Sydney Olympic have pulled themselves out of the bottom three with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Sydney FC at Rockdale Illinden Sports Centre in the fifth round of National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s competition.
The former NSL giants were knocking on the door early when the first chance fell to Michael Glassock who head a curling Brendan Cholakian free-kick toward goal forcing Adam Pavlesic to tip over the bar in the seventh minute.
Sydney FC answered back five minutes later when Aidan Simmons danced across the box and fired a shot to the near post that rattled off the upright and out for a goal kick.
Jaiden Kucharski came close again for Sydney FC with a free-kick just on half-time, his effort outside the box had some in the crowd thinking he’d opened the scoring but it sailed just over the crossbar.
Sydney FC made a very strong start to the second half with substitute Jake Girdwood-Reich making an impact in place for Thomas Main and Kucharski firing shots at the Sydney Olympic goal.
Oliver Puflett should have broken the deadlock in the 51st minute when Jason Madonis burst toward the by-line with his hanging ball meeting the strikers who headed wide from close range.
Aiden Mostofi forced Christopher Parsons into a low save when Adrian Segecic put a slide rule pass beyond the defence, but the finish wasn’t enough.
Madonis was involved in attack again when Sydney Olympic played brilliant one-two football to find the forward on the right side of the box but his low drive was kept out by smart reactions from Pavlesic in goal.
Sydney Olympic finally got their goal when the short corner variation was swung in by Adam Parkhouse to the towering head of Benjamin Van Meurs who beat the keeper to put his side in front.
The victory was sealed for Sydney Olympic in the 84th minute when Fabian Monge won the ball in midfield and set free a charging Madonis with a long ball before he calmly lobbed Pavlesic off his line.
Cameron Fong pulled one goal back for Sydney FC with a beautiful free-kick in the 90th minute.
The second half saw a big momentum shift for both teams but Ante Juric was confident his team would put Sydney FC away.
“We missed a lot of chances that kept them in the game,” Juric said.
“In the second half, we saw a few balls over the top a few runs in behind.
“We can’t be static in attack and we changed that.
“We’ve been playing well, we might have lost to Sydney United and Rockdale but we need points on the board, they really deserved this one.”
Jimmy van Weeren was positive following the performance but believed a lapse in concentration costed his team.
“We lost it on a few moments really,” Van Weeren said.
“I think they had a lot of balls going into our box but for the most part, we kept them away.
“I thought the first half was tight, the early part of the second half we had two good chances and didn’t score either of those and they scored a well-worked set-piece.”
Match Stats
Sydney FC 1 (2. Cameron Fong 90’)
Sydney Olympic 2 (4. Benjamin Van Meurs 70’, 8. Jason Madonis 84’)
Sunday 28th March, 2021
Rockdale Illinden Sports Centre, Rockdale
Referee: Adrian Arndt
Assistant Referees: Nathan Wotton, Matt Staples
Fourth Official: Brodie Merchant
Sydney Olympic: 2. Thomas Whiteside, 4. Benjamin Van Meurs, 5. Michael Glassock, 6. Nicola Kuleski, 7. William Angel, 8. Jason Madonis (14. Peter Kekeris 89’), 9. Oliver Puflett (18. Yu Hasegawa), 10. Brendan Cholakian, 11. Adam Parkhouse, 17. Marley Peterson (11. Adam Parkhouse 57’), 18. Yu Hasegawa, 20. Luke Kairies, 21. Daniel Dias (19. Darcy Burgess 89’) 23. Fabian Monge, 70. Christopher Parsons
Substitutes Not Used: 7. William Angel
Yellow Cards: 23. Fabian Monge 20’, 6. Nicola Kuleski 45’
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney FC: 1. Levi Kaye, 2. Cameron Fong, 3. Aaron Gurd, 5. Corey Hollman, 6. Thomas Main (12. Jake Girdwood-Reich 45’), 7. Aidan Simmons (13. Corey Hollman 83’), 8. Patrick Yazbek, 9. Antonio Saracino, 10. Jayden Kucharski, 11. Adrian Segecic, 12. Jake Girdwood-Reich, 13. Corey Hollman 14. Aiden Mostofi (9. Antonio Saracino 57’) 15. Scott Browning, 16. Stevan Stanic-Floody, 17. Jayden Trenkoski (16. Stevan Stanic-Floody 75’), 18. Oscar Priestman, 40. Adam Pavlesic
Substitutes Not Used: 1. Levi Kaye , 18. Oscar Priestman
Yellow Cards: 6. Thomas Main 26’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 — Benjamin Van Meurs (OLY)
2 — Jason Madonis (OLY)
1 — Adam Parkhouse (OLY)
