The Crossbar: Brisbane goes all Jar Jar Binks on us

Gold Coast United followed up from their biggest 'home' crowd of the season with a home game at Skilled Park against the rejuvenated Melbourne Heart in front of a modest crowd of 4,301 fans. The game opened up with a bang when evergreen Matty Thompson scoring the quickest A-League goal this season. Three minutes to be exact. The game was entertaining without being a 'must watch' until Peter Jungschlager scored a cracker from a free kick. Germano got the winner for Heart five minutes later when Matt Thompson delightfully slipped the Argentine through on goal. Big ups to the Gold Coast Bulletin who ran with the headline 'Shot through the Heart'.

Wellington took their home game 650 kms away to the other end of the North Island with Rugby heartland Eden Park hosting the stumbling Adelaide United. The Reds haven't won in NZ for over four years but took the lead on the stroke of half time as Big Bruce Djite scored his first goal for Adelaide since January 2008. Nigel Boogaard paid the price for having too many vowels in his name earning the Phoenix a draw in front of over 20,000 fans with his spectacular own goal. The point leaves Adelaide 8th on the Hyundai A-League table but only a win away from second place.

Brisbane's streak getting annoying

Brisbane looked to equal some record from some team from some other code for amount of games undefeated when it travelled to Newcastle to face the Jets. The home side took the lead just before halftime, unbelievably via an amazing Zadkovic pass. Griffith finished it off, but wow, Ruban, who'd have guessed it. Anyway Brisbane of course hit back like everyone knew they would. Henrique and Meyer scoring and its all getting a little tiresome now isn't it? The Roar are getting a little Jar Jar Binks on us. Cute at the start but now we all want them to stop and go away.

The Sydney Football Stadium was the place to be on Saturday night when the Bling took on the Mariners. The game heated up early when little spotfires broke out, firstly between Hutchinson and McFlynn and then McBreen and Jamieson. Everyone outside the border line of NSW were on the edge of their seat hoping one of them would start swinging. The Mariners were the better side when the football broke out with Zwaanswijk scoring a belter, McGlinchey and Hearfield also getting on the score sheet. Brett Emerton collected his maiden FC goal with a suberb free kick after Nicky Carle had got the Sky Blues back into the contest with a fortunate rebounded header.

Melbourne Victory were probably the story of the round when they held on for a 2-2 draw despite being up a man and 2 goals with 20 minutes to play. Liam Miller was dubiously sent from the ground 37 minutes in, and then Archie Thomson was awarded a comical penalty that not one Victory player appealed for. Danny Allsopp put Melbourne 2-0 up infront of a dull crowd (in noise levels not intelligence) before the unthinkable happened and Perth managed to get back in it through an Andrezinho free kick and a Smeltz header (the space and time he had needs to be seen to be believed). Durakovic moaned that the Victory need a bit of luck, bar winning the lottery I'm not sure how much luckier they can get.

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These snuck under the Crossbar and into The Sack  (Likes) 

1. Rosie Madaschi (Melbourne Heart's Adrian Madaschi's wife) on Twitter. During the game Friday night tweets included:

@TheFootballSack he's gonna get a yelling from me when he gets home

@TheFootballSack Adrian. if he pulls another shirt he's sleeping on the couch

@TheFootballSack well I'm not the boss, but he won't dare laugh me off like he did the ref :)

Classic stuff, follow her @Rosie_Madaschi

2. Character. Perth showed it in spades after going down 2-0 and to 10 men away from home. Brisbane also showed it but we expect that now. (@Patrick478)

3. Goals from free kicks. Carlos has been doing it for years but this week Jungschlager, Emerton, Zwaanswijk and Andrezihno all scored belters from the dead ball (@Gammasuite)

4. 20K to the Phoenix game. It was at Eden Park, make it an annual thing please FFA (@HeartBhoy23)

5. Our girl @MelanieDinjaski in her Crystal Ball predictions picking James Meyer as her one to watch. He scored again in the last ten minutes; the A-League's answer to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 


What went over the Crossbar  (Dislikes) 

1. Melbourne Victory or Melbourne Draw as they could be rebranded. 18,000 at AAMI would have been a great atmosphere, it was dead at Etihad. Vargas' marking of Smeltz with 3 minutes left. Mehmet Durakovic claiming Victory need a bit of luck. What, a dodgey red and a terrible penalty isnt enough? (@joshmadden8)

2. Over reacting on the Matt Thompson betting scandal. Yes I went a little over the top saying he was in huge trouble - we get it wrong sometimes. But in light of the scandals in both the NRL and AFL season gone, it was a stupid thing to say on national TV, to say the least. 

3.Not going to say it, Not going to say it, Not going to say it...AARRGGHHHH CHRIS BEATH WAS TERRIBLE!!!  AGAIN!!! Relieved sigh.... rant over.

4. Karol Kisel tantrum towards Antonis. Not great leadership, not great sportsmanship and just plain selfishness.

5. Blokes like Jungschlager and Zwaanswijk scoring goals. Brilliant players, great goals but geez they make life hard to tweet.

About The Author
Scott Condon is quite possibly the biggest sports nut in the world's biggest sports city. From a traditional Melbourne AFL in the winter/ Cricket in the summer family, football was a big part of growing up in Melbourne's Northern suburbs in the 80's. A quick, small, slightly built, left footed traditional number 10 (think Maradona - but better). A Melbourne Victory member and Newcastle United fan, follow him on Twitter @TheCONDO.