Summary: Despite a plethora of chances, Kingston City FC have run out 1-0 victors over South Melbourne FC. Some remarkable saves and uncapitalised opportunities prevented South from equalising after and early goal from Damian Iaconis.
On our way to the Grange Reserve, my family and I joked about the difficulty of finding many of these outer-suburb stadiums, and the difficulty which comes from attending away matches. Unfortunately, in recent years, away games have seen more difficulty on the pitch than off, and this Monday was an opportunity for us to capitalise on playing a team often on the fringe of relegation. Losing to Avondale and Bentleigh isn’t surprising, and those results occurred even when we were at our strongest. However, there are a few teams that we must outplay in order to calm the looming threat of relegation, which isn’t urgent currently, but with a few bad games soon could be. By round 5, to have a 60% win rate wouldn’t be bad, particularly when some of the hardest clubs have already been played. It just goes to show how little I truly know about our current form, as I was in for another soul-sucking South experience.
The first ten minutes of the game looked as if South were battling shadows. Missed kicks and phantom dispossessions saw us setting up Kingston more than we did ourselves. Aided by the supernatural and a skilled midfield, the ball was handed to Damian Iaconis, who curled it perfectly behind Roganovic in the 6th minute. I’d like to say that conceding woke us up, but it didn’t. Despite possessing a full squad, whenever attacking it looked like we were missing players. There seemed to be gap in between our defensive midfielders and forwards, requiring a strange positional shift every time we were attacking. Either our defensive midfielders would assume the role of central midfielders, run up the field, and if dispossessed leave us vulnerable, or our forwards would track back to as far as the centre line in order to push play up.
Billy Konstantinidis played out his first full game, and with more game time will definitely develop into the striker we need. Much like Milos in previous seasons, he provides the midfield with an option they can rely on when pushing forward. Inspiring confidence in your attacking half is an important psychological necessity in football, and something I think our makeshift strikers in the past few games were unable to do. Konstantinidis arguably provides more skill than Milos did too, and a more chiseled physique. Last week, I mentioned we needed a proper goal scorer, and a proper player to set the goal scorer up. We may have possessed one of these in the first half, but the centre of our midfield was completely baron. It would be exciting watching Billy win countless headers, but disheartening when realising how far up the pitch he was, having to essentially set himself up.
Not only was our (Gerrie sized) hole inconvenient for our striker, but for our defence too. There was no creativity, no dynamic play. A lack of options led to a frustrating amount of pack passes, with even less urgency than last week. It felt like our defence extended past just Lambropoulos (Kristian) Konstantinidis, Marshall and Norton, with its roots planted deeply in our midfield. So when were passing around the back, it was to almost every player we had. Ethan Gage, in my opinion, has been a reliable player this season, and can provide defensive prowess while also opening up attacking play. But without that presence in the middle, we had to rely on either wide long balls, which amounted to nothing, or be satisfied passing it around with players five metres away from us.
Overall, there was just a general lack of communication. Two players would struggle to clear an unmarked ball, two players going for the same header during a free kick. Particularly during the second half, whenever we were attacking, Bradley Norton would almost always be free on his side of the wing, though he was rarely set up for a run. Towards the end of the first half we gained possession for large portions of the game, and had probably our best uncapitalised chances of this season (that is, until the second half). B. Konstantinidis had a shot deflected inches away from the net, and a threatening K. Konstantinidis header was plucked by Nate Cavalierè, who had an excellent game. Roganovic also made a notable save, displaying his physicality while saving a shot from a player set up by a South boot. After another bobbling Konstantinidis header (this time Billy) was saved, the first half was over.
At this point, I was dejected. If we were struggling to play fluid football, and we were squandering our chances, surely we deserved to lose. Little did I know how poorly our finishing would be. The second half started just as disjointedly aggressive. We were treated to a few more defensive long shots, but only one from Ethan gage worth noting. Up until the 59th minute, Kingston played with just as much vigour as they had from the beginning, with Lambropoulos struggling to keep Mouad Zwed at bay the entire game. And then, we were given an opportunity; Kingston’s Caniglia received his second yellow, and left them with 10 men and half an hour to go. What ensued was pure madness.
South has released a post-match interview with Bradley Norton, with the caption saying we had 19 chances on goal, compared to Kingston’s. Gerrie Sylaidos was finally subbed on in the 67th, replacing a floundering Lambropoulos. To say that Gerrie was the catalyst for this period of South domination would be facetious, as all our players had begun pushing up the pitch considerably. But he did fill the aforementioned central midfield hole, which would have made advancing plays easier. Despite so much happening during those last 15 minutes, I don’t have much to say about it. From the beginning of the second half I was certain we were going equalise, but as the clock kept ticking, and either we kept making poor shots or Cavalierè kept making good saves, I began to perspire profusely.
The only notable miss worth mentioning during this time is when Billy Konstantinidis hit the crossbar. A sharp turn and excellent strike on an awkward angle allowed the forward to create a shot from essentially nothing. It’s worth mentioning that this creativity is something our forwards generally lack, and re-enforced how Billy can be a reliable goal scorer in the future. But, after at least another 6 agonisingly close shots, K.Ks volley over the crossbar drained my life away, and Schroen’s header saved in extra time left me on the verge of tears. As the final whistle blew, we couldn’t say that we hadn’t had opportunities, nor could we say we hadn’t fought hard. We just weren’t good enough.
It’s all well and good to say the signs are positive, but hopefully these signs will materialise into quantifiable measures, as to prevent them from being nothing more than justification for unreliable performances. Pascoe Vale away will be a bigger game for us than I initially expected.
Notable players: Billy Konstantinidis
South Melbourne FC: 0
Kingston FC: 1
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