Being booed by their own fans inspired Sydney FC to a second half fightback in Friday night’s 1-1 A-League draw with Queensland at the Sydney Football Stadium.

A Steve Corica goal earned the home side a share of the points after a lacklustre first-half performance looked to have them headed for a third straight defeat.

Midfielder Matt McKay had put the Roar ahead in the 12th minute and Sydney looked lethargic and disjointed, leading them to be booed into the sheds at halftime by their smallest-ever crowd of 8502.

But Corica pounced on a Danny Tiatto mistake in the 64th minute to bring Sydney back to life.

They could have even stolen a win but striker Mark Bridge blasted a header into the crossbar five minutes later from a pin-point Robbie Middleby cross.

Sydney coach John Kosmina was proud of the comeback and said he used the fans turning on the team as motivation at the break.

“I actually said to them at halftime, go and stick it up the crowd,” Kosmina said.

“It was as simple as that.

“We dug our way out of a deep hole tonight, a real deep hole and in the end we probably could have come away with it.”
Sydney remain in sixth place after the draw, one point outside the top four, while the Roar moved into outright third.

The Roar took the lead when McKay scored in the 12th minute but the goal really belonged to youngster Tahj Minniecon.

The winger made a clever run down the left flank before cutting inside Shannon Cole and firing a low drive at goalkeeper Ivan Necevski, who fumbled before McKay pounced to net his third goal of the season.

Veteran Roar midfielder Charlie Miller almost doubled the lead when he latched onto a cut-back from Serginho Van Dijk but Necevski did well to block the scorching drive.

Miller was forced from the field five minutes before halftime with a hip injury, allowing Tiatto to make his comeback from a foot injury off the bench.

A disjointed Sydney continued to be outplayed into the second half until Tiatto failed to deal with a Middleby cross and Corica needed only the slightest of touches to trickle home an equaliser.

Both sides had chances to net a late winner, Queensland’s best coming to substitute Mitchell Nichols, who headed wide from close range.

Roar coach Frank Farina was pleased to come away from Sydney with a point.

“I suppose in the end a draw is a reasonably fair result,” Farina said.

Hauritz, 27, took five wickets on debut in Mumbai against India four years ago but then fell so far down the pecking order he was dumped by Queensland.

Even now he’s only second-choice spinner for his new state NSW behind Beau Casson, who made his Test debut earlier this year.

In a bizarre chain of events, Australia’s Jason Krezja injured his ankle at training on Wednesday and was unable to play on Friday, giving rival off-spinner Hauritz his second Test appearance.

Hauritz managed to injure himself in a fielding mishap just after tea on Friday and spent the final session icing his left ankle, but is hopeful of returning to the bowling crease on Saturday.

New Zealand won the toss and began with high hopes, reaching 1-101 at lunch.

But opener Aaron Redmond (83) and highly rated No.4 Ross Taylor (44) were the only batsmen in the top six to pass 30 after Kiwi skipper Daniel Vettori won the toss on what looked a good batting strip.

Vettori will resume on 12 with Brendon McCullum on 30.

Redmond’s exit caught on the boundary was a key moment and a victory for the new Hauritz.

“Definitely after the Test (in India) my confidence … I was really high,” Hauritz said on Friday.

“(But back in Australia) I think I really got found out as a spin bowler.

“Any time I was put under the pump I didn’t really know how to react.

“The confidence did drop when I got dropped (by Queensland).

“Having the opportunity to play down in New South Wales really turned my philosophy on spin bowling around. Getting the opportunity all the time to bowl and to bowl early.

“It has taught me a lot about the craft.

“I’ve still got a lot to learn but I’m definitely a lot different bowler to what I was four years ago and it’s great to be a part of that.”

Hauritz was given another such opportunity on Friday, bowling three overs before lunch for 29 runs but fighting back to be Australia’s only multiple wicket-taker.

“It is pretty nerve-wracking to start off,” he said.

“When a batsman goes after you like that you just have to take stock and still believe in yourself that you are still going to get him out.

“There wasn’t much turn or anything like that so my greatest weapon was drift and change of pace out there.

“In the end it was a little bit slower to get him and he played the wrong shot and that’s what we were working on.

“It was a strange chain of events, being 12th man last week (for NSW) and theN being picked in this.

“It definitely took me a little while to work out what was all going on.”

The tourists lost three wickets in the middle session after Jesse Ryder (13), Redmond and Peter Fulton (29) fell to loose shots.

