Sydney Olympic Off-Season – December

I’ll start off with the more interesting and surprising news of the last couple of weeks. After a message that was sent to the Inner West Council Twitter account about the Tempe Project – which I thought would be ignored and not replied to – came an actual reply and then a tweet from the official Inner West Council Twitter account:

While it was too difficult to get any specifics about what is going on, according to the Inner West Council, discussions are on-going, I guess this is good news of sorts, even though we have heard nothing about the particulars, nor heard anything from the club about this in the last 12 months. 

I guess it’s “watch this space” with this one.

Onto on-field matters, and on Sunday Evening we had our first trial/friendly of the off-season/pre-season against the Stanmore Hawks, in what is becoming an annual event.

It is way too early to discuss form or how the players are looking given we are still 3 months out from the start of the season, but no doubt it was a good hit-out for the boys before they go away for the Christmas/New Year break and re-assemble in mid-January.

We secured a comfortable 6-0 victory, Niko Tsattalios scored a double, while Radovan Pavicevic, Jinya An, Darcy Burgess and Hagi Gligor all got on the score-sheet.

There were also a couple of players out there trialling and looking for a gig, we will see what if anything comes of that. As there have been a few whispers that the Club was done for signings and satisfied with the squad for 2018.

I hope this information is incorrect and we see a couple of more signings. As for the last few seasons we have had small squads and been caught with our pants down at the back ends of seasons, as players are too tired having carried too much of a load for the season, and in the big games that matter most we have failed.

That’s it for now and this year. Merry Christmas and we will see what the New Year brings for Sydney Olympic.

Sydney Olympic Off-Season – November

We are coming towards the end of November and another month this off-season has come and gone. It has pretty much been “crickets” from the Club when it comes to any news regarding Sydney Olympic, on various fronts.

What we do know thus far, is that the squad has begun pre-season training as of 2 weeks ago. That squad currently consists of:

Paul Henderson, William Angel, Niko Tsattalios, Jason Madonis, Jinya An, Darcy Burgess, George Timotheou, Tom Whiteside, Jake De Marigny, Stephen Athanaseris, Riley Woodcock, Nicola Kuleski, Rafa Jimenez.

As was announced by the Club a couple of weeks ago Radovan Pavicevic will be re-joining the squad as he was re-signed for another season. Hopefully he can have a better and more productive 2018 in the Sydney Olympic Shirt.

Obviously this squad is not the finished product (you’d hope) as there is no way a squad that thin can compete on all fronts, hopefully we see a few more signings over the coming weeks.

The annoyance that is the “Tempe Project” does not seem like going away any time soon, as no one seems to have heard anything official about its current status. All signs point to it no longer happening, but nobody at the Club has been able to clearly state one way or another.

The lack of acknowledgement by the Club in 2017 of the milestone of 60 years existence for Sydney Olympic has also been disappointing (November 28, 1957 for anyone interested). 2017 was as disappointing on the field as it has been off the field.

You may recall that a couple of years ago the Club started a Hall of Fame, which was a fairly good concept, as Sydney Olympic is worthy of having one.

The Hall of Fame events saw the likes of Gary Meier, Peter Katholos, Graham Jennings, Abbas Saad, Ante Juric, Grant Lee, Jim Patikas, Chris Kalantzis, Pablo Cardozo, Nick Carle, Les Murray, Mark Bosnich be inducted.

I am sure that all Sydney Olympic Supporters wish to see this continue and may I suggest going back to the likes of Comino Omeros, Sotiris Patrinos, Brian Smith for the next inductions.

All this type of stuff ties in with the lack of communication by Sydney Olympic and of course the AGM or lack thereof one, where you’d imagine a lot of these questions would be put to the Board and where you would hope to receive some answers.

 

Sydney Olympic Off-Season – October

At this time of the year it is always fairly slim pickings for news, especially in a competition where there is no news coverage anyway nor any media attention paid to it. In what is supposed to be Australia’s “2nd Tier”, a “2nd Tier” that has a 6-month off-season.

Anyway, at this point of the off-season squad wise, Sydney Olympic has re-signed the following players for next season:

Paul Henderson, William Angel, Niko Tsattalios, Jason Madonis, Jinya An, Darcy Burgess, George Timotheou, Tom Whiteside, Jake De Marigny, Stephen Athanaseris.

Since the Club announced this a few weeks ago now, they have also added Riley Woodcock, a Left-Back who played for Sydney United last season, Nicola Kuleski, a DM/CM type from Sydney FC’s NPL team and Rafa Jimenez from Spain who has represented Australia at youth level, he is primarily a Centre-Back.

So put them all together and we have 14 players so far for next season, most of them are Midfielders and Defenders.

The Achilles Heel for Sydney Olympic clearly has been, and every Sydney Olympic Supporter will tell you, is the lack of goals, the lack of Strikers and Centre-Forwards who can regularly put the ball in the back of the net.

Obviously, 14 players is not going to do it for you as a squad size, especially if you want to be challenging on all fronts.

Hopefully there are still a few announcements to come in terms of signings for 2018 and that a few of those are players who can score goals.

Onto other items of interest:

- First the AGM, no news has been forthcoming for this, maybe the fact we had one last year means they feel there is no need to have one this year? Defeats the purpose of the “Annual” part of the equation, maybe early next year, who knows, we will wait and see I guess.

- Second, the whole Tempe business, it certainly does not look good. Given the lack of any news about this I am going to assume yet another Local Government has put the pen through yet another Sydney Olympic Home Base plan. Other smaller park sides seem to be able to get what they want out of Councils and Governments yet Sydney Olympic cannot for some reason, frustrating.

- And Thirdly, bring back the Souvlakia to Belmore next year (I can’t believe this even needs to be uttered)

Sydney Olympic - Club Records

Over the last few weeks through my own information and thanks to the assistance of several others who have helped by providing additional material, I am close to completing what I think are the Records and Statistics of the Club ie. All-Time Appearances and Goals from our First season in 1958 till today.

I still require Appearances and Goals information from our First 3 Seasons in the NSW 2nd Division - 1958, 1959, 1960 - as well as the 1975, 1976, 1980 NSW 1st Division seasons to complete this task. So if anyone has that info or knows where to get it, that would be great.

Appearances and Goals include League and Cup matches. 

It will surprise no one that Gary Meier comes out on top in the Appearances list, despite not having information for 3 of his seasons and therefore it is incomplete, he has so far amassed 342 Games for the Club, between 1972-1994. Fair to say that if the missing information is added he will have played well over 400 Games for the Club over 20 years, remarkable.

The Top 10 in terms of Appearances at this current time is:
1- Gary Meier - 342 Games (1972-1994)
2- Gary Phillips - 312 Games (1982-1993)
3- David Barrett - 281 Games (1988-1997)
4- Peter Raskopoulos - 259 Games (1977-1979 & 1981-1989)
5- Tony Spyridakos - 251 Games (1982-1990/91 & 1992/93-1995)
6- Brian Smith - 212 Games (1962-1972)
7- Elias Augerinos - 210 Games (1991-2001/02 & 2003/04)
8- Ante Juric - 210 Games (1994/95 & 1997-2004)
9- *Paul Henderson - 198 Games (2010-)
10- Robert Ironside - 193 Games (1988-1994 & 1995/96)

In terms of Top Scorers the Top 10 is currently as follows:
1- Brian Smith - 72 Goals (1962-1972)
2- Pablo Cardozo - 68 Goals (1990-1993, 1998-2001 & 2003/04)
3- David Harding - 61 Goals (1969-1975)
4- Marshall Soper - 60 Goals (1983-1989)
5- Norman Tome - 60 Goals (1993-2000)
6- Abbas Saad - 56 Goals (1987-1992, 1993/94 & 1996/97)
7- Mark Koussas - 53 Goals (1979-1985)
8- Robert Ironside - 44 Goals (1988-1994 & 1995/96)
9- Peter Katholos - 42 Goals (1981-1986 & 1991-1993)
10- Chris Kalantzis - 40 Goals (1983-1987 & 1997-2000)

Obviously all this is subject to change should I come across more information, particularly from the missing seasons.

