Olympic and Hakoah have
been doing battle for over half a century (barring a 30 year period in there) and
the last time we hosted a League match against them it would have been at
Pratten Park sometime in the year 1986. Anyway, to the 4-3 result which
flattered Hakoah, the result of the match should never have been in doubt and
nor should it have been that close in the end. We were by far the better footballing
team and should have put 6 or 7 passed them at least. Some dubious refereeing
helped Hakoah out and helped keep them in the match, a match they realistically
should have been out of by half-time.
We started the match on fire, you could tell that the Sydney Olympic boys were well and truly up for it and within the first 5 minutes we had opened the scoring via some good inter-play between Jason Madonis and Josh Gaspari, the former found the latter with a good pass and Gaspari coolly finished to give us an early 1-0 lead. Within the first 10 minutes we should have had a second goal, but Harris Gaitatzis who has been in good goal-scoring form of late, had his effort saved by the Hakoah goalkeeper. We only had to wait a few more minutes though for the second goal, which again came via Josh Gaspari who slotted his second goal of the afternoon with another expert finish, it was all Sydney Olympic at this point. Unfortunately Hakoah were allowed back into the match, after the referee awarded a penalty which they dispatched. This setback did not hinder our play or our confidence as we went right back on the attack, we dominated the rest of the First Half creating numerous chances, but we could not add to our score, including a shot which smacked the crossbar. With a bit more luck we could have gone to the half-time break 5-1 up, but as it was we had to settle for a 2-1 lead as the referee blew his whistle for half-time.
The first 15 minutes of the Second Half were fairly uneventful as both sides settled back into the game after the break. From then on we resumed our dominance of the match as we went close twice in the space of a couple of minutes to restoring our 2 goal lead, including another shot which hit the crossbar. With about 20 minutes to go that 2 goal lead would be restored as Jack Green sneaked into the box to receive the ball, he then smashed his shot pass the Hakoah goalkeeper to put Sydney Olympic 3-1 up. About 5 minutes later we came close to adding number 4 but it was not to be. It should have been plain sailing for us, but with 10 minutes to go Hakoah snatched a goal to make it 3-2 through Olympic old boy Adrian Vranic who was the only real Hakoah threat for the entire match. In the last minute of regulation time, the referee awarded another penalty for Hakoah, which they converted to make it 3-3. Unbelievably for the supporters the scores were level in a match we should have been leading comfortably, to say the swear words were flying is an under-statement. But deep into injury-time we found a winner through Josh Gaspari again who rounded out his hat-trick with a beautiful volley, the keeper had no chance. Seconds later the referee blew for full-time and victory was ours.
It was another good performance and more importantly another victory and another 3 points. This keeps us in the Top 5 and in a Finals position at the moment. The last 3 weeks of the regular season are going to be very interesting as games at this time of the season all have meaning and are never easy, whether you are coming up against the team coming First or Last.
Although the match was an exciting one, we really should have put Hakoah to the sword and put the game to bed before half-time. Another day and we would be ruing not winning.
Our Rwandan recruit Jean-Pierre Hakiri saw his first action for Sydney Olympic in a 20 minute cameo, who was solid.
For the Club Championship, in the U18s we lost 4-1 and in the U20s we won 5-1. Combined with our 4-3 victory in First Grade this secured us 18 points towards the Club Championship, a good haul.
Next weekend, Sunday July 31, we have another difficult match against a relegation-threatened and desperate Wollongong Wolves side down at WIN Stadium in Wollongong, Kickoff is at 5pm.
We started the match on fire, you could tell that the Sydney Olympic boys were well and truly up for it and within the first 5 minutes we had opened the scoring via some good inter-play between Jason Madonis and Josh Gaspari, the former found the latter with a good pass and Gaspari coolly finished to give us an early 1-0 lead. Within the first 10 minutes we should have had a second goal, but Harris Gaitatzis who has been in good goal-scoring form of late, had his effort saved by the Hakoah goalkeeper. We only had to wait a few more minutes though for the second goal, which again came via Josh Gaspari who slotted his second goal of the afternoon with another expert finish, it was all Sydney Olympic at this point. Unfortunately Hakoah were allowed back into the match, after the referee awarded a penalty which they dispatched. This setback did not hinder our play or our confidence as we went right back on the attack, we dominated the rest of the First Half creating numerous chances, but we could not add to our score, including a shot which smacked the crossbar. With a bit more luck we could have gone to the half-time break 5-1 up, but as it was we had to settle for a 2-1 lead as the referee blew his whistle for half-time.
The first 15 minutes of the Second Half were fairly uneventful as both sides settled back into the game after the break. From then on we resumed our dominance of the match as we went close twice in the space of a couple of minutes to restoring our 2 goal lead, including another shot which hit the crossbar. With about 20 minutes to go that 2 goal lead would be restored as Jack Green sneaked into the box to receive the ball, he then smashed his shot pass the Hakoah goalkeeper to put Sydney Olympic 3-1 up. About 5 minutes later we came close to adding number 4 but it was not to be. It should have been plain sailing for us, but with 10 minutes to go Hakoah snatched a goal to make it 3-2 through Olympic old boy Adrian Vranic who was the only real Hakoah threat for the entire match. In the last minute of regulation time, the referee awarded another penalty for Hakoah, which they converted to make it 3-3. Unbelievably for the supporters the scores were level in a match we should have been leading comfortably, to say the swear words were flying is an under-statement. But deep into injury-time we found a winner through Josh Gaspari again who rounded out his hat-trick with a beautiful volley, the keeper had no chance. Seconds later the referee blew for full-time and victory was ours.
It was another good performance and more importantly another victory and another 3 points. This keeps us in the Top 5 and in a Finals position at the moment. The last 3 weeks of the regular season are going to be very interesting as games at this time of the season all have meaning and are never easy, whether you are coming up against the team coming First or Last.
Although the match was an exciting one, we really should have put Hakoah to the sword and put the game to bed before half-time. Another day and we would be ruing not winning.
Our Rwandan recruit Jean-Pierre Hakiri saw his first action for Sydney Olympic in a 20 minute cameo, who was solid.
For the Club Championship, in the U18s we lost 4-1 and in the U20s we won 5-1. Combined with our 4-3 victory in First Grade this secured us 18 points towards the Club Championship, a good haul.
Next weekend, Sunday July 31, we have another difficult match against a relegation-threatened and desperate Wollongong Wolves side down at WIN Stadium in Wollongong, Kickoff is at 5pm.
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