Redmond threw his maiden Test century away with a sweep to deep mid-wicket after hitting 14 fours and two sixes.

Taylor was lbw to Stuart Clark (1-56) soon after tea to a dubious decision by South African umpire Rudi Koertzen.

SCORE - New Zealand 6-262 make tough work of ideal conditions.

MAN OF THE MOMENT - Aaron Redmond. His 83 was the most confident Kiwi batting effort all tour yet his dismissal, swinging Nathan Hauritz into the deep when greater care would have reaped a century, summed up the visitors’ unfulfilled day.

KEY MOMENT - Ross Taylor’s demise, lbw to the slow moving finger of umpire Rudi Koertzen. To the the naked eye the ball appeared to strike him high and Hawkeye confirmed what Koertzen unaccountably failed to notice.

STAT OF THE DAY - Two. The number of Australian spin bowlers to be waylaid by a rolled ankle in the past three days.

QUOTE OF THE DAY - “It’s pretty funny. Jason rolling his ankle and myself rolling mine.” - Hauritz on his blackly comedic return to the Test side.

SUMMARY - An unblemished pitch and an uninspired Australian attack was not enough to stop New Zealand from impeding their own progress with poor shot selection. A better batting line-up, like India’s, might have finished at 4-350.

Hearty boomayes to Zeljko Kalac, who wants to return to the A-League to coach when his time is up at AC Milan. We need more of his kind back here, passing on their undoubted skills, knowledge and wisdom to the young generation of players currently learning their trade from the first wave of Australian coaches whose European playing careers predated Kalac and his peers: the Van Egmonds, the Kosminas, the Mitchells.

Arguably, because of their top-level experience, players coming to the end of their European careers such as Kalac have the potential to be even better coaches than those aforementioned. (We would want to bloody hope so.)

After all, GVE, arguably the best of the lot, never knew what it was like to be in a dressing-room with Kaka.

So there must be all manner of little things Kalac could pass on to young players, who would undoubtedly regard him with awe, purely on the basis of the company he’s kept the past few years.

Which, for me, naturally begs the question of why Mark Bosnich, currently without a club in Australia but to many minds one of the top three Australian football exports in the history of the game, hasn’t been given a player-assistant coach role with one of the existing eight A-League franchises or either one of the two start-ups slated for “Version 5.0″.

Bosnich was always to my mind a superior goalkeeper to Kalac and even our incumbent Socceroos No. 1, Mark Schwarzer. A freak.

And, while he was at the top with Aston Villa, Manchester United and Chelsea, he was a freak that played with and against the best of them in Europe.

Of course, he’s not the same player now; and he’s been through all sorts of personal torments that have left their mark on him physically and mentally. But on any given day, in close to full fitness, I’d bet he’d still wipe the floor against any of his A-League glovesmen. Talents like his are rare and they don’t reach such lofty heights by accident.

Bosnich is currently training with Sydney FC to get ready for an “Oceania All Stars” exhibition game against LA Galaxy in New Zealand early next month. Sydney already have an exceptional goalkeeping coach in John Filan, a man who was criminally overlooked by national selectors for the best part of his career, and just retired former Socceroo Tony Popovic has just come on board as Kosmina’s assistant, but the club could do a lot worse - they have done a lot worse - than try to tie Bozza down to a contract with some sort of coaching component for the senior or youth teams, provisional on him getting the necessary paperwork.

With John Aloisi backfiring terribly as Sydney’s “marquee” player, even sporadic playing appearances by Bosnich could lure some of Sydney’s fleet of annoyed fans back to the Sydney Football Stadium. (Current No. 1 Clint Bolton, might I add, has been targeted by North Queensland Fury as a possible acquisition, which does open up an interesting scenario.)

Then there would be the obvious benefits for Sydney of having arguably the two best Australian goalkeepers of the past 20 years on their staff.

(There is the small matter of how they could afford it, but Sydney has shown remarkable adeptness in getting around such trifle considerations in the past, have they not? Certainly this is one man who in my opinion would return big dividends on a small investment.)

It’s already an indictment of the A-League that Bosnich is without a club.

It would be a further injustice to him and to our football history if we were to let him see out a great career simply cooling his heels.

It’s been a crappy sort of year for Sydney FC, but with Bozza in its midst the club’s fortunes just might be changing.

The global financial crisis won’t stand in the way of the A-League’s expansion plans with Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy confident of a 12-team competition by the 2010-2011 season.