Sydney Olympic Off-Season – September

It’s been a month or so since the season for Sydney Olympic has ended, losing in Week 1 of the Finals to Manly United. A Manly United who then went on to win the Championship. Given that we probably should have beaten them that day, it makes for another frustrating off-season for the supporters.

Looking through the season as a whole, you would have to say that it was another “what might have been” season.

Blacktown although up their challenging near the top again and they did flog us during the season, were not as good as they have been in recent seasons, Sydney United had an off year, not to mention Bonnyrigg’s fall from the top in 2017. Rockdale once again threw a truck-load of money trying to win something, failing once again, APIA re-emerged and looked like the real deal for the first time in a while, Wollongong were a dangerous outfit, but couldn’t put it together consistently, while Manly basically came from nowhere to win it all.

No doubt the door was open for a challenge from Sydney Olympic this season, but things needed to click for us and they never did.

With a poor Parramatta Melita being relegated this season and being replaced by a rejuvenated Marconi Stallions, season 2018 automatically looks like it will be much more tougher and closer competition.

Blacktown, Sydney United, Rockdale, APIA will for sure be throwing everything at it once again, Bonnyrigg will want to put a poor 2017 behind them, Marconi you would imagine, will spend even more than they did in NPL2  in a bid for Glory in NPL1. Manly United, the Champions, will be looking to defend their Crown, while murmurs abound that Wollongong, Sutherland and Hakoah have also recruited well in preparation for a tilt in 2018, while the Sydney FC NPL team will once again be competitive in all 3 grades.

The man charged with piloting Sydney Olympic’s 2018 campaign will be Gorka Etxeberria as we are hearing he will be staying on. Hopefully he has learned and seen enough of the League and Teams to know what is needed to be challenging on all fronts next season.

News is scarce on who we have signed for 2018, if you believe what was written in the Greek Herald last week, William Angel and Niko Tsattalios will be staying on. What is for sure is that the usual suspects will be looking to raid our squad and sign our players in a bid to weaken us.

What we do know is that Paul Henderson, fresh from another “Goalkeeper of the Year” season, will go around for another season, while the futures of most of our squad from this year are up in the air.

Like every year I plead for the Club to sign a Striker who consistently scores goals and rakes in 15-20 goals a season. We haven’t had one of those for a long time. We also need to sign a RB and LB and a No.10 type player to help out with our impotent attack.

The ground situation remains unchanged as we are still at the mercy of the Canterbury Bulldogs at Belmore, this situation has been one of the huge blights on this Club for 60 years. As for the alleged Tempe Project, it would be nothing short of a miracle if that proceeds, it will probably go the way of the other “Grand Plans” the Club has had, failure.

There is no news forthcoming from the Club in regards to this year’s AGM.

Season Over – Manly United 2-1 Sydney Olympic

Well another disappointing season for Sydney Olympic comes to an abrupt end, a season that started with so much optimism and promise, only to see it flounder like most of our seasons have since being back in the NSW State League.

Our chances in this game, an important Elimination Final, were severely hampered even before a ball was kicked, as Mitchell Stamatellis was ruled out before the game through injury and we certainly missed his leadership out there. This was coupled with the fact our best player William Angel, picked up an injury just before half-time and had to come off, it was always going to be an up-hill battle from there without 2 of our most influential players.

To the players credit though, they did put up a good fight, gave a good account of themselves and gave it their all, but it was never going to be enough unless we had a bit of luck on our side and we didn’t have any of that either. As it turned out, it was Manly United who progressed to Week 2 of the Finals and for our Sydney Olympic it is now season over.

It brings to an end a season where the description “up and down” wouldn’t do it justice. We had a great start, had our customary mid-season slump, had 3 coaches, had players coming and going on a weekly basis, had an embarrassing failure in the FFA Cup and finally barely managed to scrape into the Finals. What a way to commemorate the Club’s 60th anniversary hey.

As has been rumoured and given what I know and what has been written and said already, we will in all likelihood lose half of our squad from this season and as is becoming a bit of a custom for Sydney Olympic, we will in all likelihood have to build a side from scratch once again in the off-season. It is no way to operate in this League, we need continuity.

In a sane and ideal World, the Club and the Board should be doing whatever is necessary to re-sign and keep; Mitchell Stamatellis, William Angel, Yianni Spyrakis, Jason Madonis, Hagi Gligor, Niko Tsattalios, Darcy Burgess, George Timotheou, Paul Katsetis, Paul Henderson and Jake de Marigny who although didn’t play a game for us in 2017 due to a long-term injury, he showed us in 2016 how good he is and it is worth keeping faith in him.

- Max Burgess was by far our best player, but it was all too brief as he was gone less than 1/3 of the way into the season and we could never replace him.
- Tass Mourdoukoutas was impressive whenever he was available to be in the side, but from what we have been told he has already left and gone to the West Sydney a-league Franchise.
- Peter Makrillos was mooted as a great signing at the time, but he barely took the field for us this season and in hindsight, the essential swap we had with Rockdale for Harris Gaitatzis was a mistake.
- I don’t watch a-league so I don’t know what kind of striker or scoring record Radovan Pavicevic had, but what is for certain, is he couldn’t hit the side of a barn for us this season.
- Tom Whiteside was a bit hit and miss, some good games and some poor ones.
- The 2 Asian boys Jinya and Yu gave their all and were decent for us at times this season, but drifted in and out of too many games and I am unsure on their visa status or what their plans are for next season.
- Liam Youlley who came in as a new signing was gone 2 weeks later, I never understood that signing.

After the Club and Board ideally re-sign the players that I mentioned, they should not be resting on their laurels and they should be going out and looking to add quality players that will complement the re-signed players. First and foremost we need to sign a quality Centre-Forward, this has been a major Achilles heel for the team for many seasons. Also find a Left-Back from somewhere, another problem position.

It is a big ask to expect something different, but the Club and the Board should not make the same mistakes we have been making for the past 5 years. We should already be preparing for next season.

In terms of the Club Championship, anybody who has followed that closely this year, knows it has been an abysmal year, both the U18’s and U20’s were shockingly bad for the vast majority of both their seasons.

Of course this is what determines who is relegated at the end of each season, thanks to First Grade and a truly tragic Melita side, we stayed well clear of any relegation danger in 2017. But with a rejuvenated Marconi coming back up next season and with the expected improvements in the rest of the teams, next season will be a much harder task to stay up. We must be prepared accordingly.

Tempe ah Tempe, remember when there were optimistic announcements and even plans drawn up? In fairness we’ve heard this type of thing before, we’ve been hearing about various plans for several decades if truth be told, so maybe we should never have gotten our hopes up in the first place?

Depending on who you talk to, Tempe is off and has been off for a while – or – the Club is waiting for the outcome of the Inner West council elections which take place on Saturday September 9. Either way we shall wait and see, it is likely we will know fairly soon enough.
 
Last year we had an AGM for the first time in some 4 years, hopefully there is an announcement soon about the 2017 AGM and maybe we can get some answers to a lot of questions.

With the season now over, this blog will be checking in once a month for a monthly update, but you can always leave a comment or send a message via Sydney Olympic Supporters on Facebook or @SOFC_Supporters on Twitter. 

Sutherland Sharks 1-2 Sydney Olympic

After a slump that saw us on the brink of being out of contention for this year’s Finals Series, we have steadied the ship somewhat and finished the regular season with 3 straight victories. Sydney Olympic came back from being 1-0 down at half-time to record a come from behind 2-1 victory against the Sutherland Sharks on Sunday, sealing us 5th spot on the Ladder.

It was a poor start to the match for Sydney Olympic, as within the first 5 minutes we managed to fall behind by conceding an early goal, meaning that we would now have to chase the game against Sutherland. This was always going to be a difficult task as Sutherland sat back after they scored and organised themselves so that they could hit us on the counter-attack, knowing full well we would come out trying to score goals. This is how the rest of the first-half played out. We created a couple of chances to draw ourselves level in the contest, but we could not put the ball into the back of the net. As we pushed, Sutherland predictably managed to find the space in behind us and get themselves into a couple of good goal scoring opportunities, but they could not add to their 1-0 lead. We continued to play well but we could not crack the Sutherland defence. After a fairly even first-half we headed to the half-time break trailing 1-0, knowing full well we had a job ahead of ourselves to come away with a draw let alone the 3 points.

