After a poor last month of football, Sydney Olympic returned to the
winners circle on Sunday Afternoon after a gritty and hard fought victory away
at Sydney United. The 2-1 win puts the Club back into the mix to play Finals this
season with 2 matches remaining in the regular season.
In a keenly fought first-half we looked like an entirely different team
to the one that barely showed up last week, we looked switched-on. The first 10
or so minutes of the first-half were fairly uneventful as both teams took a
while to settle into the game. Very soon after though chances were beginning to
be created and 20 minutes into the first-half we managed to open the scoring. Some
nice work down the right wing from Will Angel saw him put in a dangerous
looking cross, which was met on the volley by Hagi Gligor, who finished the
chance off nicely. Disappointingly though, the scores were once again level
just a couple of minutes later, as a poor give away in possession resulted in
the opposition grabbing a soft equaliser. The only positive from this is that we
did not drop our heads and continued to play well. The opposition then had a
few chances to take the lead before half-time, but some fine goalkeeping by
Paul Henderson kept the score at 1-1. We rode our luck a little bit in that
first-half, but luck is not something we have had a lot of this season, so we
took it and headed to the sheds with the score locked at 1-1.
Early on in the second-half we had an excellent chance to re-take the
lead, but unfortunately the chance was spurned. The match was end-to-end with
both sides creating chances to take the lead, but nobody could put any of their
opportunities away. The match was also a tough contest with no side giving an
inch. We were creating our fair share of chances but it looked like the match
was destined to end in a 1-1 draw. With 10 minutes to go though, we would grab
what turned out to be the winner, as Mitch Stamatellis set off on a marauding
run from his own penalty area, after a long run he slipped a nice pass through
to Yu Kuboki who made no mistake with the finish to give us a 2-1 lead to the
delight of the travelling faithful. The closing moments of the match saw us with
all hands to the pump as we tried to hold on for the win. The opposition had a
late chance via a freekick, but another great save from Paul Henderson kept it
out. Shortly after the referee blew for full-time and we had recorded a huge
victory for our season.
So a month of poor results was broken with an important and much needed
victory on Sunday. The destiny of our season is now once again entirely in our
own hands, with 2 vitally important fixtures to close out the regular season,
both of which we must win. It is up to us what we want to get out of this
season.
For the Club Championship, the U20’s lost 6-1 and the U18’s suffered a 3-1 loss.
Our next match is our last home game of the regular season and now
becomes extremely important. We take on Hakoah next Sunday Evening, August 6, a
home game which has been move to Lambert Park, Kick-Off is at 5pm.
Get out there and support Sydney Olympic.
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