Sydney Olympic Off-Season Blog #4 – December

After a few years of not having one and as promised by the new board, Sydney Olympic has had its Annual General Meeting, which took place on November 30.

Several outcomes and assurances were given by the Board during the AGM, concerning several issues.

1) There was a thorough examination of the Club’s finances, which was undertaken by an accounting firm. It was discovered that the Club was left with a significant amount of debt by previous Boards. The current Board, has been working extremely hard to manage this situation.

2) The current Board assured us and is confident, that the Tempe-Redevelopment will be going ahead as planned and it will become the new base and home of Sydney Olympic, with talk that it will be ready by 2018. Now with all of these things and given how many “projects” and “new homes” we have been promised and have had fall through for the Club throughout the years, I personally will remain pessimistic about the whole thing until I see it has become a reality, with my own eyes. I’m sure many others feel the same way.

3) The Club is also pushing through with trying to get a synthetic surface installed for Peter Moore Field.

4) The Club is aware of the lack of communications, via the Website and via Facebook, Twitter etc. and will be taking steps to resolve this problem.

5) The Board has also made assurances that First Grade will not suffer or be neglected as a result of the many other issues the Club is currently dealing with, they also re-iterated that Sydney Olympic will be more than competitive for season 2017.

Continuing with the playing side of things, with some team news. There hasn’t been much more to add to the previous blogs in this regard. What is for certain though is Jacob Boutoubia, who was decent for us during season 2016, before he was seriously injured towards the back end of last season, has left the club to play on the Gold Coast.

So at this stage without being able to confirm it 100%, as more players may have come and gone over the last few weeks, this is roughly what our current squad looks like:

Paul Henderson, Eoin Montford, Mitch Stamatellis, Jake de Marigny, Niko Tsattalios

Will Angel, Howard Fondyke, Yianni Spyrakis, Peter Makrillos, Jason Madonis, Hagi Gligor, Paul Katsetis, Nikita Andricopoulos

Michael Gaitatzis, Evan Patramanis

Looking at this list alone, we need a couple more defenders and at least 1 quality striker if we are to seriously challenge on multiple fronts next season.

Finally, we also have some pre-season hit-out news, we will be having a match this Sunday Night, December 11, at Arlington Oval in Dulwich Hill against Stanmore Hawks, Kick-Off is set for 7pm.

Sydney Olympic Off-Season Blog #3 – November

Well we are deep, smack bang in the middle of the off-season, with the First Grade squad only recently beginning pre-season training in the hope of a better campaign for Sydney Olympic in 2017.

First order of business is news on our coach. After 3 and a half seasons Grant Lee is no longer the coach of Sydney Olympic and from what I understand he will be fulfilling a different position for the Club.

His tenure as coach you’d have to say was a mixed bag. 2013 was a write-off when he arrived in difficult circumstances and he came in and steadied the ship. The next 2 seasons, both 2014 and 2015 we genuinely had good football teams, but unfortunately we were not capable of capitalising on the great opportunities and we came away empty-handed on the trophy front in both seasons. 2016 was a disaster which was not of his own doing, a late season surge was unfortunately not enough for us to seriously make a challenge.

Unfortunately and sadly, zero trophies is the main legacy during the last 3 and a half seasons.

Our new coach is an unknown quantity, Jaime Monroy Zamith, a Portuguese who allegedly has experience coaching in Barcelona’s youth programs. All Sydney Olympic Supporters are hoping he can deliver us to the top and of course we wish him well.

Onto the Sydney Olympic communications front, it has been virtually impossible to find out much about what is happening given there are no announcements anywhere, minimal Facebook activity, not much on Instagram and zero updates on the Club’s Twitter account for the past 4 months, (as I write this, they have made a Twitter post, a very significant one at that). Again I will say this needs to be rectified and soon.

As for news on the squad, to the best of my knowledge the following list of players is what I believe to be our current squad at this current moment. Obviously it is impossible to know for sure if it is 100% accurate. But here it goes:

Paul Henderson, Eoin Montford, Mitch Stamatellis, Jake de Marigny, Niko Tsattalios

Will Angel, Howard Fondyke, Yianni Spyrakis, Peter Makrillos, Jason Madonis, Hagi Gligor, Paul Katsetis, Nikita Andricopoulos

Jacob Boutoubia, Michael Gaitatzis, Evan Patramanis

From what I understand a few players from the 20s will be moving up. The club is also looking to sign 2 to 3 more players over the next bit of time, hearing a couple of Defenders and a Striker.

Onto the ground situation, according to everything I have been told, the Tempe Re-Development Project is the Club’s No.1 priority, as it should be. It is vital for the future of the Club and would be great if we can pull it off.

As for the present situation with Belmore, the Club is endeavouring to improve the relationship with the Canterbury Bulldogs and the Council which will see us be treated better and more fairly than we have in the past few years.

Finally on the AGM front, the new Board has followed through with its promise to sort through the clubs records and hold one this year.

The AGM will be on November 30 at 6:30pm at the Cyprus Club in Stanmore. All Life Members and Club Members are encouraged to be there.

Details here:
http://sydneyolympicfc.com.au/news/sofc-agm-notification/

Sydney Olympic Off-Season Blog #2 - October

Much talk has centred on the spruiking of the launch of a “new era” for Sydney Olympic and by all reports the Legends game and the end of season function was done well and went well.

But apart from a change in the Club Emblem, most things are as you were, especially on the communications front.

The Club either does not understand or does not have the resources to fill in a major role, and that is having someone who actively updates all of the Club’s social media channels; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. 
It might not sound important but these are major avenues where supporters find out any information about the Club as well as Match Day details. For these channels not to be utilised is a shame. The Twitter account for example has not been active for 3 months, not good enough. Granted we are now in the off-season, but the point still stands.

It also couldn’t hurt to have someone who knows a little bit about Sydney Olympic running these channels.

It appears that the Club has appointed a CEO, John Boulous, who was formerly the CEO of Football Federation Tasmania. 

Up until recently he was CEO of the Parramatta Eels NRL Club. I’m not across the whole Parramatta Salary Cap story, as I’m a South Sydney man, but yes it is that John Boulous. As I said I’m not totally across what happened there but obviously that whole salary-cap debacle would have involved more than just one person and as we all know it all ended in tears there at the Eels.

What is interesting however, is that the Board and the Club felt the need to appoint a CEO, we’ll see how this pans out.

Obviously with the lack of official announcements or activity from the Club this list may not be 100% correct, but I am fairly certain the following players will be with Sydney Olympic for 2017:

Paul Henderson, William Angel, Niko Tsattalios, Mitchell Stamatellis, Jason Madonis, Hagi Gligor, Jacob Boutoubia, Jake De Marigny, Eoin Montford. Plus a few U20s players who will be part of the First Grade Squad from 2017.

Michael Gaitatzis, Yianni Spyrakis, Peter Makrillos are 3 players reportedly close to or have already signed on for 2017.

As for the departures it is looking fairly certain that the Green brothers, Oliver and Jack as well as Anthony Tomelic won’t be with us next season, all 3 are fine players and all the best to them if in fact they are no longer with us. Leigh Egger and Howard Fondyke may also be moving on.

It also looks likely that Brayden Sorge may not be with us for 2017, injuries have hampered this player for a while, which is disappointing as he has been fantastic for us and seemed to have a big future in front of him before his injuries.

Also confirmed as gone is Harris Gaitatzis, who for the past 3 seasons has been terrific for us and many times he’s been a lone wolf in what has been an ineffective Sydney Olympic attack. But how anyone can play for that disgraceful mob I will never understand, is it only about money? Who knows? But we wish him all the best, hopefully he scores every game but his new team loses every game.

And finally, there still has not been an announcement regarding the AGM.

Till next time…

Sydney Olympic Off-Season Blog #1 - September

Well it has been a month since our season ended and that time has been needed to get over the general disappointment of the 2016 season and the circumstances in which we missed the Finals.

Some good news has been the resurgence of our 20’s team which had been wallowing down near the bottom of the ladder, made a late season resurgence to sneak into the Top 5 and managed to go all the way and win their Grand Final against Manly United last Sunday, to be crowned Champions.

There is a good chance we will see a few of these players regularly in First Grade next season, hopefully for Sydney Olympic, with quite a few having had a taste of First Grade already.