In what could have been a carbon copy of how we started the first-half, the first 5 minutes of the second-half could have easily seen us cop another early goal to go 2-0 down, but luckily for us, Sutherland did not have their scoring boots on this time. After this brief scare we got back into the groove of the match. Around 15 minutes into the second-half we were awarded a penalty, this made a lot of the supporters nervous as our penalty-taking record in 2017 has been pretty abysmal, but Mitchell Stamatellis stepped up and confidently converted the spot-kick, to bring us level at 1-1. The goal seemed to give the players the boost that was needed to go on and hunt a winning goal. We were creating enough chances and even had a goal disallowed for offside, but with around 15 minutes to go we would get the all-important winner via Nick Tsattalios with his well struck finish. All in all it was not the greatest of performances from Sydney Olympic, but we did what was needed and head into the Finals with our tails up.

It was a good hit-out for the team, to experience going down early in a match, trail at half-time, but then be good enough to turn around the result in the second-half. The last 3 weeks should instill enough confidence in the players to know that they can beat anybody that is put in front of them.

As is usual at this time of the season, clubs have been and are preparing and putting their squads together for next season. I have it on good authority that several opposition clubs are circling and planning to speak to several of our players. Sydney Olympic should do everything reasonably possible to keep this year’s squad together and in fact add to it for next season.

For the Club Championship, the U20’s lost 3-0 and the U18’s recorded a 2-2 draw.

Sad news for the Club from the past week was news of the passing of former Sydney Olympic President, Jim Kelaiditis, who was President of the Club during the 1990’s. Our condolences go out to the Kelaiditis family.

Well it is now Finals time. This Saturday Night, August 19, we will play a 4th vs. 5th Elimination Final against Manly United at Cromer Park. Kick-Off is at 5pm.

Sydney Olympic 4-0 Hakoah Sydney City-East

Sydney Olympic seems to have gotten itself out of the funk it was in, backing up last weekend’s tough 2-1 victory over Sydney United by smashing Hakoah Sydney City-East 4-0 in what was a dominant display on Sunday Evening. We controlled the match from start to finish and if it wasn’t for Hakoah’s goalkeeper it could well have been more than 4.

We started off confidently and looked switch-on right from the get-go. We had a couple of early raids on Hakoah’s goal inside the first 10 minutes but no major chances were created from any of them. Hakoah had a good chance to open the scoring also early on, but their player fluffed his lines and missed the chance. We continued our good play and good start to the match and 15 minutes into the first-half we had our reward, Jinya An put in a dangerous looking cross which was met by William Angel on his left foot, who came in from his Right-Wing to put the ball into the back of the net via a deflection. Only a couple minutes later we had our second goal in what was almost an identical goal to our first, another dangerous cross from Jinya An was once again met by William Angel, but this time no deflection was needed as he buried it passed the Hakoah goalkeeper to make it 2-0. For the rest of the first-half we dominated the play – possession and chances – we had another great chance from a free-kick late in the first-half but it was well saved. We could not further add to our 2-0 lead and so we headed for the half-time break looking comfortable.

At the start of the second-half it looked like we just continued on from where we left off in the first-half. We quickly got back into our groove and had a couple of chances to extend our lead, but both were well saved by Hakoah’s goalkeeper, the first from a header and the second from a quick free-kick which we took looking to catch them out. We were really bossing the game and passing it around at will, Hakoah could not get anywhere near us. But so long as the score stayed at 2-0 it kept Hakoah in the game and as the old saying goes – “2-0 is the most dangerous score-line in football” – and as it turned out Hakoah had a good chance from distance with a shot but it was kept out thanks to a great save from Paul Henderson. Despite this chance we continued to press and push for more goals and we would add to the score-line in the last 5 minutes. We scored our third from a well worked goal which saw Yianni Spyrakis have a simple tap-in and our fourth came from a nice pass from Radovan Pavicevic into the box which was met by William Angel this time on his right foot to complete his hat-trick. Right on cue the referee blew his whistle for full-time as we ran out 4-0 winners.

This was one of our better performances in 2017, we looked like world beaters out there and deserved our big victory. Sydney Olympic playing so well might have something do with being at Lambert Park, as we always seem to play well there and the stats back that up. Since the start of 2011 we have played at the venue 20 times for 14 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses.

A lot of the supporters have been calling for William Angel to be played in a more attacking position and this move was justified as he scored 3 goals and always looked dangerous on Sunday. It was also good to see Tass Mourdoukoutas back from Europe, as well as Darcy Burgess back in the starting XI for a second week in a row.

Everyone is playing well though as we head into the business end of the season and it is the right time of the year to be peaking. In terms of Finals Football, the results from the weekend mean we are all but assured of our spot in the Top 5 unless something ridiculous happens in the final round. But a Top 3 finish is now out of our reach.

For the Club Championship it was another 2 losses, the U20’s lost 4-0 and the U18’s suffered a 3-1 loss.

Next week is the last match of the regular season, we are away at the Sutherland Sharks on Sunday August 13, at Seymour Shaw Park in Miranda, Kick-Off is at 3pm.

Get out there and support Sydney Olympic.

Sydney United 1-2 Sydney Olympic

After a poor last month of football, Sydney Olympic returned to the winners circle on Sunday Afternoon after a gritty and hard fought victory away at Sydney United. The 2-1 win puts the Club back into the mix to play Finals this season with 2 matches remaining in the regular season.

In a keenly fought first-half we looked like an entirely different team to the one that barely showed up last week, we looked switched-on. The first 10 or so minutes of the first-half were fairly uneventful as both teams took a while to settle into the game. Very soon after though chances were beginning to be created and 20 minutes into the first-half we managed to open the scoring. Some nice work down the right wing from Will Angel saw him put in a dangerous looking cross, which was met on the volley by Hagi Gligor, who finished the chance off nicely. Disappointingly though, the scores were once again level just a couple of minutes later, as a poor give away in possession resulted in the opposition grabbing a soft equaliser. The only positive from this is that we did not drop our heads and continued to play well. The opposition then had a few chances to take the lead before half-time, but some fine goalkeeping by Paul Henderson kept the score at 1-1. We rode our luck a little bit in that first-half, but luck is not something we have had a lot of this season, so we took it and headed to the sheds with the score locked at 1-1.

Early on in the second-half we had an excellent chance to re-take the lead, but unfortunately the chance was spurned. The match was end-to-end with both sides creating chances to take the lead, but nobody could put any of their opportunities away. The match was also a tough contest with no side giving an inch. We were creating our fair share of chances but it looked like the match was destined to end in a 1-1 draw. With 10 minutes to go though, we would grab what turned out to be the winner, as Mitch Stamatellis set off on a marauding run from his own penalty area, after a long run he slipped a nice pass through to Yu Kuboki who made no mistake with the finish to give us a 2-1 lead to the delight of the travelling faithful. The closing moments of the match saw us with all hands to the pump as we tried to hold on for the win. The opposition had a late chance via a freekick, but another great save from Paul Henderson kept it out. Shortly after the referee blew for full-time and we had recorded a huge victory for our season.

So a month of poor results was broken with an important and much needed victory on Sunday. The destiny of our season is now once again entirely in our own hands, with 2 vitally important fixtures to close out the regular season, both of which we must win. It is up to us what we want to get out of this season.

For the Club Championship, the U20’s lost 6-1 and the U18’s suffered a 3-1 loss.

Our next match is our last home game of the regular season and now becomes extremely important. We take on Hakoah next Sunday Evening, August 6, a home game which has been move to Lambert Park, Kick-Off is at 5pm. 

Get out there and support Sydney Olympic.

Sydney Olympic 1-2 APIA Leichhardt

This was by far, one of the worst performances I have ever witnessed from any Sydney Olympic team and I’m sorry to say, but if the players are not giving a rat’s ass because they don’t like the coach or don’t like his style or whatever and want to see the back of him, this doesn’t interest me nor does it interest any other supporter. You play for the shirt, I know that is a foreign concept to kids and younger people these days, but that is the truth. The effort last night was disgraceful. As for the coach himself and the whole farce of him being appointed in the first place I will cover this, don’t worry.

