Due to unprecendented public demand, here are the match reports, supposedly from a neutral observer.
Hopefully you won't mind some of the errors I made as I didn't pick up my new glasses till this morning, & I wan't expecting to have to out do Dave Arnold's report, and most certainly won't be.
2:30 pm. Hanging around Gate 1 at Optus Oval waiting to see Markian or Kevin C in the hope they would have a free ticket & I wouldn't have to pay $14.00 which would blow out to $30 after beers. No luck, I have to pay to get in. As it happened I couldn't get any beer at all at half time as it would seem, to quote a Carlton SC Life member in the beer queue, "..one f...... person in the whole of Optus Oval serving beer, & don't you reckon I'm going to let 'em know about it tomorrow morning ". I left out the other 7 swear words. Said member about 6'1, solid, blond haired & no discernible non-English(Australian) accent.
Anyway, I went to the game expecting to see a red hot team like Carlton crunch an undermanned, & self doubting NS. I had in mind something like what South Melbourne would do, i.e push forward aggressively in the first 10 minutes, defenders playing up the field, putting lots of pressure on the opposing midfield, denying the opposition possesion early & scramble in a goal from a defensive mixup. Nothing flash, just the minimum required to start off well, and keep a good hold on the game, and increase the frustration level of opponents to the point where team cohesion & discipline fall way.
That's basically the South Melbourne v Newcastle match report, but Carlton started the way we expected & Bresciano scored in the 10th, a great shot from a Lubo corner. Then, instead of taking advantage of the forward momentum, Carlton got sucked into the old playing the man trick, & Tricarico gets a red card for an incident with Rudan in the 15'. I didn't see the whole incident, but ref Hugo had no hesitation whatsoever in pulling out the red card.
This left Carlton completely rattled & within 2 minutes Rudan scores one of the seasons most forgettable goals. 3 minutes later, Atkinson gets a yellow card for a seemingly innocent encounter with Arnold, & the worried looks start to cross the faces of the Carlton supporters. Carlton seem very ginger now & are shying away from any phsical contact. Encouragingly, the fans do not stay quite & heap a barrage of abuse at Hugo & NS players, Slater & Rudan in particular.
NS build up & advance a few times & it only seems a matter of time before they score another when the game swings the other way & Carlton lunge forward with a fantastic shot by Bresciano which was saved God knows how by Henderson in the 43', and then Lupo rattles the crossbar with a blinding shot in the 48'. Carlton goes in at half time unlucky not to have got back on top & with about 55% of the play.
goals, Carlton 1 NS 1
Shots on goal, Carlton 6 NS 5.
Corners, Carlton 5 NS 1
Someone looking suspiciously like Dave Arnold runs down to the boundary line & says something sufficiently cutting to make Hugo look up, as players & officials retreat to the dressing rooms.
2nd HALF.
Now, if Carlton were really an 'Italian' side as some listees claim, they would have played the old Juventus/Torino etc boring, catenaccio style defense, sprung endless offside traps and tried to convince the fans that one point was all the game deserved. And not take any risks, especially with only 10 men. The only Italian influence that I could see was the elegant man in the suit at the coffee stand selling *REAL* coffee and cakes, not instant shit, and seeming to do good business.
Instead, Carlton was determined to play forward, leave gaps in defense that NS ignored or didn't realise were there, so that it looked like NS had 10 men, not the other way around.
Up to the 49', Carlton had 4 corners and 10 shots on goal. The best ones looked like Josifosky striking just over the bar in the 35', Bresciano a few minutes later opening the defense up & being thwarted by a deflection, & Lubo a few minutes later from about 20 metres. In that same time period NS had 1 corner & about 6 shots on goal, Zane I think either hitting the upright, or it being deflected away from the goal by a defender or the keeper. Slater was running on, and causing headaches, but not being utilised by his defensively minded teammates.
However, around the 40' Carlton visibly started tiring, probably expecting Hugo to end the whole sordid mess right on the 45' mark. Carlton's tight formation started to break down & all of a sudden NS were running again. Cranney, I think moves forward & shoots just over the bar. Slater cops another yellow in the 48' but still Carlton are not closing up the defense, but anxiosly watching Hugo. Slater getting too much freedom in the last 5 minutes.
The Englishman sitting next to me supporting Carlton, ( but who remembers seeing Crook of NS play in England when he lived there 12 years ago ) is shaking his head in disbelief. He can't understand why the half might be going an extra 5 minutes ( surely not due to 3 yellow cards in the half ? ). Fans by now are going ballistic at Hugo and then it happens, Slater drags his opponent right into the corner area & crosses to find Rudan who slipped his marker to score with a header. Regulation Slater procedure come to think of it & should have been covered by the Carlton defense. Carlton fans stunned.
Someone looking suspiciously like Dave Arnold runs down to the boundary line & says something sufficiently cutting to make Hugo look up, as players & officials retreat to the dressing rooms.
In conclusion, either side could have won it in the last 10 minutes, but it just went NS way & they were able to capitalise on it. Carlton should have been 2-1 at half time or even 2-0 as both NS goals were against the run of play, but that's the way it goes.
I am tempted to say that NS did their homework & used the right tactics to put Carlton off their game mentally, but maybe that is giving NS too much credit. I think that NS are being underestimated & the difference between them & say Carlton as new clubs is that Carlton were able to draw on admin skills from the AFL side, which NS probably had but were preoccupied with organising NS Oval, drawing crowds etc, & now that is out of the way we might see improved performances from NS. Slater seemed hell bent on making this game a personal crusade & he threw everything into it.
Slater was the subject of lots of crowd comments during the game, some not to complimentary, which I think was a shame. I know it is part of the game to give some players heaps, but Slater to his credit laughed them off. I hope we see lots more of him in the NSL
Why only 4000 turned up is beyond me. I'm sure the AFL part want Carlton SC to succeed & draw crowds, because the extra money from more crowds would certainly not be knocked back. I hate Carlton AFL passionately, but to me the AFL team & SC are chalk & cheese & sufficiently differentiated. I don't think it is an ethnic thing as the crowd wasn't predominantly Italian, and lots of English, Scottish & Irish accents heard in the crowd. MAybe it just needs more time.