Late Penalty The Difference For Acacia Ridge
Acacia Ridge 1 (Jaimes 87’ pen)
The Gap 0
HT 0-0
Played at AJ Kelly Field
Acacia Ridge left it late but an 87th minute Juan Jaimes penalty was enough to separate the two teams when they beat ten man The Gap 1-0 in the Capital League 2 Grand Final at AJ Kelly FIeld on Saturday afternoon.
The Gators had their opportunities, most notably a cracking first half free-kick from Jamal Spelta which bounced back into play off the near post, but when they were reduced to ten men in the 56th minute the odds were weighted against them.
Acacia Ridge love to play balls in and over the backline for their speedy strikers to run on to and it very nearly paid off for Luka Ilic who had two clear first half opportunities but both were well saved by Luke Sutherland.
The dismissal of Ryuhei Nose for a reckless challenge obviously had an impact but The Gap can still count themselves unlucky because they played more expansive and tactically aware football with Marc Wheeler causing plenty of trouble in the middle of the park and his side making more than enough forward entries into the area to win.
Conditions were hot for the 2pm kick off with both teams having to deal equally with the Spring sunshine but it certainly had an impact on the usual high-tempo football preferred by both sides.
When Santi Rodriguez, who had hit the crossbar only a few minutes earlier, went into the box and was brought down by Mark Dobson, the writing was on the wall.
Not unexpectedly, there were plenty of excellent performances...apart from the unfortunate foul inside the area, Dobson gave his opposition no latitude in an error free performance.
For the All-Stars, Diego Bohorquez and Frank Phiri, two of the quiet achievers ended plenty of attacking forays from the Gators with clever positioning and well timed tackling.
And so the season ends with a trophy each and promotion for the top two. They’ll head into Capital League 1 with high hopes of finishing in the higher reaches.
For now though, it’s time to kick back and relax.
FBMedia Player Of The Match: RF Luke Chapman - Acacia Ridge
Chapman was a handful all day attacking down the right flank and really came into his own after his team had a player dismissed.
Team line-ups
Acacia Ridge: Samardzija, Phiri, Zirojevic, I.Simunovic, M.Simunovic, Bohorquez, Jaimes, Rodriguez, Navarro-Falcon, Ilic, Weedy Subs: Collishaw, Fernandez, Obando, Suarez, Yoshimura.
The Gap: Sutherland, S.Rohdmann, Molloy, Dobson, O’Rourke, Discombe, Wheeler, Tully, Nose, Spelta, Chapman. Subs: Bowman, Cleary, Gillespie, MacDonald, A.Rohdmann.
Referee: David Walsh
