by Greg Blake
The moment was almost serendipitous, in its context, timing and pure aesthetic beauty. Bul Juach has scored ten in Alexander colours this year, but none better than his goal 52 minutes into Friday night’s come-from-behind win over Port Melbourne.
Ben Collins speared a hot pass from near half-field for Juach, in range but caught with his back to goal and a defender a whisper behind. Deftly taking the pace off the football, Juach then span left and swirled 180 degrees Tasmanian Devil-style around the defender before meeting up with the lazily rolling football again and hammering home what was to prove the difference in a confusingly tight 2-1 win over the Sharks.
Juach’s ‘wait, what just happened’-type match-winner came as news filtered through that Green Gully had scored a match-clinching fifth goal against Avondale, meaning his wonderful strike was eventually enough to elevate John Anastasiadis’ Warriors to outright top of the ladder.
A first half Max Bisetto goal had offset a Liston Diaz go-ahead goal for Port Melbourne and the Sharks rode the luck of the brave most of the night, leaving Alexander to sweat on the final outcome. Regardless, by Friday night’s final whistle Heidelberg United’s now eight-game strong winning streak was extended into record-threatening territory.
But for a time records and streaks were less a consideration than just getting past the bottom-of-the-table Sharks. On form going in and Heidelberg’s rampant start, there was the hint of a massacre in the air. Port Melbourne keeper, Luka Romic, ensured that it wasn’t. Heidelberg swarmed and threatened menacingly from the get-go, but Romic set the tone with two bold stops in the first six minutes.
A long bomb wide and Asahi Yokokawa hitting the side netting were to follow, setting a frustrating trend and Romic’s brave stop at the feet of Juach on the quarter hour ensured the floodgates stayed firmly shut.
Jamal Ali’s graceful slide in to thwart Port’s first assertion of confidence going forward shortly afterward hinted at lurking danger and when Diaz bloodied Heidelberg’s nose with a sparkling free kick some 19 minutes into Friday night’s game, there seemed a rare momentary sense of uncertainty about Alexander.
Balance was restored 35 minutes in when Anthony Lesiotis identified and hit the outside run of Yokokawa, who powered deep and squared into a crowd and Bisetto forced the ball through the scrambling mess and over the line for a welcome equaliser.
The second half commenced as did the first, with Heidelberg’s intimidating five and six wide assault force rolling in ravenous waves down Olympic Village, bending but not breaking the resolute Sharks. The seemingly unending frustration was broken only by Juach’s spectacular spin-and-in, which eventually settled the game.
The mercurial Jamal Ali’s duck-and-weave around three defenders deserved richer reward than seeing his set-up for Yokokawa’s shot at close range being plucked from the sky by Romic late in the game. And just off the bench Jay McGowan wasn’t far off making it three from three games on a night when things might’ve gone terribly wrong – reference Avondale at Green Gully – but thankfully didn’t.
This wasn’t a game for individual stand-out performances, but Fletcher Fulton’s increasingly lively contributions at both ends of the ground should not pass without notice.
Port Melbourne was supposed to be awful. They weren’t and they toughed out a difficult assignment with some pride. Melbourne Knights are supposedly flailing and faltering. They come to Olympic Village in a week’s time to take on the competition’s new league leaders, their pride on the line and an upset in their crosshairs.
Alexander is playing brilliant and beautiful football. It just gets a bit tougher when you become the biggest dog in the fight and the yours is the one scalp the others crave taking. Strap in, because this second half of the season promises to be one wild ride.
