Soccer: Kingz blow their chances as bad old ways return

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The bugle boy in bay five finally got it right. As the referee blew his whistle at the end of the match between the Football Kingz and Adelaide Force at North Harbour Stadium, he managed a soulful Last Post.

While the 0-2 loss to the South Australians leaves the Kingz with the barest mathematical chance of still making the National Soccer League top six, their season is almost certainly over.

Perhaps the biggest crowd since the opening match on October 1 came for their second-last home game of the season. But they were left wondering how a team which had played so well only three days earlier could slump back to the bad old ways of some of their less than memorable performances.

Having to play Adelaide and the Wollongong Wolves four times each - for two wins and six losses - did not help, but that alone does not account for the inconsistency which has left their supporters shaking their heads.

Coaches Wynton and Shane Rufer cited the heavy end-of-season schedule - four games in 10 days - as their reason for shuffling and reshuffling the team. But changing the winning combination against Parramatta Power was hard to fathom.

The game should have been treated as a cup final and played accordingly. Win that and let tomorrow's game against Canberra take care of itself.

The first half of Saturday's game produced only a few half chances. The visitors forced 10 corners to none, but rarely looked likely to find the net.

The second half was more of the same with any likely Kingz attack snuffed out by a resolute defence which again showed why Adelaide have conceded fewer goals than any team in the NSL.

Coach Zoran Matic had obviously done his homework, and had big defender Atilio Hornjik spend the whole game holding on to hat-trick hero Aaron Silva.

Referee Brett Hugo refused to do anything about the blatant obstruction so Silva meted out his own retribution, which a couple of times left Hornjik writhing on the ground.

But Hornjik had the last laugh, as he escaped without penalty while Chris Jackson, Silva and Lee Jones were all booked after incidents involving him.

Claudio Pelosi opened the scoring in the 50th minute, when Carl Veart was left to run free before playing the ball in for Pelosi to head home.

The second goal, 13 minutes from time, must rank among the simplest of the season. From an indirect freekick, the ball was pushed wide of the defensive wall to veteran Aurelio Vidmar, who was not challenged as he hit home.

Hugo did his best to whistle any life out of the game, awarding 36 free kicks, but there were other questions including the 66-minute delay in getting Wynton Rufer in to the game.

Silva's silly booking has cost him a seat on this morning's flight to Canberra, but Che Bunce and John Lammers are back and will travel.

Fred de Jong failed a late check on his troublesome knee and is replaced by Robbie Middleby.

Surprisingly, there is no place for Batram Suri, one of the more enterprising Kingz players in the 45 minutes he had in the second half against Adelaide.