Soccer: Chilean off as Kingz get draw

By BOB PEARCE

The Football Kingz bounced back from their 5-0 loss to Perth to draw 1-1 with Wollongong at Ericsson Stadium last night.

The second-half goal came from Andy Vlahos, his first of the season, but there was a price to pay in an ill-tempered encounter. After Wollongong had been reduced to 10 men in the 75th minute, the Kingz Chilean star Patricio Almendra was sent off for an incident off the ball 10 minutes later.

The first half was scoreless. Almendra, seeing the Wollongong goalkeeper, Andrew Crews, off his line, started the game with a hopeful lob in the first minute, which ballooned over the bar. This sadly was an indication of the shooting prospects for the rest of the half as both sides struggled to get on target on a slippery surface with a cross-wind, which made accuracy difficult.

Almendra combined well with James Pritchett on the right to create a couple of early chances and found himself the target of a couple of fierce tackles. But he remained the focal point of the Kingz attack with his close control and vision.

There was plenty of force in the exchanges and Mark Atkinson picked up a yellow card for holding his opponent. Liam Austin of Wollongong was lucky to escape with only a yellow after clattering Raf de Gregorio.

But the heaviest challenge was a fair one by Chris Jackson, which left the speedy Norm Sekulovski out cold. He recovered but was replaced at halftime.

His replacement, Dean Heffernan, quickly made his mark with a superb goal in the 52nd minute. Stuart Young provided the pass, but Heffernan turned his marker and drilled a left-foot shot into the net.

The Kingz were level four minutes later. A left-wing corner was flicked on by Jackson to de Gregorio. His shot was only parried by Crews and Vlahos was on the goal-line to prod it home. He might have had a second almost immediately but one-on-one with the goalkeeper slid his shot wide.

Pushing forward in numbers the Kingz pressured the defence and Vlahos and de Gregorio both came close.

But the action came at the other end in the 75th minute when Wollongong got the ball in the net only for it to be ruled offside. Dissent saw Dino Mennillo sent off and his coach, Ron Corry, and another official banished from the bench. Almendra was sent off for elbowing a Wollongong player.

There was time for near-misses by substitute Paul Urlovic and Mark Burton and a letoff for the Kingz when Heffernan missed from close range in the last minute.