Gold Coast United 3-0 Melbourne Heart
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Gold Coast United moved back into 3rd place on the A-League ladder with a 3-0 win over Melbourne Heart before a mediocre crowd of just 1,568 at Skilled Park this afternoon.
Melbourne Heart, who were without Josip Skoko, are in 6th place with 21points. John Aloisi led the attack but missed at least a couple of golden chances.
The visitors had two excellent chances in the first half. Matt Thompson hit the post with a powerful shot, while Gerald Sibon forced a mighty save from Gold Coast keeper Scott Higgins.
But, it was the homes side that took the lead in the 41st minute. Jason Culina’s stinging shot forced Clint Bolton to concede a corner. Culina took the corner perfectly from the right and Bas Van Den Brink headed home.
It was 2-0 in the 58th minute after Michael Beauchamp brought down Bruce Djite and conceded a penalty, which was converted in nonchalant style by Gold Coast captain, Culina.
Aloisi should have scored in the 67th minute when Sibon released Adrian Zahra down the right and he fed Aloisi, but the striker pulled his shot wide of the far right-hand upright.
Thirteen minutes from the end, Djite’s square pass set up Culina for an easy third and his second of the match.
That was the signal for Culina to display his party tricks and one of these was outrageous. He brought his right foot behind and forward of his standing left-foot in a curving swinging motion to propel the ball down the line to a team-mate. It was quite ‘Maradonaesque’.
Simon Colosimo, the Heart captain, was playing his 100th A-League match, but there was little to celebrate.
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Gold Coast United: Higgins - Curtis, Djulbic, Rees, Anderson - Brown, Van Den Brink, Culina, Traore (Fitzsimmons 86) - Djite (Barisic 79), Robson (Minniecon 75) (Sub not used: Tyson)
Booked: Van Den Brink
Goals: Van Den Brink 41, Culina 58 pen, 77
Melbourne Heart: Bolton - Marrone (Hammil 46), Colosimo, Beauchamp (Taseski 68), Behich - Kalmar, Sibon, Thompson - Zahra, Aloisi, Terra (Worm 46) (Sub not used: Zois)
Booked: Beauchamp, Zahra
Att: 1,658
Ref: J Gillett
4 comments:
Walter, I agree about Aloisi missing a few golden opportunities to score. I just hope the Heart supporters don't do to him what the Sydney supporters did.
Alf Ramsey
RED AND WHITE thinks...
Last time we tried to start with Aloisi, Sibon and Terra in the XI we got reamed 4-0 by Brisbane. JVS needs to adjust tactics or selections for away games. Hamill or Marrone would've been better served playing DM to nullify Culina's presence, but instead we play Sibon as an AM.
If we put in a performance like this in the Derby we'll be the laughing stock of Melbourne.
The crowds have been so disconcerting for soo long. Though to be fair, the weather obviously put some of that 'core' 2k off, around 350 of them to be more exact.
Considering that fact alone, there crowd was actually, believe it or not, GOOD, EXCELLENT, even though yeah, they still lost around a quarter off their base crowd, a quarter is within expectations, in keeping with, around the mark most teams lose in bad weather, crowds wise, if not worse dare I say.
But again, it's very sad that the crowd has such a low total crowd - base+walk up, anyway. Even when people talk 5k, 5k crowd caps, these days, that seems irrelevant considering 5k would be a massive crowd compared to 2k.
So unfortunately, those masses staying away, are actually reinforcing the Clives' warped world of crowd caps etc... They now have no reason to lift that cap, because the 'demand' far from pushing the 'supply' that is 5k!
Very sad.
The football team from Gold Coast is successful too.
WOLF
That GCU crowd figure is a worry.
Unfortunately there seems to be waning interest in the A League across the country. There was some decent football on show in this game too.
Casual Observer
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