22nd ANC 2007 Day 10 Report

The 22nd All Nations Cup reached its climax on Sunday at Egan Lee Reserve when the Final was played between Serbia and Macedonia.

As chance would have it, both teams were drawn in the same group at the Round Robin Stage and Serbia won that encounter by the odd goal in three. They also won the Final by a single goal to win back to back trophies and to deny Macedonia the chance to go clear of England as the most winning team.

Unfortunately, the Egan Lee pitch, long renowned as having one of the, if not the best surface in Victoria was suffering the ravages of 18 months of drought and the uneven surface made ball control more difficult.

Notwithstanding this, the match was highly competitive and remained in doubt right up until the final whistle from A-League listed referee, Kevin Docherty.

Throughout, the game was end to end football and as early as the fifth minute, Macedonia had to clear the ball off their goal line. Then it was Serbia’s turn to have a scare when keeper, Mario Roza made an excellent save low to his left when the Macedonian attack beat the offside trap.

Roza was called into action again in the 28th minute when he saved from the competition’s leading goal-scorer, Robert Dolevski. His long clearance set up the all important goal as Zoran Vukas received the ball, played a one-two with a fellow forward and strode forward to score.

At this stage, Macedonia was walking a tight rope picking up three early yellow cards, but it was Serbia which felt the wroth of the referee in the 35th minute when Miroslav Karac was given a straight red card for bringing down Saso Aleksovski as he broke clear on goal. From the resultant free kick, Roza made another fine save.

With the man advantage, Macedonia started the second half on the attack, but their forward line was over elaborating matters and they could not make their extra man pay dividends. Serbia had an escape when a right wing cross struck a Macedonian forward and deflected narrowly wide of the goal, with Roza wrong footed.

In the 62nd minute, the numbers were evened up when Nick Milevski received his second yellow card and this enabled Serbia to make more of the running. In fact, they looked the more likely to add to the goal tally. Boris Bajic was just wide with a first time shot from a cross by Rados Tomic.

Macedonia pushed men forward but failed to find the equaliser and the trophy and the first prize of $2,500 went to Serbia again. Macedonia received $1,000 as runners-up and the losing semi finalists, Scotland and Mauritius each received $500.

Macedonia had some consolation when Robert Dolevski took out the Best and Fairest Award as well as the Top Goalscorer Award, both prizes being donated by Rebel Sports, Knox City.

Mention must also go to Nike for sponsoring the match balls and to Trophy Town which sponsored the winning trophy.