Summary: Pascoe Vale FC have defeated South Melbourne FC to gain their second win of this season. An early red card of stiker Billy Konstantinidis saw South on the back foot for the rest of the match, which the home side was able to capitalise on.
This game is a hard one to re-live. It’s also a hard one to extract insightful comments out of, as our own lapses in judgment were the key causes for our downfall.
There were a few major changes to our lineup, the first being Alistair Bray replacing Nikola Roganovic between the sticks. As someone who has never seen Bray’s keeping abilities, I was interested to see what options we had aside from Roganovic, as questions surrounding the longevity of his South stint will always be in question. To the relief of many, Gerrie Sylaidos returned to the starting lineup, and with him a renewed sense of attacking prowess. Link ups with Marcus Schroen and now Billy Konstantinidis for (potentially) 90 minutes seemed like a promising set goal-scoring options. And for the first 10 or so minutes, it was. We had a good aggressive start, which now seems more common than not, though the only thing Krousoratis connected the ball with at this time was a defender’s head. Particularly with South, it’s scary playing goalless, because one good cross against the run of play and we’re struggling, as it seems that every club has a more developed goal-scoring set up than we do.
My opinions on Bray were drastically altered when a miss-kick ended at the feat of Dimi Hatzimouratis, who cooly slot it past the keeper. An important thing to remember, which is quite hard to do in the heat of the moment, is that an error like that, no matter how embarrassing, does not spell “the death of the club” in a round 6 match. We also weren’t being outplayed at this point, and so a reply was more than possible. After all, Konstantinidis had looked so threatening last week! 6 minutes after conceding, for reasons too pointless for me to accept, our striker decided to take down the opposing defender at least 20 metres away from the ball, with what I think was an elbow, causing a large scuffle before he himself took a light tumble. After the bickering had subsided and the referee had dropped his yellow card after a vigorous stretch for the goal keeper’s reaction, he pulled out a red for Billy, and sent him on his way.
Last week I said that South spent some time battling shadows. This week felt very much like we were battling ourselves. From this point on it’s hard extracting anything insightful about strategies, because we had to account for being one player down. There was more possession, none of it threatening and ultimately fizzling out long before reaching the goals. Even the players looked like there was no hope attacking, as clearances were often through the form of unhelpful long balls. There weren’t many Pascoe Vale turnovers; we were just giving them the ball. We were playing so conservatively as to avoid conceding another that they were able to walk around with the ball around their defence, with no pressure whatsoever. That gave them more time to set up chances, capitalising on being a man up and having better finishers, in one instance Davey Vant Schip just hitting the post. Much like last week, half time was met with disappointment, but also a sense of hope. It’s something South does a lot to a fan. We know we have giant hole in our attack, but just one good run, one fluke and we can be on level terms again.
Unlike the Kingston game, however, there were very few shots taken by South. Our aggression was maintained from the first half, and so was the lack of options, our only notable shot during this period was a Schroen cross that couldn’t be finished by skipper Brad Norton. As opposed to changing our line-up each game, Tangalakis decided to try it on the pitch, with Marafioti, Bereveskos and Minopoulos replacing Krousoratis, Gage and Sylaidos. More shots ensued, none of which as accurate (or inaccurately-accurate) as last week, and none threatening enough to equalise. We had lost our spearhead, we won’t have him for next week, and personally, I don’t know if he deserves to play the week after. It should be noted that after Bereveskos was subbed on, there was a considerable increase in pressure placed on the Pascoe Vale defence, as he tried to bring his side to life. And in instances we did look better than they did despite being one man down. You could hear it in their voices as the screamed to each other; they really wanted it, they really did.
It was good to see Leigh back in the squad, and I’d forgotten about the considerable pace he possesses. But again, we can put on as many skilled midfielders are we want, but if they aren’t confident finishers, and we don’t have one to pass the ball off to, we aren’t a considerable threat. Towards the last few minutes we put everything into our attack, leaving our defence exposed, and in the 89th minute Pascoe Vale’s Bernabo-Madrid outpaced Luke Adams, and his one on one with Bray didn’t have a surprising result. There was nothing more to do or say at this point besides wait for the final whistle to blow.
It’s hard to criticise a team which played well enough that I’d forgotten they were one man down multiple times. The team played for the shirt, but again, lacks those streamline plays that come from a team that really knows the strengths and weaknesses of their teammates. These generic tactics we use to get up the field work only until the ball actually needs to be converted into a goal, and then no player really looks like they have insight into finishing. If our hope was to run up the line and see what sticks, is hasn’t worked. If we’re trying to build our play around counter attacks, it hasn’t worked. What will work is capitalising on the few golden opportunities we’re gifted in a game. I’m not sure how to solve this striking problem, particularly with Konstantinidis out for at least one week, but what I do know is that scoring only 4 goals in 6 games says a lot about our capabilities.
Note: It was exciting that a first half Pascoe Vale substitution saw Hakeem Al Araibi make his way onto the field. In November of 2018, Al Araibi was detained in Bangkok, Thailand for over two months based on farcical charges in his homeland of Bahrain. The injustice he faced led to a social movement back in Australia, where the NPL player had received asylum in 2017. The pressure of many campaigners, supporters (Craig Foster, Robbie Fowler) and his club allowed the young man to return home unscathed. The footballing community must be applauded for their unity, though the Asian Football Confederation's inaction should be denounced.
Notable players: Dean Bereveskos
South Melbourne FC: 0
Pascoe Vale FC: 2
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