Sydney Olympic has recorded its first home
victory of 2019, after putting in its best performance of the season so far, in
dismantling traditional rivals APIA Leichhardt, on ANZAC Day last Thursday.
In total contrast to most of the beginnings to our matches this season, we came
out looking sharp in the first-half against APIA, a very good APIA side too.
Although we started brightly with a lot of enthusiasm, we did not create too
many great goal scoring opportunities inside the first 20 minutes, the same can
be said of APIA.
After witnessing a scrappy opening to the contest, in the last 15 minutes of the
first-half, we would go up a couple of gears and alter proceedings.
On the half-hour mark, we were awarded a freekick just outside the box and
given a great chance to open the scoring and we did not pass it up. Jinya An
curled in a brilliant left-footed effort right into the top corner of the APIA
goal, to give us a 1-0 lead.
5 minutes later we doubled our lead, as Alejandro Sanchez was put through on
goal and he made no mistake to finish off expertly. APIA had a chance to pull a
goal back but we handled the pressure well and subsequently, we went down the
other end right on the stroke of half-time and made it 3-0, as Alejandro Sanchez
was found free inside the box, to finish and score his 2nd of the game.
As was expected at the start of the second-half, APIA came out strongly looking
to get back into the contest, we held them out until 20 minutes into the
second-half, when they managed to score a freekick themselves to bring the
score back to 3-1.
With APIA piling on the pressure, they left space for us to hit them on the
counter-attack and with a bit more composure, we could have extended our lead
and killed the game off for good. In truth, APIA had some good moments throughout
the second-half, but defensively we held firm right to the end to confirm our
3-1 victory.
So after a shaky start to the season, it was an impressive victory to ease some
of the pressure. Of course, it is only 1 game and we need to build on this, keep
pushing and string a good sequence of results together to start climbing the
ladder.
For the Club Championship, the U18s won 2-1 and the U20s lost 2-0.
Our next match is this Wednesday Night May 1, an FFA Cup 5th Round Qualifier, a
derby against NPL 3 side Stanmore Hawks, at Peter Moore Field. Kick-Off is at
7.30pm.
Our next match in the League is Saturday Night May 4, in what will be a tough
match away against Marconi, at Marconi Stadium, Kickoff is at 7pm.
On the women’s side of things, after their 2-1 win against Manly on Thursday
Night, they sit top of the table after 8 rounds.
Hopefully everybody had a good Easter, whether you celebrated last week or this
week.
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