Sydney Olympic Off-Season – October

We are only in mid-October; but it is already over 2 months since our season ended and around another 5 months, until the next season commences. That is quite a long lay-off. But that’s Australian soccer for you.

Obviously, that mostly has to do with us missing the Finals and not being involved in any of the FFA Cup action either.

A week or so after our final League match, the club publicly announced the resignation of Abbas Saad.

Numerous conspiracy theorists automatically went to work, claiming this, that & the other and who knows, some of it might be accurate. At the end of the day, it has happened and we all must move on.

Despite what was written here about the team’s performances, his coaching decisions or what not in this past season, Abbas Saad is a Sydney Olympic Legend, adding to that by delivering us the Championship in 2018 which will never be forgotten. We sincerely wish him all the best for the future.

The club moved swiftly in finding a replacement as a week or so later, the club announced the appointment of Sutherland Sharks coach, Terry Palapanis.

Personally, I don’t know that much about him as a coach. His Sutherland team beat us twice last season, both home and away, but in saying that, that ended up being not that great of a feat after all.

Palapanis also coached in the lower leagues with Mounties Wanderers and St George, but it remains to be seen what he can do for us at Sydney Olympic. We will just have to sit back and see.

On the signings front – William Angel. Zach Mackenzie, Peter Kekeris, Thomas Whiteside, Niko Tsattalios, Alejandro Sanchez, Dimi Petratos, Darcy Burgess, Jason Madonis, Nikola Kuleski, Hagi Gligor, Billy Patramanis, Jack Stewart, Giovanni Panuccio (from the U20’s) – have all re-signed for season 2020.

Paul Henderson will play on next season as the 2nd Goalkeeper, in addition to his new role as Goalkeeper coach.

In terms of new signings, Goalkeeper Anthony Bouzanis and Attacker Alexander Lopez, who were Sydney Olympic juniors, return after playing with Sutherland last season.

The club has also added Raul Beneit Romero from Sutherland, Adam Parkhouse from Manly and Fabio Ferreira from Adelaide City.

We will have to wait and see if there are any more additions to the squad or if that is it for this off-season. A quick look over all those players and there are quite a few offensive-minded players among them and not that many with a defensive mindset, but as I said, we will see what transpires over the next few months.