VPL Breakdown: Northcote knock-out Greens

Following Northcote City’s 1-0 win over Bentleigh Greens in the Victorian Premier League Elimination Final, The Football Sack’s Christian Layland sat down with VPL aficionado Yessar Daou (@yesd25) to discuss the ins and outs of the match.

Northcote’s goal came from a Milos Lujic header in the 85th minute despite going a man down with thirty-three minutes to go after Paul Savio received his second yellow card.

Mark Bosnich and Robbie Slater eat your heart out...

Christian Layland: For me, the first half was all Northcote; they had all the chances with Milos Lujic instigating a lot of their attacks. The play would start in the middle, go to him out wide, he’d set up the chance and then they would just bomb it at the end.

Yessar Daou: Today Northcote pressed Bentleigh very well as normally Bentleigh play the ball around a lot more and keep possession better than they did today. Bentleigh needed to take their chances more – it happened to them last week, it’s happened to them throughout the year, it probably even cost them a top two or three spot. The exact same thing happened to them last time against Northcote and I don’t know what it is about Northcote but they just can’t beat them.

Especially with ten men credit has to go to Northcote. Loza (Head Coach Goran Lozanovski) is a very disciplined coach; his teams are disciplined, he was a no-nonsense player as well and you can see that in their playing style. To have lost the players from last season all credit has to go to them for the season they’ve had so far.

Where to now for Northcote? Can they take it out?

As a punter you would say no but football does funny things; you never know what’s going to happen. Next week they will be hoping to play Oakleigh, last time they played them was two weeks ago and they won 2-0 at Oakleigh to secured their spot in the finals whereas last week against Green Gully they lost 3-0 at home. Mentally they would want to play Oakleigh but Loza just told me he’s willing to play anyone.

As you touched on earlier, Bentleigh are known for playing some of the more graceful football in the league and Northcote really shut them down – especially in the first half when they had their full complement of players – they just couldn’t get past Northcote’s pressure defence and that’s a big reason why Bentleigh didn’t win today.

I agree, like you said the back four played really well, Kristian Konstantinidis and Adriano Chiappetta in the middle were really good, Parys Okai was bombing up and down the left hand side and so was Bonel Obradovic down the right. Credit goes to the way they defend because they do a really good job.

I thought in the second half the turning point was going to be the sending off, in the end it didn’t matter, but it still changed the game. Bentleigh were looking better at the start of the second half and the stupidity of Paul Savio’s second yellow card was a huge lack of discipline which Loza won’t be happy about. It really changed the tone of the game and that could have been a season ender.

The red card was an invitation for Bentleigh to get back into the game as up to that point they hadn’t really challenged; Conner Pain had their only shot on goal in the first half and that came in the 44^th minute! Northcote really suffocated Bentleigh and even with the man advantage Bentleigh still didn’t look as good as they usually do.

I’m not going to say they looked bad as they still had chances to score, especially in the last few minutes, but I wouldn’t be happy if I was their coach.

They didn’t look dreadful but they were definitely the second-best side in the first half and then when Northcote went down to ten men they weren’t the better side, they were just equal. They ‘evened’ the game rather than going into the ascendency and they would be disappointed not to have taken advantage of the sending off properly.

I agree, 100%. It would be a very silent dressing room at the moment, the only noises they would be able to hear is the showers. But look, we’re saying all these negatory thoughts but really they’ve had a great year. It was the first time they’ve made finals in ten years so all credit has to go to John Anastasiadis and the work he has done with the club. I’m pretty sure he’s signed on again next year so they will come back better than ever, especially with the young squad that they have.

That’s the thing though; if they can guarantee to keep most of the squad then the future for Bentleigh is going to be up and up.  They play some good football, they have talented players, they have a coach who’s taking them in the right direction – but can they hold onto the players? The VPL is known for some shifting during the off-season.

It’s a tough one because you’d like to think that players such as Connor Pain and Paulo Retre are headed towards the National Youth League and like you said, there is a lot of wheeling and dealing that happens; all the players are on one year contracts so they can go wherever they want, whether it’s for money or whatnot. In saying that, Bentleigh is a well-off club and they can almost bring in anyone they would like so they might lose a few but I’m sure the board will back Johnny A and whoever he brings.

For me the standout player was Lujic while for Bentleigh Retre had an effect when he came on late but other than that who stood out for the Bentleigh side?

No one in particular, I can’t say that there would be one player who would be proud of their performance, they would all be disappointed – especially after the season they have had. For Northcote definitely Okai on the left hand side and Lujic was trouble all night. His presence being six foot two or three and his pace as well, he was threatening all night.

A disappointment was possibly the performance of Ryan De Vries?

He showed glimpses of what he can do and I wouldn’t single him out. The team performed well below par so I wouldn’t say it was just one player. Scott Bullock, there were chances where he shot when he should have passed it, and especially him being a leader having played for Perth Glory and having that experience – the team would have been expecting better performances from their older statesmen. Wayne Wallace as well, he did his best but there were too many times where he flew into challenges when he shouldn’t have and he almost got himself sent off.

And with the coaches, obviously I wasn’t there but you said that Johnny A didn’t want to talk…

The mood in the dressing room was really sad, they were disappointed, especially after last week where Johnny A sat them down after the Oakleigh game. He told them that if they wanted to go on an early holiday then they were more than welcome to, but if you’re here and you want to win then wake up and let’s do this together. I’m not sure what affect that had on them during the game but they didn’t look themselves tonight.

And on the other hand, I’m sure jubilation in the Northcote camp?

Yes, Goran actually needed a few minutes to calm down – they embraced the supporters after the game with club officials surrounding him, congratulating him after the game. He’s done an absolutely brilliant job so far this year. Bar a Northcote supporter no-one would have had them in the top five let alone them making the semi-finals so at the moment the sky is the limit for them. They play a sound defensive game and unless they come up against Green Gully, who seem to have the wood over them, then who knows what might happen.

The VPL Finals Series continues on Sunday when Oakleigh Cannons take on Green Gully Cavaliers at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex at 5pm with the loser to take on Northcote City next week.