Back to Back Wins - Sydney Olympic 3-1 APIA Leichhardt

For the first time in Season 2016 we’ve won back to back matches and we had to overcome a first half deficit to achieve it. The second half performance was outstanding, we fully deserved the win.

Right from the kickoff we were unlucky not to open the scoring as a Harris Gaitatzis freekick was well saved by the APIA keeper, as it would turn out the first of many many saves from him for the afternoon. The first half generally was a back and forth affair. There were not too many clear cut chances created by either side, but throughout the half both sides threatened each other’s 18 yard box. Overall, throughout the first half-hour you would have to say that APIA probably shaded proceedings, they were looking more menacing in attack and when they attacked they did it with numbers. Around 10 minutes before half-time APIA would open the scoring; they broke quickly and found themselves in a 2-on-1 situation and opened the scoring through a tap in. In the last 10 or so minutes of the half we picked it up a little bit in search of an equaliser but it would not come and we went to the half-time break trailing 1-0.

A couple of changes at the break seemed to do the trick as we came out for the second half all guns blazing. Moving Jason Madonis closer to the action and giving Will Angel a role roaming up front changed the match in our favour. The second half, apart from a few APIA attacks was complete domination by Sydney Olympic as we basically ran riot. The first 10 minutes of the second half should have seen us equalise at the very least, but the APIA keeper came up with several big saves, denying Harris Gaitatzis a couple of times. On the 60^th minute we got our deserved equaliser via Jacob Boutoubia, who chipped his effort over the on-coming APIA keeper to bring the score to 1-1. Angel, Boutoubia, Gaitatzis in tandem with Madonis and the 2 fullbacks Green and Montford were causing havoc for APIA’s defence, as we flooded forward looking for more goals. Some more fine work from the APIA keeper denied Sydney Olympic and kept the score at 1-1. APIA were holding on, that is until they got a player sent off with around 15 minutes to go, which gave our Sydney Olympic the impetus to step it up further and hunt for a winner. Only a few minutes later the goal would come, some nice work from Will Angel on the flank saw him beat his man and send a ball into the box for an easy tap in for Harris Gaitatzis. Oliver Green put the icing on the cake two minutes before the end, as he found himself in space and finished well to give us an unassailable 3-1 lead, which is how the score stayed.

It could have been so much more if it was not for the APIA keeper. But the important thing is to keep on picking up wins and the all-important 3 points. As mentioned the changes at half-time for whatever reason sparked the team and made us more fluid and potent in attack as we ran the show in that second half, a great display.

For the Club Championship we won 2-0 in the U18s and lost 3-0 in the U20s, with our win in First Grade we picked up 15 points towards the tally. We’re slowly creeping away from relegation danger, but we need to keep it up.

Due to the Australia-Greece International on Saturday Night, our next League match away against Manly which was scheduled for Saturday Night, has been moved forward to this Friday Night at Cromer Park, kickoff is at 7:45pm.