Speaking of First Grade, a substantial amount of the squad which appeared this season should be re-signed by the Club for 2017, obviously the current situation and plans of these players are unknown at this time and as usual, the teams with the bigger budgets will be looking to swoop.

The Club as a priority should do everything possible to swiftly re-sign our main group of players, the likes of; Paul Henderson, Will Angel, Mitch Stamatellis, Harris Gaitatzis, Brayden Sorge, Jason Madonis. The ridiculous situation of last season of losing 10 First Grade players and not replacing them, must never be repeated again.

The re-signing of these core players should be only a start, obviously there have been other good performers this season, they should be seriously looked at, added with the growth and improvement of some of the 20s players and we should have a decent looking squad for 2017. Of course there are also some fine players at other clubs who are worth looking at.

There were some obvious problem areas in the team during season 2016, there are certain positions on the field that we must surely fix;

- The troublesome Left-Back position caused us issues all season, this must be resolved in the off-season, we must bring in a competent Left-Back.

- Another area which needs strengthening is the Centre-Back position, there were far too many defensive errors during pivotal moments of some very important matches. We need to bring in another quality Centre-Back.

- And what I believe to be the most glaring problem was the lack of a quality Centre-Forward. Not only was it evident in the statistics (the 3^rd worst attack in the league). But also we went into several matches without a recognised No.9, something that is a necessity if you want to have any chance of having a successful season.

At this point of the year there are plenty of rumours floating around, but there is no concrete news on the signings front for Sydney Olympic.

One position which we’ve been well served in for many years now is that of goalkeeper, with Paul Henderson again having another outstanding season and again being awarded NPL Goalkeeper of the Year at the FNSW end-of-season awards. At 40 he’s still one of the best goalkeepers in Australia.

As you may or may not have heard already, Sunday September 25, will be a big day for the Club.



Starting at 2pm at Belmore Sports Ground there will be a Legends Match between the Sydney Olympic Legends and the NSL All-Stars. Many of the Greats of the Club and of Australian Football will be on hand, so make sure you come down and check it out.

Following this at 3pm, the Club will hold its end of season function next door under a marquee at Peter Moore Field. There will be plenty of Food and Drinks and plenty of entertainment and activities for everybody.

The Club will also unveil its new Emblem for 2017 and onwards, as it heads into its 60^th anniversary next season.

Hopefully there is also some sort of an announcement and a date set for the long overdue AGM.

Until next time…

Season Review - Blacktown Spartans 1-0 Sydney Olympic

News from midweek was that we were stripped of 3 points for fielding an ineligible player in our win over Wollongong 2 weeks ago, essentially destroying our season. It seems to have been a real blow to the morale of the team, a blow that it could not overcome.

So onto our last match of the year, there was really not much to report, you could sense that all the air had been let out of the season, the players were flat. That’s not to say that the players didn’t try, but there was a sense of resignation that there was not much to play for and it was not really a surprise to see us go down and end the season with a whimper, after it was looking like we had turned the corner during the last 6 weeks.

Overall for the expectations of Sydney Olympic, the 2016 season has been an un-mitigated disaster. A failure of epic proportions and most supporters saw it coming last November.

2013 need not be spoken about at length, but when Lee and Zorbas came in they had to sift through the rubble yet still we managed 8 wins and comfortably avoided relegation. In 2014 the team saw steady improvement, 10 wins, a 4^th placed finish and a Grand Final appearance. In 2015 we had 13 wins, another 4^th placed finish but a poor exit in the Finals, in both years we experienced decent Cup runs.

We have gone backwards in 2016, instability at Board level saw that uncertainty last the entire 2015 off-season which meant no heed was being paid to the needs of the team for the up-coming season, as a result we lost the services of 10 players. People like, Troy Danaskos, Petar Markovic, Brendan Hooper, Go Shirai, Taiga Soeda, Dimitri Hatzimouratis, Scott Balderson, Yianni Spyrakis, James Andrew and Ryan Keir.

The club responded by signing 3 players, 2 of which Mark CIndric and Chris Triantis offered very little and did not even last half a season, the 3^rd was Mitchell Stamatellis, who arguably was our player of the year and a welcome sight back in the Sydney Olympic shirt.

With that many players not being replaced, it wouldn’t take an Einstein to figure out that we might struggle and struggle we did. We managed to win only 2 of our first 10 matches and dug a massive hole for ourselves. We did manage to turn the season around with a couple of good signings during mid-season and through the emergence of some younger players who all improved as the season progressed, which was one of the few highlights and positives for this season. But unfortunately by then it was too late and it left us too much to do to seriously challenge the top of the ladder. The bungling of yellow cards and not knowing how many certain players were on only added to the circus that was 2016, that bungle put the exclamation point on the season.

Sydney Olympic as a Club, should never have been in the position that it found itself in. We were chasing our tails it seemed during the whole season. I hope big lessons are learned so that it never happens again.

Of course off the park, big questions still remain in a number of areas and they will be talked about all off-season.

Ground Situation -
The relationship between Sydney Olympic and the Bulldogs seems to be at an all-time low, the bullying of the club by the Council backed Bulldogs has led to the club being frozen out of the entire Belmore Sports Ground precinct. Of course when the Bulldogs needed Sydney Olympic to claim millions in Council money they were Sydney Olympic’s best friend, it seems that since now the Bulldogs have gotten what they wanted, they want to on top of that oust Sydney Olympic from Belmore entirely. We could be in a situation where we might need to find an alternate venue for 2017.

There have been no further updates by the Club or Marrickville Council (or whatever name that Council goes by now) regarding the alleged Tempe project. With every passing week it seems like this project will go the way of so many others throughout the years.

Lack of Media -
I’ve been mentioning this for a long time; it is of vital importance for a Club like Sydney Olympic which finds itself in its current predicament. A predicament where there is no exposure or coverage of the League that it plays in, the supposed 2^nd tier of Australia. The Club therefore should take the bull by the horns in this instance and make sure that its website is updated regularly, make sure places like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are always active and updated. The Club is failing to adequately inform the members and supporters on the goings on of the club. This must change.

AGM -
The wait goes on for an Annual General Meeting, it has been a few years since the last one and we have been assured repeatedly that there will be one before the end of 2016, we wait with baited breath.

Over the off-season this blog will do its best to inform and update the Supporters on any news that might be around about the Club.

Sydney Olympic 0-2 Rockdale

Without some of our more important players we were in neutral territory last night to take on Rockdale, Football NSW’s favourite team. In a controversial match, we were defeated, ending our good recent run of form.

We started the match off very sluggishly I thought and it was a very disjointed display from Sydney Olympic throughout that first 45 minutes. As time and again we were repelling Rockdale attacks on our goal. On numerous occasions we were bailed out by the Great Paul Henderson, who pulled off some magnificent saves to keep the score at 0-0. As the First Half progressed we did start to look a bit better out there, we had one fantastic opportunity to score before half-time but we could not capitalise. We were lacking that real cutting edge and we could not break through for a goal. The supporters who had ventured out to Miranda had to settle for a 0-0 score-line at the half-time break.

The start to the Second Half was a slight improvement on how we started the First Half. We were passing and moving the ball more easily and it looked like we were the better side early on in that Second Half. Rockdale were always a threat breaking out from defense but we handled everything they were throwing at us quite easily. The game turned with about 15 minutes to go as we had a player sent off for a second yellow card, from the resulting free-kick we conceded to go 1-0 down. With 10 men we then took the game to Rockdale, we pushed hard to find an equaliser as we created some very good opportunities. It seemed right at the death that the pressure would pay off as we had a 100% penalty waved away by the referee who was doing his best impersonation of a blind person or even worse, purposely did not award the penalty. This seemed to deflate the team as Rockdale then went down the other end to make it 2-0 and it was effectively game over.

The board and the club needs to stop wasting time, money and resources on bringing in unheard of and untested players from God knows where, especially when there are better players running around in the 18s and 20s that could do a better job and for less money.

Once again Sydney Olympic Supporters were subjected to constant provocations and taunts from Rockdale’s barbaric followers, it seems to be getting worse with them every year. What makes it worse is they seem to be protected by the Federation and it seems they are allowed to do whatever it is they want. Sydney Olympic would be wise to in the future make these home matches against these hillbillies closed affairs to all away fans, for the safety of all Sydney Olympic Supporters.

Quickly on the club communications front, despite all the criticism received this year the club seems to have done nothing about it. The club’s Twitter account has been inactive for over a month, updates are very few and far between on Facebook as well and there is not much information available on the club website. If we are not going to publicise ourselves who will? The Greek papers? They’re too busy raving over the exploits of other teams to worry about the club that represents their constituency.

