Canberra Cosmos 1 (0) - Adelaide City 2 (1) Canberra Cosmos: Giannasca, Dee, Roberts, Zelic, Ravanello (Wilson 81), Moric, James (Lemezina 39), Musitano, Buljan (Brown 70), Popovich, Haythornwaite Adelaide City: Petkovic, Armour, Ivanovic, Tobin (Yates 81), Costanzo, Mori, Gibson, Trajanovski, Salapasidis (Brooks 59), Thomas (Brazzale 83), Sabljak Scorers: Canberra: Musitano (90) Adelaide: Sabljak (15), Trajanovski (67) Cautions: Canberra: Roberts (21), Lemezina (73) Adelaide: Tobin (27) Send Offs: nil Referee: Simon Micalef (NSW) Crowd: 2005
Taking your chances was the morale of this game and Adelaide City knew how the story should go. In a match where Canberra outshot their opponents 12-3, they came out the loser because of the lack of accuracy, a bit of luck on the goal-line and some unbelievable goal-keeping of Adelaide custodian, Jason Petkovic.
In fact Petkovic was undoubtedly man of the match, irrelevant of what anyone says. Without his brilliance on occasion after occasion, this scoreline would have been quite different. Forget Bosnich and Kalac, this boy's on fire!
But amongst the story of Jason we find that the rest of Adelaide was flat, completely level. The Canberra Cosmos were all over them. Unlike the previous matches, the dominance was not left to just the first half, but finally it became the whole game.
As early as the 5th minute Harry James had a shot go over the bar and then another five minutes later Michael Musitano made a great run to the edge of the box only to see his thunderbolt fly to high.
Then at the 15th minute, Damian Mori escaped from his marker and made it to the by line. His cut back found Nick Sabljak unattended in the centre of the penalty box and his low shot found the net without much trouble.
Undaunted or even unphased, the locals returned to their quest for their first goal as if nothing had just happened. Their continuous solid tackling, especially that of Andy Ravanelo and Tom Haythornwaite helped make sure that the midfield belonged to one team only, Canberra.
In the 24th, Musitano had a great chance for the equaliser. In a goalmouth scramble following a corner his shot was saved off the line by Bradley Armour. Then ten minutes later a volley from Harry James went straight at Petkovic. A minute later the best shot of the night came when Haythornwaite from 30 odd metres out sent a dipping screamer that beat the keeper but not the bar.
Two more chances for the half fell in time added on. The first came from a free kick by Ante Moric that found the head of Musitano. He sent the ball back across the goal and Petkovic's outstretched hand was able to push it around the corner whilst being challenged for the ball by Andy Roberts. Both Roberts and Petkovic crashed into the upright as was the closeness of the header to being a goal.
Tony Lemezina, who had come on for Harry James, took the last chance of the first stanza with a header, but it was somewhat lame and easy pickings for Petkovic. In fact Lemezina seemed out of place in the game and should have played much better.
I guess the flak must have been flying in both dressing rooms at the break, but surely Culina would have been the happier. Anyway, the mood of the game did not change once both teams re-entered the park and the locals just continued their dominance.
Five minutes in a lovely chip by Ante Moric found Musitano running on into the box. His attempted volley/chip was met by Petkovic point blank and delected for a corner. Then another five minutes passed when Moric had a try himself. A free kick from 30m out. Ante took it quickly and his low shot was heading straight for the top right corner, but before he could turn around and celebrate, Petkovic had appeared out of nowhere to extend his left hand and palm it away for a corner.
Finally the local team decided to have a bit of a rest, and Adelaide started to gain some ascendancy, especially in the midfield. For a small 10 minute period, the visitors were able to sustain a little pressure and show just what the Adelaide team is really about. During the period they had a shot go wide, their second of the night.
Exactly midway through the half Adealide performed a movement that mirrored the first goal. Michael Brooks, who had come on for Kosta Salapasidis, sent Sabljak down the left hand side. He took it to the goal line and sent in a low cross. This time it was Kris Trajanovski who was there and his volley gave Giannasca no chance. I guess Adelaide have been practising this move a bit.
The locals were not finished and continued to fight for a goal to save some face and maybe even an equaliser, one they surely deserved. With fifteen minutes to go substitute Damian Brown, who showed some good moves when he came on up front (especially as he's a fullback), sent a shot just over the bar.
Finally in the 92nd minute the locals were rewarded for all their efforts. Michael Musitano was on hand to deflect a lovely cross by Paul Dee away from those inspector-gadget arms of Petkovic and send the small crowd into a frenzy. Was there a chance for an equalizer?
In the final seconds a corner to the Cosmos fell into a six-yard box that contained more players than the rest of the field put together, and like a beach ball the ball bounced all over the place, except for into the goal. Oh yes and guess who got a hand on the ball to help it along its way... yep Petkovic.
I tried to get some good words out of Branko after the game, but he was unhappy with the result. I guess he can't really be that unhappy with the performance.
John Nyskohous was also not over-enthused. In fact you could see it in the faces of his players immediately after the game. He stated that 'it had been a battling performance and a real struggle.' 'We came for the win and got it.' But he was unhappy with a number of aspects of the game and felt his team 'started well but lost the plot and then played as if in a desperation situation.' Also he felt that the team 'struggled fitness wise' and that maybe he had trained them too hard.
So the Cosmos are now 0-5 whilst the early favourite Adelaide City are 2-2 (with a postponed game against Wollongong). This has now become the worst start for a Canberra team as last year they managed a draw with Newcastle in the pre-arranged Rd 19 fixture prior to the Tahiti game. The news on the local front sees the two new players most likely coming in. Esala Masi will definitely join Musitano up front while Gordon Hunter will take over from Andy Ravanello as a defensive midfielder.