1997/1998 Season Round 16 Results written by Thomas Esamie
Played (16/01/1998) Breakers Stadium Referee : B Panella, Crowd : 2888
Newcastle Breakers Brad Swancott, Glen Sprod (Doug West 46), Matthew Austin, Shane Pryce, Todd McManus, Robert Ironside, Peter Ritchie, Mark Wilson, Shaun Edwards, Matthew Lowe (sent off 42), Ben Lane (Jason Bennett 55) Goal : Pryce 68pk	1	-	5	Gippsland Falcons Bojo Jevdjevic, Clayton Bell, Manny Gotis, Nick Palamaras (sent off 82), Tony Sekulic (Archie Thompson 67), Nick Tsaltas (Brian MacNicol 65), Mark Foy (Doug Marcina 63), Joe Tricarico, Levent Osman, Willie Hastie, Zlatko Mihajlovic Goals : Foy 4, Tricarico 39, 62, Tsaltas 65, MacNicol 82
A shot from Foy at the edge of the area heralded the Falcons' best game of the season so far. It took almost until halftime before a red-booted Joe Tricarico did some tricky things to evade his marker before angling in on goal and blasting his shot in. Before haltime came Matthew Lowe got himself sent off for a second yellow card earnt for a tackle on Hastie and that made the Falcons' job that much easier. At the other side of halftime Joe Tricarico, with a brilliant toouch to elude 2 defenders on the sideline again zeroed in on goal and shot inside the near post as he had with his first goal. Tricarico then gave Nick Tsaltas the ball who then skirted the penalty area for a gap and once found he blasted the ball into the net. Newcastle got a brief glimpse of a very small hope when Clayton Bell handled a goalbound shot from Bennett. MacNicol rounded out the scoring with a solo run and shot through a tired defence. I see Palamaras was sent off too, though I don't know what for.
Match report by Chris Dunkerley
Played (17/01/1998) Suncorp Stadium Referee : W Dade, Crowd : 3383
Brisbane Strikers Clint Bolton, Glenn Gwynne, Matthew Bell, Chris Zoricich, Nick Meredith, Frank Farina, Rod Brown, Kasey Wehrman (Chay Hews 54), Troy Cranney, Stephen Laybutt, Gary Blackford (Sean Cranney 79) Goals : T Cranney 2, Stanton 77og	2	-	1	Wollongong City Adam Brodbeck, Alvin Ceccoli, Robert Stanton, Matthew Horsley, Sonny Sevin (Noel Spencer 15), Anthony Surjan, Scott Chipperfield, George Souris, Tony Perinich, David Huxley, Esala Masi (Sasho Dimoski 69) Goal : Horsley 25
Farina and Brown were major contributors to the goal finally put away by Troy Cranney and the early Brisbane lead. Matthew Horsley threatened to continue Brisbane's run of miserable results when a shot was deflected to him and he lobbed the ball into the net to make it 1-1. Nick Meredith unleashed a piledriver on Adam Brodbeck (Why oh why does Nick Theodorakopoulos persist with this guy when he has Brett Hughes?) which the keeper failed to handle and Stanton just got in the way of the rebound. Poor bugger
Match report by David Marshall
Played (17/01/1998) Seiffert Oval Referee : D Dwight, Crowd : 3547
Canberra Cosmos Anthony Giannasca, Andrew Roberts (Lindsay Wilson 33), Ivan Zelic, Andrew Ravanello, Ante Moric, Gordon Hunter, Norman Kelly (Michael Musitano 40), Harry James, Peter Buljan, Tom Haythornthwaite, Tristram Morgan (Ilija Prenzoski 61)	0	-	2	Marconi-Fairfield Ante Covic, Mark Babic, Mario Ansaldi (Christian Care 26 (Paul Souris 67)), Domenic Longo, Luke Casserly, Brad Maloney, Francis Awaritefe, Brendan Renaud, Pan Keun Kim, Vlado Zoric, Gabriel Mendez (Luke Tomich 83) Goals : Maloney 32, Longo 36
Canberra had some nice chances to score but of course only actual goals count and Marconi managed two of those. Brad Maloney continued his current good form when he received a pass at the edge of the area and struck his shot firmly past a keeper diving for air. Soon after Marconi more or less sealed the result when a short corner was played to the far post for Renaud to head back inside and Longo booted the ball into the roof of the net.
Played (18/01/1998) Parramatta Stadium Referee : B Hugo, Crowd : 3333
Sydney United Zeljko Kalac, David Barrett (Marcus Phillips 66), Velimir Kupresak, Joe Vrkic, Stuart Munro, Jason Culina, Robert Hooker, Paul Bilokapic, Jacob Burns, Abbas Saad, Mile Sterjovski (Nick Bosevski 60) Goal : Kupresak 48	1	-	1	Carlton Dean Anastasiadis, Robert Trajkovski, Marcus Stergiopoulos (Daniel Allsopp 68), Sean Douglas, Con Anthopoulos, Lubomir Lapsansky (Branko Bacak 72), Andy Vlahos, Simon Colosimo, Vince Grella (David Della Rocca 78), John Markovski, Mark Atkinson Goal : Lapsansky 38
Carlton seemed to have the bulk of the play and therefore deservedly went ahead thanks to the head of Lubo Lapsansky from a Trajkovski cross. Infact Vlahos was going to go for the cross but Lapsansky, behind him, yelled out and justified his confidence with the goal. Sydney United then pushed more for the equaliser and shortly after haltime Culina won a corner taken by Bilokapic and as the ball came back out to him he crossed again, this time finding the head of Kupresak for the final goal of the game. In the end Sydney came on strong but it finished in the rain and as a draw.