For the Club Championship, in the U20s we won 1-0, but in the U18s the match will be played this midweek. Add in our loss in First Grade and it was not great weekend.

Next Sunday, August 14, is the final round of the regular season against Blacktown Spartans at Blacktown Football Park, Rooty Hill, Kickoff is at 3pm.

On a Roll - Wollongong Wolves 1-2 Sydney Olympic

After 3 victories in succession, we went down to Wollongong hoping to make it 4 in a row. It’s never easy to play the Wolves down there and given their current predicament in the League it proved to be again, as Sydney Olympic had to fight hard to come away with the victory and the all-important 3 points to continue our great late-season form.

As in recent weeks we started the match off well and quickly got on top. We controlled the match for large portions of that First Half and created the majority of the chances. 20 minutes into the match and the pressure told, Hagi Gligor finishing off well from a nice cross from Jack Green to put us 1-0 up. After the opening goal we continued to dominate proceedings. Mitch Stamatellis had a chance to double our lead but his header smacked against the crossbar. Just before half-time we would grab our second, which again came through Hagi Gligor to get his First Half double. We had a few other chances throughout the First Half but we could not take advantage. Wollongong Wolves had a couple of half chances throughout the First Half but never really looked like scoring, at half-time we were the dominant team and went to the sheds leading 2-0.

As if realising the gravity of their current predicament, Wollongong came out hard in the Second Half in a bid to get back into the match. Within the first 5 minutes of the Second Half they had already pulled a goal back, via the penalty spot. The next 40 minutes would turn out to be some nail-biting stuff as Wollongong searched for another goal and us trying to hold on. Paul Henderson had another great match between the sticks as he made crucial saves down the stretch. Of course with Wollongong pushing hard looking for the equaliser it gave us a couple of opportunities to hit them on the break, all of which came to no avail. With time ticking down Wollongong gave it one last shot but our defense held firm and the relief was clear for all to see as the referee blew for full-time to give us a 2-1 victory, our fourth on the trot.

It was the classic “game of two halves” as the momentum swung from Sydney Olympic in the First Half to Wollongong Wolves in the Second Half, but we were good enough to hold on and bank another important 3 points. A Finals berth is within our reach, something that most would have though impossible earlier in the season. Well done to everybody on our recent form.

For the Club Championship, in the U18s we lost 4-0 and in the U20s we won 2-1. Combined with our 2-1 victory in First Grade this secured us 18 points towards the Club Championship. It’s been a big change from 6-8 weeks ago, where it looked like we would be involved in a relegation battle to now being comfortably inside the top half of the Club Championship.

Next weekend, Sunday August 7, is our last home game of the year, it will be a big day, so hopefully plenty of Sydney Olympic Supporters come down and support the club and help continue our late season form.

In what we hope will be an annual thing at every last home match of the season, the Sydney Olympic old boys will play against a team of NSL all-stars at 2pm, prior to the First Grade match.

There will be plenty of other things happening at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday as the club will unveil its new logo for 2017 and beyond. Check the clubs website and official channels for further details.

First Grade Kickoff at Belmore Sports Ground for the match against Rockdale is 3pm. 

Sydney Olympic 4-3 Hakoah Sydney City-East

Olympic and Hakoah have been doing battle for over half a century (barring a 30 year period in there) and the last time we hosted a League match against them it would have been at Pratten Park sometime in the year 1986. Anyway, to the 4-3 result which flattered Hakoah, the result of the match should never have been in doubt and nor should it have been that close in the end. We were by far the better footballing team and should have put 6 or 7 passed them at least. Some dubious refereeing helped Hakoah out and helped keep them in the match, a match they realistically should have been out of by half-time.

We started the match on fire, you could tell that the Sydney Olympic boys were well and truly up for it and within the first 5 minutes we had opened the scoring via some good inter-play between Jason Madonis and Josh Gaspari, the former found the latter with a good pass and Gaspari coolly finished to give us an early 1-0 lead. Within the first 10 minutes we should have had a second goal, but Harris Gaitatzis who has been in good goal-scoring form of late, had his effort saved by the Hakoah goalkeeper. We only had to wait a few more minutes though for the second goal, which again came via Josh Gaspari who slotted his second goal of the afternoon with another expert finish, it was all Sydney Olympic at this point. Unfortunately Hakoah were allowed back into the match, after the referee awarded a penalty which they dispatched. This setback did not hinder our play or our confidence as we went right back on the attack, we dominated the rest of the First Half creating numerous chances, but we could not add to our score, including a shot which smacked the crossbar. With a bit more luck we could have gone to the half-time break 5-1 up, but as it was we had to settle for a 2-1 lead as the referee blew his whistle for half-time.

The first 15 minutes of the Second Half were fairly uneventful as both sides settled back into the game after the break. From then on we resumed our dominance of the match as we went close twice in the space of a couple of minutes to restoring our 2 goal lead, including another shot which hit the crossbar. With about 20 minutes to go that 2 goal lead would be restored as Jack Green sneaked into the box to receive the ball, he then smashed his shot pass the Hakoah goalkeeper to put Sydney Olympic 3-1 up. About 5 minutes later we came close to adding number 4 but it was not to be. It should have been plain sailing for us, but with 10 minutes to go Hakoah snatched a goal to make it 3-2 through Olympic old boy Adrian Vranic who was the only real Hakoah threat for the entire match. In the last minute of regulation time, the referee awarded another penalty for Hakoah, which they converted to make it 3-3. Unbelievably for the supporters the scores were level in a match we should have been leading comfortably, to say the swear words were flying is an under-statement. But deep into injury-time we found a winner through Josh Gaspari again who rounded out his hat-trick with a beautiful volley, the keeper had no chance. Seconds later the referee blew for full-time and victory was ours.

It was another good performance and more importantly another victory and another 3 points. This keeps us in the Top 5 and in a Finals position at the moment. The last 3 weeks of the regular season are going to be very interesting as games at this time of the season all have meaning and are never easy, whether you are coming up against the team coming First or Last.

Although the match was an exciting one, we really should have put Hakoah to the sword and put the game to bed before half-time. Another day and we would be ruing not winning.

Our Rwandan recruit Jean-Pierre Hakiri saw his first action for Sydney Olympic in a 20 minute cameo, who was solid.

For the Club Championship, in the U18s we lost 4-1 and in the U20s we won 5-1. Combined with our 4-3 victory in First Grade this secured us 18 points towards the Club Championship, a good haul.

Next weekend, Sunday July 31, we have another difficult match against a relegation-threatened and desperate Wollongong Wolves side down at WIN Stadium in Wollongong, Kickoff is at 5pm. 

Bonnyrigg White Eagles 0-2 Sydney Olympic

As history has proven, Bonnyrigg has never been a happy hunting ground for Sydney Olympic since we’ve been back in the State League, having never won a League match there since we were thrown back into the State League in 2005. We did win there once in the Cup in 2011, but other than that it has been fairly slim pickings out there for us. All that changed on Saturday Night as we put in a great performance to come away with a victory and the all-important 3 points.

The match was a keenly fought one, with both sides knowing the importance of victory and the ramifications of defeat. After a circumspect opening 10 minutes from both sides, Bonnyrigg had the ascendancy for a lot of the First Half. They created the better of the opportunities but at the same time did not have many clear cut goal scoring opportunities; Paul Henderson was not troubled that much throughout the First Half despite Bonnyrigg being on top. For our Sydney Olympic, we were looking most threatening hitting them on the break through the likes of Will Angel down the Left and Josh Gaspari down the Right. We had a few half chances throughout that First Half but we could not find the back of the net either. After a tight and tense First Half, both sides had to settle for 0-0 at the half-time break.

At the start of the Second Half we looked a little more aggressive and assertive in our play. Bonnyrigg were also looking anxious and pushed hard in a bid to open the scoring. But it would be Sydney Olympic who would take the lead 10 minutes into the Second Half, after a quick break saw Jason Madonis end up with the ball in space, he dribbled the ball into the area and smashed his shot passed the Bonnyrigg goalkeeper to put us 1-0 up, a great finish. Bonnyrigg were now even more desperate to grab a goal, but Paul Henderson and our makeshift back 4 handled everything Bonnyrigg threw at them. With Bonnyrigg chasing goals and pushing up it left spaces for us to exploit and grab another goal and we had a few half chances to extend our lead but it was not to be. The opposition kept huffing and puffing but they could not blow our door down, we were solid defensively and held them out every time. With about 5 minutes left Harris Gaitatzis killed the game off for us with a smart finish to put us 2-0 up, which is how the score stayed at full-time, a much needed 3 points were ours.

