Soccer: Chilean wizard is Kingz's king

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The Football Kingz' Chilean striker, Patricio Almendra, brought his full bag of tricks to Ericsson Stadium yesterday to spark an amazing 2-2 draw against defending champions and NSL pacesetters Olympic Sharks.

It was a point richly deserved for the home side, who played all but the first 12 minutes with only 10 players against a team unbeaten in four previous matches this season.

Giving as good as they got, especially in a pulsating second half, the Kingz scored their first goals, both from the magical Almendra, at home this season and showed that as a no-frills, give-it-all outfit, in this league there are none better.

In holding the Sharks to a draw, the Kingz preserved their four-season unbeaten home record against the Sydney-based side. But they did not have the greatest of days.

Before a ball was kicked, they lost first-choice goalkeeper Michael Utting, who pulled up with a calf strain in the pre-match warm-up.

So James Bannatyne was handed an unexpected start.

His response was magnificent. The only goals he watched go by were the result of defensive slip-ups. He happily let his gloves do the talking.

With Utting far from certain to be back for Sunday's away game in Adelaide, Bannatyne will probably get another chance.

If that late change was not enough to disrupt coach Ken Dugdale's game plan, then the 13th-minute dismissal of defender Riki Van Steeden did.

Mark Atkinson was forced to drop back to join Hiroshi Miyazawa and Jonathon Taylor in defence, leaving Raf de Gregorio, Harry Ngata (who dropped back from the striking role Dugdale prefers), Chris Jackson and the ever-reliable Andy Vlahos in midfield.

Paul Urlovic was given his first start of the season and joined Almendra in a two-pronged attack which at times had the big Sharks' defence under some pressure.

In a minor surprise, goal-grabbing Joel Porter was left on the substitutes' bench, adding weight to the argument that Olympic coach Gary Phillips had crossed the Tasman in search of a point. Anything more would be a bonus.

Van Steeden had to go after bringing Franco Parisi down as he chased a through-ball. Australian referee Ben Williams, in his second game at this level, wasted no time in dispatching the Kingz defender.

Parisi, with a suspected dislocated shoulder, cried off seven minutes later to bring Porter into the game.

League leaders Olympic conjured several half-chances in the first spell, but were denied by some mediocre finishing and Bannatyne, who complemented the good work from Miyazawa and Taylor.

The second half was more of the same, with the gritty, under-powered Kingz giving as good as they got.

In an amazing early blitz, the Sharks took the lead, surrendered it, and grabbed it back again, all within three minutes.

A 51st-minute Taylor miskick in front of goal was gathered by Ishida Hiroyuki, who unselfishly pushed the ball square to George Souris, who scored.

From the restart, the ball found Olympic goalkeeper Clint Bolton, but his poor clearance put the defence under pressure and was pounced on by Almendra who, spotting Bolton off his line, chipped home from 25m.

The visitors then won a free-kick, which Porter played in. Ngata slipped while attempting to clear and Jeromy Harris nipped in to beat Bannatyne to the ball and score.

In the 80th minute Ngata played the ball back to Almendra, who sent his first-time attempt soaring.

He was clattered into at the same time by big centre-back Paul Kohler, and went down. Referee Williams pointed to the spot.

Almendra jumped up to hit home.

"Sure, that was the best performance of the season," Dugdale said. "They showed a lot of character.

"We could have packed the defence, but we chose not to."

However, he was disappointed at the 2804-strong crowd.

"If we can't get more than just the hard-core fans with a performance like that I don't know what we can do."