Here we go, another football season is upon us and as usual, no one quite knows what to make of it and how it is all going to pan out. But I suppose, that has always been half the fun/torment of following Sydney Olympic ever since I can remember and especially, at this level of the sport, where most teams are fairly equal.
There are seasons where you think to yourself – yep, this year we are looking strong, the squad looks great, we are going to give this competition (whatever level it may be) are real shake – only for everything to collapse in on itself.
And of course there are those other seasons, where you literally fear for the fate of the club and think the worst, about what the season might entail. Only for those fears to end up being unfounded and the season is a successful one.
You don’t even have to search that far back into Sydney Olympic’s history, to remind yourself of such seasons.
With that in mind, there has been much optimism surrounding Sydney Olympic for 2020 and quite a bit of buzz, over our chances this season.
In that vain, much has been made of the flurry of signings that the club has brought in during the off-season, which has seen the likes of:
Fabio Ferreira, Bai Antoniou, Raul Romero, Anthony Bouzanis, Charles Lokolingoy, Shato Kohno, Adam Parkhouse, Nicholas Sorras, James Cakovski come to the club. Other new signings – Alexander Lopez and Sebastian Ryall – are currently M.I.A. Apparently, the former is trialling overseas, while the latter has a long-term injury and we won’t be seeing him out on the pitch for a while.
But for all those signings made and positivity: Alejandro Sanchez, Jinya An, Radovan Pavicevic, Riley Woodcock, Jack Stewart, Mitch Stamatellis (again), Dimitri Petratos, Harris Gaitatzis, Michael Gaitatzis, Brendan Hooper have all departed the club, while we believe that Paul Henderson has officially given it away, as there has been a change of heart in the decision, to go around again as a no.2 goalkeeper.
Long serving players; William Angel, Jason Madonis, Nick Tsattalios are back, as well as Darcy Burgess, Nicola Kuleski, Hagi Gligor, Zac Mackenzie, Thomas Whiteside as well as promoted players Giovanni Panuccio and Billy Patramanis. Sadly, the latter is still coming back from a long term injury and will not be ready to play for a while yet.
On the face of it, the squad is not as impressive nor as deep as many thought it was, say 2 months ago, especially defensively where we do look vulnerable. Especially with 2 long-term injuries in that position.
Any thoughts that we would romp through the rest of the competition this season, not that it was at all realistic anyway, must be put on the backburner. We need to keep our heads down, roll our sleeves up and get back to reality.
Of course in this competition which is only 22 rounds long, it is of vital importance to start the season off on the right foot. The worst thing to happen, is to be chasing our tails and results from early on.
So, it all gets under way this Sunday Afternoon, March 1, as we host last season’s Minor Premiers the Wollongong Wolves at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off at 4pm.
COME ON OLYMPIC!
