A brace of goals from 2022 Golden Boot winner Daniel Barac bookended the League Champions 4-1 success over ten-man Monaro Panthers as Canberra Croatia recorded a fourth Charity Shield win.
The success, achieved over the side that denied them in the Grand Final last term, was greeted with jubilation by the Croatia fans and, with a little more luck and care in the final third, Croatia might well have been celebrating an even wider margin of victory.
Lively substitute Nicholas Pratezina might have helped himself to a hat-trick, but was unable to convert when provided with the openings, but that should not dampen a sprightly cameo from the young lad.
Frighteningly for the rest of the competition, the win was achieved without a trio of recognised goalscorers as new signing Lukman Ahmed-Shaibu, once of the Panthers, Stephen Domenici and Jason Ugrinic watched on, also in the absence of Head Coach Dean Ugrinic, Gaby Wilk taking the reins.
The Panthers looked jittery from the start and presented Croatia with the opening goal in the sixth minute. A loose pass from Gabe Cole was seized upon by Barac and he only needed one touch to tee himself up before blasting an unstoppable finish past Gary Mehmetaj in the Monaro goal.
The response from the Grand Final winners was sharp and they levelled in the 20th minute. A Ben Basser-Silk corner was back-heeled into the danger area by Cole with Michael John applying the same finish inside the six-yard box, an adroit touch, to bring the Panthers back on level terms.
Indeed, Monaro may have led shortly after. Basser-Silk nodded a cross back into the danger area where Connor Mynott-Smith intelligently nodded down for John whose crashing volley was straight at Sam Brown in the Croatia goal who manage to repel the fierce drive. Anywhere else on target and Monaro would have led.
Instead, the game swung on a sending off, Panthers’ midfielder Zac McLaren issued a straight red card for a lunging challenge on Croatia ‘skipper Mat Grbesa that saw referee Alex McConachie left in no doubt of the decision.
Shortly before half-time Croatia edged in front. From a Kaz Patafta corner, the ball found its way to Noah Vanderpol on the edge of the penalty area, the youngster having two pops at a shot, the second being steered into the corner of the net by full-back David Seselja to put the League Champions ahead at the break.
Understandably, playing against ten-men, Croatia began to dominate territory and possession, and were able to add a third goal to kill the contest in the 66th minute. An acrobatic overhead kick from Daniel Subasic was flicked on into the net by midfielder Ryan Keir.
Roko Strika, making his competitive debut for the Panthers, tried in vain to drag his team back into the match, and added his weight to the defensive effort, somehow clearing one goalbound effort off the line after Mehmetaj was beaten and Pratezina seemed certain to score.
The substitute was extremely unlucky not to add his name to the tally with a stupendous chest and volley that was arcing over the head of Mehmetaj, the Panthers stopper diving backwards to make a sensational save.
But there was little he could do when Croatia sealed the Shield with their fourth goal eighteen minutes from the final whistle. Franc Greco, impressive on his debut, swung in a devilish cross that allowed Barac to rise above a cluster of Panther shirts and nod into the corner.
RESULT
Canberra Croatia 4 (Barac 6’, 72’, Seselja 42’, Keir 66’) Monaro Panthers 1 (John 20’)
Photo: Soccer Snaps By Sal
