By Arthur - 23 Jun 2010 12:45 PM
Goal feast at Northcote
Written by Gordon Bennett
Northcote City and Altona Magic were involved in an amazing VPL Round 15 match at John Cain Memorial Park on Saturday, which concluded with an astonishing final score of 7-5 in favour of the home side.
Incredibly, the half-time score was 2-1 to Altona Magic and six goals were scored in a barnstorming 12 minute period from the 62nd to the 74thminutes. All up, 9 goals were scored in an incredible second half – one that would have to be seen to be believed.
It actually could have been more, if not for a penalty that was missed by Trent Rixon.
The scoring sequence went as follows:
Magic scored first to go up 0-1. Northcote then equalised though a Bradley Norton penalty to level the score 1-1. Magic then scored again to go up 1-2, and kept that lead heading into the break.
When the teams returned to the field, no one in the wildest dreams could imagine what was going to unfold over the next forty-five minutes.
The Magic continued with their ascendancy and scored within a couple minutes of the restart to make it 1-3 and looked like they were on their way to reproducing yet another high scoring blitzkrieg.
Bear in mind, that since Sash Becvinovski was appointed as Magic’s player-coach a few weeks ago, the Magic have been in rampant scoring form and have recorded a 6-2 win against Bentleigh Greens, a 6-0 against Sunshine Georgies and another 6-0 against the NTC squad.
With about thirty minutes to go though, Northcote coach Peter Tsolakis brought on Trent Rixon, who due to soreness had started on the bench after he had been away all week trialling with the A-League’s Brisbane Roar, but paid immediate dividends to score and reduce the margin to 2-3.
Showing no signs of fatigue, Rixon then scored another goal in quick succession to make the scoreline read 3-3.
Not to be outdone, the Magic then proceeded to attack the other end and were duly rewarded to make the score 3-4.
James Kalifatidis then embarks on his scoring sequence to make the score 4-4.
Less than a minute later, the Magic get their noses out in front 4-5.
Rixon then had the chance to conjure a timely hat-trick but fails to convert his spot-kick.
Within a couple of minutes, Kalifatidis has other ideas and then duly nets again to make it 5-5.
Before you could get your breath back, another penalty is awarded to Northcote and this time Bradley Norton makes no mistake from the spot, putting the home side ahead for the first time in the match at 6-5, and miraculously becomes the fifth player in the match to have scored a brace and now on the cusp of a hat-trick.
With approximately 6 minutes remaining on the clock, Kalifatidis puts the game beyond Magic’s reach and grabs his hat-trick and completing the remarkable 7-5 scoreline.
Northcote coach Peter Tsolakis commented after the match, “I think the goalkeepers will probably need counselling. It must be said however, that both defences were an absolute shemozzle. It was attacking soccer by both teams and if ever the FFV wanted an advertisement for football in terms of getting people through the gate to watch a game of goals, then this was it.”
He went on to add, “I mean, in over 35 years I’ve been involved in soccer I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Asked if it was a good experience, Tsolakis said, “For us, because we won it was fantastic. But we really need to talk about a few things defensively. The three points were important because it enables us to keep a gap between us and Altona. Now we are eight points away from them with seven games to go, and I would imagine it would make things a little bit more difficult for them to catch us. We’ve got to concentrate and try and scrounge a few more points to get away from that relegation zone. That’s really our aim as a club. I’m just happy we got the points, and for the fans they got to see plenty of goals. They paid $12 to see the match, so it worked out to be a dollar a goal!”
Magic coach Becvinovski was also blown away with the match and the scoreline, “It was very stressful and expected a lot more fight from my boys. It’s something that I’ve never seen before in soccer, but I think sometimes it better to win 1-0 or 2-0. If you’re going to hit the front a couple of times you’d expect the experienced players on the park to be able to control things and defend. Today was a letdown. Even though we scored five goals, you can’t expect to be happy with conceding seven goals.”
After the final whistle was blown quite a number of spectators congregated in the bar to discuss what they had just seen. While the place was abuzz, most people were in shock and still trying to comprehend and absorb what they had just witnessed as attempts were made to try and recall any similar scorelines from seasons past. The best offering was from Kris Kalifatidis, ironically the father of hat-trick hero James. Kris remembered playing for South Melbourne against Ringwood Wilhelmina in 1974 when the score finished 7-7.
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By Krackovich - 23 Jun 2010 2:11 PM
I went to this game, it was my first state league match and i loved it. Notjust because of the goals but everything about it, im definitely heading back again. The most action packed game ive ever seen.
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