In recent times Parramatta FC or Melita, as they have been known as for
most of their history, have always somehow managed to throw a disruptive spanner
in the Sydney Olympic machine. Whether it be pipping us in 1980 to the NSW
Minor Premiership (we would exact revenge in the Grand Final and earn Promotion
back into the NSL) or in 1990/91 and their Houdini act to leapfrog us into a
Finals position during that NSL Season and in more recent times.
It is not to say that they have “the wood over us” as we have a superior
overall head-to-head record against them (26 Wins to 12 losses with 6 draws)
and we did hammer them last year and the year before that, although they did beat
Sydney Olympic in both of the reverse fixtures of the last 2 seasons.
Back in the day Parramatta Melita had some excellent players and teams and
it would be no surprise or shock to anyone if they got one over us, but in
recent times it really hasn’t been the case. Recently their squads have
comprised of discards from other clubs and journeymen looking for one last pay
day, as well as the odd-younger player, but they still find a way to frustrate us.
So it would prove again, as on an overcast Sunday Afternoon in South
Granville, they would once again play the role of spoilers to Sydney Olympic.
As with our first 3 matches we took control of the match early on and dominated
proceedings. We started the match off well and our dominance showed by creating
a plethora of chances in the first-half, Radovan Pavicevic went close a few
times but was unable to put away any of his chances. We had all the possession and
we were basically living in their half of the field, but we could not unlock
their defence, we were missing that killer final ball. As the whistle for
half-time blew the score remained deadlocked at 0-0.
The start of the second-half pretty much went the same way as the
first-half and if it were even possible, we had even more possession and we were
increasing our domination over proceedings. The difference with the first-half was
that Parramatta actually came out and made a couple of forward runs and created
the odd chance or two, all the while never really troubling the Sydney Olympic
goal. As the second-half progressed we continued to be frustrated by a stubborn
defence, we were still dominating possession but apart from a couple of chances
late on it looked like we were bereft of any ideas on how to break-down their
defence or produce a good final pass to create a legitimate goal-scoring
opportunity. The frustrating afternoon ended with a full-time score of 0-0.
No it is not panic stations, let’s not be stupid, but somewhere down the
line it will cost us not having an out-and-out Centre-Forward, especially if
the goals on the day do not come from any of our Midfielders, and we did look a
little one-dimensional with our play, especially coming up against a team that
parked a fleet of double-deckers in front of their goal, we were left
scratching our heads.
We still played well and we were never really troubled throughout the
match with our defence hardly tested, plus we grabbed our 3rd clean
sheet in 4 matches.
In terms of the Club Championship, the U20’s had a 2-0 loss whilst the
U18’s had a 0-0 draw.
Our next match is this Wednesday Night, April 5, as we begin our FFA Cup
campaign for season 2017 against Mosman FC at Peter Moore Park, Kick-Off is at
7.30pm.
Our next match in the League is this Sunday Evening, April 9, against Rockdale
at their ground, Kick-Off is at 5pm.
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