So another good performance from the players and a huge win in the context of our season, which sees us stay in the hunt to make this year’s Finals Series. And it was done with almost a second string team, with many players unavailable for one reason or another.

For the Club Championship, in the U18s we lost 3-2 and in the U20s we lost 2-1. Our 2-0 victory in First Grade picked up the slack this week, securing 12 points towards the Club Championship.

In other news, out of nowhere, the Club through its Facebook page decided to announce a change in the Club Emblem for 2017, which would be welcomed by 100% of the supporters of that there is no doubt as the current Emblem was never loved.

Now I’m not sure about the protocols and procedures for these sorts of things but the members were not informed, were not asked and were not even made aware that there would be a change, the supporters to my knowledge were also not consulted at all. So the question has to be asked, who came up with it???



Some like it, others not so much. For me personally the design is a fine one, but the middle of it, with the soccer ball seems too generic and I and many others feel it does not represent anything to do with Sydney Olympic and should be replaced with a true Sydney Olympic identifier, the rings.



Plenty of members and supporters are rightly upset about not even being asked for their thoughts or opinions and any suggestions that were given in the last 3 years have been ignored. Fan engagement has been non-existent in this process. I suspect we have not heard the last of this.

All matches from now till the end of the season are now all “must win”. Next Sunday July 24, we are back at home at Belmore Sports Ground to take on Hakoah Sydney City-East, kickoff is at 3pm. 

Stayin’ Alive - Sydney Olympic 3-0 Parramatta FC

We have just about kept ourselves in the race to make the Top 5 and participate in this year’s Finals Series. After a fantastic showing on Sunday Afternoon which saw Sydney Olympic topple a resurgent Parramatta FC, who they themselves were harbouring aspirations of making the Top 5.

The play in the First Half from both teams was indicative of the importance both had placed on this match. With time running out to make the Top 5 and play Finals Football for 2016, both sides started cautiously. Although our best chance of the First Half did come early on, when Will Angel once again beat his defender and delivered a ball inside the box to Josh Gaspari, who disappointingly sent his shot straight at the goalkeeper. A Parramatta mistake in their own half soon after gifted us another opportunity, but unfortunately we could not capitalise. Both sides created half chances and threatened to score for the rest of the half, but there was no cutting edge from either side. Defense was the order of the day from both sides throughout that First Half, as any chances were quickly snuffed out and the score would remain 0-0 at the half-time break.

During the first few moments of the Second Half it was quite noticeable that there was an increase in the intensity from the Sydney Olympic players, which was a good sign from the supporters’ point of view. Within the first 5 minutes of the Second Half we opened the scoring, courtesy of a fantastic strike from Harris Gaitatzis, who made room for himself to have a shot from the edge of the box, which nestled into the corner of the Parramatta net. The match then see-sawed, with Parramatta going close to scoring an equaliser. With 20 minutes or so to go though, we got the all-important second goal via Harris Gaitatzis again, a beautiful piece of individual skill to get passed the defender was finished off with a brilliant chip over the Parramatta goalkeeper, it was another great finish. After this, Parramatta predictably then came out in a search for goals to put themselves back into the contest, this of course left acres of room for the Sydney Olympic players to exploit and deep into injury time, we grabbed our 3^rd of the afternoon thanks to that man again, Harris Gaitatzis, who tapped in from close range after a quick goal-kick from Paul Henderson found Jason Madonis in the clear, who summed up the situation perfectly to deliver the pass for Harris to finish the game off with an easy tap-in and complete his hat-trick.

So obviously a very important win which keeps our Finals hopes alive. We now have two weeks to gather our thoughts, to get over any injuries and also with no Cup distractions we can fully focus on the last 5 matches of the season and make a run at the Top 5.

The German Rene Klingenburg did not play as he was hacked to pieces last week and missed yesterday’s win over Parramatta. Rwandan International, Jean-Baptiste Mugiraneza, who we have also signed for the remainder of the season did not get clearance in time to play yesterday. Hagi Gligor, who last played at Perth Glory was also signed in midweek and made his debut for us on Sunday and performed well. With the 2 weeks off, we have time to get our house in order so to speak, all Sydney Olympic Supporters hope that we haven’t left our run too late.

Also, a big congratulations goes out to Will Angel, who notched up 150 matches for Sydney Olympic on Sunday. Becoming only the 2^nd player to reach this figure in the post NSL era and the 2^nd player to achieve the milestone this season, following on from Paul Henderson who did it earlier this season.

For the Club Championship, it was a better week compared to the last few weeks. In the U18s we lost 2-1, in the U20s we picked up a 1-1 draw, adding in our 3-0 win in First Grade and we picked up a valuable 14 points towards the Club Championship.

As was mentioned earlier, next weekend is a bye round as the Waratah Cup Final between Manly United and Sydney United takes precedence, so we are not in League action. We are next in action on Saturday Night, July 16, away to the Bonnyrigg White Eagles, kickoff is at 7pm at the Bonnyrigg Sports Club.

Sydney Olympic 0-2 Sydney United

Well another weekend, another home game and another missed opportunity to make up ground on the Top 5. It was another frustrating Sunday at Belmore Sports Ground where once again our general play was good, but there was simply no end product.

We started the match off well, we were looking sharp. In that First Half alone, new boy Rene Klingenburg, William Angel, Harris Gaitatzis and Mitch Stamatellis all had great opportunities to score, but neither were able to hit the back of the net. A combination of a lack of composure, as well as some fine goalkeeping from the opposition shot-stopper, who rightly has a lot of people talking of him going to the next level, kept the score at 0-0. During the First Half we were no doubt the better team, everybody was playing well, but as has been the case this season, we were just unable to take advantage and turn our good play into goals. Throughout the First Half the opposition had a few half chances and some good moments, but in the end we were by far and away the better side, but unfortunately we went to the half-time break dead-locked at 0-0.

If in the First Half we started off well, the Second Half began in the complete opposite fashion. We conceded an early penalty which the opposition dispatched. After a good performance by Sydney Olympic to that point, we were unjustly 1-0 behind. The next 15 minutes was all Sydney Olympic again, as we had 3 great chances to pull level, a combination of poor finishing and some good goalkeeping made sure we still trailed. With us opening up trying to chase the equaliser, it gave the opposition the chance and the space to go and chase a second goal, and they did have a couple of half chances. But it would be us that would continue to rue the constant missed chances. Late on, the opposition managed to bundle in a scrappy goal to put them 2-0 up and the match was effectively over. It was another loss at home and no doubt it is becoming a frustrating period for all Sydney Olympic Supporters. Finally in what became a running theme throughout the entire match was the shocking officiating from the 3 blind mice out there. If ever you need anybody to ruin a match, give these 3 a call, because for most of it, they had absolutely no idea what they were doing. I can see how this team is so far in front on the ladder.

If it feels like a broken record on here every week, you may be on to something, because basically I am on here telling you what seems like the same story every week. Good play, we are working hard, we are solid defensively, but where it matters the most, on the scoreboard, we just cannot seem to get it ticking over by scoring goals, having the 2^nd worst attack in the League only confirms this.

Sunday saw the debut of our German recruit Rene Klingenburg. It might take him a couple of matches to get used to this League, but judging from what I saw on Sunday, he has immense quality and was far and away the best player on the park, from either side.

With Adrian Vranic, Chris Triantis, Michael Gaitatzis all leaving for varying reasons, a couple of others allegedly heading for the door before the season is out and with Jacob Boutoubia apparently suffering a season ending injury, we’re limping towards the end of the season, it has been a forgettable year. Reports are that Brayden Sorge who has missed a large chunk of this season, may be ready for next Sunday. So let’s hope we can show something in these last 6 weeks of the season.

For the Club Championship, for the third week in a row we have had a shocking weekend. Our U18s won 2-0, the U20s lost 2-1, adding in our 2-0 loss in First Grade, and that is a combined 3 points for the entire weekend. We are sliding ever closer back towards a relegation dog-fight. We need to wake up in all three grades and turn it around, beginning with next weekend. 

