Monday 25 March 2019

Sydney Olympic 3-3 Blacktown City

Another home match, another poor start and another match where we found ourselves in the position of having to chase a result at home, where after 2 matches now, we have not managed to pick up the 3 points.

It was a disastrous start, as within the first 15 minutes we found ourselves 2-0 down. The first goal was essentially a free header from a poorly defended corner and the second came via a rare mistake by Paul Henderson, who looked to have made a straight forward save, before dropping the ball and allowing Blacktown to tap in for their 2nd goal of the afternoon.

We were not playing all that poorly, but we were just caught on the hop by an always well prepared and opportunistic team. Meaning we once more had to dig deep to get anything from the match.

There was a glimmer of hope for Sydney Olympic just before half-time, thanks to a goal of the season contender by Nikola Kuleski, who knocked in a beautiful freekick from about 25m out to claw a goal back.

We had further great chances just before the half-time break to dramatically pull level, but some poor finishing meant it was not to be and so we headed to the half-time break trailing 2-1.

Not even 30 seconds had passed into the second-half before we found an equaliser, a nice through ball found Alejandro Sanchez who made no mistake to make it 2-2 and open his account for the season.

Things looked to have been back on track and we could now just focus on getting into a rhythm in the second-half and search for a winner. But, only 5 minutes after we had equalised, we went behind once again, courtesy of a speculative long-range effort that beat Paul Henderson. We were up against it again.

On the positive front, we never dropped our heads and continued to keep working hard and we were rewarded around 10 minutes later, as a well worked move was finished off well by Jason Madonis to bring the score back to 3-3.

In the final 30 minutes, we had several golden opportunities to find a winner, but it never came and we had to settle for a 3-3 result.

We paid for our poor start and it is something we cannot afford to keep doing, as it is far too difficult in this League, to continually have to fight back to get results and it will eventually, become a drain on the players as the season progresses.

The fighting spirit shown is admirable, but we must be better and be switched on from the opening minutes of matches.

In terms of the Club Championship, the U18s got pumped 6-0, while the U20s picked up a 3-1 win.

Round 4 is on Sunday March 31, we travel to face the always difficult Hakoah Sydney City-East at Hensley Athletic Field, Eastgardens, Kick-Off is at 5pm.

On Wednesday Night, April 3, is our rescheduled Round 2 match away to the Mount Druitt Town Rangers, at Popondetta Park in Emerton, Kick-Off is at 7.30pm.

On the Sydney Olympic Girls side of things, they drew 2-2 with Sydney University, who are usually the heavy hitters in this League. It has been a good start for Sydney Olympic in its debut season in NPL 1, starting off with 2 wins and 1 draw after 3 rounds.

Monday 11 March 2019

Poor Start – Sydney Olympic 0-1 Sutherland Sharks

Sydney Olympic has gotten its title defense off to the worst possible start, after a lacklustre showing in the 2019 season opener against Sutherland, in what was our first home match of the year.

The hot weather conditions were not going to be advantageous for either side and it was never going to help the spectacle and that is how it turned out, as we in particular, lacked any real energy and enthusiasm. Add to the fact that Sutherland being a bottom feeder team, sat back and were being overly physical. How they stayed with 11 men on the park is anyone’s guess.

Despite these handicaps, we still managed to create enough goal-scoring opportunities and should have gotten on the scoreboard at least once during the 90 minutes.

A couple of good saves from the Sutherland Goalkeeper kept us out, while the woodwork also came to their rescue throughout the match. Overall, it was a frustrating afternoon for the very decent crowd that rocked up for Round 1, to see Sydney Olympic play.

In defense, there were a few lapses and we were caught out of position on a couple of occasions. We weren’t tight enough at the back at times and we left ourselves way too open in midfield, which allowed the opposition to have a couple of attacks on our goal.

It was one of those matches that had 0-0 written all over it and given how poor the match was, most would have begrudgingly taken that result and moved on to next week. But mid-way through the second-half, Sutherland managed to beat our defense and fluked a goal on the break, to hand us a 1-0 defeat.

All in all, it was a fairly disjointed performance from Sydney Olympic. I’m not sure if it is the result of several players still having their heads in the clouds after last season or what it is, but there was something definitely off about the display on Sunday.

No one wants to lose their mind and go over the top after 1 loss, but missing the likes of Max Burgess and Riley Woodcock are going to be heavily felt, and it turned out that way on Sunday, as we missed their quality.

The coaching staff and the players need to work it out quickly, as we all know this NSW NPL competition is relatively short, only going for 22 rounds. So, 3 or 4 poor weeks to start the season and we will be chasing our tails for the rest of it, effectively rendering our season over.

Mitchell Stamatellis was not sighted at all in the matchday squad or even in the 20s match, either he was suspended or has picked up a knock. Troy Danaskos, Niko Tsattalios, Michael Gaitatzis all played in the 20s win.

In terms of the Club Championship, the U18s lost 2-1, while the U20s won 2-1. A reminder of how that works:

A first grade victory / draw is multiplied by 4.
An U20s victory / draw is multiplied by 2.
An U18s victory / draw is multiplied by 1.

Given that we only won the U20s this round, that gives us 6 Club Championship points to begin the 2019 season.

If we are to believe the news, this will be the last season that teams will be promoted and relegated via this Club Championship system (Thank God).

Round 2 now, already becomes a vital must win match against newly-promoted side, the Mt Druitt Town Rangers. It will be on this Saturday Night, March 16 at Popondetta Park in Emerton, Kick-Off is at 7pm.

On the Sydney Olympic Girls side of things, who are newly promoted into NPL 1 for this season, they were successful in their first outing, smashing the Blacktown Spartans 5-2.