Sunday, 27 March 2011 11:48 PM
By John Kyrou (Photo by Cindy Nitsos)
South Melbourne FC has defeated the Melbourne Knights 3-1 after coming from a goal down to claim honours in the first derby between the two sides in 2011. Late goals by Jesse Krncevic and substitutes Daniel Vasilevski and Kyle Joryeff settled the match, which was played approximately six weeks shy of the 20 year anniversary of the famous 1990/91 National Soccer League Grand Final between the two teams.
After an end-to-end first half in which both sides failed to take advantage of their chances, the match exploded into life after halftime. The Knights were awarded a penalty shortly after the break following a handball in the penalty area by captain Steven O’Dor. Zaim Zeneli went the right way but was unable to prevent the penalty being converted by Josip Kozic. The goal continued South’s lack of clean sheets in the 2011 Victorian Premier League season.
The home side stepped up the pressure in the final 20 minutes and the coaching staff rang the necessary changes, bringing on Vasilevski, Kamal Ibrahim and Joryeff in order to try and force a result. The moves paid off when Joryeff drew a foul outside the area and Vasilevski beat Martin John with a brilliant free kick into the top corner of the goal to level the scores at 1-1. Vasilevski had been very unfortunate not to be in the starting eleven for the match and his goal will give him every possible chance for a starting berth next weekend.
South had tied up the scores but were not finished yet and when Ibrahim beat the offside trap to lay off for Krncevic to score, suddenly the home side were ahead with only minutes left to play. Krncevic nearly buried the Knights in injury time with a chip that just went wide of John’s goal. However it was Joryeff that finished the match as a contest when he was put through on goal by De Moraes and cooly placed a shot into the back of the net to seal three hard-fought points against a very spirited Melbourne Knights team.
In the Under-21s match played earlier in the day, South and the Knights drew 2-2 after South spent the second half playing with only 10 men following a red card to Gianni De Nittis before halftime. De Nittis and James Riccobene were the goal scorers for the home team.
South Melbourne FC next travels to Fox Street to play promoted St Albans for the first time since an injury-time goal by Vaughan Coveny gave South a 2-2 away draw at Churchill Reserve on Sunday 29 May 2005, the last time the Saints were in Victoria’s top football division.
FINAL SCORE: SOUTH MELBOURNE 3-1 MELBOURNE KNIGHTS (HT: 0-0)
Goal Scorers:
0-1: Josip Kozic (59’pk)
1-1: Daniel Vasilevski (79′)
2-1: Jesse Krncevic (81′)
3-1: Kyle Joryeff (93′)
South Melbourne FC
3. Rhodri PAYNE, 4. Steven O’DOR, 6. Steven TOPALOVIC, 8. Carl RECCHIA, 10. Kliment TASESKI (25. Kyle JORYEFF 74′), 11. Jesse KRNCEVIC, 13. Ljubo MILICEVIC, 15. Fernando DE MORAES, 18. Marinos GASPARIS (14. Kamal IBRAHIM 55′), 21. Zaim ZENELI, 23. Sebastian PETROVIC (5. Daniel VASILEVSKI 65′)
Melbourne Knights
1. Martin JOHN, 2. Shaun ROMEIN (20. Jacob COLOSIMO 86′), 3. Ryan FILIPOVIC, 4. Ben SUREY, 5. Leo SHIN (7. Ridvan SAGLAM 59′), 10. Josip KOZIC, 11. Anthony COLOSIMO, 14. Jean-Charles DUBOIS (13. Amadu KOROMA 78′), 18. Daniel DRAGICEVIC, 19. Adam ZILIC, 22. Craig SWEENEY
SMFC Man of the Match: Carl Recchia
Venue: John Cain Memorial Park
Date: Sunday 27 March 2011