Sydney Olympic has lost its first match in 10
weeks, going down to the Bonnyrigg White Eagles in a torrid affair on Saturday
Night. You can’t win every week and at some point, we knew we would have our
loss, and it happened to be to a much more desperate team.
Those who have been following this League for a while would know what becomes
of the pitch out at Bonnyrigg, especially at this time of the year. If we’re
being frank, you wouldn’t let your dog take a dump on it, it’s that bad. But in
saying that, we should have known this and prepared for the conditions
accordingly. Add to the fact that we’ve always had a tough time of it out there
and it was always going to be a slog. Bonnyrigg, being accustomed to playing
there, adapted to the conditions easier. It took us a while to get into the
match and find our feet, ironically, we had the best chance of the entire
first-half but unfortunately, the chance was missed. Not long after this
Alejandro Sanchez worryingly hobbled off, after being on the receiving end of
one too many rough challenges, we will just have to wait and see how bad it is.
At the half-time break there was no change to the 0-0 score-line, but we were
well in the fight and we were confident that we could get the job done in the
second-half.
At the start of the second-half, the arm-wrestle resumed, with the opening
stages being a battle for midfield supremacy, with both sides looking to gain
the upper-hand. Midway through the second-half we managed to score and thought
we had our breakthrough, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside. Sensing
they had been let off the hook somewhat, in the last 20 minutes of the match Bonnyrigg
went for it. They did have a couple of chances in that time and they somehow managed
to bundle the ball into the back of the net to give themselves the lead. We pushed
hard in the closing stages for the equaliser but it would not be our night and we
suffered a 1-0 loss.
It wasn’t our greatest performance this season by any stretch of the
imagination but still we were unlucky to actually come out of it with a loss. So
just to wrap up this match, possession-based stuff and passing it around was
never going to win us the game on a pitch like that on Saturday Night. The
order of the day was route 1 stuff and a wing-based game, putting in cross
after cross into the box would have been the way to go.
No doubt we will have some bumps and bruises after playing on the heavy pitch,
but the concern is with Sanchez who got taken off in the first-half, we all
sincerely hope that it is nothing serious as the next 7 days are massive for
the club.
Currently we are in what’s called a “signing window” and as we have discussed a
few times, we do need a couple of re-enforcements, due to our injury list. Last
week Sydney Olympic did announce the signing of defender Brendan Hooper, who returns
after previously playing for the club between 2013-2015. Another midfielder and
forward will do nicely.
In the Club Championship, the U18s copped a 2-1 loss and the U20s also had a
loss, going down 3-1, no shocks here, we are woeful in these grades. If our first-grade
team happens to go through a 3 or 4 match winless run, we will find ourselves
in a scrap to avoid relegation, which of course occurs via the Club
Championship format, and this season it is particularly close.
Attention now turns to the coming week, the biggest week for Sydney Olympic Football
Club in many years.
On Wednesday we have an all-important FFA Cup Round 7 qualifier against old
rivals APIA Leichhardt. This is the final qualifying round, before the main FFA
Cup Round of 32 begins. The match will be at Belmore Sports Ground, this
Wednesday Night, May 30, Kick-Off is at 7.30pm.
Just 4 days later we will face APIA Leichhardt once again, this time in the
League on Sunday Afternoon, June 3. Both sides fill the top 2 positions in the
standings and after last week’s shock loss against Bonnyrigg, this match takes
on extra significance for us as top spot will be up for grabs. Kick-Off is at
3pm at Belmore Sports Ground.
Get out to both matches and support the boys.
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