In A-League of Its Own

Tom’s weekly outlook on the A-League

The last gameweek of the 2010-11 regular season kicked off on Friday night from the Adelaide Oval, and had finals contenders Adelaide United hosting Melbourne Victory. Paul Reid opened the scoring 6 minutes in for Adelaide, capping off a flying start for his side. Reid was awarded a free-kick about 25 yards out on a relatively tight angle, and his shot-cross skidded off the surface, past everyone and into the back of the net. The Victory worked their way back into the game slowly, and managed to peg Adelaide back by half-time, but without managing to score. At the start of the second half, the Victory were dominating United, and managed to score a goal 65 minutes in through Archie Thompson. In his first game back with Danny Allsopp since Allsopp left the club they did well to link up inside the area, with Thompson bending one around Galekovic to finish the move with a goal. Melbourne continued their dominance, but Adelaide grabbed a late winner 10 minutes from time, when Travis Dodd headed the ball over a sprawling Michael Petkovic. Adelaide finished with the 3 points, but won’t be happy with their second half performance.

Melbourne Heart said farewell to 2 legends of the Australian game on Saturday evening, in their 2-2 draw with Sydney FC, John Aloisi and Josip Skoko played their last ever games of professional football. Sydney’s Nicky Carle got a double for the visitors, showing us what he can do when fit. In between his 2 strikes, Rutger Worm and John Aloisi scored Heart’s goals.

Brisbane FC finished their regular season on a high, defeating fellow Queenslanders Gold Coast 4-0 at home on Sunday. In front of a healthy crowd of just over 20,000 people, Brisbane put on a dominant display. Kosta Barbarouses scored the host’s first goal 3 minutes in, and Erik Paartalu made it 2-0 at half-time with a goal of his own. The second half was just more of the same for the minor premiers, Henrique and Tomas Broich getting their names on the scoresheet. The only bad news for the Roar is that youngster Mitch Nichols could be ruled out of the finals, after Zenon Caravella’s tackle caused damaged ankle ligaments.

Wellington Phoenix booked their place in the finals on Sunday, defeating North Queensland Fury 3-1. It means that the Phoenix bring form into their clash away to Adelaide, something they will need to get them over the line. The hosts went 2-0 up inside 12 minutes, as a result of Chris Greenacre and Dylan Macallister’s goals. Brett Studman scored for the Fury to make it a tense last 25 minutes for the Wellington faithful, but they increased their lead with the last kick of the game to 3-1, when keeper Danny Vukovic (Yes, that’s right) scored a penalty.

In the last game of this season’s regular season, Central Coast Mariners hosted rivals Newcastle Jets at BlueTongue Stadium. Despite their being at least 2 good chances for Patricio Perez throughout the game, he couldn’t make any of them count until in injury time, when he latched onto a cross from Josh Rose and tapped the ball into the back of the onion bag.

So, the final table of the season means that the only Melbourne team in the finals are the Victory. We play Gold Coast up there on Sunday at 5.30pm Melbourne time. The other game is Adelaide versus Wellington, which is on Friday night from Hindmarsh Stadium.

About Tom Riordan

Tom Riordan is in his second year of a Bachelor of Journalism at Swinburne University. He loves all sports, and plays for Brunswick Cricket Club. He supports the Western Bulldogs and can be found on weekends among half a dozen others in Q38 on the top level of the MCC.

Comments

  1. Tom

    Nice shape and loop on your leggies: plenty of over-the-top.

    You may be hard to play if the bys from Overland have had a few beers, and even if they hadn’t.

    have you got a prediction for the A-League finals?

    JTH

  2. I tip Brisbane to take out the title, and Melbourne Victory to be the losing team against them in the semi-final, and Central Coast to finish runners-up.

  3. Tommy,
    What about the team of the year? Have you selected opne? I guess Brisbane deserved to dominate. “Maxy” Kruse was the only Victory player selected.

  4. Two wins in Adelaide – United 2-1 over Melb. & attendance 21083 vs AFL 18202

  5. John Harms sounds worried already re your spin.

  6. Tom, Notts Forrest just stumbled with a one nil loss away to Ian Botham’s old team Scunthorpe United.

    They have only taken one point from the last possible six and it may hurt their direct promotion chances.

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