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Dutchman Sergio van Dijk’s return to Brisbane ended with a red-face as an embarrassing point-blank miss cost A-League leaders Adelaide United a fifth straight triumph on Saturday night.
Van Dijk’s former side, the Roar, held on for a 1-1 draw after their old striker missed three clear-cut chances in the second half, including a 78th-minute horror miss a metre from the goal-line.
A potent gun in two seasons with Brisbane, which netted 25 goals from 50 matches, the 28-year-old resembled a rusty park footballer when he failed to time a perfect cross from classy Argentinian Marcos Flores, merely lobbing it over the cross-bar.
A disbelieving van Dijk could only hug and kiss the upright as his body, instead of the ball, fell into the goals.
The drama didn’t end there as Adelaide were reduced to 10 men for the last six minutes as Cassio received his second yellow card from referee Ben Williams but the Roar were unable to convert in front of a poor home crowd of 7080.
The result still put Adelaide (15), who have never lost in Brisbane, an extra point clear of Perth and the Central Coast (11) at the top of the ladder.
In what was a match between last year’s cellar-dwellers, who have significantly lifted their acts in 2010-11, the encounter provided a vibrant first half but a less exciting second one for new Australian coach Holger Osieck’s first taste of the A-League.
The clash started brightly with both sides – through Cameron Watson and Reinaldo – hitting the woodwork in the opening eight minutes.
Reds goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic’s somewhat fortunate reflex effort to deny Reinaldo was then matched soon after by his former Melbourne Victory teammate Michael Theoklitos who produced a fine diving save to the right to parry away a sparkling Flores attempt.
Theoklitos, though, could do nothing to stop Mathew Leckie’s brilliant left-foot strike in the 27th minute to punish the Roar for a midfield turnover and lax defending.
But Adelaide were unable to maintain their on-field superiority on the scoreboard when Galekovic was surprisingly fooled by German Thomas Broich’s wide free kick seven minutes later.
Tall Roar defender Milan Susak threatened to get his head to the cross, luring the `keeper away from the flight of the ball which bounced through untouched.
The home side were unable to continue their momentum after the break as they let themselves down with some poor passing while Adelaide regained control and looked far more dangerous.
Van Dijk was given two gilt-edged opportunities within 60 seconds midway through the half but his initial shot was narrowly deflected to the left before missing a free header off the subsequent corner.
However, neither was as embarrassing as his 78th-minute howler.
Adelaide coach Rini Coolen felt the draw was a fair result and would not hold van Dijk to account for his second-half misses.
“I feel sorry for him but I don’t blame him for that, everybody can do that in that situation,” said Coolen.
Midfielder Paul Reid expected he would have to console van Dijk in the early hours of Sunday morning after being assigned as his room-mate.
“He’s scored some great goals this year and he was just unlucky that it bobbled, he didn’t get a great bounce,” Reid said.
“He knows he should have done better but it’s one of those things that happen.”
Roar skipper Matt McKay, who was pleased with the way his side finished the game to stay fifth on the ladder, also took it easy on his old teammate.
“I told him thank you very much,” McKay said. “He’s a great guy and proven goalscorer at our club but he couldn’t do it for Adelaide.
“I thought he had a good game apart from that miss.”
Brisbane’s Costa Rican recruit Jean-Carlos Solorzano’s first run-on start ended early due to a quad strain following some promising touches.
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