The match started in disastrous fashion, before we even had time to get into the ground and settle in our seats we had conceded a penalty, there was barely 1 minute gone on the clock. The APIA Leichhardt player stepped up and made no mistake as he slotted the spot-kick, meaning we were down 1-0 and would be chasing the game right from the very beginning. Instead of trying to come out and play a little given we were now behind, we for some reason decided to park the bus. That’s right we were losing at home and decided to play defensive football, it defied belief and all logic. We could only muster one solid chance in that entire first-half and wouldn’t you know it, the chance was blown as we missed a sitter from 6 yards out. We had nothing else to offer in the way of chances or our play for the rest of the first-half. It was not as if APIA were some sort of special or outstanding team either, which only made things seem worse, we were dishing up this sort of rubbish performance against this APIA team, really? It was unbelievable. We went to the half-time break trailing 1-0.

The second-half saw an equally inept performance from Sydney Olympic and as poor of a start to the second-half as the first-half, as just a few minutes into it we gave away possession far too easily and APIA went down the other end to make it 2-0. The frustrations on the faces and in the voices of the Sydney Olympic Supporters who made it to the game, were there for all to see. It was unbelievably sad to see such a Great Club in the state it was in, and what a poor state it is in. We managed to somehow score near the end but it made no difference to the result as we suffered yet another defeat. The nature of the defeat no doubt left a sick feeling in the stomachs of the supporters as they filed out of the ground, muttering to themselves and to each other and no doubt asking themselves what the hell has happened to this season and why the people in charge of the Club have let it get to this and have effectively destroyed our season.

The people in charge of the Club are either stupid of epic proportions or something more sinister is happening here. Why on Earth would they go out, at such an important period of the season and bring in another coach, especially when we were doing fairly well? We were seriously challenging for the Minor Premiership and we were looking like a shoe-in for a Top 3 finish. So what do these geniuses go and do? They go and bring in a new coach who has got no idea about the League he’s come to coach in.

Ever since he came in we have played 4 matches, had 1 draw and copped 3 losses, we have not won a match, these incompetent morons running the Club have ruined our season. Why not just leave Peter Zorbas where he was, we were travelling OK, and then at the end of the year if the Club wanted to again assess the situation they could.

That decision alone to appoint a Coach beggars belief.

Next up is the recruitment, another massive failure for the Club and for those involved in recruiting roles. We let too many good players of ours leave and we replaced them with junk. Some of the players that were signed for this season have no business being in a Sydney Olympic jersey. It is actually very embarrassing, they are not fit for park football, let alone fit to represent Sydney Olympic.

The other issue and probably more worrying, is the fact that the people running the Club now have no interest in seeing Sydney Olympic be successful and challenging for trophies. They couldn’t care less where First Grade finishes or what First Grade does, they are only interesting in selling off our players overseas and lining their own pockets.

Max Burgess has been sold to Portugal, Liam Youlley to South Africa, Tass Mourdoukoutas is trialling in Germany and Peter Makrillos is trialling in Poland. None of these players have been replaced, also take into consideration that Jake de Marigny has been injured all year and has not played a game for us this season, Mark Rodic and Goran Subara as well as a couple of others have also walked out on the Club.

The people running the Club know and knew all of this and still insisted on not bringing in any players to replace them, this is a contributing factor to our decline.

Two years ago there was a lot of optimism about an alleged new home for Sydney Olympic at Tempe and people were excited. Nobody has heard anything about it since, yes the issue of the council mergers would have no doubt thrown a thousand spanners in the works, but since we have heard nothing about it, are we to assume that it is all off? Should we throw this dream onto the pile with all the rest of the other plans that have never come to fruition?

Oh and finally fix the Sydney Olympic website, it is shit.

For the Club Championship, the U20’s grabbed a 3-3 and the U18’s grabbed a 4-4 draw. For those interested, Sydney Olympic has now not won an 18’s, 20’s or First Grade match since June 18, that’s right we have not won a senior match in any of the 3 grades in over 5 weeks.

It’s all enough to make a grown man cry.

Our next match is next Sunday Afternoon at Edensor Park as we take on Sydney United, July 30, Kick-Off is at 4pm. Our season is effectively over anyway as we are sinking like the Titanic, but anything less than a win here and our season is officially all over. We know that the Sydney United players will be up for it as usual, but will our players turn up? That is the question.

Blacktown City 4-0 Sydney Olympic

Our season is now officially spiralling out of control after we copped a 4-0 hiding against Blacktown City on Sunday Afternoon. At this point it seems to have been a masterstroke for the club to have appointed a new Coach with 6 weeks to go (rolls eyes). Making the Finals now looks like an improbability and even if we did happen to make the Finals, if we dish up that sort of rubbish again, it would simply be a waste of time being there.

It all started positively enough as we held our own against the League Leaders Blacktown City. It was actually a good contest and a fairly even first-half where both sides were playing well. Both teams also created quite a few good opportunities to score, but both goalkeepers were having good games and both were doing their jobs well as they kept the score at 0-0. As we headed to the break dead-locked at 0-0 we were optimistic of another solid performance in the second-half, but no one could have guessed what would be waiting for us in the second-half.

At the start of the second-half things looked normal and the first 10 minutes or so of the second-half was a continuation of the type of game we had been seeing in the first-half. Sure there were the usual frustrations of struggling to put away chances and to score goals, but we were fairly confident that the one facet of our play that has held us in rather good stead this season, our defence, would hold up and continue to keep us in the contest. After all Sydney Olympic came into this match having the best defensive record out of anyone else in the League. But within the space of 20 second-half minutes all that would be blown apart as Blacktown City ran riot. We were even treated to a 15-minute hat-trick by former player James Andrew, a player 99% of all Sydney Olympic Supporters never wanted to see leave the Club, but was deemed surplus to requirements by the Club. We totally lost our way conceding goal after goal and we just could not respond to what was happening, seeing us slump to a 4-0 loss.

A running theme of this season is the amount of penalties we have missed so far this season and on Sunday we missed another one. I must admit I have not been keeping track of it this season, but I ballpark the figure, at least 5 missed penalties. This all nicely ties in with our other on-going theme from this season, not being able to score goals.

The tradition that keeps on keeping on is the tradition of Sydney Olympic ousting its own promising players only for them to come back and bite us on the ass with an opposition club somewhere down the track, I would seriously be here all week naming them all. It was the same story on Sunday as former player James Andrew collected a hat-trick and made us look like the mugs we are.

Poor recruitment, poor signings, playing people out of position has been the hallmark of Sydney Olympic in season 2017 and with 4 massive games to finish this season it certainly does not look good.

Not sure why the Club spends so much time and money searching for and hiring obscure Iberian Coaches, especially ones with absolutely no idea what it takes to navigate a team through the NSW State League, is it just a status thing to say “hey look at us we have a Spanish Coach”? If only they spent their money signing players for the front third of the pitch.

Our season is slipping away.

For the Club Championship it was another poor round of results, the U20’s got beat 3-0, while the U18’s grabbed a 3-3 draw.

Our next match is next Sunday Afternoon, at Belmore Sports Ground, July 23 against APIA Leichhardt, who just smashed Parramatta FC 6-0, so it is going to be another up-hill battle. Kick-Off is at 5pm.

Sydney Olympic – The Run Home

With 5 Rounds to go in the regular season, we sit in 4^th position, the Minor Premiership is out of reach but we are well and truly in the race to make the Finals and with a bit of luck even the Top 3, which gives a double-chance in the Finals. We have been there or there abouts so far this season, if things click for us we are capable of doing something special.

We will take a look at and break down our run home, a run home which is looking like a fairly tough one it must be said.

R18 – Blacktown City (Away)
You have to take your hat off to Blacktown City. Every year they seem to be at the top no matter how many players seem to come and go there. This year they once again find themselves clear at the top of the table.
When we played them earlier in the season at Belmore, we gifted them 3 first-half goals and the match was effectively all over, it was a match where we arguably put in our worst performance of the year.
We are playing better currently and the week off I feel is just what we needed, so we should go there full of confidence believing we can come away with the 3 points.

