Rockdale snatch late winner to frustrate Olympic.
Ilinden sports centre hosted both Rockdale City Suns and Sydney Olympic in a crucial NSWNPL clash. Rockdale came into the match desperate to gain 3 points after picking up only 3 of the previous 12 points available. On the other side Grant Lee’s Sydney Olympic side may have been slightly distracted by the crucial Waratah Cup clash this coming Wednesday night.
The match started as a tight contest, with both teams cancelling each other. This continued throughout the first fifteen minutes or so with only a shot from Tony Lo from outside the 18 yard box causing any concern for either keeper. However the pattern of the game changed shortly after when the Rockdale keeper made a few mistakes and nearly was exposed by Olympic when he was caught off his line. From this moment onwards Olympic took the ascendency creating chance after chance, the most notable of which fell to Go Shirai who within a couple of minutes hit a volley off marginally over the crossbar and headed a corner wide of the mark. Frankly the first half had me searching for a good piece of grass to sleep on.
Thankfully the second half contained more action. Branko Culina’s men came back onto the field with a bit more flair. This became obvious when Nikola Taneski hooked his shot wide of Henderson’s goal after a neat bit of buildup play caught the Olympic defense napping. However Olympic refused to let the Suns completely overcome their first half dominance. Quickly regaining the ascendency when the ball found it’s way too Christos Tomaras who turned his defender and somehow managed to not find the target. However he had a chance to redeem himself shortly after he produced a snap-shot which surprised but didn’t get past the Bradasevic in goals.
Then came the turning point of the match when the pest which was Shirai was brought down just “outside the box” according to the referee. Rockdale then swiftly countered and a shot from Daniel Barac caught the side-netting. This seemed to spur Rockdale on again and suddenly they took control for the first time of the game. Shortly after a Rockdale corner somehow avoided everyone and went out for a goal kick. At this point it was beginning to look like no team was going to be able hit the net as the crowd started to become restless (remembering the home side hadn’t scored against Sutherland the week before).
That was until a precise cross found Taneski just inside the box who calmly put the ball in the bottom left corner in the 85th minute. From then on the game was a case of Olympic pushing everyone forward but not being able to finish.
Rockdale next play Manly next weekend and Sydney Olympic play Sydney United midweek in the Waratah/FFA Cup.
Rockdale City Suns: 22.David Bradasevic; 3.Steven Hesketh, 4.Sean Symons, 5.Paul Reid, 6.Takuya Murayama, 8.Paul Kohler, 9.Tadhg Purcell, 11.Nikola Taneski, 15.Tony Lo, 17.Hristijan Tanoski, 19.Themba Muata-Marlow
Substitutes: 14.Patrick Savor, 16.Daniel Barac, 21.Joshua Da Silva, 24.Blake Horton, 25.Nicholas Petrillo
Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson; 2.Bryaden Sorge, 3.Troy Danaskos, 4.Brendan Hooper, 8.Chris Godoy Bascur, 10.Harris Gaitatzis, 14.Peter Markovic, 18.Taiga Soeda, 19.Go Shirai, 23.Evan Kostopoulos, 33.Christos Tomaras
Substitutes: 5.Brad Treloar, 7.Will Angel, 9.Dimitri Hatzimouratis, 12.Kresimir Kardum, 24.Amaury Gauthier
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