A hard earned point - Dandenong Thunder 1 South Melbourne 1

Considering the outs we had, especially defensively, and the relative form of the two teams, I wasn't too optimistic about this one. But we ended up with one more point than I thought we would, and despite picking up only one point from the last two matches, I strangely still feel that we are on the right track. This sort of optimism in the face of adversity is not sitting well with me.

Credit to the team for fighting hard, though. That's the very least we expect.

Counter-attacking
Still not up to scratch. Rixon needs more support.

Crosses
We're scoring most of our goals from crosses. We should put in more crosses.

Dimi Hatzimouratis
Lot of improvement to be had yet from this player, but he worked hard yesterday and earned his goal. The connection isn't quite there yet with Trent Rixon, but hopefully we're on the right path.

Filip Jonsson
The fringe Swedish defender had packed his bags, ready to head home, but injuries to Luke Byles and Steven O'Dor (apparently not from his exuberant goal celebration against Hume, even though that's a cooler story) made his debut, and did OK.

Futsalroos

Fernando in action for the Futsalroos against South Korea

Fernando De Moraes and the squad are currently at the 2012 AFC Championships in the UAE. They lost two warm up matches to Thailand, but have won their opening two group games at the tournament proper. They beat Qatar 3-1, and South Korea 6-0 (Fernando scored a brace), to secure their passage to the quarter finals. Their final group match is against regional heavyweight Iran. The four semi-finalists qualify for the World Championships to be held in Thailand later this year.

Gazoza
It was listed on the board, I had my five dollars(!) worth of coins ready to go after the match, but they were out of stock.

Inventory
I've been helping out with the social club's inventory/stocktake, as we near the start of the renovations there. Finding some amazing items - more on that in another article - but I'm also worried that a hundred boxes worth of the club's archives will be thrown out. I've got nowhere to put them, and the argument so far has been that the club also has no place to store them. Hope that a solution can be found.

Kyle Joryeff
Had a quick chat with Kyle after the match. Among the issues discussed, were visa statuses and tribulations. Quite topical with the deportation of Stephen Weir who apparently overstayed his welcome. Just as interesting was discussing his futsal career, which had an interesting twist - in 2008, he even played against the Futsalroos, including our own Fernando De Moraes, at the Kuala Lumpur 5s tournament.

Language
Mine. Bit foul yesterday. I blame the orange tic tacs.

Luck
Probably on our side for once.

Next Week
Northcote A vs Northcote B. Northcote vs Southcote. At Lakeside, which is nice, because it lessens the confusion just a little bit. Another one of those no win games - in that, even if we win the game and take the three points, the moral battle can never be won, But once more, more on that in a different article.

Referee
Unusually outstanding, and a credit to their selection for the Olympics.

Squibs
Certain people decided not to turn up to this match, preferring to watch it on the FFV's live stream service. They know who they are.

Zenith
The Public Transport Faction was down to one member yesterday. I felt about as popular as the People's Front of Judea.

South squeeze through against Malvern in state cup

Watched my second and third games of cup football today, after having watched Moreland City go down 1-0 in extra time to Hume City yesterday.

Today saw South's entry into the 2012 tournament, up against Malvern City, whom we had accounted for fairly easily a few months ago in pouring rain during the Hellenic Cup.

A much more polished performance from Malvern today. Nothing spectacular, but we were so half arsed, with most of the more fringe players taking part today not doing themselves any favours.

Saldaris in goals looked OK, and Marinos Gasparis looked hungry, harrassing and harrying in the midfield. But Fernando looked a little slack, and Gianni De Nittis probably didn't do himself any favours.

Dimi Hatzimouratis surely edged himself in front of Gianni in that regard, with the opening goal, a long range effort which smashed in under the crossbar. Malvern then equalised, deservedly so, after an old forgotten foe in Juan Nilo slid one in.

Thankfully Joe Keenan's cut back was met by Kyle Joryeff, and we held the lead until the end. The boys will need to play a lot better against Port Melbourne in the next round, to be held during the Queen's Birthday long weekend.

The second half of the double header was between Northcote and Morwell Pegasus. It was a pretty interesting game, and quite enjoyable after the slop we produced.

Pegasus had an early, possibly dubious penalty, which was saved - and the follow up shot from the rebound was very poor, straight at the keeper with almost the whole goal to aim at. Morwell kept beating Northcote's offside trap, eventually making it count, after a very nice build up in midfield released their striker into space, who hit a beautiful chip over the keeper.

Pegasus almost doubled their lead early in the second half, with the ball hitting the crossbar and coming down, but not crossing the line. Thereafter, Northcote dominated posession and territory, with Morwell defending in numbers, though clear cut chances were few and far between. Late on Northcote missed what looked like a sitter from inside the six yard box, their best chance of the game. Pegasus had a man sent off about 10 minutes from time I think, just outside the box.

Bit of cup romance for the tragics, with last season's cup winners, albeit a shadow of the team they were then, bundled out by a team who didn't even have a sponsor on their shirt.