R19 – APIA Leichhardt (Home)
It is teams 1 and 2 in consecutive weeks as we take on APIA Leichhardt at Belmore, an APIA team who are flying high in season 2017.
Earlier in the season we came out on top in a titanic struggle at Lambert Park winning a close encounter 2-1, in what possibly was our grittiest and most committed performance thus far this season.
APIA are playing well at the moment and as it always is against APIA, it will be a difficult and tight contest.

R20 – Sydney United (Away)
There is always plenty of attention in the media on this team, for reasons most of you would be aware of by now.
If against Blacktown we saw our worst performance of the season, then our first encounter with the Croats earlier this season would have to be right up there also, we were tragic, really really poor.
They also currently have the wood on us having beaten us in each of our last 4 encounters with them.
It’s always tough to go there and win, but depending on what we do against APIA and Blacktown, this game could become vitally important.

R21 – Hakoah Sydney City-East (Home)
This year’s Waratah Cup Winners. In our first match earlier in the year we played out a dour 0-0 draw against Hakoah.
They are a tough team to break down and are also a very physical side, so getting the 3 points at home here will not be easy.
You would think though, coming off the back of the 3 tough matches, this would be a game the Club should have pencilled-in as a must win, especially since it is at home at Belmore.

R22 – Sutherland Sharks (Away)
We round out the season against Grant Lee’s Sutherland team.
They have looked better since he was installed there as coach, but they have not been able to climb the ladder.
As is always the case against Sutherland, they will not just lie down for us and seeing as it is the last match of the season, a lot could ride on the result of this match for both teams.
If we hold our decent form we should really fancy the 3 points here.

So the League season resumes with our next match, which is next Sunday Afternoon, July 16 away to Blacktown City, at Lily’s Football Centre (Seven Hills), Kick-Off is at 3pm.

Sydney Olympic 1-2 Manly United

It is Round 17 and the story has been the same not only for this season, but for the past few seasons – WE CANNOT SCORE GOALS – a combination of flop signings and shit recruitment has seen us continuously shoot blanks, especially in the big and important matches. Don’t take my word for it, look it up yourself. It was the same story on Sunday Night too, a game we should have wrapped up early on, only for us to drop our bundle and fold like a cheap suit to a fairly average side.

There was not too much to write home about in that first-half in terms of chances. Sydney Olympic was the far superior team but the game was virtually bogged down in midfield. Our best chance of the first-half came via corner and we managed to take full advantage of it, as Mitchell Stamatellis put away his header to give us a 1-0 lead. Nothing much happened for the rest of the half and so we went to the half-time break leading 1-0.

At the start of the second-half it was evident that the instructions were to sit deep and defend the 1-0 lead, which was moronic if you ask me, we should have attacked and tried to put Manly away. Instead all we did was invite them into our own half and put ourselves under all sorts of unnecessary pressure. While they did have a lot of the ball they didn’t really create too much in the way of chances. Meanwhile on the break we had numerous chances to put the game to bed, but a poor final pass combined with some shocking finishing meant the door was left ajar for Manly to turn the game on its head and turn it on its head they did scoring 2 goals in the final 10 minutes. The first came about via a poor punch out from Paul Henderson and them putting the rebound into our net, whilst their second goal came after a fast break as we flooded too many players forward. We were now 2-1 down and we did not have any energy left to mount any sort of reply, seeing us lose 2-1.

What made it worse is that everyone out there would have known that next weekend was a bye round, so there would have been no excuses not to give it everything knowing that whatever happened, they had 2 weeks to recover and to get ready for the next match. Hagi Gligor and Mitch Stamatellis were our best last night, the rest looked dis-interested and didn’t want to be there.

While we have been spruiking the possibility of finishing in the Top 3 this season and earning a double-chance in the Finals, we will be lucky to finish in the Top 5.

In terms of the Club Championship, our U18’s lost once again, this time 3-2, I wonder if that has anything to do with punting the coach at the start of the year? And in the U20’s we drew 2-2 after being 2-0 up, what a shambles. That pretty much rounded off another pathetic week for Sydney Olympic.

A word of advice for people in charge of Sydney Olympic’s various social media outlets, stop blocking, banning and deleting comments from passionate supporters who actually give a fuck about the predicament of the team, otherwise soon enough you will have even less people rocking up to matches. And the condescending comments that are made by people who are only at the Club because a relative happens to be working there at the current moment only makes matters worse. It is not all good, not at all.

Also the Club in its infinite wisdom decided to appoint a coach with 6 rounds to go, another genius decision no doubt. Who knows it might turn out that he knows what he is doing, but in this League, if you don’t have players who can score regularly and create chances for you, ie a no.9 and no.10 you will be an also ran. We have let plenty of those players leave the Club in the last few years too, more idiotic decisions.

As mentioned earlier next weekend there are no games, because of the Waratah Cup Final taking place between APIA Leichhardt and Hakoah Sydney City-East.

Sydney Olympic 0-0 Rockdale

In perhaps what was our best performance of the year on Sunday, we ironically were not able to collect the vital 3 points this time. Unfortunately we spurned numerous opportunities to take the lead and also managed to miss a penalty, so we only have ourselves to blame. We must now pick ourselves up for what looks like a tough 6 week stretch to close out the regular season.

Sydney Olympic started off the match very well and we looked well up for it. Our enthusiasm would pay off within the first 10 minutes of the game as Rockdale were continually bombarded and our persistent pressure paid off as they gave away a penalty early on. Here was our chance to take the lead and seize total control of the game. Radovan Pavicevic stepped up to take the spot-kick, unfortunately his strike struck the post and rebounded away from goal, this was our second penalty miss in a row after last week’s miss by Peter Makrillos. As disappointing as this was we did not drop our heads and kept pushing to find the opening goal. We continued to have chances throughout that first-half, but as has been the story for most of the season we couldn’t put any of our chances away. In defence we looked rather untroubled and pretty much looked in control during the first-half. As it was, we had to go to the half-time break with the match scoreless at 0-0.

The second-half began pretty much the same way as the first-half ended, with Sydney Olympic controlling the match, but that final pass or cross to unlock the Rockdale defence and set up a clear-cut chance seemed to elude us. As the half went on we continued to find ourselves in attacking positions deep in Rockdale’s half of the field, but we struggled to finish off the chances that were coming our way. Nothing symbolised this more when with around 15 minutes to go, William Angel made a marauding run down the left flank and played a nice pass across the goal to what looked like a tap-in and certain goal, unfortunately the chance was missed by an un-marked Niko Tsattalios, it didn’t look like it would be our day. Rockdale were limited to only a few half chances throughout the match, but as if knowing they were getting out of jail in this match, grew in confidence and stepped it up in the last 10 minutes in a bid to try and steal the victory, but no theft occurred this time as we had to settle for a 0-0 draw.

So once again this season our Achilles heel was there for all to see, scoring goals. We just don’t do enough of it, we can’t put teams away and as a result we constantly find ourselves in a lot of these tense and close games, which are no good for the heart. It also must be said that we desperately missed the services of Yu Kuboki on Sunday Afternoon, who I believe was suspended for accumulating too many yellow cards this season, he would have made a difference.

Defensively we were once again very solid, this part of our game has been our major strength this season. Conceding the fewest goals in the competition is a testament to that. As long as our defence remains solid, we will continue to keep ourselves in games this season and give ourselves every chance of winning matches.

In terms of the Club Championship, our U18’s lost 3-0 and in the U20’s we lost 2-1. A shit weekend all-round.

Our next match is this coming Sunday Evening, July 2, another important game against an in-form Manly United at Belmore Sports Ground, with Kick-Off at 5pm.

Get to Belmore this Sunday and support the Club.

Sydney Olympic 2-0 Parramatta FC

Sydney Olympic have picked up another important victory, beating Parramatta 2-0 at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday Afternoon. In a match which never reached any great heights and at times mirrored a training run, as a result of this, a bit of laziness crept into the side towards the end of the match. The most important thing however was to pick up the 3 points which we did.

