21/09/02 Northern Spirit |
Two long-range Northern Spirit exocet missiles blew a large hole in the Brisbane Strikers’ hopes of a bright start to the
new NSL season at Ballymore tonight, as the Sydney club took the points with a 2-1 victory.
While the Strikers’ back four were rarely troubled, the Sydney club proved that you don’t necessarily have to play pretty
football and get in behind defences to score goals. A goal in each half struck from considerable distance, the first from
Vuko Tomasevic and the second from John Hutchinson, spoiled the night for John Kosmina’s men and left them at the
starting blocks in the sprint to the NSL finals.
The game began in scratchy fashion as both clubs took time to shake off their off-season slumber and get into stride.
Northern Spirit were the first to threaten seriously when ex-Glasgow Rangers’ man Ian Ferguson, playing in the centre of
midfield, lofted a pass over the head of Richie Alagich and into the path of Tomasevic on the left wing. Tomasevic’s cross
on the run found centre-forward Adam Kwasnik near the six-yard box, but Kwasnik headed wide of Kearton’s left post.
From the next passage of play the Brisbane side answered by wining a corner, from which a Pilic outswinger found
Fernando Rech with a free header. With the goal beckoning, the big Brazilian nodded wide of Paul Henderson’s
right-hand upright.
Both teams now began to settle into a better rhythm and in the eighteenth minute Northern Spirit were given a free kick
after a routine nudge in the back in what looked like fairly harmless territory. Tomasevic lined up a free kick from the
centre of the field about 30 metres out and Strikers supporters watched in horror as Tomasevic’s drive appeared to take
a deflection before lodging low in the right hand corner of Kearton’s net. Tomasevic wheeled around in delight and the
score was 1-0 to the visiting side.
The response from the home side was immediate. A minute later Richie Alagich, who was playing at right back but, as
usual, working forward as often as possible, launched a piledriver from about 25 metres which looked bound for the top
of the net until Henderson managed a spectacular inside-out leap to touch it over for a corner.
The Stikers were by now beginning to put together some of the neat one-touch passing that became so familiar to home
fans last season, with Fernando having his best spell of a match which, by his standards, was forgettable. On the
half-hour mark the Brazilian was responsible for setting up Kris Trajanovski with an opportunity just inside the penalty
which he scuffed as he shot on the turn.
Five minutes later Fernando was at it again, releasing Trajanovski on the right side of the penalty area. This time
Trajanovski shot wide of the target with a mis-hit volley.
Eventually, though, the mounting pressure from the home side paid off. Alagich, roaming around the right midfield
channel yet again, chipped a ball into Spirit’s penalty area. A cluster of heads went up for the ball and Peter
Grierson, who was playing in an attacking midfield role, suddently found himself with the ball at his feet from a nod-down. The
classy midfielder coolly picked a spot low to the left of Henderson and despatched the ball into the corner of the net for
the first Brisbane Strikers goal of the season.
At this stage of the match the home side were threatening to run riot and two minutes later Trajanovski charged down a
Northern Spirit pass in midfield and ran to the edge of the box hotly pursued by defenders. The Strikers’ number 10 then
had the presence of mind to find Fernando inside him unmarked. Perhaps the pass was slightly behind Fernando, but
Strikers fans were getting ready to celebrate another goal when their star player, not for the only time in the match,
appeared to muff his first touch and lose his footing. The result, instead of a clinical finish, was another scuffed shot wide
of the target.
The first half ended 1-1 with the visitors probably happy to see the break. But they came back out with renewed purpose.
Within two minutes of the restart Spirit’s left back Simon Bell was yellow carded for a late tackle on Brisbane’s centre back
McKain who, along with co-stopper Steve Laybutt, was having a commanding game. Then, when couter-attacking after
withstanding a mazy run from Trajanovski, the Sydney team came close to a second goal when Kwasnik was left
unmarked and presented with another clear opportunity but headed wide.
Three minutes later Ferguson, who had been strolling languidly through the match knocking simple passes to his wide
runners, suddenly launched a rocket from centre field. It was an almost identical shot, from an indentical position as
Alagich’s screamer in the first half and once again it looked goalbound until Kearton produced his best moment of the
match to get one hand to it and tip it over the bar.
Spirit were enjoying their best period and in the 56th minute Bell went on a surging run from inside his own half. He was
good enough to beat three would-be tacklers before slipping a ball inside to John Hutchinson, who had drifted from his
"inside-left" channel to a position just to the right of centre field about 25 metres out. With virtually no support around
him, but time to size up his options, Hutchinson picked a spot high to Kearton’s right and unleashed an unstoppable drive
which finished in the net.
Again, Strikers supporters were stunned into momentary silence as another seemingly harmless field position yielded a
goal to the opposition. Stung once more by going behind, the Brisbane team lifted their work rate and spent much of the
next twenty minutes probing the Spirit defence, which held firm.
In truth, while much of their football was pretty, the Strikers were finding it hard to penetrate. After 65 minutes Kosmina
brought youngster Joshua Rose on in place of John Carbone, who hadn’t really made an impact up front on the left.
Rose’s extra pace soon began to unsettle the Spirit defence, in particular their big full back Julian Watts and, as if
sensing the need for speed, Kosmina next brought on the pacy Matt McKay and Adam Webber for Trajanovski and
Grierson. Fernando went to Trajanovski’s position up front while Webber slotted into the right back spot to release
Alagich further forward.
McKay took up a position in the centre of midfield and, with he and Rose buzzing about, the Spirit defence began to
creak. In the 82nd minute it looked as if Rose, running directly at several defenders on the edge of the box, had won a
penalty as he was pushed from behind and fell a metre or two inside the box. The referee, however, saw it differently to
almost everyone in the crowd who were in line with the incident, and ruled that contact was made outside the box.
Fernando curled the resulting free kick over both the Spirit wall and the goal.
From this point the visitors began to wind down the clock, much to the predictable
frustration of the home team’s supporters. Wily coach Lawrie McKinna substituted Matthew Osman with Brent Fisher and soaked up a little time, then
Henderson made a meal of an innocuous challenge by Fernando and a couple more minutes passed as the referee dealt
with the resulting fracas and yellow-carded Fernando. This incident gave Strikers supporters who made the trek to North
Sydney Oval last season a distinct sense of deja-vu.
The Strikers, though, were not quite finished. In injury time Rose, whose pace and aggression had not abated, won a ball
near the left hand side of the penalty area and cut inside to line up a chance on his right foot. But unfortunately for the
young striker and the home side’s hopes of snatching a draw, Rose was unable to fashion a strong finish with his weaker
foot, and hit the ball low and straight at Henderson in the middle of the Spirit goal.
That was virtually the last play of the match. The full-time whistle blew and the away team made off with the points. It was
a win they probably did not deserve, having been outplayed for probably the majority of the match and creating few
chances other than the ones they scored with from distance.
But equally, it was probably not a match the home team deserved to win because, for all their dominance of possession
they too created few clear-cut openings. The question of how they are going to compensate for the loss of Paul Foster
did not receive an answer tonight. Trajanovski, while he worked hard, appeared to be playing a lone hand up front at
times and Fernando looked sadly out of sorts with his first touch uncharacteristically lacking all night.
There were, however, some bright spots for the home team. Steve Laybutt looked every inch the quality player he was
when he last played in Strikers colours. He was a tower of strength at the heart of the defence with McKain, and his
admirable ability to drive forward and launch attacks was a pleasure to watch and must have been encouraging to
Kosmina. Skipper Stuart McLaren, playing his hundredth match for the club, also distinguished himself and Rose and
McKay made a difference when they came on to run at a tiring defence.
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