Queensland Roar's teenage tearaways, Michael Zullo and Robbie Kruse, were given their head by coach Frank Farina at home on Friday October 5, and proceeded to light up Lang Park as they steered their side to a rare Hyundai A-League win on home turf.
Their 2-1 triumph over Wellington Phoenix flattered the beaten side, who were a distinct second best throughout the entire contest, producing the sort of performance which was so often the hallmark of their predecessors, the New Zealand Knights - dull, unimaginative and uninspiring.
How they contrasted with Queensland?s ?roar? talent, who were everything Wellington weren?t. Indeed, Zullo took just four minutes to cast his stamp on proceedings, as he opened the scoring with a sumptuous strike.
Marcinho's long throw-in was headed out by a Wellington defender to the edge of the penalty area, where Zullo was lurking for just such an opportunity. What he did with it was simply stunning - a technically superb twenty yard volley which left Glen Moss flailing helplessly as it crashed down off the underside of the crossbar and bounced up into the roof of the net. A wonderful strike.
It was the perfect catalyst for Queensland to go on and stamp their authority all over proceedings, and they did so to such an extent that Wellington rarely got a look-in - it took the visitors until the hour mark to fire their first shot in anger, a twenty-five yarder from Michael Ferrante which he directed straight at the hitherto unoccupied Liam Reddy.
Until then, it was largely one-way traffic, although Queensland didn't really do a great deal with the ball while it was in their possession. To be frank, it was only when the teenagers got involved in proceedings that the home team's play took on a sense of direction and purpose - without them, this could have ended up being a very uninspiring spectacle indeed.
A delightful Cruyff turn by Kruse on the quarter hour, which completely outfoxed Richard Johnson and Ross Aloisi, hinted at the birthday boy's immense promise, but it was his young side-kick, Zullo, who next ignited the game five minutes later, with a darting run inside.
This drew a couple of Phoenix defenders towards him, and created a shooting opportunity for Danny Tiatto, who duly received a slick reverse pass in his stride. The midfielder let fly from twenty-five yards with a shot which flew into the sidenetting.
The next incident of note took place seven minutes before half-time, when Kruse, on receipt of a Sasa Ognenovski pass, cranked up the tempo with a twenty-five yard firecracker which grazed the crossbar.
It was a warning shot for Wellington, which was swiftly followed by another three minutes later from Reinaldo, who sent a shot sizzling over the bar after Zullo and Matt McKay had combined.
Wellington failed to heed both these efforts, although in fairness to the visitors, they had enough problems of their own to contend with at this time, with Felipe Campos hobbling off with a hamstring strain. He was soon followed by Steven O'Dor, who copped an inadvertent boot on his nose when he stooped to head clear.
While he was off the park receiving treatment, Queensland struck a second, match-clinching goal against the ten men in stoppage time at the end of the first half. A raking clearance from Reddy saw Reinaldo and Karl Dodd contest an aerial duel, the outcome of which saw the ball land at the feet of Zullo.
The youngster sized the situation up immediately, and with Wellington's rearguard down a man, an early cross into the goalmouth was always going to cause problems. With Kruse arriving bang on cue, those problems suddenly became insurmountable, the youngster crowning his A-League debut with an unchallenged header which bulleted past the helpless figure of Moss. 2-0
The second half saw Queensland dictating terms at the expense of a Wellington side in damage control, and in fairness, they contained their opponents fairly well. But every once in a while, an attempt to further increase their advantage on the scoreboard came to pass, such as in the fiftieth minute.
Hyuk Su Seo played the ball down the line for Reinaldo to chase, and he gathered it before setting up McKay, who was steaming into the inside right channel. His first-time twenty-yard screamer was tipped away splendidly by Moss, who was at full stretch to execute this save.
The same pairing teamed up again soon afterwards, this time with the Brazilian striker pulling the trigger at the climax of the move. But Reinaldo?s effort was a poor one, directed wide of the near post after he had outpaced the defence to get on the end of McKay's pass.
Kruse's cramp-prompted departure from the fray, in the 56th minute, was greeted with warm applause by the 12,458-strong crowd, who looked on as, just before the hour, a wayward clearance from Moss was swooped on by McKay.
He instantly unleashed Zullo down the left flank, and the youngster went past Jeremy Christie as if he wasn't there before luring Moss out of goal prior to pulling the ball back into the danger zone. This left Reinaldo with an open goal to exploit - he inexplicably directed his effort past the post.
After Ferrante had fired Wellington's first shot in anger, the midfielder attempted to revive the visitors fortunes again in the 61st minute by setting up a chance for substitute George Paladini to take advantage of. As he was pulling the trigger to do so, Ognenovski produced a superbly timed tackle to thwart one of Wellington's Brazilian contingent.
In the 64th minute, Seo's crossfield ball to Zullo saw the youngster bring the ball down expertly before feeding McKay, who played a neat one-two with Reinaldo before forcing Moss to smother his twenty-yard drive.
It was Zullo's last act of note, and as he departed the fray soon afterwards, the elements of enterprise and excitement which he and Kruse had brought to the game followed suit, meaning that the last twenty minutes weren't terribly inspiring, save for a Josh McLoughan header of a McKay corner four minutes from time, which Moss smothered.
With virtually the last kick of the game, Wellington pulled a goal back to give the final scoreline a closeness which the preceding ninety minutes had lacked. It was all due to Ferrante's efforts, his clever wing-play seeing him skip past two challenges before picking out Tony Lochhead with a deep cross.
His cushioned volley inside reached Paladini, who touched the ball on to Shane Smeltz, who lashed home a deflected eight-yard effort past the understandably frustrated figure of Reddy, whose role in the game had largely been a watching brief.
Queensland weren't too concerned, as only their sixth home win - in twenty-five starts at Lang Park - was greeted warmly by their followers, the inspiration of youngsters Zullo and Kruse lifting the Roar into the log-jam for play-off places at the conclusion of the first third of the campaign.