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.