Soccer: Bad luck comes in threes for the Kingz

By BOB PEARCE

SYDNEY UNITED 1 KINGZ 0

Nothing seems to go right for the Football Kingz.

At Ericsson Stadium tonight, they had a player sent off, lost another through injury ... and were beaten 1-0.

The injured player was central defender John Tambouras, who received seven stitches in his forehead after collecting a boot as he tried to head the ball.

Sydney scored the only goal minutes after Tambouras was carried off, and the Kingz' woes were increased when another defender, Glen Collins, received his marching orders early in the second half.

Sydney have struggled to score goals this season and it was easy to see why in the first half, which they dominated for long periods.

The Kingz scarcely mounted an attack and spent most of the time desperately defending their penalty area. But Sydney were either too elaborate or shot off target time after time.

They received an incredible 15 free kicks in the half from referee James Lewis to the Kingz' four and were still unable to get the ball into the net.

Their best effort was a solo break by Franco Paresi, foiled by a diving save from Michael Utting.

The injury to Tambouras in the 40th minute was the turning point.

He had been dominant in the air and also made a number of last-ditch tackles. He tried to head a ball Zeljko Babic swung his boot at and received a gash on the forehead.

Babic was given a yellow card and Tambouras was replaced by Brad Scott, but the Kingz' defensive pattern was upset and in the fourth minute of injury time Labinot Haliti drove a loose ball through a wall of defenders to open the scoring.

Worse followed for the Kingz when Collins made a fairly innocuous challenge seven minutes into the second spell and was sent off for a second yellow-card offence.

The 10-man Kingz responded with some of their best football of the game. They forced a couple of corners and Chris Jackson produced a save at last from Sydney goalie Liam Reddy.

Brendon Santalab wasted a couple of chances for Sydney as the visitors seemed more interested in preserving their lead.