Dario Vidosic refused to celebrate his match-winning free kick in Adelaide United’s 1-0 win over his father Rado’s Brisbane Roar out of respect for his former club.
Dario Vidosic refused to celebrate his match-winning free kick in Adelaide United’s 1-0 win over his father Rado’s Brisbane Roar out of respect for his former club and its supporters.
The Brisbane-born and raised midfielder decided Sunday’s match with his third-minute strike which deflected off the wall for the only goal of the afternoon.
The triumph over the Hyundai A-League champions lifted the Reds two points clear on top of the table but a cautious Vidosic did not want to offend the Suncorp Stadium crowd – or his dad – with an over-exuberant celebration.
“I think about Mario Ballotelli, when he said ‘when the postman delivers the mail, he doesn’t celebrate either’,” he said.
“Once it goes in the back of the net there’s no need to celebrate, and especially here.
“When I played here I was voted fans’ favourite so I’ve got a lot of respect for the fans and also with Dad being the coach, and I played with a lot of the guys, too.
“They’re all friends. And all my friends and family are Roar supporters. Definitely that respect is there.”
Vidosic paid the Roar further compliments, describing their play as ‘phenomenal’ despite failing to score for the third time this season.
In truth the men in orange were all over United but could not beat shotstopper Eugene Galekovic, who pulled off a string of acrobatic saves to maintain the 1-0 buffer.
“That’s football sometimes. Even Barcelona have played unbelievable games where you look back and just say, what could have been,” Vidosic said.
“They played very, very well and they created a number of chances. You can’t fault them, the final touch was just missing tonight.
“In a very long season you can’t play 27 perfect games. Tonight was that game and luck was on our side.
“We wanted to play football but they’re that good, that they force you back. That’s what they do to you.
“They strangle you into your defensive third but you have to credit the boys, they fought hard. There were a lot of tired legs out there.”
Vidosic did his chances of selection for Australia’s friendly in South Korea next week no harm with his solid performance and tidy goal.
National team boss Holger Osieck was on hand at Suncorp Stadium scouting talent for the squad he is expected to name on Thursday.
Then there is the matter of the 2013 East Asian Championships qualification tournament in December, for which the Qantas Socceroos are likely to send a squad dominated by Hyundai A-League players.
But Vidosic said Osieck was more likely to have been impressed by his opponents on Sunday, who completely controlled the game in midfield and were unfortunate not to score.
“I saw a few people sending me stats wondering how we got away with that because they had the ball for 65 per cent of the time and double the amount of passes that we had,” Vidosic said.
Meanwhile, Adelaide coach John Kosmina was scratching his head after the final whistle over a disallowed goal in the second half.
Sergio van Dijk headed home a corner not long after the interval but it was ruled out because referee Chris Beath spotted a foul.
“I’ve not got a clue what that was for,” he said.
“You can ask the referee but he’s going to back himself, isn’t he? You wouldn’t get a free kick for that in a netball game, it wouldn’t even be called contact.”
