The preseason games
continued over the weekend. On Friday night we were at Kogarah Oval to see
Sydney Olympic take on old rivals South Melbourne for the “Bank of Sydney Cup”.
It had been a while since we played them in Sydney (12 years ago in the last
round of the last season of the NSL, at the same ground) and 5 years since our
last meeting in Melbourne back in 2011.
Like a lot of the great suburban grounds in Sydney, Leichhardt, Belmore, Kogarah (all of which have been our home over the years), they are great places to go and watch sport.
We came out a little slow in the 1st half, the first 15 minutes South Melbourne were having the better of the play. After that, I thought that we took control of the match and began to play better and create the better of the chances. We had some great chances to take the lead before half-time, but a combination of some dreadful finishing and some good goalkeeping kept the score at 0-0 going into the half-time break.
In the 2nd half we continued to dominate the play, creating more and more half chances, once again failing to capitalise. Midway through the 2nd half we had a freekick on the edge of the box and Harris Gaitatzis’ resulting shot was going into the top corner until a fantastic save from the South Melbourne goalkeeper turned the ball away for a corner. Nearing fulltime both sides created chances to score, neither side was able to find the winner, so it was off to a penalty shoot-out. Both goalkeepers acquitted themselves well, but Sydney Olympic’s veteran goalkeeper Paul Henderson was the hero in the shootout ensuring us the Bank of Sydney Cup.
Pretty much the entire 1st Grade team got a run, except for Brayden Sorge, Niko Tsattalios and Leigh Egger. Madonis was good at RB, Stamatellis marshalled the defence well. Although out of position Angel was solid at LB. Tomelic, Fondyke were good in midfield and the Gaitatzis brothers and Triantis worked well together up front. The others along with the guys who came on off the bench did well and contributed to the team. If the first 75 minutes are anything to go by, putting the ball into the back of the net might be a problem for us going forward this season, so it was a bit surprising to see that the coaching staff waited until the last 15 minutes to put a guy like Adrian Vranic on, who is a predator in front of a goal.
Overall it was a good night, there was a great turnout, the football was OK for a preseason match, and we even got a piece of silverware for our efforts.
On the Sunday, less than 2 days later, we were in action again, all be it with a more youthful and inexperienced side against Rockdale, and it showed as we went down 4-1.
The primitives of Rockdale, were up to their old tricks. Most of them are not there for the football to begin with and instead are there to push their well known agenda. As Sydney Olympic supporters we must rise above this nonsense and not be dragged down into their gutter.
As for those Rockdale coaches and people screaming for their players “to break the legs” of the Sydney Olympic players, the less said about them the better, utterly disgraceful. All in all, you can’t expect FNSW to do anything about it, because they are an agenda driven, incompetent organisation, who are asleep at the wheel.
Questions do need to be asked about why we are organising preseason games against such a team that we all know are trouble-makers. Hopefully this is a lesson learned for the club.
Our next preseason game is next Sunday afternoon down in Wollongong, at John Crehan Park in Cringilla, kickoff is 5pm.
Like a lot of the great suburban grounds in Sydney, Leichhardt, Belmore, Kogarah (all of which have been our home over the years), they are great places to go and watch sport.
We came out a little slow in the 1st half, the first 15 minutes South Melbourne were having the better of the play. After that, I thought that we took control of the match and began to play better and create the better of the chances. We had some great chances to take the lead before half-time, but a combination of some dreadful finishing and some good goalkeeping kept the score at 0-0 going into the half-time break.
In the 2nd half we continued to dominate the play, creating more and more half chances, once again failing to capitalise. Midway through the 2nd half we had a freekick on the edge of the box and Harris Gaitatzis’ resulting shot was going into the top corner until a fantastic save from the South Melbourne goalkeeper turned the ball away for a corner. Nearing fulltime both sides created chances to score, neither side was able to find the winner, so it was off to a penalty shoot-out. Both goalkeepers acquitted themselves well, but Sydney Olympic’s veteran goalkeeper Paul Henderson was the hero in the shootout ensuring us the Bank of Sydney Cup.
Pretty much the entire 1st Grade team got a run, except for Brayden Sorge, Niko Tsattalios and Leigh Egger. Madonis was good at RB, Stamatellis marshalled the defence well. Although out of position Angel was solid at LB. Tomelic, Fondyke were good in midfield and the Gaitatzis brothers and Triantis worked well together up front. The others along with the guys who came on off the bench did well and contributed to the team. If the first 75 minutes are anything to go by, putting the ball into the back of the net might be a problem for us going forward this season, so it was a bit surprising to see that the coaching staff waited until the last 15 minutes to put a guy like Adrian Vranic on, who is a predator in front of a goal.
Overall it was a good night, there was a great turnout, the football was OK for a preseason match, and we even got a piece of silverware for our efforts.
On the Sunday, less than 2 days later, we were in action again, all be it with a more youthful and inexperienced side against Rockdale, and it showed as we went down 4-1.
The primitives of Rockdale, were up to their old tricks. Most of them are not there for the football to begin with and instead are there to push their well known agenda. As Sydney Olympic supporters we must rise above this nonsense and not be dragged down into their gutter.
As for those Rockdale coaches and people screaming for their players “to break the legs” of the Sydney Olympic players, the less said about them the better, utterly disgraceful. All in all, you can’t expect FNSW to do anything about it, because they are an agenda driven, incompetent organisation, who are asleep at the wheel.
Questions do need to be asked about why we are organising preseason games against such a team that we all know are trouble-makers. Hopefully this is a lesson learned for the club.
Our next preseason game is next Sunday afternoon down in Wollongong, at John Crehan Park in Cringilla, kickoff is 5pm.
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