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| Roar ladies celebrate the wining penalty |
Sydney FC looked to be marching towards a grand-final berth with Canberra United when they took a first half lead courtesy of a header from Renae Rollason. But despite being the better side throughout much of the match they couldn't quite hammer in the final nail into Roar's coffin. Regardless they must have felt that the job was done as the minutes ticked away towards the final whistle. But just as the men had done a week earlier the Roar grabbed an equaliser deep in injury time with super-sub Emily Gielnik once more proving the saviour for her side this season. Unlike the men there would be not late goal to win the match but the drama did not stop there. Roar mid-fielder Vedrana Popovic was brought down crudely by Kyah Simon. The referee produced a second yellow of the match for the star Sydney forward and she was issued her marching orders. This sent Sydney coach Alen Stajic into a rage and he too got his marching orders.
It was this point that chaos ensued with an incensed Stajic refusing to follow the instructions of officials and head to a position that they were happy with. Indeed he even stretched the rules so far that at the final whistle he stood on the running track at QSAC and called over benched striker Leena Khamis to pass on instructions to the team ahead of extra time. This drew the ire of the crowd who booed Stajic incessantly and the officials who continued to try and get him to retreat to the dressing room.
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| Gielnik celebrates a late equaliser |
Post-match Stajic continued his complaining, accusing some Roar players of playing on when one of his players were injured. At the end of the day though players are actually under no compunction to put the ball out and if the referee is happy to let the game goal well so be it. If Sydney couldn't play to the final whistle then that was there problem. In addition to this it was nobody else but Simon who was to blame for leaving her side a player down, or Caitlin Foord who spurned a number of gilt edged chances for Sydney.
Brisbane will now meet Canberra United who accounted for Melbourne Victory thanks to a goal from the prolific Michelle Heyman.
1 comments:
Oh poor Sydney who during the semi where Stajic blew his top blame everyone from the referee to Roar players for their inability to win a game. Ironic that Leadbrooke who had cramps (not considered as a reason to stop play by referees) was the player responsible for trying to drag Di Vanna off the field in a game against Newcastle during the regular season. Spirit of the game? I don't think any of the Roar girls were booked for shirt pulling. Kyah ( or is that Kryah Simons) blasts the Roar as cheats on twitter (Twitter really is for twits isn't it) after sliding in from behind to make a tackle. Instaed of being disappointed with his own players lack of discipline Stajic just exemplifies why he is a goose who needs to have the full force of the FFA thrown at him for his show of disrespect for the referee and his opponents. I consider his use of a substitution in extra time a tactic to just eat up time. Boo ooh- seemed to backfire didn't it? Well it seems obvious to me that the real poor sports in all this melodrama in a teacup are the Sydney-centric players who think that somehow have a moral right to win whatever is on the Australian sporting calendar and get into Australian Squads in spite of their lack of talent.
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