Queensland has stunned ladder-leader Melbourne 2-0 at Telstra Dome with substitutes Tahj Minniecon and Michael Zullo securing all three points for the visitors with two goals in the final seven minutes.
For the third match in succession, Melbourne had a man sent off with Carlos Hernandez sent off for a second bookable offence of 58 minutes. But incredibly, after a docile first hour where they were dominated by the Roar, Melbourne looked the better side for the next 20 minutes.
However, after the Roar had squandered so many good chances early in the game, Minniecon came on and on 83 minutes delivered the knockout blow with a superb individual effort.
Zullo then completely outfoxed Kevin Muscat in the dying seconds with a great individual effort of his own to make it 2-0.
The win sees the Roar moves up to fifth place on the ladder on eighth points while Melbourne, which suffered its first loss of the season, stays equal top after Sydney had lost to Wellington earlier in the day.
Coach Frank Farina was delighted with what he described as a deserved win after the team had failed to make the most of their first-half dominance.
“I thought we played very well. The first half we created four or five very good chances. We deserved the win, it would have been a travesty when we didn’t get three points,” he said.
Queensland had all the chances in a first half which didn’t really spark up until the final 15 minutes. Charlie Miller made a meal of a close-range chance firing way over early in the game.
Sergio van Dijk had two clear chances on goal. The first one, on 25 minutes saw him angle his shot just wide, while 12 minutes later he hit the cross bar from close range from a set piece.
But by far the best chance fell to Reinaldo on 35 minutes. The Brazilian beat the offside trap down the right hand side and found himself miles in the clear. Mitchell Langerak was a little slow to come off his line, but got down low enough to block the shot with his legs. Luke De Vere then headed wide late in the half to compound Frank Farina’s frustration.
Ernie Merrick looked to step things up for Melbourne by bringing on Evan Berger for Matthew Kemp at half-time, while significantly Hernandez’s name went into Ben Williams’ book for a foul in the early moments of the half.
After another 10 minutes of Queensland dominance but few genuine chances, Merrick then brought on Tom Pondeljak for Michael Thwaite, while soon after Muscat was booked.
Melbourne then found itself down to 10-men when Hernandez was booked a second time on 58 minutes. The Costa Rican trudged off and Melbourne faced a mountain to climb with a third of the game left.
Queensland initially struggled to take advantage, with van Dijk thwarted by Muscat when he was bearing down on goal, while Hyuk-su Seo and Miller both blazed over.
Melbourne’s best chances came from counter-attacking moves. Berger almost found Pondeljak at the near post and then rolled a long shot just wide while Billy Celeski failed to beat Liam Reddy’s right foot with a powerful effort on 70 minutes, Melbourne’s best chance of the match.
It took a piece of brilliance from Minniecon to finish the game off. The substitute beat three Melbourne defenders, kept his feet in the box and then slotted cleverly past Langerak for the winner.
That snuffed out any resistance from the home side while Roar made sure of the points when Zullo powered past Muscat down the left and finished well.
Merrick said after the game that while the results wasn’t what he wanted, he thought his team had fought hard only to be overwhelmed late.
“You can’t always play 90 minutes of quality football,” he said. “I would say that Queensland were the better team in the first half, they pressured us really well and forced us to play the ball back a lot more than we would normally.”
“In the second half we changed our formation a little bit … and we started to really come into the game. Even when we got a send-off I thought we played some of our best football.”
Melbourne Victory 0
Queensland Roar 2 (Minniecon 83, Zullo 90+)
Crowd: 22,226 at Telstra Dome
