The home side did have the better of the chances in the first-half and this was clearly noted by Lee Sterrey after the game.
?I want to give APIA a lot of credit,? he said very sportingly. ?In the first-half, how we walked in at 0-0 at the break was unbelievable. To be honest I just laughed at my players because without Nashy [Matthew Nash] it would have been four.
?They [APIA] played in the conditions a lot better than us; they were first to the ball every time. We knew it was a two touch type of surface and we needed to play the ball forward.
?A couple of substitutes helped turn it around for us. I thought Daniel Gullo won a lot of stuff for us in front of the defence.
?We changed the system around. We went to a diamond because we tried to play two up front in the first but we were still not winning the ball.
?I think young Devante Clut, who is only 16 years of age, is an exceptional talent. He has just won the Nike thing to go to Barcelona in August. He has mainly played under 20s and three games already in first grade when his rightful team is the under 16s.
?We just need more composure in front of goals and more faith in our ability. We had our chances to win the game late on but didn?t take our chances,? Sterrey concluded.
In the 11? minute the Tigers came close to scoring when a ball from the right reached Michael Hawrysiuk standing at the far post, but he couldn?t turn it in from close range.
APIA-Leichhardt were then forced to part with Mark Byrnes due to an early injury as the game continued to be an arm wrestle more or less in midfield.
In the 30? minute Masaki Nomoto tried his luck with a speculative free-kick that was lobbed over the crossbar.
The best chance of the half belonged to Andrew Bevin in the 35? minute when a corner kick reached the young New Zealander just outside the box and his powerful left foot shot brought out the best in Matthew Nash against his former club.
A few minutes later Parramatta FC almost snuck a goal when Akiyoshi Nomoto with a great free-kick beat all and sundry, but then he saw the ball hit the post after threading it through a myriad of players.
In the 40? minute Ethan Galbraith met a cross with a nice header that once again saw Nash called into action. APIA-Leichhardt peppered the opposition again when Bevin set up very nicely Hawrysiuk, but his powerful driving shot finished just wide of the intended target.
The first-half ended goalless despite the flurry of good chances towards the end.
The second-half was another battle of attrition. In the 60? minute Adam Casey charged dangerously into the box only to be denied by the ever alert Nash who was clearly relishing the outing against his former club.
Late in the game there were a few half chances to Parramatta FC but, on the whole, the second stanza of play was a dull affair that dragged on far too long for all involved.
John Turner, APIA Leichhardt?s coach, was very disappointed after the game.
?It?s the most comprehensive draw I have ever been involved with,? he said. ?It?s disappointing because we played well. If we had have put two out of our four chances away in the first-half, the game would have been over.
?They probably had three chances at the end of the game when we had ten men [Danial Cummins received his second yellow card in the 83? minute]. Losing Mark Byrnes early on didn?t help either.
?I didn?t think we deserved to get nothing out of that game and I am disappointed for the players. The effort was there, we were organised but didn?t win.
?I want to play Sutherland on Wednesday ? I don?t want to leave it too long so that the Waratah Cup loss doesn?t fade from our memory [a catch up game that was previously washed out will played at Lambert Park on Wednesday evening between APIA Leichhardt and Sutherland Sharks].
?I?d rather play them quickly because you often don?t get the same result ? just ask Marconi: we beat them 5-0 in the Cup and then lost a short time later in the NSW Premier League,? he said with a smile on his face.
Match Stats
APIA-Leichhardt Tigers 0
Parramatta FC 0
Sunday 15th July, 2012
Lambert Park, Leichhardt
Referee: Kurt Ams
Assistant referees: Michael Robertson and Lee Corey
Fourth Official: James Tesoriere
APIA-Leichhardt Tigers: 21.Anthony Costa; 2.Mark Byrnes (6.Danial Cummins 11?), 3.Adel El Jamal, 4.Mun-Soo Gil, 7.Stephen Kayes, 8.Adam D?Apuzzo, 9.Ethan Galbraith, 10.Franco Parisi, 12.Andrew Bevin (14.Adam Casey 47?), 16.Michael Hawrysiuk (20.Gye Re Lee 73?), 18.Brendan Reilly.
Substitutes Not Used: 22.David Bradsevic,
Yellow Cards: Cummins 51?, D?Apuzzo 70?, Lee 77?, Galbraith 79?, El Jamal 81?
Red Cards: Cummins 83?
Parramatta FC: 1.Matthew Nash; 3.Andy Matloub, 4.Domenic Trimboli, 5.Mark O?Reilly (16.Daniel Gullo 27?), 7.Patrick Dixon, 9.Aaron Peterson (18.Nicholas Napoli 66?), 10.Akiyoshi Saito, 11.Bruno Pivato, 13.Joel Wood, 15.Masaki Nomoto, 17.Luke Grima (14.Devante Clut 72?).
Substitutes Not Used: 6.Graziano Trimboli, 40.Michal Sakowicz
Yellow Cards: Grima 14?, Dixon 90? + 2, Matloub 90? + 3
Red Cards: Nil
-By Joe Russo
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