South Melbourne came into this game wanting to stop a run of defeats that had seen them drop away from the top of the National Soccer Leauge Their opponents Sydney United had before they're last game against Parramatta been the best defensive team in the Leauge conceding just 7 goals all season.
In the first 20 minutes of the match South Melbourne could not break down a Sydney United side which was producing some great defending. Chance after chance was once again being created by South's midfield but time and again good moves were breaking down or they were just giving the ball away. It was not until the 22nd minute that the vistors had there first chance which fell to Santalab but as he was just about to shoot a South Melbourne defender came in with a last minute tackle to save the day.
The visitors from Sydney started to come back into the game towards the middle part of the first half with Striker Brendan Santalab, the 21 year old striker causing the South Melbourne defence all sorts of probloms with his electrifying pace and close control. But credit must go to central defence pairing for South Melbourne who apart from a couple of occasions in the first half keep the visitors quiet.
In the second half South Melbourne continue to force the Sydneysiders on to the back foot with some impressive attacking through Con Boutsianis and Vince Lea. But in the 55th minute and against the run of play Sydney United earn themselves a penalty. This was created for them by striker Santalab who's pace cause Mehmet Durakovic to foul him which gave the referee no option but to point to the spot. The penalty much to the relief of the home faithful was well saved by keeper Micheal Theoklitos who was playing his first game of the season.
The game suddenly came to life after that incident with South Melbourne finally getting the breakthrough they deserved by getting a controversial penalty in the 74 minute. A long through ball from Micheal curcija across the width of the pitch for captian Vaughan Coveny to chase but for some reason the goalkeeper came off his line and took out Coveny instead of the ball. And from where the referee was standing he gave the penalty. Coveny took the penalty and scored to the right of the keeper.
This seam to fire up the vistors Evan more and to their credit Sydney United did most of the attacking in the last 15 minutes of the match but for no return. A understandably happy South Melbourne coach Stuart Munro said after the match "I think if you were a neutral you have enjoyed that game tonight. I thought teams gave a lot, there were chances at both though there were penalty saves and I thought it was a terrific game.
Obviously from a South Melbourne point of view I thought we started the game very well and in the first 20 minutes we had three or four very good chances to score which their goalkeeper brought of some fantastic saves. And then they came back into the game in the last 10 to 15 minutes manly because we were giving the ball away in the middle of the park." Munro added, "Then in the second half we thought we were ok. But we didn't seam to get in the tempo that we started the game with. After that the game swung from end to end. And at the end of the day everybody played their part."
From a Sydney United point of view first year coach Grant Lee was disappointed with the result. "In all fairness over the ninety minutes maybe a draw would have been a fair result in light of the first 20 minutes they really took the to us and Goalkeeper Lee Reddy made a couple of really good saves to keep us in the game. Then after that it also took us a little bit of time to adjust to the style of play and the shape that they were playing. But then I felt we settled down in the last 15 minutes of the first half and especially the second half. We perform well after last weeks result against Parramatta." Grant added, " I also thought it was it was an incredible game. Both teams were very committed with action at both ends and both keepers making great saves. All in all I thought it was a tremendous game but I was disappointed we did not come away with at least a draw." He said.