Sydney Olympic – Pre-season.

2021 will be an interesting season for Sydney Olympic. For 2020, there was a lot of talk doing the rounds about our signings, how we would romp through the competition and that we would be unstoppable.

The reality was very different, there were problems with the coach as well as in and around the squad from day 1. This showed itself in our performances during the season, where we lost our first 3 matches.

The season being cancelled after 3 rounds due to covid, was a blessing in disguise for Sydney Olympic in my opinion. Sure it was only the first 3 rounds and in theory, there would have been plenty of time to turn the situation around, but it did not look likely and we were odds-on to be involved in a relegation scrap.

We looked a bit better after the 4 month hiatus, with Ante Juric as coach. The players responded positively to his appointment, but the 11-match mini-season became irrelevant and other than being glorified training runs, the matches or the results didn’t matter all that much. But at least there was some improvement.

Coming into 2021, there is optimism that we can once again have a good season.

New signings include: Brendan Cholakian, Yu Hasegawa, Marley Peterson, Michael Glassock, Daniel Dias, Luke Kairies, Fabian Monge, Mohamed Adam.

Re-signings include: William Angel, Jason Madonis, Thomas Whiteside, Nikola Kuleski, Adam Parkhouse, Peter Kekeris, Hagi Gligor, Darcy Burgess, Nicholas Sorras, Ben van Meurs, Oliver Puflett, Billy Patramanis, Fabio Ferreira, James Cakovski.

A ball has not been kicked yet, but with a few new faces and some others leaving from last year, already that looks better than the much hyped squad from last season.

Expectations are always a tricky thing, especially in such a close competition. Very little separates the sides who finish 1st and say 7th, a bit of bad or good luck either way could make all the difference to where a club ends up.

But being Sydney Olympic, the high expectations are there every season and all supporters will be hoping 2021, a big year for Greeks in general, will be a big year for the club also.

2021 also marks 6 years since we have made the FFA Cup main draw – yes it has been that long! – after making the Round of 16 stage in the first 2 editions of the Cup in 2014 and 2015, we have not made it back to the main draw since, a huge disappointment for all supporters actually. Getting back there has also been a stated goal of Sydney Olympic club representatives.

As for the League season, it will be starting a couple weeks earlier than usual. Our Round 1 match is against Sydney United at Belmore Sports Ground, on Saturday February 27th – Kick-Off at 5.30pm.

COME ON OLYMPIC!