Soccer: Kingz again give away late goals to bomb out

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Another day, another heartbreaker for the Football Kingz as they blew a 2-1 lead in going down 3-2 to Sydney visitors Northern Spirit at Ericsson Stadium last night.

New coach Kevin Fallon could only shake his head his head in frustration as two late defensive lapses let Spirit back to snatch three invaluable NSL points.

After a scoreless first half, five goals were scored in a 36-minute burst but that was little comfort for the 4300-strong crowd.

They had been treated to something better, and definitely more organised, by the Kingz but all the hard work on the training pitch, in the end, counted for nothing.

The Kingz dominated the first spell but their failure to turn 10 half-chances into goals left them, again, empty handed.

Defensively, they appeared better organised in the opening 45 minutes, restricting Spirit to a handful of efforts which rarely had goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos under pressure.

The Kingz also had the better of the set-play opportunities but apart from one early well directed Mark Burton corner which tested the Spirit defence, they failed to do anything with them.

Dangerous Spirit striker Pablo Cardozo had the first clear chance when he turned Jonathan Perry and snapped a shot which rattled the crossbar.

Seven minutes before the break Burton raced on to a great ball from Andy Vlahos but his hurried shot found goalkeeper Lupce Acevski well positioned at the near post to block.

Cardozo bundled the ball into the goal from the only corner won by the the visitors in the first spell but his effort was ruled out by referee Mark Shield, who picked up an attacking foul.

The second half was, in direct contrast, all-action.

Just two minutes after the break Spirit won a corner.

The ball was floated over and as Theoklitos went to cover he was taken out by Simon Bell. The ball spilled and Cardozo was unchallenged in providing the finishing touch.



The next action came off the field when Spirit coach Mick Hickman, after the intervention of fourth official Neil Fox, was sent from the ground.

He could only watch from the outside as George Goutzioulis gathered a headed Bell clearance and whacked a 30m shot which smashed on to the underside of the crossbar and in, a contender surely for the goal of the season.

Six minutes on, the Kingz snatched the 70th-minute lead when Vlahos gathered a ball from Mark Atkinson and curled his cross just beyond Acevski's grasp to Paul Urlovic who headed home for 2-1.

But 10 minutes later that joy turned to despair as Ryan Griffiths beat a weak challenge from Riki Van Steeden to head home the equaliser.

And just when the Kingz thought things could not get worse, they did.

From another ball played into the flatfooted Kingz defence, Burgess was unchallenged in heading home the 84th-minute winner.