Match report by David Borella
Played (18/01/1998) Belmore Oval Referee : E Brazzale, Crowd : 2498
UTS Olympic Bob Catlin, Paul Carter, Ante Juric, Norman Tome, Peter Tsekenis, Brett Emerton, Elias Augerinos, Kain Rastall, Danny Barbalace, Husseyin Bayhan (Chris Kalantzis 55), Leo Carle (Hussein Jomaa 66) Goals : Tome 8pk, Kalantzis 70, Emerton 90+	3	-	0	Adelaide Sharks Nathan Wildy (sent off 70), Alex Castro, Alex Kuzmanovic, Branko Milosevic (Adrian Iandiorio 29), Con Kokkinoplitis, Corey Artone, Andrew Borghetto, Paul Pezos, Reginaldo Bigu da Silva, Jim Tsekinis (George Kollias 80), Bill Misailidis
Alex Castro's little elbow to the back of Tome's head as the ball rolled to the goalkeeper was given the penalty and Tome got more out of that sequence of play than he really deserved. Nathan Wildy also got a lot more than he deserved when he came out to catch a ball and the referee opined that he had stepped out of his area and sent him off. On replay his foot did go over the line as he caught the ball so Paul Pezos kept goal for the rest of the game and his first job was to pick the ball out of the back of the net from the free kick awarded for the red-card incident. Kalantzis' free kick skirted the wall and sneaked in. Then after Pezos did make some good saves a Tome pass to Emerton gave the latter the chance to slot the ball home which he did with no difficulty.
Played (18/01/1998) Knights Park Referee : E Lennie, Crowd : 9217
Melbourne Knights Joe Didulica (Zoran Markovski 54), Ante Kovacevic, Ivan Jolic, Ransford Banini (sent off 48), Andrew Marth, Tom Pondeljak, Ivan Kelic, Zeljko Susa (sent off 90+), Dragi Nastevski (Ice Kutlesovski 85), Gus Cerro, Ante Deak Goal : Kelic 66	1	-	1	South Melbourne Michael Petkovic, Steve Iosifidis, Fausto DeAmicis, Con Blatsis, David Clarkson (George Goutzioulis 82), Steve Panopoulos (Vaughan Coveny 54), Paul Trimboli, Michael Curcija, Bill Damianos, Goran Lozanovski, Tansel Baser Goal : Trimboli 90+pk
They're special these Melbourne derbies and this one was no different. Joe Didulica was superb in the Knights goal as South Melbourne put on the pressure. Then from a long range Lozanovski shot Didulica knelt down to catch the ball which bounced just in front of him. However the knights have such a poor pitch that the ball reared up and caught the keeper square on the nose. Later in the game he was ruled unfit to continue and Andrew Marth took over in goal. First though Ransford Banini, after getting a yellow card for a tackle on Lozanovski, decided to argue the issue with the referee who decided if Banini was going to see red he'd really see red. Banini saw red. Knights coach Ken Worden argued with the ref too. Worden saw red. Then Didulica succumbed to the blow to his nose. Didulica saw stars. Marth was surprisingly good in goal and when Gus Cerro found the head of Ivan Kelic for a Knights lead, well the crowd went nuts. Having held Souths out for all but the last few seconds of the game Marth came out for a ball which he failed to get and it was lobbed goalwards before Susa's hand kept it out. Susa had already been booked but he deserved red anyway and he got it. Trimboli stepped up and slotted the ball in.
Played (18/01/1998) Hindmarsh Stadium Referee : M Breeze, Crowd : 4607
Adelaide City Jason Petkovic, Bradley Armour, Milan Ivanovic, Alex Tobin, Angelo Costanzo, Damian Mori, Bradley Hassell, John Gibson, Kris Trajanovski (Michael Brooks 59), Scott Thomas (Mark Yates 70), Nick Sabljak (Travis Dodd 85)	0	-	1	Perth Glory Anthony Franken, Gavin Wilkinson, Vinko Buljubasic, Gareth Naven, Scott Miller, Slobodan Despotovski, Michael Garcia, Samson Siasia, Scott Halpin, Danny Hay, Troy Halpin Goal : Despotovski 87
Not really a lot appears to have happened in the first half, I'm pretty sure it was held though. Things were heading for the hard fought 0-0 draw but Perth began to step on the gas and looked dangerous. Eventually a rampaging Gareth Naven just ran into the Adelaide City defence and managed to get through it but lost control of the ball once out the other side. Luckily Despotovski was on hand to sweep the ball into the net for the Glory win.