The Crossbar: Fight, Fight, Fight!

Go on - admit it. This weekend's events all took us back to those school days down the end of the oval when two kids were shaping up and the chant went up. Fight, fight, fight!

Now we aren't advocating violence in any way as that would just be irresponsible in this day and age but we all know the Berisha v Booschaart and the Slater v Foster is going to get more TV and radio time and newspaper space then your average A-League round of matches. And that's a good thing isn't it?


The round started off in Melbourne on Friday night with Jim Magilton taking charge for his first game. It was a case of the more it changes the more it stays the same as Victory again took the lead only to surrender it and come away with a draw. Socceroos Harry Kewell and Dario Vidosic were both outstanding in front of over 20,000 at AAMI Park.


F3 XXVI was played at Bluetounge Stadium on Saturday evening in-front of 10,904 fans. The points were shared to take the ledger to 9-8 in favour of the Mariners with 9 draws, a pretty even contest by all accounts. Haliti scored early for the Jets and (this time) kept his shirt on while Patty Z equalised for the Mariners on the hour mark.


Saturday night's game looked pretty clean cut, journos were just editing their stories as Sydney were up 1-0 in the 90th minute courtesy of a Mark Bridge goal, the @SydneyFC twitter account were using the time to advertise membership packs and life was going fine. Until the proverbial shit hit the fan. From nowhere the Roar scored twice in injury time to steal the game but the best was yet to come. Sydney defender Pascal Booschaart didn't expect Besart Berisha to take up his offer to meet him in the car park, but Berisha couldn't get there quick enough. All hell broke loose (in A-League terms anyway) and a fierce rivalry was born.

Unfortunately the two teams don't play each other again this season unless they meet in a final which everyone is hoping for, especially the bean counters at A-League HQ.




Sunday's Melbourne Heart vs Perth Glory game won't go down in history as a classic. A few lessons will be learnt though. Lesson one, you can't give Shane Smeltz space! Maybe his record of 53 goals in 91 games might have been the tip off, but it's now a fact. Defenders, if you give him space he will most likely score against you. Lesson two, always follow up on a penalty shot, chances are if its saved you'll get the rebound and score anyway, as Kristian Sarkies did. Perth were good enough to win the game and record their second win on the road in two games and give themselves a shot at equalling their all time winning streak of....................................three wins in a row.

The last game of the round was played in-front of just over 2,000 fans, no prizes for guessing where. Wellington were too good for Gold Coast with Tim Brown getting the winner in the Nix of time (see what we did there). The 88th minute winner gave the Phoenix a precious away win and sends them up to 5th on the table.

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

1. Miron Bleiberg mic'd up. At halftime to Rigters "Have you taken a shot yet?" Rigters "Yes", Bleiberg "I don't remember it" GOLD.

 

2. Ben Halloren. Gold Coast's and Australia's brightest prospect right now.

 

3. Watching a Chris Beath refereed game and only seeing two yellow cards 

 

4. Melbourne Hearts acknowledgement of young bullying victim Sheniz Erkan. Respectful and community focused, we shouldn't tolerate bullying, take a stand! @MandsGlossip 

 

5. Harry Kewell's game on Friday night. He's arrived people, He's arrived!!!! 

 

 

These struck the Crossbar went straight down and we're not sure if it crossed the line or not (we need video technology to know if we like/dislike them) 

 

1. Berisha vs Booschaart. The coverage this gets will overshadow a great game but the positive is that it will get coverage and sell about 10,000 more tickets next time the Roar venture south to Sydney.

 

2. Foster vs Slater. Like them or not they are both legends of the game in this country. Fozzie is passionate and has been a big supporter of The Sack from the get go. Slater has a point but didn't need to get personal. Passionate debate is what we want though, and again its publicity!

 

3. @PeteNowakowski stepping down as Social Media Coordinator from The Sack. A great contributor to us over the past few years, we wish him the best. Saying that, we must welcome the new SM Manager, David Manuca! 

 

 

What went over the Crossbar (Dislikes)  

 

1. Low crowds. Not pointing the finger at anyone but seriously, they'd get more in Canberra, Wollongong, geez they'll even get more on King Island. @Fussballnutter 

2. Dubsteb before A-League games. The fans say NO.