The Sydney Olympic boys are in a purple patch of
form at the moment, backing up their impressive recent displays by putting the
Wollongong Wolves to the sword on Sunday Afternoon at Belmore. The confidence
within the squad would be sky-high which is great, as we have some very
important matches coming up.
It was a lively start to the match as both sides looked well up for the
contest, it was an even first 10 or so minutes and Wollongong more than held
their own. There were no real clear-cut chances in the opening stages, but it
was a competitive contest all the same, with us just shading proceedings. Pretty
soon though we took the lead via a beautiful finish from Radovan Pavicevic, who
was put through on goal by Alejandro Sanchez with a nice flick pass. We
dominated the next little period of the game and pretty soon we were rewarded
with our 2nd goal of the afternoon. Our centre-back Tom Whiteside managed to score
our 2nd with a great back heel flick, which was reminiscent of a goal the
former Dutch International Rafael van der Vaart scored whilst playing at Ajax
many years ago, a great bit of skill by Tom and we were now 2-0 up. In between
our goals Wollongong should have had at least 1 player sent off, their new
“superstar” recruit was flying into our players studs-up and off the ball,
while others were elbowing our players in the head, all of this of course, was
“not seen” by the referee. In the last 5 minutes of the first-half Wollongong
stepped up their play and had a couple of good chances too. They were rewarded
with a goal just moments before the half-time break thanks to a long-range
strike. With Wollongong pulling 1 back we went in at half-time a little
deflated but still leading 2-1.
The match was evenly poised as we started the second-half. In the first 15 or
so minutes of the second-half you’d have to say that Wollongong had the better
of the play and they put us under the pump in that period, fortunately for us,
they were not able to take advantage of their dominance in possession and so we
were able to survive. Shortly after this period though, we made it 3-1 and
punished them with a bullet freekick from Alejandro Sanchez, their goalkeeper
had no hope of getting anywhere near it, it was a great goal. Wollongong kept
pushing in an attempt to get back into the contest, but as they pushed we hit
them on the counter with around 10 minutes to go. Sanchez set up Pavicevic inside
the box who put his chance away to put us 4-1 up. Wollongong by this time, with
the wind knocked out of them were deflated, and right near the end we made it
5-1 as Sanchez grabbed another goal as he was found in the box from a William
Angel cross.
So again, it was another outstanding performance by Sydney Olympic and even
more so, considering Max Burgess and Nikola Kuleski were missing, adding to the
long list of players we already have missing at the moment, among them, Hagi
Gligor, Jake de Marigny, Paul Katsetis. A truly Herculean effort.
In the Club Championship, the U18s grabbed a 0-0 draw and the U20s had a 1-1
draw.
Our next match is a Round 6 FFA Cup Qualifier against Hawkesbury City, this
Wednesday Night, May 16, at Peter Moore Field. Kick-Off is at 7.30pm. We cannot
afford to take this match lightly. Despite Hawkesbury being an NPL 3 side, they
have dangerous players and have the ability to cause us problems, we must be switched
on.
Our next match in the League is this Saturday Night, May 19. A tough match away
to Sydney United at Edensor Park. Kick-Off is at 7.30pm.
The matches are coming thick and fast, get down and support the boys.
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