Sydney Olympic FC kicked off the new season of the National Premier Leagues Men’s NSW with a narrow 2-1 opening round win over St George FC.
After both sides scored early in the first half, the even contest was sliced open by a beautiful Adam Parkhouse volley in the second half that in the end proved to be the decisive goal in a gala-day like atmosphere at Belmore Sports Ground with the presence of numerous junior Sydney Olympic sides cheering on their first grade heroes.
The first real chance of the game was St George FC’s opening goal directly from a mercurial free-kick by Jaden Casella in the 4th minute that beat all and sundry and ended up in the top corner of the net.
Sydney Olympic hit right back a few minutes later with the equaliser. Parkhouse went galloping down the left channel before placing a great ball into the middle for Seth Clark to score from close range and it was now game on between these two historic clubs.
In the 15th minute a Zac Zoricich throw-in reached the middle and was flicked on to the far post where it found Jack Armson, but the former APIA Leichhardt player could only centre the side netting with his attempt.
A few minutes later Armson really should have doubled Sydney Olympic’s lead when, from just outside the box, his powerful shot on target brought out the best in visiting goalkeeper Mackenzie Syron.
Chan Yelchan in the 23rd minute had a great opportunity for St George FC when he created some space but in the end he fired over the crossbar.
It was Bai Antoniou who went even closer a few minutes later for St George but his rocket of a shot went narrowly wide of the target and crashed into the signage behind the goal with some vigour.
Just prior to the break St George FC went close again with Justin Poon heading towards the by-line before crossing the ball to Yelchan, but the latter’s diagonal shot took a slight deflection and went just wide. Both sides then went into the sheds all square after an exciting and even opening half of football.
The opening salvo of the second stanza of play belonged to the visitors when a looping free-kick by Casella in the 47th minute reached his captain Troy Danaskos at the far post but his header went wide.
In the 67th minute Sydney Olympic sent the healthy home crowd into raptures with a tremendous goal from Parkhouse to give the Blues the lead. After a corner was punched away by Syron, there was some back-and-forth with the ball into the area before Parkhouse latched onto it with a superb volley that never looked like going anywhere else except into the back of the net.
St George came ever so close to equalising in the 75th minute when a counter-attacking move saw Thomas Dunn enter dangerously into the box before his shot was blocked by ‘keeper Jack Gibson but only as far as Sunday Yona who, with an open goal, inexplicably shot wide.
In the 86th minute Dunn received a nicely squared ball from the left but he met it meekly and goalkeeper Gibson had no trouble getting down to it. It was to be the last real opportunity of the encounter,
After the game in the Sydney Olympic dressing room coach Labinot Haliti spoke with pride about his side but wasn’t getting too carried away.
“First games are always difficult because there is a lot of build-up in the off season,” he stated.
“We are a little bit different from the past two or three years because there are a lot of young boys here and they need time to gel and time to keep working.
“Results like today make the boys understand that what they are doing pays off because it is the performance that we are looking for and that first goal that we scored is us, as the ball doesn’t leave the ground before it hits the back of the net.
“St George are a good team with good players who have been in the league for a while and they understand what it takes to win games.
“In the first 20 minutes and the last 15 minutes especially they gave us some issues, but you are never going to have a match with a perfect 90 minutes so we need to manage it and that’s what we did.”
In the other dressing room new coach Fabian Miceli was disappointed but still paid credit to his side who played well throughout despite not getting any points.
“I thought that we definitely deserved to get something out of the game today,” he stated. “We played well and we had a little bit of nerves early on but once we settled into the game, especially in the second half, we dictated the game.
“It’s just little moments that hurt us today but everyone can see this is a good squad and we lost today and that’s football. Olympic is a good team.
“I am looking forward to a big season and the boys are ready. We had a really big pre-season, the players are excited, I am excited and it has been a great lead up with all the Football NSW events and media too.”
*By National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s reporter Joe Russo