Next Sunday Afternoon we have an absolute must win clash, at home at Belmore Sports Ground, against Parramatta FC. Kickoff is at 3pm. 

Sydney Olympic 1-2 Sutherland Sharks

With all due respect to Sutherland, if we at Sydney Olympic cannot beat cellar dwellers like them at home, than we can forget even thinking about making the Finals this season let alone making an impact in them, which was a long shot to begin with anyway given our horrendous start to this season. But this type of terrible result only magnifies that.

In the First Half it was us who came out looking the better side and we generally dominated proceedings. We were working well as a unit and playing some nice football, despite the rain which was teeming down by this time. We even created several good chances to open the scoring, but as is the story of our season so far, it was not to be. Sutherland were only looking dangerous via set pieces, corners and freekicks. We seemed to be in control but just could not find anyone to take their chance and hit the back of the net. Throughout the First Half, there didn’t seem to be any real danger to our goal from the opposition. This changed though right on half-time as they opened the scoring from a corner which found the head of one of their players. Unbelievably and undeservedly, we went to the half-time break down 1-0, with the supporters shaking their heads.

The start to the Second Half was similar to the start of the First as we came out hunting for an equaliser. We created a couple of chances; we were banging on the door. 10 minutes into the Second Half we were finally rewarded as Harris Gaitatzis finished well to make the score 1-1 and get us back into the contest. Unfortunately all that good work to get back level was undone, as a loss of concentration shortly after cancelled out our equaliser and once again Sutherland found themselves in front. Remarkably by this point the rain was actually getting heavier, which was making it all the more difficult for us to go on and find another equaliser. We tried hard but we could not create that clear cut chance that we needed to get back on level terms. By this time the pitch had taken on so much water that it was getting harder and harder to play the simplest of passes. Sadly we could not find the all-important goal and the game finished in a 2-1 defeat for Sydney Olympic.

We really should be taking advantage of the string of home matches we are having at the moment and to falter against the lesser lights of the competition is very disappointing. The rain teeming down all afternoon no doubt does not help, but we do not have anybody to make the difference in the attacking third and nor do we have someone up front who can put any chances we do create away at a consistent rate.

The absence of William Angel out on the field yesterday was felt by all. Hopefully he is available to play next week as we need him out there.

The talk of new signings coming in to help the side has not eventuated either at this point of the season and in fact we are losing more players than we are bringing in. Only a couple of weeks after Chris Triantis walked out on the club, Michael Gaitatzis has followed him out the door as well. This does not bode well for the important matches that are coming up.

For the Club Championship it was for the second week in a row not a great weekend. Our U18s drew 3-3, and our U20s drew 2-2, adding our 2-1 loss in First Grade and that only gives us 3 points for the entire weekend, following on from the 5 points we picked up last week, we are allowing ourselves to get dragged back in to the relegation dog-fight. We need to step it up.

Next week it does not get any easier, as our next League match is this Sunday Afternoon, June 26 at Belmore Sports Ground, against a rampaging Sydney United, Kickoff is at 3pm.

Deadlocked - Sydney Olympic 0-0 Blacktown City

In a match of limited clear cut opportunities, at least for us at Sydney Olympic we came away with a scoreless draw against the visiting Blacktown City, at Belmore on Sunday Night. For Blacktown City, they might have a different opinion on the match as their players blew some golden chances to score and win the match. But in the end it was a well earned point for the Blue & White.

As for the match itself, during that First Half we did have some nice passages of play, we kept possession well and we looked comfortable on the ball, but that final killer pass was not there, and as a result we were not able to create many clear cut chances. William Angel and Josh Gaspari were looking dangerous and there was some good movement, but we were finding it difficult to break through Blacktown’s defence. Jason Madonis had a couple of long range strikes but they did not trouble the Blacktown goalkeeper. Blacktown are a renowned fast-breaking attacking force and throughout the First Half they once again showed that, attacking us on numerous occasions. Our defence though held firm and dealt with most of their raids. Although missing an open net from 3m would not have gone down well with them you would have thought. Paul Henderson was once again great in goals and Mitch Stamatellis and Anthony Tomelic were solid in front of him as we held them out and went to the break dead-locked at 0-0.

At the beginning of the Second Half, both sides searched for a way to unlock the other’s defence. Both sides created chances but Blacktown had the better of them, yet they could not get passed Paul Henderson who was having another big night between the sticks. The game then degenerated into a midfield battle for a lot of the Second Half as both sides seemed miffed about how to get through the others defences. In the last 15 minutes, the Sydney Olympic boys pushed again to try and find that all-important breakthrough. The story of our night was good interplay and movement, but there was a clear inability to produce a good final pass for a team mate to score or at least have a chance at a shot. Blacktown had a few chances late on, but we held on and it was not to be for either side and we had to settle for a 0-0 Draw.

Sydney Olympic of 2016 is improving and we once again showed some good spirit and true grit to fight off the Blacktown challenge, but we are lacking that little bit of magic in the attacking third.

We tried hard in this match and everybody out there worked hard, but we could not find the back of the net. Paul Henderson once again had an outstanding night in goals for us.

One thing that I have certainly noticed with a few of our players is their unwillingness once they are in good positions, to have a shot at the goals, there is a lot of dilly-dallying even once we are inside the box. It’s worth having a crack from time to time.

For a few weeks now there has been much talk of new signings. Josh Gaspari is the only one to of actually featured so far, and with the apparent departure of Chris
Triantis, we need a boost that these players will surely give us. As you would know (or maybe you don’t) there must be a 4 week break before a player’s last match before they can play for their new club, this is an issue we are facing at the moment.

For the Club Championship it was not the best of weekends. The U20s Lost 4-2, while the U18s picked up a 1-1 Draw, add our 0-0 Draw in First grade and we picked up only 5 points for the weekend.

Our next match is next Sunday Afternoon June 19, at Belmore Sports Ground against Sutherland Sharks, Kickoff is at 3pm.

Manly United 1-1 Sydney Olympic

It has been a wet and wild weekend in old Sydney town, starting with Friday Night at Cromer Park against Manly United, where a heroic display from Paul Henderson saw us pick up a valuable point on the Northern Beaches.

The match for most parts, was played in torrential rain, which limited the amount of “good football” that could be played. To the game itself, we started off well and created a few chances to open the scoring. Manly were also looking busy during that first half carving out some chances of their own. The first half generally was a pretty even affair. But 10 minutes before the break we went behind via a headed goal from a cross from a freekick. Minutes before half-time Paul Henderson pulled off some big big saves to keep the score at 1-0, which was how the score stayed as the referee blew his whistle for half-time.

The first 20 minutes of the second half were a continuation of the last 10 minutes of the first half. Manly were attacking our goal at will and putting all sorts of pressure on our defence. Once again we held firm, with Paul Henderson making some crucial saves to keep us in the contest. After this period though we seemed to grow in confidence and Manly would have been a little despondent after failing to capitalise on their chances and dropped their heads a little bit. We then got on top and had a couple of chances, the first one going wide, but with 20 minutes to go, the second found its mark. New recruit Josh Gaspari finished off well to open his account for Sydney Olympic and put us right back in the match. The final stages of the match saw both sides lift in search for a winner, but it would not come for either and the matched ended 1-1.

The last 3 or 4 weeks has seen steady improvement by the team, we are getting better each week. Whether it will be enough for us to make the Top 5 we will just have to wait and see, as it will be a tough ask given our poor start to the season.

As mentioned, new recruit Josh Gaspari scored a valuable goal for us on his Sydney Olympic debut. There is talk of 3 or 4 more players coming in to bolster the First Grade Squad, we will just have to wait and see.

For the Club Championship we picked up 4 points courtesy of our Draw in First Grade. In the U18s we Won 2-1 and in the U20s we Won 4-3, giving us a combined 13 points for the weekend, a good haul.

Over the last month there has been plenty of feedback and interest by Sydney Olympic Supporters on facebook and twitter regarding talk of change to the current Sydney Olympic logo, which is not everybody’s cup of tea. With next year being the 60^th anniversary of the founding of the club you would think that the Club would be implementing things now so it is changed and ready for next year.

The Olympic Rings in all polls and comments has been overwhelmingly the most popular choice from Sydney Olympic Supporters. Given that several other teams use some version of the Rings like Hamilton Olympic from Newcastle, Canberra Olympic and Wollongong Olympic. I see no reason why we cannot revert back to our original Ringed design which we used from 1977-1999, even an all-blue Ringed design would be acceptable. The Club and the Supporters deserve a better logo, one that reflects the clubs heritage and its future.

