Wasteful Suns do enough for three-points over Spartans

Rockdale City Suns, and in particular Alec Urosevski, had enough chances to win two games. That they only scored once was a travesty and a failure of technique, and maybe, nerve.
Urosevski was the hero as the scorer of the goal, but could easily have been the villain as Blacktown Spartans, reduced to ten-men on the stroke of half-time, put in a spirited second 45′ minutes and threatened to steal a point.
Carlos Saliadarre, the Spartans goalkeeper, had the game of his life between the sticks, though Spartans followers will be used to his heroics in goal.
As it turned out, Urosevski took the first of his hatful of chances in the 5′ minute and it proved to be enough – just.
Rockdale City Suns coach Branko Culina will be hoping for his side to improve their finishing in front of goal and surely finishing practice is on the menu for the coming week, ahead of their trip to Bonnyrigg.
Although Urosevski was the main culprit, Seiya Kawamura and Brendan Gan can also count themselves lucky that their misses were eventually deemed irrelevant.
Rockdale City had five one-on-one opportunities in the second-half and Saliadarre was immense in a losing cause.
He blocked and saved with all his might and when Spartans had a few free kicks in dangerous areas, it seemed that his heroics may be rewarded.
Jun Kato’s sending off on the stroke of half-time was the catalyst for a far better second-half than the first for Spartans, but they blew their only genuine opportunity to equalise when Gregory Kondek was denied one-on-one by Diego Barcena.
It was the story of the match: genuine opportunities spurned for fun 
Ironically enough, the first chance of the match was buried in the 5′ minute by Urosevski. David Talevski’s ball from the right raced through the area and Urosevski was well placed at the back post to finish with a clinical calm that would desert him and Rockdale City’s attackers from that point on.
Sam Munro pulled up with an injury in the 32′ minute, which forced Culina to use his bench far earlier than he would have intended. Paul Kohler went on and played out of position at left back.
A minute later, Rockdale City had a fantastic opportunity to take a 2-0 lead but needless to say, it was spurned. Urosevski was the creator this time, playing a beautiful long pass in to Richard Cardozo, who laid a gorgeous first time ball in to the path of Idriss El Hafiane, but he blazed the chance over the bar.
Cardozo was uncharacteristically off-colour, but he did conjure up another chance in the 37′ minute when he played in Gan, who struck his left footed shot with venom but cleared the bar by a matter of inches.
With Kato sent off in the shadows of the break for a reckless late challenge on Themba Muata-Marlow, the game was Rockdale City’s to lose.
Spartans’ coach Ben De Haan sent on attacker Andre Carle for defender Tyson Rhodes at the break; a clear signal of intent.
There was 52′ minutes on the clock when Carle took advantage of a rare slip by Muata-Marlow. Carle’s wonderfully incisive pass found Kondek but one-on-one with Barcena, the Rockdale City ‘keeper came up trumps.
Spartans’ efforts in attack often left them outnumbered in defence and Urosevski proved a menace as his pace carried him into dangerous positions.
One such occasion was the 55′ minute when the Rockdale City flyer found himself in behind Luke Austin but Saliadarre made a good block save.
Urosevski was everywhere and in the 68′ minute he had another great opportunity to put Rockdale City further ahead, but again his composure deserted him at the crucial moment. Faced with the imposing figure of Saliadarre, Urosevski could only shoot straight at the goalkeeper.
Further chances in the 72′ minute and the 74′ minute, for Urosevski and Kawamura respectively were denied by the immense Saliadarre before finally, with just minutes to go, Gan found himself perfectly in position to score.
In trying to lift the ball over the shot-stopper, he was foiled, Saliadarre making another outstanding save and fittingly, it was the final moment of significance in a match that, save for the Spartans captain, was desperately lacking in quality.
Rockdale City Suns coach Branko Culina was happy to put the wastefulness down to it being "one of those days," but both he and Spartans coach Ben De Haan were not impressed by the playing surface at the Ilinden Sports Centre,
"We controlled the game and created many, many chances," Culina said.
"If the score line was about 6 or 7, it would have been fair, no disrespect to Blacktown Spartans.
"They opened up a little bit when they were down to ten-men but we just couldn’t score that second goal.
"The pitch itself doesn’t help. That’s one of my beefs. I am constantly telling the club that if you want to play good football then pitches are important.
"That’s not to say that all of the chances were to be blamed on the pitch, but it certainly didn’t help," Culina remarked.
Ben De Haan agreed, saying, "It was a good effort in the second half.
"They could have got a couple extra, but it was very hard to play on a very poor pitch.
"It was a terrible game of football.
"I don’t think they expected us to be like we were in the second half but we took a leaf out of their book.
"We pumped it and ran, there wasn’t much else we could do.
"Everything was just boot ball, you just couldn’t play," De Haan lamented.
Match Stats

Rockdale City Suns 1 (Alec Urosevski 5′)
Blacktown Spartans 0
Saturday 6th July, 2013

Ilinden Sports Centre, Rockdale
Referee: Kevin Peddie
Assistant Referees: Matt Cropper and Valerio Bertuccioli
Fourth Official: Mitch Clark
Rockdale City Suns: 1.Diego Barcena; 6.Takuya Murayama, 7.Brendan Gan, 10.Richard Cardozo, 11.David Talevski (18.Seiya Kawamura 72′), 13.Sam Munro (8.Paul Kohler 32′), 17.Idriss El Hafiane, 19.Alec Urosevski (16.Anthony Perri 77′), 20.Roberto Speranza, 23.Askin Oygur (C)
Substitutes Not Used: 24.Aaron Liddell (GK), 14.Nikola Taneski
Yellow Cards: Brendan Gan 54′, Idriss El Hafiane 68′
Red Cards: Nil
Blacktown Spartans: 1.Carlos Saliadarre (C); 2.Luke Austin, 3.Nathan Millgate, 5.Daniel Wilkinson (22.Pasquale Polistina 85′), 6.Gregory Kondek, 8.Brenton Rhodes, 9.Jun Kato, 10.Bryan Soane, 11.Tyson Rhodes (15.Andre Carle 46′), 14.Trent Barton, 16.Emannuel Giannaros
Substitutes Not Used: 20.Luke Turnbull (GK), 4.Luka Dukic, 24. Reid Taylor
Yellow Cards: Emmanuel Giannaros 45+2′, Andre Carle 82′
Red Cards: Jun Kato 45′
-By Matthew Connellan