Saturday, 24 April 2010
ANU FC 0
Narrabundah FC 0
On a miserable day in central Canberra, a resilient Narrabundah side battled to a 0 – 0 draw against a hardworking but unimaginative ANU.
ANU have recently redeveloped their grounds and now have to new artificial pitches to boast. However, it seems that in the international student sponsored splurge, someone forgot to include change rooms in the plans which resulted in both teams huddling under the BBQ shelter trying to get changed.
Once the players took the pitch it was a similar situation with both teams crowding the ball and neither managing to put together much passing football. ANU started the brighter of the two teams but rarely troubled a backline well marshaled by Johnny ‘Hellas’ Krithinakis. Around 15 minutes in Narrabundah began to get a foothold in the game and were looking the more dangerous as new signing Cummings began to combine well with Exposito up front and started causing problems for the ANU backline. With Padrotta, Russell, Park and Romero all pushing on from midfield, things were looking very positive but unfortunately, after several close calls, the final ball was lacking.
Into the second half and with Padrotta moved into a more advanced role, the Reds opted to play a more direct brand of football. However, with the ball slipping off the artificial turf, this tactic was being easily negated by an ANU keeper happy to sit on the edge of the 18 yard box. On the rare occasion that the Reds managed to get the ball in behind, a surprisingly quick ANU defense was generally in place to cover the danger. Up the other end, ANU were causing few problems either with the only real threat arising from set pieces. Towards the end, the game began to open up more at both ends with Padrotta and Cummings getting more joy up front but ANU also finally called Ruiz in goals into action, although with some tame efforts from the edge of the box. And that was effectively how the game finished, with a whimper rather than a bang, both teams seemingly happy to take a draw after both had decent chances to take the lead.
In the end, both teams will likely take this game as a positive step after both had lost matches in the first two rounds. For Narrabundah, positive signs all over the pitch after the disappointment of the loss to Queanbeyan last week. With several players coming back into the squad for next week, all signs are positive for the Reds.
A special thanks to the Div 5 boys who filled in on short notice and without exception performed their roles with distinction.