Socceroo makes World Cup audition in Victory-Roar draw
Anna Harrington |
Socceroos striker Nicholas D’Agostino has strengthened his case for World Cup selection, scoring his second goal in two games to salvage Brisbane Roar a 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory.
A moment of magic from Juan Mata, where the Spanish superstar brilliantly teed up Charles Nduka for the opener in the 13th minute, appeared set to send Victory up to third on the A-League Men table.
But D’Agostino, seemingly in a selection race with Macarthur veteran Mitch Duke to be the hard-running, physical striker in Tony Popovic’s squad, scored in the 76th minute against his former club to snag the Roar a point.
Brisbane were without coach Michael Valkanis, who was suspended after receiving two yellow cards in the Roar’s lacklustre defeat to Central Coast, with assistant Borja Lema in the technical area.
“He (D’Agostino) is the kind of player that is coming here to give 100 per cent, to bring one more mindset into the team that we believe until the end,” Lema said.
“And today, I think the team showed that mentality, believing that even after not being in the best form during the last weeks, the team was able to make a comeback to 1-1 against a good team.
“So very happy with his performance and with the rest of the team.”
D’Agostino, who has had multiple injury setbacks in recent years, required treatment on several occasions and seemingly played through a lower back issue, but Lema was confident the marksman was all right.
“Those are the kind of things that we are tracking and we are trying to manage his loads,” Lema said.
“But he’s already able to do it. I think one of the issues that he’s got is that he gets a lot of knocks, so he was limping a little bit, and this is why he keeps pushing every day.
“And one of his main targets and goals is the World Cup that is around the corner.”
Victory took the lead after Mata received the ball on the left wing, took two touches then lofted an exquisite long ball into the path of Nduka.
The Japanese attacker took an excellent touch with his right foot, then brilliantly chipped Dean Bouzanis with his left.
It marked a first A-League goal for Nduka, while it was Mata’s league-leading ninth assist.
Brisbane were far better after halftime as Melbourne failed to register a shot on target in the second half – and the Roar made them pay.
D’Agostino received the ball from Sam Klein, played it back then burst forward and slid in to turn the midfielder’s perfect cutback home.
“It feels like a loss, to be honest with you. We’ll definitely take the point, but, yeah, it feels like a loss,” Victory coach Arthur Diles said.
“We started the game ever so well, and were quite dominant, and things were looking great.
“We were on top, but in the end we weren’t clinical enough to just put the other one in.
“That game was waiting there for us to score the second, and they were sitting there, they were vulnerable, and we just didn’t have the killer punch today. And in the end it’s cost us.”
Fifth-placed Victory play cross-town rivals Melbourne City next Saturday, with Brisbane away to Sydney FC the same day.
AAP
