Monday, 18 April 2011 10:09 AM
By John Kyrou
Hume City has taken ANZAC Day Cup honours for the first time after defeating South Melbourne FC 5-0 at Broadmeadows Valley Park on Sunday afternoon. For South, it was a disastrous result in a match where the away side also had two men sent off and had stand-in captain Carl Recchia go off injured.
South travelled to Hume confident of a victory as the side had won its two previous matches at Broadmeadows Valley Park, the most recent being the 6-0 victory in 2010. Things started brightly for the away side, with Kyle Joryeff lobbing the ball over goalkeeper Lupce Acevski’s goal only for Jesse Krncevic to narrowly miss the tap-in at the far post. From there, South’s day turned into a nightmare. Hume opened the scoring after 16 minutes when Richie Cardozo won the ball outside the area and hit a stunning left-footed shot that flew into the top corner, giving South goalkeeper Zaim Zeneli no chance. South’s chances of forcing a result took an even harder hit less than 10 minutes later when Krncevic was given a straight red card by the referee for allegedly elbowing a Hume player behind play.
Shortly before halftime, the match was over as a contest when South lost two players and another goal in 2 minutes of madness. Centre-half Ljubo Milicevic was shown a straight red for a high tackle on a Hume player, with the resultant free kick leading to a scramble inside the penalty area before Fabio Delizia scored. South’s players protested heavily as stand-in captain Recchia – who was captaining the side in the absense of Steven O’Dor, missing through injury – fell awkwardly during the scramble and appeared to have badly rolled his ankle. Nevertheless, the goal was awarded and South suddenly found itself two men down and two goals down with a half of football still to play.
In the second half, South boldly attempted to try and minimise the damage of conceeding goals whilst at the same time trying to score a goal to bring itself back into the contest. However with two less men and tiring players, the task was always going to be nearly impossible. Hume wrapped up the three points within the first five minutes of the second half when Steven Weir was put through on goal and finished calmly past Zeneli. Weir scored his second halfway through the half before Cardozo finished the match with a double after another nicely taken shot that crept into the far corner of the net.
The Victorian Premier League takes a week off for the Easter weekend, however South may be playing Mirabella Cup football at some stage next weekend. Football Federation Victoria did the draw for Round 4 of the Cup and South was drawn to host the winner of Yarraville Glory (State League 3) and Old Melburnians (Provisional League 1). As soon as the fixture is released, the date and venue will be advised on the website.
South Melbourne FC’s next Victorian Premier League fixture is against leaders Dandenong Thunder at John Cain Memorial Park on Sunday 1 May at 15:00.
FINAL SCORE: HUME CITY 5-0 SOUTH MELBOURNE (HT: 2-0)
Goal Scorers:
1-0: Richie Cardozo (16′)
2-0: Fabio Dilizia (39′)
3-0: Steven Weir (48′)
4-0: Steven Weir (65′)
5-0: Richie Cardozo (85′)
Hume City
1. Lupce ACEVSKI, 2. Adam NAKIC, 3. Fabio DILIZIA (17. Mark McGOUGH 83′), 6. Serdar PIR, 10. Richie CARDOZO, 11. Andrew VLAHOS (25. Atilla OFLI 73′), 15. Zoran PETREVSKI, 20. Michael BOSEVSKI, 21. Dusko DELIC (4. Mark PISTINIZI 69′), 22. Phillip RICCOBENE, 23. Steven WEIR
South Melbourne
3. Rhodri PAYNE, 5. Daniel VASILEVSKI, 6. Steven TOPALOVIC, 8. Carl RECCHIA (16. Trent WATERSON 45′), 10. Kliment TASESKI, 11. Jesse KRNCEVIC, 13. Ljubo MILICEVIC, 15. Fernando DE MORAES (33. Bobby RUSSELL 66′), 18. Marinos GASPARIS, 21. Zaim ZENELI, 25. Kyle JORYEFF (24. Nick JACOBS 66′)
SMFC Men of the Match: Steven Topalovic / Zaim Zeneli
Venue: Broadmeadows Valley Park
Date: Sunday 17 April 2011
