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.
Sutherland handled the humid conditions better than us. Our midfield was non existant and the boys in general were flat. Lets hope this is a one off aberration and we click back into gear soon.We have the squad and now we must produce the goods on the pitch.
ReplyDeleteWe were shocking, better wake up from here on.
ReplyDelete