Gold Coast end pre-season with win in west
Gold Coast United will go into their first Hyundai A-League match in two weeks time with a good deal of confidence, after ending their pre-season with a 1-0 win over Perth Glory in Bunbury today. Meanwhile Central Coast Mariners and Wellington Phoenix played out a 0-0 draw in Dubbo.
Joel Porter struck the decisive blow in the 23rd minute for United, crowning a fine performance from Miron Bleiberg's men who enjoyed a large share of possession throughout the ninety minutes.
Midfield superiority was the key for United with the central trio of Zenon Caravella, Steve Pantelidis and Jason Culina providing much of the impetus and bite for the visitors.
Despite being under pressure for much of the match, Perth still had their opportunities. Jelic missed an open goal on the quarter hour and James Downey shot straight at the advancing Jess Vanstrattan as the first half drew to a close.
United's winner came after Caravella won possession in the middle of the park before finding Shane Smeltz out on the right wing. When the Kiwi international crossed to the far post, Porter stole in to beat his marker to the ball and smash home from close range.
Gold Coast continued to press for more goals in the second period and Caravella almost doubled their lead after some neat footwork on the edge of the box fashioned a shooting chance.
Brazilian striker Milson replaced Smeltz with just under 20 minutes remaining and almost immediately marked his arrival with a goal when he latched on to a precise through ball from Culina, but shot narrowly wide.
"A lot of people will say that pre-season isn't important and so on, but I believe that you need to prepare yourself well to succeed in football just as you have to with everything in life,” said United Head Coach Miron Bleiberg.
"Our pre-season is over now and we have achieved what we wanted to achieve from it. Every game has been important because it has provided our players with more knowledge of each other. We are ready for the season to begin now and we can't wait."
Perth coach Dave Mitchell was also relatively pleased with his team's efforts.
"It was a tough old game. I'm not too disappointed in the result as we were able to try a few things and get some more cohesion amongst the players which is our primary concern before the season starts," he said.
"I was happy with what we got out of the game in terms of preparation for the season especially with the number of players we had missing."
In the NSW western city of Dubbo, the Central Coast and Wellington were unable to trouble the scoreboard.
Adam Kwasnik had the chance to secure victory against his former club with almost the last kick of the game, but regardless, Dubbo was treated to a football spectacle.
Tim Brown had the first chance of the match as the Phoenix went looking for an early goal, but after he headed over. .
The Mariners best chance of the opening 45 minutes came just before the half hour mark, Kwasnik playing a great ball through to Dylan Macallister, who showed plenty of strength to turn his marker, but was unlucky to see his volley shave the crossbar. Porter also went close to giving the yellow and navy the lead, but a low effort was brilliantly saved by a diving Mark Paston.
Macallister was just millimetres from finding the back of the net soon after the restart, but his outstretched boot just couldn-t connect with a Kwasnik through ball.
Vince Lia shot straight at Danny Vukovic in a rare Wellington attack, while Andrew Durante headed a Leo Bertos free kick over the bar.
Chris Doig had a goalbound header well saved by Paston down low, and it appeared it was only a matter of time before the Mariners were on the scoresheet.
Kwasnik had the chance in the dying minutes to snatch victory, but was denied by Paston.