Our next League match is a big one. Next Sunday Night, June 12, against Blacktown City, at Belmore Sports Ground, Kickoff will be at 7.00pm.

Back to Back Wins - Sydney Olympic 3-1 APIA Leichhardt

For the first time in Season 2016 we’ve won back to back matches and we had to overcome a first half deficit to achieve it. The second half performance was outstanding, we fully deserved the win.

Right from the kickoff we were unlucky not to open the scoring as a Harris Gaitatzis freekick was well saved by the APIA keeper, as it would turn out the first of many many saves from him for the afternoon. The first half generally was a back and forth affair. There were not too many clear cut chances created by either side, but throughout the half both sides threatened each other’s 18 yard box. Overall, throughout the first half-hour you would have to say that APIA probably shaded proceedings, they were looking more menacing in attack and when they attacked they did it with numbers. Around 10 minutes before half-time APIA would open the scoring; they broke quickly and found themselves in a 2-on-1 situation and opened the scoring through a tap in. In the last 10 or so minutes of the half we picked it up a little bit in search of an equaliser but it would not come and we went to the half-time break trailing 1-0.

A couple of changes at the break seemed to do the trick as we came out for the second half all guns blazing. Moving Jason Madonis closer to the action and giving Will Angel a role roaming up front changed the match in our favour. The second half, apart from a few APIA attacks was complete domination by Sydney Olympic as we basically ran riot. The first 10 minutes of the second half should have seen us equalise at the very least, but the APIA keeper came up with several big saves, denying Harris Gaitatzis a couple of times. On the 60^th minute we got our deserved equaliser via Jacob Boutoubia, who chipped his effort over the on-coming APIA keeper to bring the score to 1-1. Angel, Boutoubia, Gaitatzis in tandem with Madonis and the 2 fullbacks Green and Montford were causing havoc for APIA’s defence, as we flooded forward looking for more goals. Some more fine work from the APIA keeper denied Sydney Olympic and kept the score at 1-1. APIA were holding on, that is until they got a player sent off with around 15 minutes to go, which gave our Sydney Olympic the impetus to step it up further and hunt for a winner. Only a few minutes later the goal would come, some nice work from Will Angel on the flank saw him beat his man and send a ball into the box for an easy tap in for Harris Gaitatzis. Oliver Green put the icing on the cake two minutes before the end, as he found himself in space and finished well to give us an unassailable 3-1 lead, which is how the score stayed.

It could have been so much more if it was not for the APIA keeper. But the important thing is to keep on picking up wins and the all-important 3 points. As mentioned the changes at half-time for whatever reason sparked the team and made us more fluid and potent in attack as we ran the show in that second half, a great display.

For the Club Championship we won 2-0 in the U18s and lost 3-0 in the U20s, with our win in First Grade we picked up 15 points towards the tally. We’re slowly creeping away from relegation danger, but we need to keep it up.

Due to the Australia-Greece International on Saturday Night, our next League match away against Manly which was scheduled for Saturday Night, has been moved forward to this Friday Night at Cromer Park, kickoff is at 7:45pm.

Sydney Olympic 2-1 Blacktown Spartans

It’s been a few weeks but we are back in the winner’s circle after a gritty 2-1 win against Blacktown Spartans at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday Afternoon. A much needed victory at that.

We started the match off well and with great enthusiasm. But given the current League position of our opposition, it was clear from the outset that they had also come to play. It was our Sydney Olympic though that opened the scoring via a shot which took a wicked bounce in front of the Spartans keeper, with the ball spilling off him and falling to Jacob Boutoubia who made no mistake to prod it home and give us a 1-0 lead. After the goal we created a few more chances during the 1^st half, Boutoubia was looking dangerous and he had a chance at a 2^nd goal a few minutes later with his well taken header destined for the top corner, only for it to be well saved by the Spartans keeper. Spartans hit back throughout the 1^st half creating several chances and would probably say they were a bit unlucky not to grab an equaliser during the rest of the 1st half. We also had a few chances to extend our lead, but as it was we went to the break leading 1-0.

Despite our packed schedule of the past few weeks, we again looked energetic to start off the 2^nd half. That man again Boutoubia was causing the opposition all sorts of problems, he created another chance for himself only for his shot to smash against the crossbar, very unlucky. 10 minutes into the 2^nd half though, the match would be turned on its head. A dubious 2^nd yellow card saw Niko Tsattalios sent for an early shower, leaving us to battle on with 10 men for the last 35 minutes. From us being on the front foot and fairly dominant we then had to retreat and play on the counter in a bid to hold onto our lead. With the man advantage Spartans lifted a gear to try and find that equaliser. Ironically it would be us who would score and double our advantage. Some nice work found a free Anthony Tomelic out on the left hand side, he put in a nice looking cross that found Michael Gaitatzis whose fine header found the back of the net, to the delight of the Olympic supporters. The 2 goal advantage was restored, but it was short lived though as only a few minutes later Spartans again reduced the deficit to 1 through a well taken goal. Throughout the match Paul Henderson was once again huge for us, pulling off numerous saves to keep us in the lead. The last 10 minutes were all about holding on as Spartans searched for the equaliser, but it was not to be for them and we held on for an important victory.

I must commend all the players, with many injuries, a few new faces and with a lot of matches under their belts already this season, they worked extremely hard and gave everything to achieve this win.

As seen today though, we are guilty at times of trying to be too cute with the ball inside our own defensive third, against higher calibre opposition we most probably would have paid for our mistakes, today we got away with it, we must learn from this.

In the U20s we won 3-2 courtesy of a virtuoso performance from Michael Loupis who scored a hat-trick, and in the U18s we picked up a 1-1 draw. Most importantly in respect to the Club Championship, it was a very good round as we picked up a valuable 19 points. More of the same please.

Last Wednesday Night we were in FFA Cup action against Sydney United at Edensor Park, with the reward being progression to the Main Draw of the 2016 FFA Cup. After putting in a good shift we succumbed to a 2-1 defeat. So there will be no FFA Cup this year and given the current system used by Football NSW, we are also out of the Waratah Cup as well.

So no more midweek matches for this season, which is a blessing. Next week we have another huge home game in the League against old foes APIA Leichhardt. Sunday the 29^th of May at Belmore Sports Ground, kickoff is at 3pm.

Rockdale 3-0 Sydney Olympic

Look, despite the score-line it was not a romp or some type of limp performance from us that lead to some type of obscene thrashing. We were the better side during the entire 1^st half; we played them off the park for most of it and created a plethora of great chances. But we just do not have the players to put the ball in the back of the net at the moment. It might have something to do with the fact that we do not have 1 recognised centre-forward at the club, quite how the club allowed itself to get to this point is another matter entirely.

As is the norm with these types of matches where we dominate and do not score, sure enough the opposition popped up to open the scoring just before half-time, and we found ourselves 1-0 down at half-time.

In the 2^nd half we tried hard and we were never out of the game to be fair, but we just could not finish off our good inter-play with any type of end product, we just could not score. The opposition stepped it up in the 2^nd half and they were more decisive and clinical than we were and ran away with the match, scoring twice more in the 2^nd half to run out 3-0 winners and take the 3 points.

Some comments from Coach Grant Lee after the Match:

- “You buoy other teams by the fact you do not punish them and then are encouraged because they think they should be down yet they are still in the game”

- “Then we are naive in our defending which comes from the fact that we get frustrated that we haven’t taken our opportunities”

- “We do have a young side and at the moment they don’t have that experience or knowledge on how to close out a game”

My response to this is we had a striker, a good young striker by the name of Adrian Vranic who is one of the more sought after young players in Australia, and you did not want him, you did not rate him and did not want to play him, for reasons I cannot fathom or understand at this time. And as a result he has now left Sydney Olympic and has joined up with another NPL club, a travesty for the club that cannot be put into words. Also another striker has apparently been let go in Mark Cindric. So we have massive issues now up front.

Also I’m not sure who is expected to buy the “we are a young and inexperienced team” line. Henderson, Sorge, Egger, Stamatellis, Madonis, Fondyke, Angel, Tsattalios, the Gaitatzis Brothers are seasoned players at this level and have played at higher levels than this. It is a rubbish argument and should stop being used. It hurts so much to see this club struggling this season. We must haul ourselves out of this hole we have dug for ourselves and do it quickly.

