The two top scoring teams met in Sydney in a match where it wasn't until the last
few minutes that either defence was breached. Canberra, who had finally reached .500
were always going to struggle against the competition leaders Olympic.
This was made even harder when talented striker Michael Musitano was sent from
the field for what was apparantely spitting. Hence from the 13th minute, the visitors
had to struggle with one player less.
Strangely enough it was the 10-men Canberra team that came closest to scoring and
were robbed by either luck or fine defending. With a minute to go in the first half,
Jason Dunn had a shot from close range, but unfortunately it bounced off Ciantar's
knee and straight back out into the field of play.
Close to the middle of the second half, Marko Perinovic was on the end of a long
free kick. He reached the ball just before Gibson and his header was going for goal.
Unfortunately, Ciantar made it back in time to literally clear the ball off the line.
From the ensuing corner, Jason Dunn saw his near post header just tipped over the
bar.
It wasn't until the 88th minute when Olympic were awarded a free kick just outside
the box directly in front of goal. The first shot was blocked but fell to a Olympic
player. His shot was stopped by Mautone, but the rebound was put away by Slater.
This meant that Canberra were to start pushing forward looking for the equalizer,
but unfortunately whilst doing this they left themselves open at the back and in the
seventh minute of injury time, Trajanovski was able to round the keeper and put the
ball into an empty net for the final score.
Overall, the visitors fought real hard and showed guts in defending and in some
cases nearly scoring. The loss of Musitano was big for the team, and maybe with him
this game could have had a real different ending. Even though they lost, Cosmos remain
only 2 points from the Top 6.