1994-95 Season Round 5 Matches

Round 5 of the Australian NSL championship (games played 18-20/11)

Melbourne Knights	4	-	Sydney United		1
(Andrew Marth 13)			(Ante Moric 68)
(Joe Spiteri 27)
(Vinko Buljubasic 45)
(Lubjko Lapsansky 64)

MK : Juric, Horvat, Buljubasic, D Cervinski, Silic (Pondeljak 81),
     Tiatto, Marth, Biskic ,Lapsansky , Spiteri, Viduka

SU : Kalac, Popovic, Kupresak, M Babic, Stanton, Moric, Naumovski,
     Hristodoulou, Milicic, Lamond (Jermen 82), Zdrilic

[You know I'm sick of it. Everytime the Knights show up the other side might
 as well not be there, infact I'm not sure that the Kights' sister club
 actually did show up. This was also the game which saw the Knights
 'christen' their floodlighting, the switch being flicked by sometime
 Premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett. In the end only the imposing Kalac
 stood between the Knights and a swag more goals.]


Sydney Olympic		2	-	Heidelberg United	0
(David Barrett 40)
(Joe Bacak 57)

SO : Gibson, Spyridakos, Barrett, Sorras, Meredith (Tome 83), Juric, Tsekenis,
     Milosevic, Johnson, Bacak, Poimer (Maloney 59)

HU : Miller, Blagojevic, Watson, Koutos, Scott, Macnicol, Tsolakis, Ardone,
     Georgiadis (Gnijdic 59), Kiratzoglou, Despotovski (Curcija 70)

[Unlike the Knights Heidelberg don't have any wins and no lights at their
 home ground. Thankfully they were playing in Sydney, and kept losing.
 Truth be told Sydney won more by accident than good play and even the coach
 Vince Estavilio said so, this no doubt will have a terribly positive effect
 on the players. Not. Still Heidelberg are also playing without luck, or skill
 depending on if you think a point blank header into the keepers chest is
 one or the other (Despotovski the culprit there).]


Wollongong City		2	-	West Adelaide		0
(Pat Bradley 60)
(Robert Middleby 74)

WC : Hughes, Murray, Forshaw, O'Shea, Bourke, Horsley, Halpin (Middleby 45),
     Bradley, Dimoski, Coveny (Lloyd 80), Ackers

WA : Blazincic, Hooker, Slager, Haniotis, Kokkinoplitis,
     Keramidas (Tsekenis 78), Lazaridis, Slifkas, Andrioli (Brazzale 65),
     Ndongo-Keller, Cardozo

[You know if you'd asked me at the start of the season who'd be propping up
 the NSL at the end of the season I would have said Wollongong. Goes to show
 how much (or little) I know. Their off season buys and young players are
 really doing well. Middleby is great, Dimoski does well and even Horsley
 is coming to the attention of Eddie Thomson, the national coach. West Adelaide
 on the other hand have Elvis and that's quite enough :-).]


Brisbane Strikers	0	-	Parramatta Eagles	1
					(Andrew Brayshaw 23)

BS : Bolton, Stowell, Zoricich, Hunter (sent off 15), Evans, Ditton,
     Phillips, Wright, T Cranney, Slater, Brown

PE : Franken, P Souris, Gwynne (sent off 90), Orlic, Renaud, Moffitt,
     Mendez, Reda, Ciantar, Gunning, Brayshaw (Brockwell 45)

[When Alan Hunter was sent off for elbowing the eventual goalscorer it
 spelt disaster for the Strikers. Funnily enough both the Parramatta
 coach and Brayshaw defended Hunter and said they would speak on his
 behalf if Alan Hunter were called to the tribunal. "Alan plays it hard,
 but he's not dirty. He simply shrugged me off", said Brayshaw. The referee
 Doug Prentice handed out 10 yellow cards in what was not a spiteful match
 with Glen Gwynne getting one in each of the 21st and 90th minutes. To add
 to Brisbane's woes they missed a penalty (handball - Souris) which Rod
 Brown put over the bar and Brisbane hit the woodwork on 3 other occasions.]


Marconi-Fairfield	2	-	Melbourne SC		2
(Marconi wins 6-5 on penalties)
(Ian Gray 74)				(Paul Della Rocca 21)
(Marshall Soper 78)			(Ross Aloisi 51)

MF : Catlin, Casserly, Gray, van Egmond, Dee, Ortiz, Colombo, Okon,
     Cardozo, Harper (Iocca 59), Soper

MZ : Gonzales, Kuleski, Jolevski, Trajkovski, Della Rocca,
     Mazzini (sent off 72), Ngata (Tricarico 79), Aloisi, Banini,
     Trajcevski (Tombolato 74), Zinni

[Marshall Soper romps away towards goal and Mazzini pulls him back by his
 shirt. "He'll never get sent off", I thought though he fully deserved it.
 Yet he did. After that Marconi finally managed to hold posession for a while
 and they equalised through an Ian Gray exocet-drive and Soper turning
 a shot past the diving keeper. They could have won but the Melbournians
 held out for the shootout. Funny thing about these tie-breakers.
 Fundamentally I don't like them but they are really honing the skill of
 taking and saving of penalties (ignore the miss by the Strikers :-).
 16 shots were fired in the shootout, Gonzales was caught moving early on
 a save and the kick was retaken...and saved again. Banini could have won the
 match but sent his shot wide with Catlin going the wrong way and in the
 end Tombolato skied the last kick of the game.]


Adelaide City		2	-	Morwell Falcons		2
(Morwell win 4-3 on penalties)
(Damien Mori 13)			(Steven Douglas 47)
(Alex Tobin 65)				(Lachlan Armstrong 52)

AC : Petkovic, Ivanovic, Vidmar, Tobin, Melta, Foster, Mullen, Talladira,
     Lozanovski, Hassell, Mori

MF : Matassa, Douglas, Miller, Canosa (sent off 66), Parton, Bothwell, Waddell,
     Tapai (Stergioupoulos 82), Sevin, Markovski (Upton 50 (sent off 65)),
     Armstrong

[Well it sounded like a helluva game. Morwell were ahead 2-1 when a penalty
 was awarded for handball on the Falcons goal-line. Alex Tobin stepped up
 and had his shot saved by Matassa (first he scores for Argentina and n...ah
 never mind). Then two minutes later he heads in a Lozanovski cross to make
 it 2-2. Gary Upton then got sent off for moaning to the ref when the goal
 was awarded and a minute later Canosa was sent off for his second yellow.
 The Falcons staved off a City side seeking the winner and only Armstrong
 failed to convert a penalty to give Sonny Sevin the game winning penalty.]