Rockdale 3-0 Sydney Olympic

Look, despite the score-line it was not a romp or some type of limp performance from us that lead to some type of obscene thrashing. We were the better side during the entire 1^st half; we played them off the park for most of it and created a plethora of great chances. But we just do not have the players to put the ball in the back of the net at the moment. It might have something to do with the fact that we do not have 1 recognised centre-forward at the club, quite how the club allowed itself to get to this point is another matter entirely.

As is the norm with these types of matches where we dominate and do not score, sure enough the opposition popped up to open the scoring just before half-time, and we found ourselves 1-0 down at half-time.

In the 2^nd half we tried hard and we were never out of the game to be fair, but we just could not finish off our good inter-play with any type of end product, we just could not score. The opposition stepped it up in the 2^nd half and they were more decisive and clinical than we were and ran away with the match, scoring twice more in the 2^nd half to run out 3-0 winners and take the 3 points.

Some comments from Coach Grant Lee after the Match:

- “You buoy other teams by the fact you do not punish them and then are encouraged because they think they should be down yet they are still in the game”

- “Then we are naive in our defending which comes from the fact that we get frustrated that we haven’t taken our opportunities”

- “We do have a young side and at the moment they don’t have that experience or knowledge on how to close out a game”

My response to this is we had a striker, a good young striker by the name of Adrian Vranic who is one of the more sought after young players in Australia, and you did not want him, you did not rate him and did not want to play him, for reasons I cannot fathom or understand at this time. And as a result he has now left Sydney Olympic and has joined up with another NPL club, a travesty for the club that cannot be put into words. Also another striker has apparently been let go in Mark Cindric. So we have massive issues now up front.

Also I’m not sure who is expected to buy the “we are a young and inexperienced team” line. Henderson, Sorge, Egger, Stamatellis, Madonis, Fondyke, Angel, Tsattalios, the Gaitatzis Brothers are seasoned players at this level and have played at higher levels than this. It is a rubbish argument and should stop being used. It hurts so much to see this club struggling this season. We must haul ourselves out of this hole we have dug for ourselves and do it quickly.

In the U18s we won 1-0 and in the U20s we had a 1-1 Draw. For the Club Championship it was not a good weekend as we only picked up 5 points and the teams around us all picked up more points. We need to start winning games ASAP.

On the Tempe front, news of the past week was that Marrickville Council, Ashfield Council and Leichhardt Council have agreed to merge and form a new “Inner-West Council”. Your guess is as good as mine on how much of an impact this may have on the Tempe re-development. We can only hope its impact is not in a way where the entire thing is scrapped.

Our next match is the Final Qualifying Round for the FFA Cup against Sydney United, this Wednesday Night the 18^th of May at Edensor Park, kickoff is 7:30pm.

Our next League game is a match of major importance and significance in the context of this season and our hope of avoiding relegation. Against a team who are also battling to avoid the same fate. This Sunday 22^nd of May at Belmore Sports Ground against Blacktown Spartans, kickoff is 3pm.