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| ROUND 16: Friday 7th December Wellington Phoenix 3 Perth Glory 0 Sydney FC 1 Newcastle Jets 0 Saturday 8th December Melbourne Victory 2 Adelaide Utd 2 Sunday 9th December Queensland Roar 2 Cent. Coast Mariners 1 |
| In their debut season in the A-League, Wellington Phoenix went into this match on the bottom of the ladder; but a 3-0 victory over Perth Glory moved the WA side back into bottom spot. Perth made the early front-running, but it was all to change on 27 minutes, when Nikolai Topor-Stanley brought Vaughan Coveny down inside the penalty area, earning Topor- Stanley a straight red and sending the Knights to the penalty spot for the first goal. And worse was to come just a minute after the restart when a slide from Felipe connected with the ball and into the net. A header from Smeltz in the second half snuffed out any hope of the Glory working their way back into the contest, and a bad night for them got even worse with a red card to captain Jamie Harnwell condemning the Glory to finishing the match with just 9 men on the pitch. Wellington Phoenix 3 (S Smeltz 29pen, 71, Felipe 31) Perth Glory 0 Yellow Cards : Phoenix - S Smeltz 35. Glory - M Prentice 35, D Micevski 37, H Foxe 66. Red Cards : Glory - N Topor-Stanley 27, J Harnwell 73. Referee - S Delovski. Crowd - 8,039 at Westpac Stadium. The A-League's marketing slogan of "90 minutes 90 emotions" was stretched when the emotions changed dramatically in injury time of the Sydney FC v Newcastle Jets match. For much of the night, the game never reached any great heights; and in wet conditions before a small crowd appeared inevitably to be drifting to a 0-0 draw. Sydney FC found themselves down to 10 men early in the second half after Reuben Zadkovich's studs-up tackle on Adam Griffiths earned the wrath of referee Matthew Breeze, who had no hesitation in pulling a straight red card out. Jardel had a chance to put the Jets in front late in the game, but missed an easy tap. But for much of the game, despite the numerical advantage, Newcastle appeared happy to settle for a point; and this was to cost them dearly. 3 miinutes were to be added on, and 2 of them passed with the scores still deadlocked. But a delightful header from Steve Corica gave the Sydney side a win they never looked likely to achieve, sending the home crowd into raptures. Sydney FC 1 (S Corica 90) Newcastle Jets 0 Yellow Cards : Sydney - R Middleby 35, T Popovic 66. Jets - M Bridge 71, A Durante 80. Red Cards : Sydney - R Zadkovich 52. Referee - M Breeze. Crowd - 10,732 at Sydney Football Stadium. |
|
It took an injury-time winner to give Melbourne Victory a home grand final last season, and history
was to repeat when the Victory again grabbed a last-moment goal to deny Adelaide at Telstra Dome.
A double to Socceroo Paul Agostino had put Adelaide 2-0 ahead, and even a penalty to Kevin
Muscat, which reduced the margin to just 1 goal, looked like it wouldn't be enough to keep the
Reds at bay.
Ticking into injury time, a free to Carlos Hernandez passed over the Adelaide wall into the danger
zone. Richie Alagich was there for Adelaide, but a cruel bounce saw him wrong-footed; with the ball
sliding off him into his own net. Heartbreak for Alagich and the Reds, but the result gave Melbourne
some hope of salvaging something from a disappointing season.
Melbourne Victory 2 (K Muscat 71pen, R Alagich 90og) Adelaide United 2 (P Agostino 17,49).
Yellow Cards : Victory - C Hernandez 80, M Theoklitos 83. Reds - D Giraldi 19, T Milardovic 29,
Diego 32, N Burns 38).
Referee - P Green. Crowd - 22,466 at Telstra Dome.
The Mariners' lead in the A-League table was cut to just 1 point when Queensland Roar defeated
the Central Coast side 2-1 at Suncorp Stadium. John Aloisi scored early for the Mariners, but a tackle
in front of goal from Reinaldo saw Tony Vidmar's attempted clearance go into his own net. On the
half hour, a fine one-two play between Matt McKay and Danny Tiatto saw the ball go in to put the
Roar ahead; and that's how it stayed.
Queensland Roar 2 (T Vidmar 21og, M McKay 28) Central Coast Mariners 1 (J Aloisi 13)
Yellow Cards : Roar - D Tiatto 43, C Moore 52. Mariners - D Heffernan 12, P O'Grady 83, J Aloisi
90.
Referee - B Williams. Crowd - 16,442 at Suncorp Stadium.
was to repeat when the Victory again grabbed a last-moment goal to deny Adelaide at Telstra Dome.
A double to Socceroo Paul Agostino had put Adelaide 2-0 ahead, and even a penalty to Kevin
Muscat, which reduced the margin to just 1 goal, looked like it wouldn't be enough to keep the
Reds at bay.
Ticking into injury time, a free to Carlos Hernandez passed over the Adelaide wall into the danger
zone. Richie Alagich was there for Adelaide, but a cruel bounce saw him wrong-footed; with the ball
sliding off him into his own net. Heartbreak for Alagich and the Reds, but the result gave Melbourne
some hope of salvaging something from a disappointing season.
Melbourne Victory 2 (K Muscat 71pen, R Alagich 90og) Adelaide United 2 (P Agostino 17,49).
Yellow Cards : Victory - C Hernandez 80, M Theoklitos 83. Reds - D Giraldi 19, T Milardovic 29,
Diego 32, N Burns 38).
Referee - P Green. Crowd - 22,466 at Telstra Dome.
The Mariners' lead in the A-League table was cut to just 1 point when Queensland Roar defeated
the Central Coast side 2-1 at Suncorp Stadium. John Aloisi scored early for the Mariners, but a tackle
in front of goal from Reinaldo saw Tony Vidmar's attempted clearance go into his own net. On the
half hour, a fine one-two play between Matt McKay and Danny Tiatto saw the ball go in to put the
Roar ahead; and that's how it stayed.
Queensland Roar 2 (T Vidmar 21og, M McKay 28) Central Coast Mariners 1 (J Aloisi 13)
Yellow Cards : Roar - D Tiatto 43, C Moore 52. Mariners - D Heffernan 12, P O'Grady 83, J Aloisi
90.
Referee - B Williams. Crowd - 16,442 at Suncorp Stadium.
| ROUND 17: Friday 14th December Wellington Phoenix v Q'land Roar (5.30) Adelaide United v Central Cst M'ner (8.00) Saturday 15th December Sydney FC v Perth Glory (7.00) Sunday 16th December Melbourne Victory v N'castle Jets (5.00) ROUND 15 POSTPONED: Saturday 22nd December Central Coast Mariners v Sydney FC (7.00) |