Crowd: 1,647 (Monday is a holiday in Canberra and many seem to have left for
the coast!)
Weather: Very warm and muggy
Just when many Canberrans were thinking that the Cosmos star had sunk into its self-created black hole of NSL irrelevance, the home side turned on their finest performance in a couple of seasons.
This was a most entertaining game with many other scoring opportunities missed or just spoiled.
From the outset South played as if their three successive wins guaranteed them three points against a struggling team. They never imposed their will and control on the midfield - Clarkson was the Invisible Man, Trimboli actually made some poor passes and Lozanovski became increasingly frustrated at his inability to work down the right and find the space and time to curl in his dangerous crosses.
To say that South were not the team of the Maracana, would be to deny the Cosmos the real glory they deserved. This game was always more likely to be a home win from the moment Harry James' pass over the top of a lead-footed Liparoti put De Jesus clear only for Jones to spoil.
Again and again Canberra made South's defence look as though they had turned out at Thermopylae - in far younger days, in a much more regimented fashion. The pace of James, a wriggle left then right and a shot past Jones put the Cosmos one up.
James had enough time to welcome Xerxes to Canberra (I'm sure he had enough taste to ignore the Queen of England who flew in to this city tonight!) before placing a far post header back across the sea of defenders to Popovich to nod home.
More than a bridge of boats was needed to close this gap, but Anastasiadis, acting like the colossus of rogues, stood his ground to head the champions onto the scoreboard just before half time.
Was this parting of the defence a Trojan Horse to calm Angie's half time tirade?
By the time De Jesus tucked away a lovely Andrew Clark cross in the 58 min, even a one-eyed cyclops would have seen that the adventurers and conquerors of the NSL and Oceania, should have stayed in their Ithaca.
Liparoti brought hope to those few who undertook the northern odyssey - but their faint hope was buried in Priam time by a classic strike by Clark. He had raced at full pace from just inside his opponents' half, kept going past defenders and then placed the ball past a lunging Jones into the far corner.
A classic goal that would have pleased his (ex?) girlfriend soapie star Belinda Emmett and one that washed away memories of forgettable football. The crowd stood for ages to applaud their side.
If Canberra could play like this each home match, Bruce this place would truely be a crowded house!
I bet all South Melbourne wants after another poor journey is a Homer!