"We are Carlton
we are Carlton
noone likes us
we don't care"
The Youth team were playing Albury/Wodonga. They tried dribbling their way to gaol and nearly suceeded. Shite. Very lucky to get away with a 2-1 win. Grbac - who made his debut at Gippsland is a left sided player.
Thought the kickoff was 5, twas 6. I am having many problems with fitba lately. I also forgot about Tom Begbie and meeting in DoC. I'll shout you next time Tom.
New bloke Bresco? signed from Bulleen (VSF) made his instant debut, playing midfield. Surprised? I was. I was told he was a striker.
If I told you we were missing 4 top rank players you'd understand some of the misery being a Carlton supporter. Hunter out/acting the goat, Cervinksi nowhere in sight, Lapansky and Keko injured.
Anas Colly Roly Antho Traj Steri Atko Bresco Grella Jonesy Vlahos
First half was boring, Cosmos had the better forcing Anas into several saves. Their finishing was shocking and Branco was furious. Their midfield was quite good, intercepting many passes. I guess I'm trying to find a nice way to say Carlton's passing was shit.
I was surprised to see Jonesy named to the Ozteam. Still I hope he leads the line against Chile. No offence against Jonesy, we all know how he can be, but I doubt we'll be building the 2002 team around him.
The best moment of the first half involved a free just outside the Cosmos box, near the corner. Grella, Traj and Jonesy are clustered around the ball. Traj runs over first, going wide. Jonesy runs 2nd, going inside. Grella then passes to Jonesy who lays it off to Traj who had checked back to the goaline, Traj plays in Jonesy who shoots and misses. Great stuff.
The crowd noise is slowly but surely getting better. With steel caps, one can bash the wooden seats in front without any residual damage. There seem to be three [minor] areas of support - the official one where kiddies wave flags. One behind the goal with drums. The other consists of Mark and me who are frequent with our match comments.
Carlton's first came from a break, Bresco taking a ball played from Atko and scampering up the left before knocking it high to the back where Jonesy had a simple volley.
Just when I was forming the image of Bresco : "Nervous, no-confidence start, plays back too much"
Anas saved us at least 3 times, twice on one on and tipping a blast around the post.
Steri was recipent of one of my critiscms, beautifully dribbling his way past the fullback before botching the cross.
We played vastly better in the second after Eddie queered the parentage of his clod-hoppers. Allsopp came on and scored with a fine volley after winning the ball from a botched clearance. He should've done better than weave pretty patterns when a mistake at the back resulted with Jonesy getting the ball and looking for options.
Ultimately this was Jonesy's day. Another performance in which he showed he wants to be part of the new Ozstrailya team. centimetre perfect knockoffs, 40 metre passes to feet (1 50 metres to Traj in the second) and a fine goal.