A sublime opening forty-five minutes saw Canberra Croatia inflict a 5-1 defeat on visiting Tigers FC, keeping their ambitions of a top four spot very much in the balance whilst potentially setting some nerves jangling in the Tigers ranks on a cool evening at Deakin Stadium.

The hosts roared into a four-goal lead by the half-way mark and were able to weather a mini Tigers FC resurgence following the dismissal of ex-Tigers defender Tony Spaseski nine minutes into the second-half, sent-off for a flick out at Julian Borgna after a heavy collision in midfield, to claim a vital win.

By then, Croatia were firmly in control of match, having scored some sublime goals in a scintillating opening spell. Daniel Colbertaldo started it off, exchanging delightful passes with Micheal Piccolo to cut across the top of the area and blaze a shot into the bottom corner, rounding off a superb move.

Stephen Domenici added the second, capitalising on a loose clearance from Jakob Cole via a touch from Noah Vanderpol to lash home his sixth goal in his last six appearances, a tally that would rise to take him to double figures for the campaign as he sent Cole the wrong way from a penalty awarded for handball against Kyle Senior in stoppage time.

In between times Colbertaldo had bagged a second of his own, collecting an astute pass from Piccolo and slamming home past the exposed Cole, culminating a free-flowing attack from front to back that involved Domenici, Vanderpol, and Marco Gayer.

Tigers were to have their say via a solo effort from Nik Taneski, the forward latching on to a poor pass to knock a ball past Daniel Sparrow and then outpace Daniel Subasic before sliding home twelfth of the season, however he suffered a knock to the knee in the subsequent collision with Sam Brown that curtailed his involvement.

Sam Whithear twice went close to reducing the arrears, but it was the magnificent Piccolo who had the final word, bursting clear into the Tigers half and running across the face of goal before burying an accurate drive past Cole and into the bottom corner.

A second-half turnaround saw Gungahlin United take a giant leap towards the top four as they defeated Monaro Panthers 2-1 in a replay of the game that had been abandoned a fortnight earlier after the lights had failed at half-time at the Riverside Stadium.

In truth only the most fervent of Panthers supporters would begrudge the Gunners the points after a dominant display from the visitors who, but for the sheer brilliance of Panthers custodian Jordan Thurtell, would have won the match by a much more convincing margin than they did.

Thurtell denied the league’s leader scorer Maxx Green on no fewer than five occasions, twice winning a one-on-one duel then somehow clawing away a shot when he was grounded, an outstanding reflex stop that was one of the saves of any season, never mind this one.

Even when Green did neat Thurtell with a bullet header from a pin-point Fernando cross, the flag saved Monaro, raised for offside. At that stage the goal swept in by Christian Kreskas from a pass by Beau Harvey after only two minutes, had the Panthers in the box-seat, but they were hanging on.

There was little doubt Gungahlin deserved their equaliser, Jack Green felled in the area by Harvey and Maxx Green getting his reward with his seventeenth of the season from the penalty spot. And they were to grab the winner in some style with twenty-one minutes left on the clock.

Antoni Timotheou swung in the corner and Philippe Bernabo-Madrid rose highest to thunder a stunning header past Thurtell and claim a vital, and much-needed victory, for the Northerners who, with Josh Gaspari back in their ranks following a sojourn overseas, are very much in the Finals mix.

RESULT

ROUND 17

Tuesday 8 August

Canberra Croatia 5 (Colbertaldo 15’, 28’, Domenici 20’, 45+3’ (p), Piccolo 90+4’) Tigers FC 1 (Taneski 57’)

ROUND 16

Wednesday 9 August

Monaro Panthers 1 (Kreskas 2’) Gungahlin United 2 (M. Green 55’ (p), Bernabo-Madrid 69’)

TABLE

		P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	O’Connor Knights	17	12	3	2	46	17	+29	39
2	Canberra Olympic	17	10	2	5	39	25	+14	32
3	Tigers FC	17	10	2	5	48	37	+11	32
4	Gungahlin United	17	9	3	5	46	35	+11	30
5	Monaro Panthers	17	9	1	7	30	22	+8	28
6	Canberra Croatia	17	7	5	5	45	28	+17	26
7	Tuggeranong United	17	2	2	13	17	53	-36	8
8	West Canberra Wanderers	17	0	0	17	13	67	-54	0

 