Speaking after the FFA’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, Lowy said expansion plans were full steam ahead despite the financial worries across the globe.

“If anything, it has accelerated the need for expansion,” Lowy said, adding that FFA’s fixed broadcasting and sponsorship agreements meant the sport could ride out the storm.

The A-League will expand to 10 teams next season with the addition of Gold Coast and North Queensland and Lowy all but confirmed the jump to 12 teams would happen almost immediately.

“Certainly I would hope the following year (2010-2011) we’ll have 12 teams,” Lowy said.

“I think at that time we need to reassess our capacity, our future.”

Second teams in Melbourne and Sydney are favoured to join the following year but there is also strong interest from consortiums in Tasmania and the NSW South Coast.

Lowy said he was confident Melbourne and Sydney could now support two teams but hinted teams from other regions could be included in the future even if they weren’t successful in the 2010-11 bid.

“I think beyond the 12 teams we should look places like Tasmania or some other places, there are moves in those areas,” Lowy said.

The expanded league will see the number of rounds increased from 21 to 27 next season, handing FFA a tough scheduling challenge to avoid too much competition with Australia’s rival football codes.

FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said options were discussed at Tuesday’s AGM but the federation was as yet undecided on which way to go.

He said the preference was to not have to move the start or end of the season too much as it would overlap with the rugby league, rugby union and AFL seasons.

But he hinted there could be midweek A-League games on a regular basis, similar to some overseas leagues such as the English Premier League.

“There’s certainly some positives about having midweek football,” Buckley said.

“We think there’s an opportunity for it, we haven’t determined that’s the direction we’ll go but it’s certainly on the drawing board.

“I think television would welcome it - if you look at any TV sports schedule during the course of the week, there’s not a lot of genuine competition during the summer months.”

Lowy reiterated his greatest desire was to see Australia host the 2018 World Cup, saying his ultimate fantasy would be to see the Socceroos play in the final of the tournament.

“To get the World Cup here is a mammoth task and if we are successful it means that we have been recognised internationally that Australia is a place to be,” Lowy said.

“That will be a very, very big achievement but we’re being considered and I think we are being considered as a very strong candidate by the authorities that be.”

The FFA also announced a modest operating surplus for the financial year of almost $1 million in its fifth year of operation.

One of world sport’s most respected administrators has urged the AFL not to be swayed off expansion by the global financial crisis.

Former American National Football League (NFL) commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the AFL’s expansion plans made sense provided any new clubs would grow the sport’s fan base, regardless of the economic climate.

The AFL has earmarked a 17th team on the Gold Coast in 2011, followed by a club based in western Sydney in 2012.

But there have been rumours of possible delays because of the economic downturn.

Tagliabue, who has been one of the guests at a forum this week as part of the 150th anniversary celebration of Australian rules football, said the AFL was on the right track with its expansion plans.

He held a two-hour meeting with AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick at which a number of topics including the NFL’s experience with expansion were discussed.

“The worst things is to do it prematurely and fail,” said Tagliabue, who oversaw the NFL’s expansion from 28 teams to 32 during his 17-year tenure.

“I think here in Australia, expansion makes sense.

“From what I’ve read here, your economy is expected to avoid a recessionary period, though your economy’s growth may not be as robust as in the past.”

Demetriou reiterated the AFL’s commitment to expanding into NSW and Queensland.

“We know in NSW and Queensland we’ve got huge challenges, but we’ve got two teams (Brisbane and Sydney) that have done particularly well,” he said.

“They need some support. They need another team to create rivalry, another team to help the two clubs that have done all the heavy lifting.”

Meanwhile, Demetriou said he hoped commonsense would prevail in a looming showdown over stadium deals between the 10 Victorian AFL clubs and those who run the MCG and Telstra Dome.

The clubs want to meet with the Victorian government, which controls the MCG through the MCG Trust, claiming they are not getting a good enough deal for their matches compared to other sports and AFL clubs in other states.

“All they want is to have a fair hearing to make sure they see some upside in the economy they’re generating (for the stadia),” Demetriou said.

“You can’t have a situation where 10 Victorian clubs are generating four and a half million people going to the football, yet the return to Victorian clubs is significantly less than what’s happening in other parts of Australia.”

Last season’s losing Super finalists will embark on their 2009 campaign without overseas domiciled forwards Rocky Elsom, David Lyons and Daniel Vickerman.

Queensland have already recruited All Blacks flanker Daniel Braid and NSW also attempted to supplement their home-grown talent with an import player, but couldn’t land their target.