In the U18s we won 1-0 and in the U20s we had a 1-1 Draw. For the Club Championship it was not a good weekend as we only picked up 5 points and the teams around us all picked up more points. We need to start winning games ASAP.

On the Tempe front, news of the past week was that Marrickville Council, Ashfield Council and Leichhardt Council have agreed to merge and form a new “Inner-West Council”. Your guess is as good as mine on how much of an impact this may have on the Tempe re-development. We can only hope its impact is not in a way where the entire thing is scrapped.

Our next match is the Final Qualifying Round for the FFA Cup against Sydney United, this Wednesday Night the 18^th of May at Edensor Park, kickoff is 7:30pm.

Our next League game is a match of major importance and significance in the context of this season and our hope of avoiding relegation. Against a team who are also battling to avoid the same fate. This Sunday 22^nd of May at Belmore Sports Ground against Blacktown Spartans, kickoff is 3pm.

Looking for that Killer Instinct - Sydney Olympic 0-0 Wollongong Wolves

Disappointingly our Round 9 home match was moved from Belmore Sports Ground to Lambert Park, thankfully we have a fairly decent record at the Leichhardt venue, our players seem to enjoy playing there and it’s a relatively short trip for the supporters. So all things considered there was no real trepidation about having to play there.

Of course it sucks when you do not control what you are doing or your own destiny, which is the situation we find ourselves in and have been in for a very long time. We are left to wait and see what another party is doing before we can do anything. It’s no way to live let alone run a Football Club.

That is why the Tempe re-development is so important for our Club. It’s a chance to finally have a home base of our own after many failed attempts, where our destiny and our future can lie in our own hands. Not much information is readily available about the current situation, but we all hope things are on the right track in this mighty endeavour.

Onto the game, the opening moments of the contest matched the weather of the day, very un-inspiring in large parts and quite gloomy. We started the match a little slowly and took a while to find our feet. Wolves dominated the early proceedings and had a couple of really good chances to open the scoring, a combination of poor finishing by them and some good goalkeeping by Paul Henderson kept the score at 0-0. After this though we came into our own and started to boss the game, as a result we created several chances to take the lead before half-time, all of which came to no avail and we went to the break dead-locked at 0-0.

The game livened up in the 2^nd half with both teams having chances to score. It
was one of those games where we looked in control for most parts, but the danger of conceding always seemed to be there which kept everyone who was there on their toes. 15 minutes into the 2^nd half things looked to have changed for the worse, as Oliver Green picked up his 2^nd yellow card for something he said to the referee, meaning we had to play the last 30 minutes of the match with 10 men, which is never easy. As is regularly the case with these situations though, it was the team with 10 men who seemed to grow an extra leg as we were the ones who pushed even harder to find that elusive goal. We created several good chances to score but we were often foiled by some last ditch defending from the Wolves players and goalkeeper combined with some poor finishing. There was to be no last ditch winner and we had to settle for a 0-0 Draw.

We might be lacking goals and that “killer instinct” this season, but we are working hard on the pitch and we are a side that is hard to beat and there is something to be said about that. Combine that with our resolve and togetherness, which this team currently seems to have and they are good attributes to possess.

In the U18’s we had a 0-0 Draw, and in the 20’s we had a 1-1 Draw.

In regards to the Club Championship, this has been spoken about a lot already this season given our current predicament. It runs on the following formula:
1^st Grade Points (x4)
20’s Points (x2)
18’s Points (x1)
Using this weekend’s results as an example where we picked up Draws in all 3 Grades, it’s obviously 1 point for a Draw in a Football match, this gives us 4+2+1 = 7 points contributed towards the Club Championship, which highlights the need for victories to avoid being relegated.

Last Wednesday Night at Belmore Sports Ground we were in FFA Cup 6^th Round Qualifying action against Wollongong United. It was a fairly comfortable match with us qualifying for the next Round thanks to a straight-forward 2-0 win. A goal each from Eoin Montford and Adrian Vranic in the last minute of both halves was enough to see us through to the Final Qualifying Round, where we will play Sydney United. Details for the match are TBC.

For Round 10 in the League next Sunday, we are away to Rockdale, Kickoff is 5pm.

Finding a way to win - Hakoah Sydney City-East 1-3 Sydney Olympic

It’s as if it was sweet poetry for Sydney Olympic to play Hakoah Sydney City-East on Easter Weekend. As many would know, there has never been any love lost between the 2 clubs going back nearly 60 years. Clashes between both clubs have been littered with moments - glorious, disappointing and controversial. After nearly 30 years apart, the rivalry resumed last Saturday Night.

We started the match off well and got into our groove rather quickly and we were looking threatening. But as their recent results have shown, newly promoted Hakoah were never going to be easy-beats and were never going to lie down, they also caused us a few problems throughout the 1^st Half. Both sides had half chances to open the scoring. But around 10 minutes before half-time, it would be us who would open the scoring. We were awarded a freekick which Michael Gaitatzis took, he lifted the ball over the wall and dipped it into the bottom left corner, a great finish. After an eventful next 10 or so minutes, we went to the break leading 1-0.

In the 2^nd Half we were doing it fairly comfortably, although Hakoah stepped it up a bit in a bid to try to find an equaliser. Most of the danger seemed to come from set pieces most of which we dealt with fairly well. It was unfortunate then that with 10 minutes before full-time, we conceded a goal which could be classified as “flukey”. An attempted cross from a Hakoah player floated towards the back post, beat all the players and the out-stretched hand of Paul Henderson and nestled in the back of the net. What could have ended in another disappointing night was saved as the boys pushed hard in the last 5 minutes to find the winner. And a winner would arrive in the last minute via a cool finish by Oliver Green inside the 6 yard box. It did not stop there, because deep into injury time Jason Madonis picked up the ball outside the box and bent his low shot around the Hakoah goalkeeper to put the icing on a huge Sydney Olympic cake. The referee blew his whistle for full-time and to the delight of the travelling Sydney Olympic Supporters we had notched up only our 2^nd victory of the season, a much needed victory at that.

So it was a very important win for the morale of the Club, in what was a pretty good performance against a difficult opponent at a foreign ground where many of our players have probably never played before.

In the U20’s we had a 4-0 Win and in the U18s we had a 1-1 Draw.

Our next match is this Wednesday Night, May 4^th, in Round 6 FFA Cup Qualifying against Illawarra Premier League club, Wollongong United. The match is at Belmore Sports Ground with Kickoff at 7:30pm. Hopefully the club gets all its security plans and procedures sorted because we all know that these people, this particular group of people, are known troublemakers and they will be out to cause trouble for Sydney Olympic and its Supporters.

Our next League match is this Sunday Afternoon May 8^th, at Lambert Park with Kickoff at 3pm. It is supposed to be a scheduled home match but which has been moved from Belmore to Lambert Park and I shit you not, because of a Rugby League “International” between Lebanon and Cook Islands, absolutely ridiculous.

Should have won - Sydney Olympic 0-0 Bonnyrigg

Some of you may have noticed that there was no blog last week. The truth is I was that down and pissed off with what happened at Melita. I was sick to my stomach to see us capitulate to a team that we should be beating (with all due respect to Melita). Not to mention the other crap that was swirling around the club and in particular this blog.

For the Record;
I will never apologise for caring about the club and its current status.
I will never feel guilty about giving my honest view about our match performances. 
I will give my opinion about any concerns I have about the club and its future.

The club’s official channels are so devoid of any content about the club that this blog is one of the few places people can come and find out and read about what’s going on. To find out how we’re doing and to find out who we are playing next and where.

Onto today’s match against Bonnyrigg. It wasn’t that hard to manage, but we were much better than last week against Parramatta. The defensive lapses of the opening 6 rounds were still there but at a reduced rate and as the title suggests, we were really unfortunate not to come away with the 3 points, which were so badly needed by the Club.

The match was for the most part a tough midfield battle, with both sides not willing to give an inch to the other, which was to be expected.

Bonnyrigg had some chances, but we created the bulk of them and also the better of the chances, hit the woodwork, and we were foiled by Bonnyrigg’s goalkeeper on numerous occasions.

We were the better side and should have come away with the victory, but at the moment we are really struggling to score. The referee blew his whistle for full-time and the score stayed at 0-0, the only positive was it was our first clean sheet for the season.

