At the 20-minute mark of the game against Macarthur, it appeared the final comment on my previous post was going to age well.
We got off to the perfect start courtesy of Giordano Colli and then against the run of play with our second shot on target, Trent Ostler opened his account with a powerful drive into the roof of the net.
Fast forward to the 96th minute. Macarthur had been a man down for half an hour. Al Hassan Toure played a ball across the box to the oncoming Moudi Najjar. A tap in from close range sealed a comeback 4-2 win for the Bulls. Yep, it didn’t age well.
If there was something to smile about on another tough day at the office, it was that we took full advantage of our early chances. Before Sunday, we had scored three goals in the first half all season, and only one of those came before the 30th minute.
As nice as the opening minute free-kick was from Colli, his first A-League goal too, I can’t help but question the positioning of Filip Kurto.
Colli is a fair distance away from the goal, and he isn’t the most powerful striker of a dead ball. Why Kurto was standing so close to the left upright is beyond me. He gave Colli a lot of open net to aim for and the 22-year-old took it very well.
Trent Ostler also took his opportunity superbly on his starting debut. Josh Rawlins played it through to him on the edge of the box in the 18th minute. His touch took Aleksander Susnjar out of the equation and set him up to take on Lachlan Rose.
A lucky bounce took him past Rose, giving him time to take a touch and steady. The last-ditch slide from Charles M’Mombwa was to no avail, the shot rocketing past a helpless Kurto.
Chance creation was still at a minimum. Starting with two defensive minded midfielders in Mitch Oxborrow and the returning Osama Malik put a lot of the attacking workload on the shoulders of Colli and Daniel Stynes, who didn’t have much of an impact on the game.
With Malik, Oxborrow and Colli occupying the midfield three Zadkovich prefers, Stynes played mostly out wide with Adam Zimarino on the other side and Ostler playing through the middle.
I’d prefer to see him used centrally. From what I’ve seen, its where he’s been most effective since he can drift into open spaces and carry the ball more often. Of our available players, he’s the best at it and frankly I want to see more of it.
I was pretty disappointed with the way we defended. That’s twice in the last four games we’ve conceded four goals. For a team that has prided itself on being more defensively resilient while things haven’t functioned smoothly at the other end, it was a letdown.
The passing from our back half took a bit of a downturn against the Bulls. There were a few occasions when poor passes from our central defenders gifted possession away and put us under unnecessary pressure.
We did look uncharacteristically shaky at the back. Macarthur could easily have clawed back the deficit at half time if they had taken their chances the way we had early on. Rose missed a header from close range after getting beyond Rawlins and Jake Hollman couldn’t direct a shot on target when it was set up for him beautifully by Ulises Davila.
Davila did get one back before the break from the spot. Craig Noone’s cross was a little too high for the Mexican and it caught Darryl Lachman off guard. It hit his outstretched arm and Davila slotted the penalty down the middle.
The second half was Jonathan Aspropotamitis’ turn to give away a pen. Another handball gave Macarthur a chance to equalise and this time it was Noone who found the back of the net.
At 2-2, the game turned in the 66th minute when M’Mombwa encroached from a Glory free-kick and received his second yellow.
I should have heard the alarm bells going off. Just like the previous fixture in Tasmania, Macarthur defended deep and looked to hit us on the counter.
The roles were reversed in the last quarter of the game. We had the upper hand but couldn’t convert when we needed to. Ciaran Bramwell had a few chances to give us the lead again but failed to convert.
Against the run of play, Macarthur pounced. Davila got past Colli, Oxborrow and Jack Clisby in a shambolic display of defending from the latter two. He got the ball back and played a perfect through ball to Toure in behind Rawlins. Reddy came out but couldn’t prevent us from going behind.
Najjar put the icing on the cake with his goal late on, again on the break. Macarthur are back in third in a very tight race to make the finals. Davila ran the show again, his brilliance getting the Bulls over the line. Toure off the bench with a goal and an assist haunted the Glory like his brother did this time last month.
It was refreshing to watch us take our chances early and see the younger players taking their opportunities as the injury list continues to grow. We were on the back foot until the red card and then we got caught out, not taking advantage of a golden opportunity to win a fourth game this season. Disappointing but Zadkovich is building. A first win for him still awaits. A first win at HBF Park this campaign also. If there was a perfect time to do it, then it would be tonight when Tony Popovic returns with the Victory.
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