Sydney Olympic controlled the match from the outset, this was unsurprising as Parramatta FC were fielding basically an entirely new squad and had a new coach in former Sydney Olympic Legend, Marshall Soper. We controlled most of the possession and we were passing it around well, but we were predictably finding it a little bit difficult to get through the ultra-defensive set-up of Parramatta. 15 minutes into the game though we did end up taking the lead somewhat fortunately, as a shot from new boy Mohamed Rahimi slipped through the Parramatta goalkeeper’s gloves to give us a 1-0 lead. We kept pressing in a bid to find the second goal, but some last ditch defending and some fine goalkeeping by Parramatta kept the score at 1-0. Disappointingly for Sydney Olympic we did allow Parramatta to have 2 very good 1-on-1 chances in the first-half, but a couple of good saves from Paul Henderson kept them scoreless. We probably should have been more in front but we went to the half-time break with a 1-0 lead.

We came out hard in the second-half, having a couple of really good chances to extend our lead. 10 minutes or so into the second-half we would eventually put one of those chances away, as Yu Kuboki got himself on the score-sheet once again this season with a nice low header to make it 2-0 to Sydney Olympic. We continued to create chances as Parramatta struggled to get out of their own half at times, but we could not add to our 2 goals. The final 20 or so minutes of the game descended into some poor play from us, giving the ball away, losing the ball in possession, poor passing and generally looking very lackadaisical out there. Although we were never really threatened by Parramatta who were just not good enough to take advantage of our poor play, there were some worrying signs from us out there. We had a great chance late on to make it 3-0 through a penalty, but Peter Makrillos missed the spot-kick, pretty much summing up the last 20 or so minutes from us.

So it was a comfortable victory for Sydney Olympic in the end. But it was not the sort of match you want to have under your belt when the really big and tough fixtures are coming up, and believe me they are coming in succession over these last 7 rounds of the season.

A mere 3 weeks since we signed Liam Youlley, he apparently has gone overseas chasing an opportunity over there, while there are also murmurings that a couple of others will be gone too, not good news.

In terms of the Club Championship, our U18’s lost 1-0 and in the U20’s we ended up with a 3-1 win.

Our next match is this Sunday Afternoon June 25, a vital game against Rockdale at Belmore Sports Ground, with Kick-Off at 3pm.

In the reverse fixture, morons connected to next week’s opponent damaged vehicles belonging to Sydney Olympic Supporters while also trying to initiate “punch-ons” with sections of the elderly Sydney Olympic Supporters. This happens on a regular basis with this mob, FNSW continues to ignore these actions & the constant provocations from this outfit masquerading as a soccer club. Hopefully Sydney Olympic is prepared for Sunday and can identify these grubs at the gate and not let them into the ground. I urge all Sydney Olympic Supporters to come out and support the club and each other this Sunday.

Get to Belmore this Sunday and support the Club.

Sydney Olympic 2-0 Sydney FC NPL Team

Monday Night’s performance wasn’t one of the most convincing displays we have seen this year, but at this stage of the season, what is of the upmost importance is to keep collecting the 3 points and to pick up as many wins as you can. By doing this hopefully we will find ourselves high on the ladder come the end of the season with Sydney Olympic a chance of doing something in the Finals.

It was a fairly circumspect start to the match from both sides as both took a while to warm into the match. The first bit of action came about 5 minutes into the game, when William Angel made a nice run down the left and then delivered a cross which was deflected and ended up hitting the crossbar and going out for a corner. From the ensuing corner there was a bit of a goalmouth scramble but unfortunately we could not turn it into the opening goal. The opposition did have their periods of dominance in terms of possession and did have a few half chances but they never really looked that threatening in the first-half. In the final 10 minutes of the first-half, in between the two footed challenges from the opposition, we looked the more dominant team in possession and created the bulk of the chances, all be it they were only half chances but certainly we probably should have finished off one of them and taken the lead into half-time. But at the half-time break, neither side could break the deadlock and the score remained 0-0.

We started the second-half the same way we ended the first-half, in full control and clearly the dominant side. As a result of this dominance we were able to take the lead 10 minutes into the second-half through a goal from Jinya An, who scored direct from a corner which was not dealt with by the opposition and missed by everyone to nestle into the back of the net, putting us 1-0 up. The next 25 or so minutes was fairly even as the opposition pressed hard looking for an equaliser while Sydney Olympic defended stoutly, absorbed a bit of pressure and tried to hit on the counter-attack. With about 5 minutes to go we had a great chance to ease the nerves and kill the game off, but Yu Kuboki failed to finish off his golden chance as his shot was saved. Fortunately though, we would grab our second goal soon after, coming right at the death as the ball found its way to Jinya An who made room for himself and his left footed shot found the bottom of the net, to seal the victory and the vital 3 points.

So as stated at the top, it was not the greatest display, but what mattered is the 3 points and that we were fairly comfortable defensively during the 90 minutes with our opponent not throwing a hell of a lot in terms of attack.

2 more new signings made their debut for the Club as well on Monday, George Timotheou came on with roughly 20 minutes to go and looked pretty assured in defence and Ben Morrison who came on with only a few minutes to go.

In terms of the Club Championship, our U18’s lost 5-2 and in the U20’s we ended up with a 3-0 win.

Our next match is this Sunday Afternoon June 18, another must win match against what will be a now desperate Parramatta FC outfit, at Belmore Sports Ground with Kick-Off at 3pm.

Get to Belmore this Sunday and support the Club.

Wollongong Wolves 2-1 Sydney Olympic + FFA Cup debacle

The loss on its own is nothing to be ashamed of as the Wollongong Wolves are a good side and a contender this season, despite where they find themselves on the ladder at the moment. But for Sydney Olympic it brings to an end a disappointing week for the Club and its Supporters.

We started off well in the first-half and looked the more dangerous side, but as has been the case in many of our first-half performances this season we went behind after conceding 2 goals in quick succession. Just before half-time we had a chance to cut the deficit, but the chance was missed and so we went to the half-time break trailing 2-0.

We came out hard at the beginning of the second-half looking to get back into the contest. 10 minutes into the second-half we got our breakthrough, as Niko Tsattalios put in the rebound after the ball had come off the woodwork. Soon after we came close to drawing level only to see the chance cleared off the line. The last 30 minutes or so were frantic, as we looked for goals and Wollongong tried to hit us on the counter. Unfortunately we could not find an equaliser and there would be no change to the score, as we went down 2-1.

In fairness, the players had every right to drop their heads after what happened in mid-week, instead we saw a committed performance down in Wollongong against a team that is on the rise. With a bit of luck we could have quite easily walked away with a draw if not the 3 points.

So as it stands we are currently holding onto 3^rd spot on the ladder by our fingertips, with a gaggle of clubs all on our tails. The last 9 rounds of the season will be interesting to say the very least. Can the disappointment of being knocked out of the FFA Cup be used as motivation to do something in the League this season? We shall wait and see.

In terms of the Club Championship, our U18’s won 2-1 and in the U20’s we ended with a 2-2 draw.

A quick word on a few new signings. Liam Youlley played last week and he was joined by Mohamed Rahimi a player signed from Blacktown Spartans and George Timotheou from Canberra, who we signed from Sydney FC.

Who is making these signings? Does this person or persons not see fit to sign a Centre-Forward or maybe Left and Right backs, instead of having to play people out of position all the time, which at the same time removes those players from parts of the pitch where they are actually more useful and dangerous?

I’ve had a few days to ponder over what I was going to write in regards to the FFA Cup debacle of last Wednesday Night. We as in Sydney Olympic Supporters, have a tendency to be melodramatic and over-state certain situations.

But make no mistake, what happened last Wednesday Night was nothing short of an absolute disgrace and is just the latest in a long line of failures for Sydney Olympic ever since we were dumped back into this – black-hole / hell-hole – that now calls itself “NPL NSW”. If FFA or FNSW actually came to Belmore at the start of the year and handed us a pen and paper and told us we could create our own route to make the FFA Cup, we could not have come up with an easier route even if we tried, and yet still we failed.

Of course as a result of losing in the FFA Cup Qualifiers this automatically knocks us out of the Waratah Cup also. Now I can sit here and point fingers and play the blame game and there are plenty of people worthy of blame, but the only thing I can say is to remind the people running the Club at the moment, is that Sydney Olympic is not your play thing, the Sydney Olympic Supporters want to see a successful club from top to bottom and First Grade should be the crowning glory. 1 Championship and 1 Minor Premiership since the end of the NSL in 2004 is just not good enough and is actually an embarrassment.

