NSL Round 4

[King Italy]

Thought I should start this thread.

Results so far:

Kingz 2-7 Glory :)
Spirit 0-3 Olympic
Newcastle 3-1 Wollongong

In Progress, both at half time:

Power 0-0 Force
Knights 0-1 Strikers

[FANTA]

wow 2-7 :eek:

glory looking veeerryyy good :thumbsup:

[King Italy]

Yes the Glory are red hot as always :)

Results from tonight:

Parramatta 1-0 Adelaide
Melbourne 0-2 Brisbane

[Drulic]

I support the glory, I saw Milicevic at the U20 World Cup, this guy's a born leader and a good defender.

[King Italy]

Wow, the Glory really is getting around the world, and it is great :)
Yeah Ljubo is a great player, but right now he's out until December with that knee he hurt at the Under 20 World Cup :(

[King Italy]

Brisbane has won its third game from as many starts to keep in touch with ladder leaders Perth, the Strikers beating the Melbourne Knights 2-0 at Knights Stadium.

After being expelled from the league in the off-season before Soccer Australia hastily reinstated them, Brisbane has surprised many with its fantastic early season form continuing tonight.

The Strikers hit the front after just 12 minutes when Paul Foster successfully converted a penalty, while Kris Trajanovski ensured the three points for the visitors with a second goal 15 minutes from time.

John Kosmina said the introduction of fulltime professionalism had been the key to the Strikers' good start this season.
"If you look at the sort of people in the squad, you don't write off players like Trajanovski, John Carbone and Fernando (Rech)," Brisbane coach John Kosmina said.

"It is the personality of the players we have got - some guys who are fairly emotionally and mentally tough."

Trailing 1-0 in the second half, Melbourne had much of the play, particularly through Daniel Vasilevski, with at least six good chances, but without injured strikers
Toto Da Costa and Joe Tricarico, were unable to convert.

"Possession wise and in goal opportunities we did quite well," Knights playing coach Andrew Marth said, having missed the game with flu. "We didn't have anyone there to finish it off for us. We have aimed for the top six and I am confident we can get there at the end of the season."

Knights keeper Martin John fouled Foster early in the game to concede the penalty, to much protesting from the Melbourne players and coaching staff, and Foster took his own kick to make John pay.

John looked to have atoned in the 54th minute when a stunning pair of saves from Trajanovski’s header prevented Brisbane going two goals up, but the Strikers again punished the Knights in the 75th minute for getting too may players forward of the ball.

The Strikers defenders sent a long ball forward and Trajanovski was on hand to capitalise, getting goal side of younger opponent Daniel Piorkowski to slot the ball past John.

[King Italy]

Parramatta Power has beaten Adelaide City 1-0 at Parramatta Stadium, former Socceroo Alex Tobin netting a rare goal against his former team and ruining Zoran Matic’s party.

Tobin, who moved to the Power from Adelaide last season, spoiled any possible celebrations by his former coach Matic in his 430th NSL game in charge.

Adelaide had much of the early play, but were constantly denied by Power keeper Les Pogliacomi’s finger tip saves, with internationals Aurelio Vidmar and Carl Veart causing the home side plenty of problems.

Tobin, having marshalled the Power defence and turned back the best Vidmar and Veart could come up with, gave his team the lead in the 66th minute, his goal enough to give Parramatta the three points.

From a Steve Fitzsimmons corner from the left into Adelaide’s goal area, Joe Vrkic headed the ball back across the face to where a lunging Tobin cracked the ball into the net.

"I don't score too many goals and this one is special against my old team," Tobin said.

After Tobin’s goal Parramatta had three more opportunities to score, with Tobin and fellow big man Nick Orlic’s height making life difficult for the visitors while Matthew Langdon and Ahmad Elrich were dominant on the wings.

In the first half, Adelaide had the best chances, Pogliacomi tipping a Lucas Pantelis shot over the bar, and then repeating the effort 10 minutes later when Alex Moreira had a go.

"We created a lot of chances but we need to finish them off. It was not a pretty game and Adelaide is a good side,” Power coach David Mitchell said. "Vrkic was under pressure and did well to get the ball back to Tobin."

"I thought we could have controlled the game better and some of our final passes were too soft,” Matic said. "I always knew that Parramatta would be difficult in set pieces and some of my defenders probably thought the ball that Vrkic headed back was going out of play."

[King Italy]

Todays result:

Sydney United 1-1 Marconi Stallions

[King Italy]

Sydney United and Marconi have fought out a 1-1 draw at the Sydney United Sports Centre, with both coaches and United captain Ante Milicic later slamming the game’s start time.

"It was absolutely ridiculous. It's not in the interest of the players and not in the interest of the spectators because when you look at it, today's 4pm start was really a three o'clock start," Milicic said in reference to the overnight start of daylight saving.

"It was probably the hottest part of the day and I think it also affected the quality of the game.

"It's probably something that our club has to have a look at. It was a great crowd considering it was uncomfortable to watch let alone play and this is not the hottest it will get," Milicic’s coach Branko Culina said.

The match, played in very warm conditions after the afternoon kick-off, looked set to be an exciting one for fans when Milicic opened the scoring after just 20 seconds.

It was a fairytale return to the home ground Milicic last graced four years ago before overseas stints in Holland and Croatia, the captain swooping on a loose ball 25 metres out and smashing a right footer home.

"Those are the ones that can end up in the back of the net, but then again they can end up at Edensor Park Plaza, they could go anywhere, I was fortunate enough I hit it sweetly," Milicic said.

The home side had much of the play thereafter, but the Stallions ensured the match would end in a draw when front man Norman Tome cleaned up a fumble from United custodian John Perosh after a first shot from John Maisano.

Disappointment for the Bravehearts came in the last few seconds of the match when Noel Arrarte was red-carded by referee Eddie Lennie for a second bookable offence, upsetting his coach Culina who didn’t believe a yellow card was appropriate.

Marconi coach Lee Sterrey agreed with the sentiments of Milicic and Culina regarding the kick-off time, saying it was "worse then very ordinary", while Sterrey also believed his team were lucky to get away with a point.

"Our ball movement was terrible, our mobility was terrible, the boys said after the game they were flat," Sterrey said.

[King Italy]

Table after Round 4:
P W D L F A Pts G/D

Perth Glory 4 4 0 0 14 3 12 +11 :cool:
Brisbane Strikers 3 3 0 0 7 2 9 + 5
Newcastle United 4 2 2 0 5 2 8 + 3
Olympic Sharks 3 2 0 1 4 1 6 + 3
Parramatta Power 4 2 1 1 5 4 7 + 1
Marconi Stallions 4 1 2 1 6 6 5 0
------------------------------------------------------
Northern Spirit 4 1 2 1 6 7 5 - 1
Sydney United 4 1 1 2 3 5 4 - 2
Melbourne Knights 4 1 1 2 2 4 4 - 2
Adelaide City Force 3 0 2 1 3 4 2 - 1
South Melbourne 3 0 1 2 1 4 1 - 3
Wollongong Wolves 4 0 1 3 2 8 1 - 6
Kingz FC 4 0 1 3 6 14 1 - 8