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.