Man of the match: Hyuk Su Seo
Thanks to the SMH for writing a decent report on the match, which I'm reproducing here because I'm too tired and lazy to write my own.
Short rundown: the crowd was pitiful (13000) in size, but spirited as usual; the game was good, but unfortunately plenty of mistakes made by QLD Roar, and the referee was perhaps a little soft, but definitely consistent and fair, unlike the dickhead who refereed the Roar v Melbourne Victory match a couple of weeks ago and deservedly got booed off the pitch.
Stunning soccer goal gives Roar a point
Korean midfielder Hyuk-Su Seo produced a stunning long-range goal to give the Queensland Roar a share of the spoils in Friday night's A-League clash with the Central Coast Mariners.
Seo's goal was the highlight, but the Roar justifiably traipsed off Suncorp Stadium disappointed figures after the entertaining 1-1 stalemate on a hot Brisbane night.
The home side produced 18 scoring shots to the Mariners' eight, and dominated the attack-oriented match from the outset.
Their failure to convert chances meant the two sides remain locked together in fourth on the table with nine points after seven matches.
Central Coast skipper Noel Spencer threatened to continue the A-League's away anomaly when he headed home from a 41st-minute corner.
It was Spencer's third goal of the season, and with the canny Tom Pondeljak holding court, the injury-riddled pre-season cup champions were on track for an upset.
The Roar's dramatic equaliser came in the 57th minute when the hard-working Korean drilled a speculative 25-metre shot past a helpless Danny Vukovic.
A rare shotmaker, Seo took everyone by surprise by delivering a perfect strike on the outside of his right boot after a short midfield run.
But the Mariners could thank Vukovic for getting a slice of the points after he pulled off an athletic save to stop super-sub Michael Baird's 67th-minute header.
Queensland had another gilt-edged chance with six minutes left when a Spase Dilevski corner went straight across the face of goals just out of the reach of Josh McCloughan.
It was the Roar's loose checking from a Mariners corner which allowed Spencer his goal after being outplayed for virtually the entire first half.
Spencer headed the ball into the back of the net as both 198cm defender Tyler Simpson and Hyuk-Su Seo failed to get a touch on Tom Pondeljak's corner to the back post.
The goal was met by disbelief from the vocal crowd of 13,195 who had watched the Roar commit raid after raid on the visitors goals.
Strikers Jonti Richter and Alex Brosque forever looked dangerous but neither could produce the magic needed.
It was attacking midfielder Warren Moon who went closest to reaping a reward for the persistence with a curling 25m free kick that just flew wide of the right post.
Richter was almost as close with a lob after some sloppy Mariners defence.
Pondeljak ensured it wasn't all one-way traffic with a classy pass to Dean Heffernan in the box that required Roar skipper Chad Gibson to produce a goal-saving tackle.
Referee Perry Mur let the captivating game flow and showed a blind-eye to only the most vigorous of challenges.
© 2005 AAP
3 comments:
It's like a segment of QLD life I never knew existed. Lucky this didn't happen in Joh's time. Soccer fans would have been mistaken for a leftie protest and run in by the cops and given the phone book meets baton treatment.
Sounds kewl though. I wish I liked sport. But enforced sporting made me unsportsmanlike.
Ah... school sport? Me too. Playing social 7 aside where no-one cares what a crap player you are is really good fun though, trust me!
As for Joh, I think far too many brown people like soccer for him to have been ok with it here. He probably would have banned it :P
Ah Sir Joh. I bet if there was social 7 a side soccer people would demand that he play for the shirts side, not skins.
Shudder...
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