Mark Bosnich hasn’t been this buzzed since his Chelsea days! Having hyped last night’s match as the game that could change Aussie football, Bozza got his bang for his buck as did the 35,419 rabid fans, as Alessandro Del Piero and Emile Heskey produced performances worthy of the headlines with the two ageing stars scoring their first A-League goals in a match that had all the excitement and drama of a Bosnich bender.
If the A-League was Christmas, last week we were treated to socks. Del Piero’s introduction to the league was marred by a sloppy team performance, typically awful NZ weather, and small yet loyal Wellington Phoenix crowd, while Heskey looked a bit sluggish and off the pace as Sydney and Newcastle both suffered decisive defeats. There was a collective sigh of defeat across the nation, or in my loungroom at least. Here we go again; a tiger can’t change its stripes no matter how many decrepit international players you feed it. But last nights 3-2 victory to the Jets proved that the A-League can produce the kind of thrilling play that will ensure that the 30,000+ crowd figure was not one-off.
Maybe it was the atmosphere and the crowd, maybe it was enduring a week where they were shamed by sub-par performances but both teams came with the plan to play exciting, attacking football. Jet’s striker Ryan Griffiths opened the scoring for the Jets in the the 12th minute but the moment the entire football community had been waiting for arrived in the form of a 26th minute penalty shot from about 5m outside the box to Del Piero. He didn’t disappoint.
Heskey was under plenty of pressure of his own and while his 41st minute strike into the back of the net didn’t draw the same ecstatic response from the parochial home crowd, it did signal that this year’s gamble on ageing marquee stars was well on the way to paying off.
Newcastle’s Craig Goodwin pushed the lead out by two with a clean strike in the 62nd minute while a Brett Emerton pin-point cross was booted in by Blake Powell to set up a grandstand finish but the scores remained, 3-2. Despite losing, the record regular season crowd was treated to some of the best football the A-Leage has produced. Against the crippling weight of expectation, the game had delivered.
In the other match last night, defending premiers the Brisbane Roar thumped Melbourne Victory 5-0.
Pictures by Ryan Pierse and Cameron Spencer at Getty Images