The newly-elected Zemancheff said securing an overseas player wasn’t now such a priority.

“The opportunity to bring in imports, whilst it’s not a bad idea, it can’t be a shortcut for not developing young players,” Zemancheff said.

Wallabies back Timana Tahu was expected to recover from a hamstring injury in about three weeks, though the Waratahs were still awaiting more information about the injury which cut short forward Wycliff Palu’s tour.

With back Ben Batger out for the season with a shoulder injury, Zemancheff said NSW had three vacant spots on their 2009 roster and he was happy to give young emerging players opportunities.

“We’ve got obviously Daniel (Vickerman) and Rocky (Elsom) and David (Lyons) are no longer with us, but you move on,” Zemancheff said.

“That’s life, it won’t be an excuse, it will be the last time you hear about that.

“I’ll tell you one thing that won’t be coming out of NSW Rugby is excuses, blaming injuries or weather or referees.”

The NSWRU chairman said he expected his organisation would support the idea of another Australian Super side even if it was based in the Waratahs’ Sydney heartland, as it would provide more opportunities for players.

Zemancheff emphasised new Waratahs coach Chris Hickey had not been set any performance benchmarks in his three-year contract but stressed the NSW had “high expectations and a winning culture”.

He had been impressed by the way the Waratahs’ new mentor had approached his job.

“We are very very comfortable with the off-field team that we have put together headed up by Chris Hickey, he hit the ground running, he’s incredibly hard working,” Zemancheff said.

Zemancheff said the board would not have any input into selection or the style of play of the Waratahs.

With major sponsor HSBC signing on for three more years, Zemancheff was optimistic about the NSWRU’s future, even though he revealed he expected his organisation to report a small loss this year.

“But nothing that we can’t handle and nothing we can’t manage, there’s a number of reasons why that will happen in 2008,” Zemancheff said.

He said membership sales had been a little slow following the Waratahs’ poor 2007 campaign and there’s also been “a small shortfall in sponsors”.

Zemancheff revealed the NSWRU was looking at establishing a separate `Waratahs Inc’ body to run that part of his organisation’s business.

And fellow allrounder Shane Watson was also seeing red in the nets as competition heated up for spots for the first Test against New Zealand at Brisbane starting on Thursday.

By rights Symonds should have had a spring in his step after it emerged his once strained relationship had been patched up at a promotional party in Brisbane on Monday night.

However, he appeared to struggle with the bat in the Gabba’s indoor nets and became so frustrated he screamed an expletive, taking several minutes to compose himself.

It was hardly plain sailing either for Symonds’ rival for the allrounder spot, Watson.

The injury-plagued Queenslander threw a scare into the Australian camp when he left the nets in distress after being hit in the chest by quick Mitchell Johnson while batting - but he soon returned.

Symonds and Watson are expected to endure another day or so of anxiety along with off-spinner Jason Krejza.

Australian selectors were expected to cut their 13-strong squad to 12 by Tuesday.

But recent rain has limited access to the wicket, forcing selectors to postpone an announcement until as late as match morning.

Despite Symonds’ obvious frustration in the nets and his humble first-class returns since his sensational exile over the “gone fishing” controversy, Clarke backed his re-newed best mate.

“Andrew is a fantastic player…any time that he was fit and ready to come back into the team, we were certainly going to have him,” he said.

“He’s very happy to be back in the side and I can guarantee you the rest of the players are happy to have him back.”

Clarke was part of the leadership group who sent Symonds home from the one-day series against Bangladesh at Darwin in September.

Symonds said earlier this week that his once great friendship with Clarke was “not what it was” after hitting rock bottom at the Top End.

But Clarke said on Tuesday: “We had a cocktail party last night which was great.

“We spent a bit of time together having a chat and at training today we did again.

“It’s probably been exactly how it was before he left which has been great for both of us.”

Despite their history, Clarke said there no awkward moments when they were reunited in the Australian camp.

“I definitely didn’t want it to affect our friendship,” Clarke said of the decision to send Symonds home.

“It certainly wasn’t a personal decision.

“It was just what we thought was in the best interests of the team and Andrew.”

Symonds successfully overcame alcohol issues to fight his way back into the Australian squad - and Clarke’s admiration was obvious on Tuesday.

“One thing Symmo has done has looked at himself in the mirror and worked out for himself what he needed to do to get back into this team,” Clarke said.

Clarke said he had fully recovered from a virus contracted in India, as had speedster Brett Lee.