TOP SCORERS

17 Maxx GREEN (Gungahlin United)

12 Nik TANESKI (Tigers FC)

11 Roko STRIKA (Monaro Panthers)

10 Stephen DOMENICI (Canberra Croatia), Josh GULEVSKI (Tigers FC), Nik POPOVICH (Canberra Olympic)

9 Lukman AHMED-SHAIBU (Canberra Croatia)

8 Micheal ADAMS (O’Connor Knights), Aisosa IHEGIE (O’Connor Knights), Own GOALS

7 Josh GASPARI (Gungahlin United)

6 Amilio KISTA (Tigers FC), Connor MYNOTT-SMITH (Monaro Panthers)

5 Philippe BERNABO-MADRID (Gungahlin United), Luca FLOREZ (Canberra Olympic), Thomas JAMES (Canberra Olympic), Niko KRESIC (O’Connor Knights), Phakedi MANDA (O’Connor Knights), Sam WALKER (Tuggeranong United), Sam WHITHEAR (Tigers FC)

4 Daniel BARAC (Canberra Croatia), Clancy HISLOP (Tuggeranong United), Alen JAMES (Canberra Olympic), Patrick O’ROURKE (O’Connor Knights), Regan WALSH (O’Connor Knights)

3 Jenno CERUTI (Monaro Panthers), Jack GREEN (Gungahlin United), Micheal JOHN (Monaro Panthers), Luca MACOR (Canberra Olympic), Marko MILUTINOVIC (Tigers FC), Adam NEOU (Canberra Olympic), Michael PICCOLO (Canberra Croatia), Luke STEVENS (Tuggeranong United), Jason UGRINIC (Canberra Croatia)

2 Riley ANGELOSANTE (O’Connor Knights), Connor BILL (O’Connor Knights), Daniel COLBERTALDO (Canberra Croatia), FERNANDO Jorquera (Gungahlin United), Lachlan FIELDS (O’Connor Knights), Beau HARVEY (Monaro Panthers), Nikos KALFAS (Tigers FC), Ryan KEIR (Canberra Croatia), Ed MCCARTHY (Tigers FC), Tom MCLACHLAN (Gungahlin United), Nathen MEGIC (Canberra Olympic), Jackson PAESLER (Gungahlin United), Kaz PATAFTA (Canberra Croatia), Kyle SENIOR (Tigers FC), Patrick SHORE (West Canberra Wanderers), Callum SMITH (Canberra Olympic), Daniel SPARROW (Canberra Croatia), Antoni TIMOTHEOU (Gungahlin United), Noah VANDERPOL (Canberra Croatia)

1 Badreldin ABBAS (Gungahlin United), Joaquin ABOT (Tuggeranong United), Angus BAILEY (West Canberra Wanderers), Jake BISHOP (Tigers FC), Julian BORGNA (Tigers FC), Riley BROWN (West Canberra Wanderers), Lachlan CAMPBELL (O’Connor Knights), Kofi DANNING (Canberra Olympic), Elie DARWICH (Canberra Olympic), Dylan DEEP-JONES (Monaro Panthers), James DRISCOLL (O’Connor Knights), Dom GIAMPAOLO (Gungahlin United), Franc GRECO (Canberra Croatia), Sam HABTEMARIAM (Gungahlin United), Patrick HISLOP (Tuggeranong United), Christian KRESKAS (Monaro Panthers), Tyson LIVERMORE (O’Connor Knights), Tony MADAFFARI (Tigers FC), Archie MCGREGOR (Monaro Panthers), Lewis MCKINNEY (Tuggeranong United), Zac MCLAREN (Monaro Panthers), Max MELLICK (Canberra Olympic), Misko NAUMOSKI (Gungahlin United), Tomohiro OGAWA (Tigers FC), Lasse OLRIK (Canberra Olympic), Harrison PALIC (O’Connor Knights), George PAVESE (West Canberra Wanderers), Euan PETERKIN (Tuggeranong United), Jordan REZEK (Tuggeranong United), Jayden RIPPON (West Canberra Wanderers), Nicholas ROUFOGALIS (West Canberra Wanderers), David SESELJA (Canberra Croatia), Tony SPASESKI (Canberra Croatia), Daniel SUBASIC (Canberra Croatia), Hristjan TANOSKI (Tigers FC), George TIMOTHEOU (Gungahlin United), Robert TKATCHENKO (Monaro Panthers), Harry TRUMAN (West Canberra Wanderers), Liam VICKERS (West Canberra Wanderers), Atiya WARAGA (Canberra Croatia), Doug WOODIWISS (West Canberra Wanderers), Joshua YOUNG (West Canberra Wanderers)