Our next match is next Monday Afternoon (Queens Birthday Public Holiday) June 12, a tricky home match against an ever-improving Sydney FC NPL team, at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off is at 3pm.

We need a Big Performance next Monday.

Sydney Olympic 4-1 Bonnyrigg White Eagles

We have found our scoring boots for a second week in a row. This time putting 4 goals passed the Bonnyrigg White Eagles on Sunday Afternoon. It was a match similar to last week’s against the Sutherland Sharks, where we laboured in the first-half only to transform into a totally different side in the second-half and runaway convincing winners.

The first-half as a whole was fairly even. Bonnyrigg did come out the stronger in the opening 15 minutes, but poor finishing by them plus a nice save from Paul Henderson kept the score at 0-0. It was after this initial spell of dominance from Bonnyrigg that Sydney Olympic finally got themselves into the game, we had a half chance which we could not put away, this was followed soon after by a golden chance to take the lead, but our header was disappointingly directed over the crossbar. Bonnyrigg hit back after this and it looked like we had conceded the opening goal, but the linesman had put his flag up signalling offside, this brought a sigh of relief from the Sydney Olympic Supporters. In the last 10 minutes of the first-half we tried hard to break the dead-lock but it wasn’t to be and so we headed to the half-time break with the score at 0-0.

In the second-half we looked a totally different side. Only 2 minutes in, some nice solo work from Radovan Pavicevic saw him go on a run and from a tight angle tried to chip the Bonnyrigg goalkeeper, unfortunately the effort struck the crossbar. We only had to wait another 5 minutes or so for our opening goal, a nice cross from the left by William Angel found the head of Yu Kuboki who made no mistake to put us in front 1-0. We doubled our lead soon after, a through ball found a free Jason Madonis who proceeded to lob the Bonnyrigg goalkeeper with a beautiful chip. The cheers would not last long however as straight away Bonnyrigg went down the other end and immediately pulled a goal back. The game went back and forth for the next 10 or so minutes. William Angel then had a chance to extend our lead once again but he was denied by a brilliant save from the Bonnyrigg goalkeeper. In the last 10 minutes Bonnyrigg tried hard for an equaliser but we managed to hold out. Instead we put another 2 goals on them in injury time through a neat finish from Radovan Pavicevic and through Jason Madonis who took his tally to 2 goals for the match. By the time the referee blew for full-time, we had run out deserved winners.

So that’s 2 weeks in a row, where a change of system at half-time has seen us look like a different side for the second-half, which has seen us play some nice free-flowing football and score 7 goals in our last 2 second-halves. It must be said we have looked very good at times during the last 2 weeks.

The mid-week signing of former junior Liam Youlley seems to be a good one, after coming on in the second-half and automatically looking the goods in midfield.

In terms of the Club Championship, the U20’s lost 1-0, while the U18’s won 4-0.

Our next match is this Wednesday Night, May 31, a massive FFA Cup Qualifier where if we win we qualify for this season’s FFA Cup proper. We play the Bankstown Berries (the old Canterbury-Marrickville Olympic) at The Crest, McClean St. Bass Hill, Kick-Off is at 7.30pm.

Our next match in the League is this Sunday Afternoon, June 4, a tough match away in Wollongong against the Wolves at WIN Stadium, Kick-Off is at 3pm.

Get out there and support Sydney Olympic.

Sydney Olympic 3-1 Sutherland Sharks

Once again as with last week, the top 4 were all playing each other meaning points would be dropped by the teams above us. Unlike with last week where we couldn’t capitalise on the situation, on Sunday we did take advantage to pick up a massive 3 points at home to the Sutherland Sharks.

The first-half as a whole was fairly ordinary from a Sydney Olympic point of view, we looked a little tentative throughout. As was expected though against a fairly poor Sutherland team we controlled most of the possession and we were rarely troubled in defence for most of the time. We were looking clunky in attack as whenever we got into any advanced positions a poor final touch, pass or cross would de-rail the move and at times we looked poor in the front third. Sutherland made a few forays towards our goal but their attacks mostly amounted to nothing until 10 minutes before half-time, when one of their players delivered a low non-threatening cross which appeared to be scooped up by Paul Henderson, only for it to be kicked out of his hands, the ensuing scramble saw the ball poked home by Sutherland to give them the lead, all the while Sydney Olympic Supporters called for a foul on the goalkeeper, calls which fell on deaf ears. Once again we found ourselves behind at home. On the stroke of half-time we had a chance to level the scores, but the chance went missing and we went to the half-time break trailing 1-0.

If in the first-half we looked a little lethargic and even incompetent at times, the second-half was an entirely different story. In the space of 10 minutes we had scored 3 goals and could have scored a few more while at the same time making a mockery of our inability to score this season. The first goal came after a run into the box by Sebastian Malfara where he was brought down inside the box. Yu Kuboki stepped up and put the penalty away. The second goal came after a nice run from substitute Nikita Andricopoulos, who then delivered a nice cross into Radovan Pavicevic who finished off expertly. The third goal came after some good pressing and winning back of the football, which resulted in Jinya An finishing off well to make it 3 goals in double quick time. We should have had our 4th goal minutes later but the shot struck the post. We created several more chances throughout the rest of the second-half, but we could not add to our 3 goals, settling for a 3-1 win.

We spoke in previous weeks about being a “Jekyll and Hyde” team from week to week, we seemed to get that all in the one match on Sunday. The team from the first-half to the second-half looked unrecognisable.

So in the end it was a good result considering the likes of; Yianni Spyrakis, Peter Makrillos, Paul Katsetis, Niko Tsattalios, Jake de Marigny (who hasn’t played at all this season) and the departed Max Burgess who has signed for Portuguese 2nd Division outfit, C.F. Uniao were all missing.

A special mention for Tass Mourdoukoutas who looked like an experienced campaigner and was all class at the back in his first start in the League, Hagi Gligor who did not stop running all game and Jason Madonis and Will Angel who never stopped trying down the flanks all day.

In terms of the Club Championship, the U20’s lost 2-0 and the U18’s lost 2-1.

This Wednesday Night we will find out who we will face for a spot in the FFA Cup proper. Either an interesting Derby against the Bankstown Berries or Dulwich Hill.

Our next match is in the League and it is another huge game at home against the Bonnyrigg White Eagles, on Sunday Afternoon, May 28, at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off is at 3pm.

Get out there and support Sydney Olympic.

Hakoah Sydney City-East 0-0 Sydney Olympic

Given that the big guns were playing each other this round and that a few of them would ultimately drop points, it was vital for Sydney Olympic to go to Hakoah on Mother’s Day and pick up the all-important 3 points. Unfortunately it was not to be as we had to settle for a scoreless draw on Sunday.

The first 25 minutes of the first-half were pretty uneventful. We came out and passed the ball around well but it was more or less useless possession amongst ourselves in the midfield, backwards and sideways stuff without any real penetrating forward passing movements. We looked comfortable and totally untroubled by a pretty meek Hakoah side it has to be said, but we struggled to create that real spark to turn our good possession into a flurry of good chances. During the latter part of that first-half we did have a couple of half-chances to open the scoring, but they turned to nothing as we just were not good enough and we were not able to capitalise on the chances, even if they were not clear-cut ones. After a pretty uneventful first-half the score remained 0-0 at the half-time break.

As if realising the urgency of the situation, Sydney Olympic came out in the second-half with a bit more purpose. We looked a lot more dangerous in attack and in doing so created a couple of golden chances to open the scoring and take the game by the scruff of the neck. Again some poor finishing as well as some fine saves by the Hakoah goalkeeper kept the scores at 0-0. We kept on pushing right up until the end but we could just not find the breakthrough. Apart from 1 real chance that Hakoah had, we were not really troubled in defence at all and we easily handled everything they threw at us. As it was, the stalemate could not be broken by either side and we had to settle for a 0-0 draw at full-time.

Take nothing away from Hakoah; they are a decent, well drilled side, with plenty of good players and it is always tough getting a result there, but our problems are there and have been there for all to see this season, our attack is weak and we just cannot score enough goals. 13 goals in our first 10 matches in the League shows this to be the case, the 3^rd worst attack in the League. Defensively we have been strong and our 9 goals conceded ranks us 1^st in the League, having conceded the least amount of goals in the League.