So in mentioning our goal scoring problems, I found this comment coach Grant Lee gave after the game very interesting:

“It’s been a little bit of our story so far this season. We create chances but can’t find the net”
OK, so we are acknowledging this dilemma, but the best striker in the club cannot get a run in 1^st Grade, truly baffling.

We should be doing much better in the League than our current position shows. A quick look at the squad shows names like Henderson, Gaitatzis, Stamatellis, Triantis, Angel, Sorge, Fondyke and others; we should be doing much better and I hope a string of victories are just around the corner.

In the interests of the Club Championship here are the results of the 3 Grades;
1^st Grade drew 0-0, the 20’s won 2-1 and in the 18’s we lost 6-3.

Last Wednesday Night we were also in FFA Cup 5^th Round Qualifying action against North Shore Mariners (Formerly Northbridge FC). We were a class above our opponents which was to be expected and qualified for the next round with a comfortable 3-0 win.

Wednesday May 4^th is the date of our 6^th Round Qualifying clash, against Illawarra Premier League side, Wollongong United. The game is expected to be at Belmore Sports Ground with kick-off set for 7:30pm.

Our next match is in the League, against a fully committed and in-form Hakoah Sydney City East side, this Saturday Night at Hensley Athletic Field (Eastgardens) kick-off is at 7pm.

Where to Now? Sydney United 3-0 Sydney Olympic

Whenever Sydney Olympic plays anywhere, all supporters believe that whoever the opponent, we will win, that is Sydney Olympic to a tee, whoever, wherever, we will take on all comers. So when we travelled to Edensor Park to take on one of the supposed “big guns” for this season, no one batted an eyelid at this perceived “big challenge”. We were going there, despite the depleted look of this season’s squad, with firm hopes of getting the 3 points.

The 1^st half can be best described as a half of missed opportunities. We created a string of very good chances and several 1 on 1 opportunities, but we missed every single one of them. Good goalkeeping from the opposition kept them in the game in that 1^st half. Down the other end, a controversial penalty was given by the clown masquerading as a referee during the match. There was a supposed foul committed by one of our players in the box, the play continued and an opposition player had his shot which was well saved by Paul Henderson, advantage was given and taken, but the play was brought back for a penalty, laughable stuff. Penalty was taken, they scored and we were 1-0 down, this ended up being the score at the break. This trend of going behind in all of our matches so far bar one is not helping our cause this season. We were down 1-0, but you would have to think that the belief was still there for the players that the game was still very much up for grabs. We were well and truly in the match.

The 2^nd half it was as if a totally different Sydney Olympic team had come out to play. We looked very lethargic and lazy in the opening 15 minutes of the 2^nd half; some poor defending resulted in us conceding another cheap goal to put us behind 2-0. Another dubious penalty call for the home team a few minutes later resulted in another goal conceded. We were down 3-0. The players as was to be expected dropped their heads a little bit at this point. We didn’t give up trying to score though and we did carve out a few chances late on, but it was not to be and it was not our day as we went down 3-0.

It is common knowledge that the team has gone through a big change over the last 6 months. Investment in the 1^st Grade squad has been dramatically scaled back; very good players have left and have not been replaced. A gigantic risk is being taken by the Club.

At the very least there needs to be a good spirit in the squad and the desire to do well must also be paramount, belief, heart, spirit, desire etc. are things money cannot buy. I’m not sure any of those adjectives can be used to describe the majority of the 2^nd half performance; especially when the score was still 1-0 and we were well in the contest.

Unfortunately a few players out there today are simply not good enough and not up to this level of football. It’s also come to light that a player was told he would be playing in the 20’s on the weekend, allegedly the player called in a day later saying he was sick and couldn’t play, now, you can only take the player at his word if he really was sick, but if there was anything sinister in this action, this type of attitude should be absolutely condemned.

In the 18’s we went down 2-1 and in the 20’s we managed to clinch a vital 2-1 win, thanks once again to Adrian Vranic who scored a double and even backed up to be a substitute in the 1^st Grade game, even managing to get on the field in the last 10 minutes.

It’s time to cut the bullshit. Some players are fucking around and not committed, whilst a guy like Adrian Vranic is keeping his head down, working hard and doing all he can to help the club pick up valuable Club Championship points. Time for certain people to smarten up and realise he is needed in 1^st Grade as his talent is being wasted in the 20’s. There are certain other players who should be the ones playing in the 20’s, starting with next weekend.

A quick re-cap of the FFA Cup qualifier from last Wednesday night, where we played West Pennant Hills-Cherrybrook. A win here was expected against an opponent several divisions below us. After a tight first 30 or so minutes of the game we did the job in the 2^nd half to run away comfortable 7-0 winners. We will play the winner of North Shore Mariners and Normanhurst Eagles who play this week, in the next round.

Next weekend is a massive test for us as we go to Melita Stadium to take on a Parramatta FC side, who are also under the pump after expecting to be a real contender this year. We also owe them one for essentially de-railing our Minor Premiership chances last season at Belmore. The match is on Saturday night with kickoff at 7pm. It is a must win for Sydney Olympic.

Breaking our Duck - Sutherland Sharks 1-2 Sydney Olympic

Down the years, playing Sutherland at Seymour Shaw Park has always been difficult, and even though it has been widely publicised that the 2016 version Sutherland Sharks are an inexperienced and young side, it still didn’t make the match any less difficult. It was as tough a game as we’ve ever had there.

The 1^st half saw Sutherland come out all guns blazing and as with last week our defense was put under severe pressure, we were under constant threat from the Sutherland attackers. Once again, Paul Henderson stood tall for Sydney Olympic and combined with some desperate defending we managed to keep the score at 0-0. After absorbing all that pressure, we then managed to carve out some chances of our own.

Around 10 minutes or so before half-time, William Angel picked-up a long goal-kick from Paul Henderson he took it to just outside the box and smashed his shot into the top corner to put us up 1-0 to the delight of the Sydney Olympic supporters, it was a fantastic finish. Will has been a fantastic player for us over the years, the only real criticism that can be levelled at a player like William Angel is he hasn’t been able to regularly hit the back of the net during his long association with the club and he does get himself into great positions to score. With our current team the way it is this year, we’re all hoping that someone like Will can step up and contribute more on the goal-scoring front this season, because without a recognised striker on the field, we’re going to need others to step up.

After the goal, Sutherland went right back on the attack and had a couple of chances to equalise before half-time, but fortunately for us it was not to be and we went to the break leading 1-0.

The 2^nd half got underway and Sutherland went right back on the attack. Our defensive frailties were once more exposed, as we were punished for a sloppy attempt at a clearance and gifted Sutherland an easy goal bringing the score level at 1-1. The game settled into an end to end duel as both sides would create chances and pushed to find the winner. With 20 minutes remaining, a goal would come and it would come for Sydney Olympic, some good work again by William Angel who put in a dangerous looking cross which was not handled well by Sutherland’s keeper and it spilled to Chris Triantis who made no mistake from point-blank range to put us back in front 2-1. The goal signalled a further opening up of the game as Sutherland pushed hard for another equaliser leaving opportunities for us to kill the game off. In the end neither side was able to add to the goal tally and the score finished 2-1, we had secured our first victory of the 2016 season.

We were worthy of our victory, but this match once again highlighted our vulnerabilities in defense, something we must get right especially when we come up against the better teams. Also, playing without a recognised striker poses its own problems, like who is going to be the guy to score our goals this season, because at the moment we continue to rely on midfielders.

In the 20’s we finally got our first win there as well, Michael Gaitatzis and the very impressive Adrian Vranic helped the side come back after being down and win 3-2. But one can’t help thinking that if Vranic was given a proper sustained shot in 1^st Grade he could help us win more games and our chances of having a more successful season would increase. The coaching staff have their own reasons for sticking him in the 20’s, I’m just not sure what any of those reasons are, maybe they’re hoping he can help the club in picking up valuable Club Championship points, but I digress. In the 18’s match we lost 3-1.

Next Sunday - 4pm - at Edensor Park, we have a huge League game against Sydney United, who did it easy this round beating Rockdale away 2-0. We must be switched on next week for what will be our toughest opponent of the season so far, a match we must be ready for.

But before that, we are in action this Wednesday Night, 6^th of April, for an FFA Cup match against, West Pennant Hills-Cherrybrook. The match will be at Pennant Hills Oval No.3, Britannia Street, Pennant Hills - Kickoff is at 7:30pm.