“And then bang she goes!” – the A-League Preliminary Final

The A-League Finals series continues to entertain, wacky playoff system or not. Basically the Preliminary Final is like a semifinal, except there’s only one of them. Queensland Roar played Newcastle Jets for the right to meet Central Coast Mariners in the Grand Final and we got another action packed game. Newcastle Jets were leading 1-0 through Matt Thompson’s 40th minute goal, right up until the 90th minute when – possibly just to keeps exciting – the ref handed Queensland an iffy penalty. They definitely know how to do drama Down Under.

Reinaldo converted to make it 1-1 and give us extra time, which delivered three goals. First an equally iffy Newcastle Jets penalty to even things out, which Joel Griffiths put away to make it 2-1. Tarek Elrich extended that to 3-1 when he finshed off a nice Newcastle passing move with a sweet shot, eliciting a “bang she goes!” from one over-excited commentator. There was a third soft penalty in the dying minutes to give Queensland a consolation, but it’s Newcastle who’ll meet the Central Coast Mariners in the Grand Final this Sunday.

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Category: Australia