Norman Hubbard raised an intriguing concept in one of his recent articles. In it, the ESPN columnist sung the praises of the English Premier League’s unsung heroes: the domestiques, as he labelled them, among the top-team’s household names.

Cycling fans will, of course, know that a domestique – French for servant – is the grafter in road-race teams. The one who ultimately sacrifices his or her own chances of glory for that of his team or team-mate.

It’s an interesting concept when applied to football.

Star players can win you games. Domestiques can win you the league.

They are the players that generally slip under the radar of all but their own club’s dedicated supporters and the most diligent of journalists.

Largely loyal and unquestioning, it is not unusual to find a domestique spending a long stint at a club where others might have moved on.

A look to the successful sides of seasons past in the A-League throws up some likely candidates.

Consider the 2007/08 title winners, the Newcastle Jets.

Ask any fan of a rival A-League team to recite the names of the Jets’ championship alumni and he or she will rattle off the likes of Joel Griffiths, Andrew Durante, Mark Bridge and Jade North.

And while the club owed much to the performances of the above quartet, any dedicated Jets fans will also know the significant contribution of the side’s 2007/08 domestique Matt Thompson.

A right-sided midfielder, Thompson was asked by Gary Van Egmond to slot in to left back during the 2006/07 season.

In doing so, he firmly found his niche in the side.

He played all but a handful of minutes in the 2007/08 season, scoring two goals including the opener in the thrilling preliminary final win over Queensland.

The Jets’ opponent in the grand final – the Central Coast Mariners – had their own unsung hero within their squad.

A local lad, Andrew Clark has been at the club since the A-League’s inaugural season, racking up more than 50 appearances.

While he was an unused substitute in the 1-0 grand final loss, the 33-year-old played 19 times for the Mariners in their march to the title decider.

A model of professionalism, Clark’s influence has been recognised by supporters and at the club, where he is also the strength and conditioning coach.

Thompson and Clark are just some of the A-League’s domestiques.

The list of unsung heroes goes on.

Sydney had a number of them in its Season One success, while Rodrigo Vargas’ quiet effectiveness in Melbourne’s 2006/07 championship season was the perfect foil for the robust Kevin Muscat and makes him a clear candidate.

And making it past the Asian Champions League group stage would have been somewhat more difficult for Adelaide without the efforts of now-retired Richie Alagich.

2009/10 will, of course, usher in the expansion of the A-League through the inclusion of North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United.

Managers of both clubs are busy signing up their squads for their debut seasons.

Messrs Ferguson and Bleiberg could do worse – particularly given the restraints of the salary cap – than to consider the role of the domestique within their sides.

Our usually ruthless leader, Ricky Ponting, had a drastic change of heart in the final Test against India when the match was in the balance. According to Ponting, he would have gone against the spirit of the game if he didn’t put slow bowlers on to catch up to the required over-rate.

If you believe Punter, it had nothing to do with the fact that he might be suspended.

I just want to know what happened to the spirit of the game throughout the series when his team consistently lagged at less than thirteen-overs an hour?

If only he had McGrath and Warne.

Those were the days. Set an off-side field with enough men around the bat to sledge all day, have a laugh, and watch the wickets fall while the hours tick by. Instead, he played traffic cop all series by directing his fielders to different positions every over.

Needless to say, the traditionalists aren’t happy.

Allan Border was disgusted, Ian Chappell was scathing, and I’m sure Richie Benuad was shaking his head in the comfort of his lounge room.

I also wonder what Dean Jones would have thought about Michael Clarke’s use of a runner due to feeling “unwell.”

Deano fought through severe dehydration, consistently vomiting on the pitch on his way to a remarkable 210 in the famous Tied Test in 1986. He was about to retire ill when Allan Border said he might have to get a real Australian in (a ‘Queenslander’), who could handle the conditions.

If Michael Clarke was so sick, why did he bat out of position ahead of Hussey? And can you imagine what Ponting’s response would have been if Ganguly had called for a runner in his first innings for similar reasons of feeling unwell?

Ponting has always had anger management issues.

It simmers under the surface until the going gets too tough. Once again he has shown little respect for officialdom in this series, proving that his idea of the spirit of the game is one of convenience when it suits him.

Just like Warnie, he never seems to understand what he’s done wrong.

Perhaps someone should provide him with a list. It’s growing every Test series, including the calls for him to be replaced as captain. The lost series to India won’t help his cause.

The question is will Cricket Australia be bold enough to make such a move?