Sunday October 11th was not a fine day at all for the Novell Canberra Cosmos. After so many pre-match hassles, the boys on the field did not perform up to scratch and payed for it with a 3-1 loss to the Adelaide Sharks.
With the loss of key players Amarildo Miglietti and Anthony Magnacca owing to their transfers not being completed in time, a re-shuffle of the side was needed which included a couple of players out of position.
Cosmos coach Rale Rasic was extremely critical of the other parties involved in the Magnacca case stating that the Cosmos had complete honest intentions regarding the transfer, but that the Victorian team, George Cross, and Soccer Australia had generated problems which resulted in the youngster unable to play.
The gremlins broke into the sound system early when with national anthem about to be sung, the on-field microphone decided to give up the ghost. It was a pity as it followed some great pre-match entertainment.
Then came the game. The opening team looked like this. Peter Buljan up front with Michael Musitano. Norman Kelly, Ivan Zelic and Danny Burt in the midfield. Doug Marcina and Harry James as wing backs and Lindsay Wilson and Toplica Popovich as defenders. Andrew Clarke took over in the sweeper role and Vilson Knezevic was the keeper.
Musitano was out of position, although he has played up front before and Danny is more suited to playing as a stopper than as a midfielder. When he moved back to defender after Wilson came off, he played some of the best football we have seen this season.
Then we look at the bench and who did we find, but David Arranz, Ilija Prenzoski and Grant Barlow. Apparantely there was no one else available to put on the substitute list owing to absences or injuries.
The match was only 97 seconds old when a cross came to Hamilton Thorp. His header fell to the feet of Alex Duric 6m out and a small deflection was enough to push the ball past Vilson Knezevic for the opening score. The Cosmos were already behind the eight-ball and now playing catch-up football.
A few more minutes passed and a crucial clash between Wilson and two others left Lindsay in severe pain with his left shoulder. He struggled on for a little while longer, but no more the player needed for the position he was playing.
Ten minutes in and the Cosmos made there first real attack at goal. Buljan glided down to the by line and sent in a cross for Burt, but his header flew the wrong side of the bar.
Minute 13 and Wilson had had enough. On came youngster David Arranz, ex from the ACT Academy and the AIS. This was actually good news for the Cosmos as it meant that Danny Burt could return to his normal stopper position whilst David took over from Danny in the midfield.
The Cosmos had another chance in the 21st minute from a Musitano cross only to see it intercepted at the last moment and sent away desperately for a throw-in. It seemed that the Cosmos were going to generate chances and see them all go to waste. Luck was not going to be on their side.
Just under the half-hour and Adelaide had a pair of chances. The first fell to Duric but he shot over the bar, whilst the second came about when Richie Alagich put Thorp through to face the keeper. Knezevic pulled of a fine save one-on-one.
Then 33 minutes in, ex-Canberran Alex Castro took out David Arrantz on the side of the penalty box. Doug Marcina's free kick found a lineup of Cosmos players to convert. Harry James was first to meet the ball and his header gave David Miller no chance.
The Cosmos were back in the game and even the odd murmuring from the bench suggested that a 1-1 draw would be a satisfactory result. With so many players missing and the team playing as bad as they were up to that time, 1 point looked good.
Six minutes later and Adelaide restored there lead, and this time for good. Following a corner the ball made it's way out to the edge of the penalty area. There was John Gibson all by himself with not one player 5m from him. He had time to line up the ball before he sent a crisp rocket through the nine Cosmos players in the box and numerous Adelaide players. Knezevic was understandably completely unsighted and only saw the ball when it was already in the back of the net. A lucky shot but that's what the game is all about.
Five minutes prior to the break and Zelic found Buljan to give him a chance. Adelaide captain Branko Milosevic was able to out-muscle Peter and pushed the ball away for a corner.
So to the half-time break and the home team down one-two. So who shon for the Cosmos in this first half. Ivan Zelic was probably close to the best for the team. Danny Burt, once he returned to his rightful position played well, but the rest, pretty bad.
Onto the second half and the only two noteworthy incidents of the first ten minutes were the exchange of cautions, one to Doug Marcina and one to Alex Castro.
Then, a promise of things to come. Well, what might have been if not for Duric's extremely poor finishing. With the luxury of empty spaces on the left hand side of attack, Duric was able to move down that part of the field and be fed from some excellent crosses. This time, alike the few to come, he just blazed over the bar.
The game then bogged itself down in the midfield. With Adelaide closing up shop, the Cosmos tried valiantly to find a way through. There were rare attempts on goal.
Yet 23 minutes in, Adelaide had a great chance. A Paul Pezos cross found Thorp in the middle. Fortunately, Vilson was up to the challenge and spread his huge body in the way thus thwarting the volley.
After half and hour, the Cosmos should have levelled the score for a second time. A Marcina corner went to the back post. For some reason the goalkeeper came out for the ball and then found himself sprawled on the ground having run into his own players. Danny Burt rose above everyone, but directed his header wide with what looked to be an open goal.
A few minutes later and there appeared to be a possible penalty to the Cosmos. All we could see was that Peter Buljan went down, but we later heard that the same player who was aledged to have pushed Peter, also handled the ball just prior to this. Unfortuantely luck was not with us and even with the protests from the players, the decision was not our way.
Even though Adelaide were defending their slim lead, their counter-attacks caused a lot of problems. Duric had another chance 10 minutes from the end, but fortunately his shot was deflected away for a corner.
With a few minutes to go and after both Kelly and Arranz recieved cautions, another break found the defence flatfooted and substitute Danny Vidakovic breaking through to be one-on-one with Vilson. He didn't make the same mistake as the previous player in the same position and his goal rounded out the scoring.
We chatted with Rale Rasic after the match and he believed a number of his players did not come up to scratch and that both of his forwards were passengers throughout the match. He said "in patches there was some good football but not much of it was productive. We had lots of possession, but we could not convert."