoting these games?
We don't get to witness the up and coming young stars of Australian soccer playing in a national team very often in these parts. Sure, it was only a training match and many of the better known faces were absent, but 2000 fans happily showed up through not much more than word of mouth.