Back to Winning Ways – Manly United 0-1 Sydney Olympic

Sydney Olympic remains undefeated in 2017 and is back to winning ways after 2 draws in a row, travelling to Manly United on Good Friday Evening and coming away with a magnificent victory away to one of the competition’s heavy hitters and one of this season’s title favourites.

In a high-octane first-half, both sides went at each other with an impressive ferocity akin to 2 heavyweight boxers trading blows, with Sydney Olympic more than holding their own. We were close to taking the lead within the first 5 minutes but the attempt did not find its mark, instead flying over the crossbar. Manly were playing well also and creating their own chances, but nothing could get passed Paul Henderson. Around halfway through that first-half we had another good chance, but we could not put the headed chance away, missing the target completely. We were playing well and with a bit more luck, composure and some more clinical finishing, we could and should have been leading. In the last 10 or so minutes of the first-half, Manly hit back and stepped it up a notch in a bid to find the breakthrough just before half-time, but on each occasion they were thwarted by Paul Henderson, who was once again having another fantastic game in the Sydney Olympic goal. At the half-time break, neither team could find that all-important goal and both teams headed to the sheds scoreless.

The first 15 minutes of the second-half saw both teams have chances to open the scoring and take the lead, but poor finishing and some fine goalkeeping kept the score at 0-0. The titanic struggle would continue until 20 minutes into the second-half, when a goal would come and it would be Sydney Olympic who got it. Some great work once again by William Angel down the left, saw him burn a few opponents before sending a pinpoint cross to the unmarked Yu Kuboki, who made no mistake from 3m out to put us 1-0 up. After going behind, Manly predictably stepped it up in a bid to find the equaliser, to be fair they did create quite a few opportunities but they could not finish. With them chasing the equaliser, they left plenty of room and space at the back for us to hit them on the counter and with about 5 minutes to go, Yu Kuboki had a chance at a second for the night and a chance to put the game to bed, but he could not find the mark. In the end it did not matter as we hung on for the victory and the all-important 3 points.

The boys put in another excellent shift on Friday Evening, in a match of high stakes and high intensity, in what you could call a “short turn-around” after the tough 2-2 draw we had at Rockdale the previous Sunday. With Paul Henderson putting in another magnificent performance, he could play at this level until he’s 50.

In terms of the Club Championship, the U20’s had a 3-3 draw after coming back from being 3-0 down at half-time and quite remarkably, it ended up a match that they should have won in the end. Whilst the U18’s put in another poor performance and experiencing another disastrous loss, 6-1 this time, after the 6-0 loss from last round. It can’t be a co-incidence that the U18’s have collapsed in a heap only a few weeks after a disagreement which saw U18’s coach and Club Legend Jim Patikas and the Club part ways, a very disappointing situation to say the least.

Our next match is in the League and it is this Sunday Afternoon, April 23, our first home match for 5 weeks, against Blacktown City at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off is set for 3pm.