The Greek players were the stars of the show last weekend in the A-League.
The start came at the Marvel stadium on Saturday night, as both Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United both fought with all they had for the three points. For the most part, it seemed that Marko Kurz’s plan was solid, as he gave Kevin Muscat’s team most of the possession and attempted to strike on the counter with the quick pace of Halloran, Goodwin and Stamatelopoulos.
However, even though United seemed to maintain the upper hand for most of the first half (and even had a header knock off the crossbar after a corner kick), it didn’t bring any results.
Eventually, legs got tired and pressure from the opposition became too much to bare.
Keisuke Honda may not have had his greatest performance but latter summer signing Ola Toivonen was there to pick up the slack.
After a cross from the left, the Swedish striker managed to tower above two of his opponents to claim the header and force an unstable save by Izzo.
Barbarouses was quick to pounce on the rebound and break the deadlock between the two teams on the 62nd minute of the game. Victory had gained an advantage over their rivals and forced them to come out of their shells, leaving their backside more open.
During one of their counter attacks, Antonis got into the box and with an incredible back heel pass that left three opponents standing offered Toivonen the goal he had been looking for all evening.
This win brought Victory to 15 points, two less than Perth Glory, who managed to remain at the top despite a heavy contest by visitors Melbourne City.
Tony Popovic’s men maintained possession of the ball for most of the first half, yet couldn’t find that one chance that they needed to break down their opponents.
Until the 43rd minute that is, when Andy Keogh attempted the shot in the area with the ball bouncing off the City defence and landing at the feet of Ikonomidis who simply finished the job.
The young Greek now has five goals and is only one shy of Adam le Fondre of Sydney FC who sits at the top of the goal scorer category with six.
As much as both teams tried, nothing else changed in the second half, with Curtis Good receiving his marching orders on the 80th minute after a terribly reckless challenge on Matthew Spiranovic that left him injured and doubtful for next week’s game against the Jets.
Meanwhile, Sydney FC fell victim to the biggest surprise of the day, if not the season, so far, as they suffered a heavy 1-3 loss at home against the Wellington Phoenix.
Despite their many opportunities, Steve Corica’s men weren’t able to open the score in their first few minutes of the game and what seemed like a wasted effort by the visitors ended up on the feet of Roy Krishna, who beat his personal opponents and put the ball past Redmayne.
Just as Sydney were trying to recover from the initial shock, Krishna struck again nine minutes later to confirm his excellent form and as if that wasn’t enough, the first half found the home side down by three after another added by Taylor.
The ‘sky blues’ seemed to find themselves in the second half as they returned to attacking form, but it was already way too late and the game had been decided. All they managed to do is pull one back through Zullo.
In other games, the Jets beat the Roar and the Wanderers beat the Mariners, both by the same margin (2-0).
A-LEAGUE ROUND SEVEN RESULTS
- Western Sydney Wanderers – Central Coast Mariners 2-0 (45’+3′ Baccus, 68′ Sotirio)
- Sydney FC – Wellington Phoenix 1-3 (89′ Zullo / 21′, 30′ Krishna, 38′ Taylor)
- Melbourne Victory – Adelaide United 2-0 (62′ Barbarousis, 81′ Toivonen)
- Perth Glory – Melbourne City 1-0 (43′ Ikonomidis / 80′ sent off Good)
- Newcastle Jets – Brisbane Roar 2-0 (45’+1′ Sheppard, 58′ Jair)
ROUND EIGHT FIXTURES
Friday 14 December
- 7:50 pm Brisbane Roar – Melbourne Victory
- Saturday 15 December
- 5:35 pm Wellington Phoenix – Central Coast Mariners
- 7:50 pm Western Sydney Wanderers – Sydney FC
Sunday 16 December
- 5:00 pm Newcastle Jets – Perth Glory
- 7:00 pm Adelaide United – Melbourne City