San Marco 3-1 AUSC (Massa)
Friendly: San Marco Reserves 2-2 AUSC Reserves(Jackie, Jackie)

Updated with Lucas' match report

SAASL Bianco Challenge Cup – Preliminary Round San Marco 3 Adelaide University (2) 1

The prelminary round saw the Uni 2 side in their first competitive match of the season, which also was the University Men's first competitive match as a whole with Sam Miskelly's A's, Darren Mills' B's and George Lesses's D's all receiving a bye round into the main draw.

The tie was away for the uni at San Marco who play at the home of FFSA League Side – Campbelltown City which is one of the finest football facilities in the state.

The Uni started in their controversial 3-5-2 formation with among the injured Martyn Foreman in between the sticks.

The 3 man defense was headed up by soon to be converted Sydneysider Goran at sweeper with ex-ABA Basketballer Steve and the great Dane Kasper stopping the strikers with their imposing frames.

The 5 man midfield was composed of more of the uni's imports with IKEA poster boy Oskar Hjelm and our resident hollywood reporter Josh Levy from California playing attacking midfielder roles, with John Santos in the defensive midfielder role. The wings were made up of Wen from Hong Kong who patrolled the left side and David Poblete on the right.

The 2 pronged attacked was spearheaded by Masahiro Tsunoda and Greg Diment. In stark contrast to the Uni defensive line, the combined weight of the strikers only just scrapes into triple figures.

San Marco lined up in a typical 4-4-2 formation with a good mix of youth and experience.

The game started well for the Uni with great pressure applied early forcing faulted movements of the ball from San Marco. Unfortunately it was only the third Half game as a playiong group for the Blacks and an early communication error allowed a San Marco striker to slip in up the left hand flank and chip to the far post, with an easy finish for the San Marco striker who only needed to steer the ball into the back of the net with Martyn stranded at the near post.

1-0 san Marco inside 10 minutes.

To their credit, the uni boys fought on against their much fancied opponents, and some hard yards in the midfield were rewarded towards the end of the first half with Greg receiving the ball 30 yards from goal just to the right of the D.
Showing his experience, Greg managed to hold up the ball long enough to spot an opening across the field cheap jerseys and the airborne cross to the left corner of the penalty area was controlled and finished on the half volley by Masahiro in one silky smooth Athlestone movement.

1-1.

The game livened up for the following 5 minutes with the high(low)light being a fast break from San Marco which was broken up by the outstrecthed arm of the Uni Sweeper. Despite the pleasing from San Marco players Goran was allowed to remain on the pitch as the referee interpreted the goal scoring opportunity was not obvious given the fact that the strikers were 60m from goal. The standard stayed high until the unseasonable heat started to affect the players of both halves with half time coming not a minute too soon.

At half time, it was decided that the Uni would cheap nba jerseys formally switch into a 4-4-2 formation The with the Defensive midfielder slotting back to a centre half and cheap mlb jerseys the 2 man mountains launch would move wider into left and right back positions.

The move seemed to be working, with midfielders easing the work rate off from extreme to very hard, but after 5 minutes San Marco again showed their class with a cool finish from the top right hand side of the penalty area. The much feared #6 pergoletto, managed to create some space around Steve, and then fire the ball in to the side netting, with Martyn's arms coming up a little short to deflect the ball wide as he is the only man under 190cm in the starting Uni Backline.

2-1 San Marco.

The game was still well and truly in contention however at the 65 minute mark, there was still no shift in the scoreline.
The attractive Uni coach then decided to "roll the proverbial dice" and action was taken cheap mlb jerseys to try to steal an equaliser. John Santos moved up into midfield from defense with the return of the 3-5-2 to give his all for 10 minutes. He was then sacrificed with 15 minutes remaining and Goran moved to striker with Bilal Farooqi coming on to marshall the defense of 3.
With only 5 mintues of normal time left it was decided to go all out attack and the uni switched to a 2-4-4 formation with Bilal and the abovementioned coach attempting to cover the san marco attack with only 2 bodies with Chinese super sub Jackie taking the 4th forward role after his brace in the reserves.

After numerous failed attempts to hold the ball in the wide areas of attack the uni "Defence" was exposed with a 3 on 2 leading to a 1-1 with keeper Martyn. Martyn was hesitant to charge at the oncoming striker with concerns for his foot injury and the San Marco player calmly slotted home the nail in the coffin for the blacks.

3-1 San Marco.

The game then wen on for a few more minutes with a few plays up the right hand side for the uni not being able to pierce the flooded Nationell San Marco defense with at least 9 of their 11 players behind the ball when the away side attacked.

The score remained unchanged at the final whistle and the Uni C grade boys now have their public holidays free for the rest of 2007.

A side note should be the excellent performance of the match referee (J Spiralis) who went largely unnoticed for the entire match and kept the game in good spirits for the most part. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

San Marco 3 – (Levato 2, Pergoletto) Uni – 1 (Tsunoda) – Uni Best – Greg Diment, Josh Levy, Oskar Hjelm, Kasper Neilsson.

Written by Lucas Barsby