It was one-way traffic in the Match of the Round as Sydney Olympic showed all its class smashing the Sutherland Sharks 5-1 at Valentine Sports Park on Saturday, March 1.
It didn’t take long before both showed glimpses of their prowess when Olympic were awarded a penalty inside 40 seconds after Cyrus Dehmie went down in the box. Alou Kuol struck, Danijel Nizic saved but the attacker reacted quickest to put the ball away at the second time of asking.
A second header was wiped out for Olympic, for an offside call, with Sutherland under the pump less than ten minutes into the match before Dehmie did double the Olympic lead when stealing the ball and running half the length of the pitch before cutting inside to plant the orb in the back of the net with a sweetly struck left-footed strike.
Peter Grozos returned fire but in beating Jack Gibson between the sticks, the Sharks midfielder blasted wide of the woodwork however Sutherland regrouped and put Olympic under pressure with a succession of corners, which they managed to scramble clear.
The Sharks goal duly arrived through Ikko Arimoto, his first of the campaign, in the 25th minute when lashing home another left-footer to halve the deficit but it proved a false dawn.
The elation didn’t last too long as Dehmie doubled his tally when netting the fourth goal of a topsy-turvy half from a neat low cross by Jack Armson on the right wing and before the dust had settled it was 4-1 when Dylan Ruiz-Diaz was on the end of more good work down the right flank to stun Sutherland.
There was no question the visitors were taking advantage of almost every opportunity more so than a somewhat static, lumbering Sharks’ defense.
Jordan Roberts volleyed wide at the other end, Sutherland left with no option, even at this early stage, but to push on.
The demeanour didn’t exude that of a beaten side but it was a mighty steep hill they needed to climb which in turn encouraged Olympic to look for the counter and exploit the acres of vacant Sharks real estate at the back.
Ziggy Gordon came close to taking the advantage but sent a 25-yard shot over the bar with virtually the last action of an opening stanza that had produced 5 goals, a handsome Sydney Olympic lead and plenty of talking points.
Nizic was forced into a another super save low down to deny Olympic a fifth of the evening right from the whistle as play resumed.
It was proving a tough night at the office for the home side with Olympic in irrepressible mood heightened further when Kotaro Katsuta was shown a straight red card in the 54th minute reducing Sutherland to 10-men.
Ruiz-Diaz was denied a second by the heroics of Nizic with more than a third of the match still to play.
It was rapidly becoming a case of damage limitation for the Sharks who still looked to play football but with a definite height disadvantage up top, most balls into the box were handled easily by Olympic.
The fifth duly arrived when Ruiz-Diaz and Sam McIllhatton exchanged quick passes with the latter’s ball over the top allowing the former to volley home in emphatic fashion.
Olympic had their tactics right, the man advantage and the will to power on and outclass their opponents.
Substitute Bailey Callaghan, on for Seth Clark, struck the upright forcing Olympic to await a sixth of the evening, Nizic bravely denying Ruiz-Diaz a hat-trick with both players requiring treatment after the coming together.
It was one-way traffic, Olympic pressed, Sutherland defended, Nizic strong at the back, despite conceding 5 on the night, the hunger and desire of a rampant away side plus a red card, a penalty, goalkeeper substitution and six goals.
Source: NPL NSW.