This time of the year the usual stories and rumours are swirling around, about potential signings to come in during the window. I cannot give you any definitive names but it is obvious if you have been watching the team, that we definitely need some cutting edge in the front third of the park. We need a proven goal-scorer at the very least.

In terms of the Club Championship, the U20’s grabbed a 1-0 win, whilst in the U18’s we recorded a 1-0 loss.

A re-cap of last Wednesday’s Round 6 FFA Cup Qualifier against Parramatta FC.

We started off poorly conceding a goal within the first 10 minutes. In general we were quite poor throughout that whole first-half and it looked like we were heading out of the competition.

We looked better in the second-half and 10 minutes into it, we received a penalty and thought here we go, this is our way back into the match, unfortunately it was missed and a sense of impending doom came over the Sydney Olympic Supporters. Our persistence paid off though as 2 late goals from Radovan Pavicevic and Yu Kuboki saw us overcome the deficit and Qualify for the next Round of FFA Cup Qualifying.

In Round 7 FFA Cup Qualifying we will play the winner of Dulwich Hill and Bankstown Berries.

Our next match is in the League and it is a Huge Must Win game at home against a resurgent Sutherland Sharks, on Sunday Afternoon, May 21, at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off is at 3pm.

Get out there this Sunday and support Sydney Olympic.

Jekyll and Hyde – Sydney Olympic 0-2 Sydney United

After an impressive display last Sunday at APIA, expectations were there that we would now kick on from there and keep that same intensity for the rest of the season. Unfortunately it has not worked out that way, as we didn’t perform anywhere near like we did last Sunday, instead we brought out a performance which mirrored our effort from 2 Sunday’s ago. Where we laid down at home against Blacktown City, meaning we have now dished up 2 poor home performances in a row, not good enough in front of the Sydney Olympic Supporters.

The first-half mirrored the effort of our first-half from our last home game, no spark, poor play and constantly inviting the opposition into our own half and to do whatever they wanted in our defensive third, while also giving up several chances. Within the first 5 minutes one of those chances was turned into a goal as a deflected effort from the opposition beat Paul Henderson, we were down 1-0 and looking in all sorts of trouble. We had no real response to what the opposition was throwing at us and we couldn’t muster a decent chance of our own. If not for a shocking penalty miss from the opposition we would have been 2-0 down and deservedly so. Only minutes before half-time, we had one great chance to equalise and put that miserable first-half performance behind us with a great headed chance, unfortunately it was headed over the bar, to the dismay of the Sydney Olympic Supporters. We went to the break 1-0 down.

The second-half saw much of the same although we did start to play a little bit better, there were not many highlights from either side as the match turned into a real midfield battle. Around 20 minutes from the end we had a great chance to level the scores as the ball was flung into the penalty area, the ball subsequently fell onto the chest of one our players (Gligor I think) who had a quick snap volley but it was blocked by the opposition defence. We tried hard to push and get that all-important equaliser, but in doing so we left too much room at the back and the opposition broke away on the counter to score, meaning we were now 2-0 down with around 10 minutes to go. Late on we did manage to find the back of the net but it was controversially ruled out for offside. We tried hard near the end but it was just too little too late, as we went down at home again.

It was a display lacking any real energy and intensity, a match where we created very few chances. Even more worryingly, we are starting to resemble a Jekyll and Hyde team, one week showing up and looking good and committed and the next week looking lethargic and dis-interested in the game altogether, which is something you never want to see from your team.

Also playing long balls to a relatively short and isolated striker when he is up against 2 tall centre-backs was poor and it happened time and time again on Sunday, as he never had anyone anywhere near him to help out.

If that isn’t concerning enough, Max Burgess who has been one of our best players this season did not play, as he has left for Portugal to have some trials over there, once again not great timing but Sydney Olympic’s current status means the Club cannot hold him back. Peter Makrillos saw his first action for 2017 after a long injury lay-off playing around 20 minutes, no news is forth-coming on what the situation is for Jake de Marigny.

It doesn’t matter which board or whichever coach comes in, one thing is for certain with Sydney Olympic over the last few years, that is, no depth and relying on the same 12-13 players to get us through the season and every year we never learn. You don’t do shit in this League without 17-18 players you can rely on and trust every single week. And when the games are coming thick and fast this problem is only magnified.

In terms of the Club Championship, the U20’s got up winning 2-0, thanks to 2 goals from Jinya An, who is making his way back from injury and boy don’t we need him back in first grade quick smart, in the U18’s the score ended in a 2-2 draw.

Our next match is this Wednesday Night, May 10, a Round 6 FFA Cup Qualifier against Parramatta FC at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off is 7.30pm.

Our next match in the League is next Sunday Afternoon, May 14, against Hakoah Sydney City-East at Hensley Athletic Field (Eastgardens), Kick-Off is at 3pm. 

Gutsy – A.P.I.A Leichhardt 1-2 Sydney Olympic

After a difficult and at times confusing week for Sydney Olympic and the Supporters, a good amount of travelling support managed to make their way to Leichhardt on Sunday Evening to watch the team take on old foes, APIA Leichhardt. Their reward was to see a good committed performance from the team, which saw us come away with the all-important 3 points.

It was a rugged start to the match with challenges flying in from both sides. We managed to settle down the quicker and within the first 10 minutes we had taken the lead. Radovan Pavicevic delivered a lovely cross to Yu Kuboki who leaped highest to head the ball passed the APIA goalkeeper and into the back of the net to get us off to a good start. Slowly APIA got themselves into the match, but apart from one great chance they had, which was wonderfully saved by Paul Henderson, they really did not have that many clear cut chances throughout the first-half, our staunch defending foiled most of their attacking raids. This saw the frustration levels of the APIA players rise, causing them to get involved in several scuffles with Sydney Olympic players and in doing so disrupting their focus and helping our cause. Around 10 minutes before the half-time break we doubled our lead, Max Burgess’ well directed corner found the head of Radovan Pavicevic who made no mistake and gave us a 2-0 lead, which remained the score-line at the half-time break.

The second-half was very much a physical affair as tempers threatened to boil over on several occasions throughout the half. We were much more pragmatic in the second-half looking to hold on to our 2-0 lead, while APIA came out hard in search of a quick goal. After failing to really test our goal, they finally did get the breakthrough with around 20 minutes to go as a shot of theirs was saved, before the rebound was put away making the score 2-1 and setting up an interesting last 20 minutes. APIA pushed hard to grab an equaliser and as a result left a lot of space for us to exploit on the counter-attack, we had a few chances to kill the game off with goal number 3 but we couldn’t manage to do it, leaving APIA with the belief that they could still get something from the match. They did have a couple of chances late on but the Sydney Olympic defence held firm to notch up an impressive and ultimately an important victory.

It was a gutsy victory by Sydney Olympic away against the top of the table APIA Leichhardt and a big challenge, a challenge we came through with flying colours. Hopefully this result can set up the rest of our year.

In terms of the Club Championship, the U20’s lost 5-3, and the U18’s went down 3-2, some improvement is needed with both these sides.

Many people have been asking about what happened with Jamie Monroy and why he decided to up and leave 7 rounds in after a pretty good start to the season, unfortunately I cannot definitively give you any answers for this. Instead all I can say is that everybody who had anything to do with him found him to be a very impressive individual and we wish him all the best back in Europe.

We now must get behind new coach Peter Zorbas, as we have a good squad of players this year and this season shouldn’t be thrown away as we definitely have the capabilities to be there at the business end of the season.

A quick re-cap of our Round 5 FFA Cup Qualifier which took place last Wednesday Night down in Picton against the Picton Rangers. Radovan Pavicevic put away 2 penalties and Jason Madonis scored the other one in quite a tough encounter.

The opposition were obviously right up for the contest and put in a good shift themselves, as well as some over-zealous challenges, but we were good enough to get the job done with a 3-0 win, and progress to the next round.

In Round 6 FFA Cup Qualifying we will play the winner of Parramatta FC and Southern & Ettalong United.

Our next match in the League is next Sunday Afternoon, May 7, the Big Derby against Sydney United, at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off is at 3pm.