Arriving at the game I saw the youth teams coming off Lang Park. They were as hot as hell. Oar, Dodd and Kruse had all played. I speculated if Cernak would get his first run, he did late in the 2nd.
Perth came to play in the main game. They pushed forward early. But soon started to tire in the humidity (something you probably don't get in Perth - I'd had sweat running off my face all day - it is the reason there are 3 Queenslanders in the Socceroos).
Hats off to Nik R who looks like going to the Dutch Div 1 - scored a fantastic opener just when we thought yet lag would catch him.
Danny Tiatto was man-of-the-match. Set up the Roar equaliser running down the left when Perth were on their heals waiting for a free kick, brilliant cross for Van Dijk whose header Tando can only palm onto the bar and Mitch finishes, again, brilliantly. 1-1.
Lost of shots missed by both sides in the 1st half. This game had the biggest shot count of the year.
Mid second half - lots of shots by the Roar, many too weak to best the keeper. van Dijk forces a save. McKay and Murdocca were regularly short cornering and flicking it across. This time they go to the near top of the box Tiatto - who had skewed a ball across the box minutes before - goes for glory and makes it. 2-1.
Within minutes Victor S has the ball but it gets away from him. Tiatto dives in and clears. Victor DIVES over Tiatto's feet. Yellow card. What? You cheat. For Tiatto it was close to Adelaide all over again. But no he stays on. Victor has been in the refs ear all night - despite a yellow card for decent - and gets his reward. But he is badly hurt and can't get up. He has to be helped off the field. Wow Tiatto must have really cracked him. But what's this he wants to come back. (And the replay showed a beautiful dive from Victor and no injury). Send him back to Holland Coach Mitchell we don't need cheats.
Later, Victor upends McKay - surely he is off? No just talking to the ref. The crowd are into this - get him off ref. Victor continues to talk - so Miller, threads to McKay who centres from the near post and Van Dijk scores. Ledger equalled. 3-2.
McKay corner, he calls for Josh. Josh obliges with a great header. 4-2. A few more missed chances from the Roar game over.
Can the Roar men match the women?
2 comments:
Great game. Just a note that the Roar men have already failed to match the women, as they missed the premiership, but I know what you mean. While we're being dreamy though, can the Roar get a clean sweep of Champion trophies - W-, Y- and A-League?
One more note. I reckon Matty lost his cap for the Socceroos last night. Full of energy as usual but he had that panicky try-hard feel about him that he gets sometimes and so many of his on-field passes were terrible. He constantly lost possession in the middle. A great shame. Unfortunately I reckon he demonstrated to Pim that he's not great under pressure.
Not so sure about Zullo, who was also obviously giving his all with something to prove. Dunno if he convinced or not.
And Moore was forward so often and frankly is not quick getting back. Bloody hot night as you say, but he's getting to the point where forward forays (which he does with great confidence) should be avoided so he can keep his central area at the back.
Quite aside from Moore, who's obviously a special case with his experience etc, what do you think of the performances of our prospective Socceroos?
Thanks Hamish
Future Socceroos first: Minniecon was nearly taken off before half time. Mitch was outstanding. Let us not it was his new energy that made the difference when Miller was barely about to walk.
McKay set up a goal, so surely he can be forgiven a lot.
Zullo was the victim of poor refing. Perth's strategy was to smash him in every tackle - and they were allowed to. We were shouting at him to run at the defenders - particularly when they were on cards. However, he has such a high percentage passing game - if he gets 15 in the box then expect 1-2 goals from there and there abouts.
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