Archives for August 2013
Spoils shared between Tigers and Wolves
Safety. Both APIA-Leichhardt Tigers and South Coast Wolves craved it.
APIA-Leichhardt now have it, despite Keith Shevlin smashing a second half penalty against the crossbar, having scored one earlier in the game.
For South Coast Wolves, the 1-1 draw means that they have a do-or-die encounter with Central Coast Mariners Academy next weekend.
You could cut the tension with a knife at kick off.
APIA-Leichhardt coach Billy McColl threw caution to the wind, playing three up front and three at the back, a surprise move which saw Adel El Jamal reprise a role as an auxiliary striker.
It worked well for APIA-Leichhardt as they raced out of the blocks.
Stephen Kayes had a long range shot whistle just wide as early as the 4′ minute. It was close enough to the top corner to have Wolves ‘keeper Daniel Collison flying through the air in vain.
David D’Apuzzo was back from suspension and the APIA faithful held their breath as he lined up a free-kick right on the quarter of an hour mark. It sailed wide, but APIA-Leichhardt was well on top.
With El Jamal up front and Lambert Park in terrible shape, long balls were the method of the evening for both sides.
It didn’t make for a spectacle in a football sense, but in terms of drama, it was truly fantastic.
Just as APIA-Leichhardt harboured hopes of putting one into the back of the net, they were caught by a Wolves sucker punch and APIA-Leichhardt ‘keeper Andrew Bazi had only himself to blame.
A long ball over the top lured Bazi from his area, but his header was weak and it fell to the feet of Wolves hotshot Zucco.
With Bazi in no-mans-land, Zucco calmly lobbed the ball in from all of 25-yards to give Wolves the lead, against the run of play.
It was a goal that settled the visiting side, Zucco and especially Steven Hayes, showing their class.
7′ minutes later though, APIA-Leichhardt had the goal that they so dearly deserved.
Franco Parisi cut inside from the left and when his shot struck the arm of Jack Keating, referee Michael Weiner pointed to the spot.
Shevlin stepped up and confidently placed the ball into the top left corner of the net and APIA-Leichhardt was alive again.
Shortly before half-time, El Jamal released Jason Oswell with a killer pass to be proud of, only for Oswell to shank the cross behind.
In first-half stoppage time, APIA-Leichhardt had their best chance of the match.
D’Apuzzo’s corner found the head of Michael West, unmarked in the area, but his header went into the ground and over the cross-bar.
The second 45′ minutes brought a tactical adjustment from McColl.
El Jamal was moved to right-back and APIA-Leichhardt played a more orthodox back four, perhaps sensing a Wolves onslaught.
It certainly came.
Zucco nearly scored a goal for the ages, just 4′ minutes into the second-half.
Chesting the ball up on the edge of the area, Zucco somehow swivelled and contorted himself to send an overhead kick towards goal. Bazi made a leaping save, in part redeeming himself for his earlier mistake.
South Coast should have taken the lead in the 55’ minutes when Peter Simonoski was in on goal, but Bazi made another sharp stop.
The rebound fell to the usually clinical Zucco, but he lost his composure, smashing the ball over the bar.
It was a let off for APIA-Leichhardt, who were by now clinging on.
Kayes let fly with a volley from range that was straight at Collison, before Shevlin won a penalty when he was brought down by Samuel Chapple.
Shevlin stepped up again.
The APIA faithful couldn’t watch and only the shattering sound of ball against crossbar brought them back to consciousness.
It didn’t cost them and for once, APIA-Leichhardt had a bit of luck go their way.
APIA-Leichhardt coach Billy McColl was relieved to come away with the vital point:
"It was good to win the Waratah Cup and the boys have been giving 100%," he said.
"We just lacked luck.
"Tonight we had a little bit of luck, getting two penalties, but even then we could only score one of them!" McColl laughed.
South Coast Wolves coach Richard Lloyd is looking forward to next week’s huge match:
"It was another tense night for us," he said.
"Every team we’ve come up against has been right up for it.
"We’ve had no easy passages, but I like that because it teaches the younger guys how to play at the top level," Lloyd concluded.
Match Stats
APIA-Leichhardt Tigers 1 (Keith Shevlin (pen) 24′)
South Coast Wolves 1 (Ricky Zucco 16′)
Saturday 10th August, 2013
Lambert Park, Leichhardt
Referee: Michael Weiner
Assistant Referees: Craig Fisher and Lance Greenshields
Fourth Official: Mitchell Clark
APIA-Leichhardt Tigers: 22.Andrew Bazi; 2.Mark Byrnes, 3.Adel El Jamal, 5.Michael West (C), 7.Stephen Kayes, 8.Keith Shevlin, 9.Jason Oswell (35.Marko Micevski 71′), 10.Franco Parisi (6.Michael Hawrysuik 88′), 11.Paul Galimi, 13.David D’Apuzzo, 18.Aaron Clapham
Substitutes Not Used: 1.Simon Jaeger (GK), 4.Brendan Reilly, 20.Joshua Symons
Yellow Cards: David D’Apuzzo 74′, Paul Galimi 82′
Red Cards: Nil
South Coast Wolves: 1.Daniel Collison; 2.Jack Keating, 3.Matthew Kocic, 4.Samuel Chapple, 6.Christopher Nathaniel, 8.Steven Hayes, 9.Peter Simonoski, 10.Ricky Zucco, 11.John Martinoski (7.Josh Bingham 88′), 14.Mitchell Delturco (12.Joseph Lavalle 74′) 17.Zachary Mackenzie
Substitutes Not Used: 20.Thomas Hamilton (GK), 13.Shannon Fielding
Yellow Cards: Samuel Chapple 66′, Joseph Lavalle 86′, Steven Hayes 91′
Red Cards: Nil
-By Matthew Connellan
Suns burn Mariners Academy to keep finals hopes on track
Rockdale City Suns have overcome the Central Coast Mariners 5-2 at Pluim Park on Saturday night to end the two run winning streak for the home side.
It was a tough night for the Central Coast who came up against a dominant Suns side who knew they needed to get the job done and they did exactly what was needed.
Brendan Gan was a standout for Rockdale who combined viciously with Nikola Taneski to create mayhem in the Mariners Academy back third for most of the match.
In the 6’ minute Brendan Gan stepped over the ball to take a corner from their left hand side, the delivery was dangerous and found its way to the other side of the mixer for Askin Oygur who headed it back into the box for Rockdale’s Paul Kohler who added the finishing touches inside the six yard box to put the away side 1-0 up.
After going a goal down the home side were not deterred and stuck to their game plan to play out from the back although wayward passes let them down on several occasions.
The long ball momentarily crept its way into the gameplay of the Mariners Academy but after a few failed attempts they started to go back through their middle man Adriano Pellegrino who did a top job in controlling the centre of the park with some impressive touches throughout the first-half.
The Mariners Academy found themselves with a set piece in a dangerous area but failed to convert, which allowed Rockdale to counter through Idriss El Hafiane who raced down the right and whipped in a perfect ball to the head of a free Gan who managed to accurately direct his effort, only to be denied by an impressive Jordan Nikolovski diving save in the 21’ minute.
As the half wore on, the home side were running out of answers at the other end of the pitch and were finding it tough to trouble the opposition’s backline.
Alike the rest of their season, possession was never an issue but they lacked a danger man up front as Christopher Payne was being marked out of the game.
But it was the marksman, Payne, who dropped his markers for an instant and found himself free in the box to drive home from inside the box to level the scores in the 27’ minute of play.
Taneski teamed up well with Gan in Rockdale’s front third to cause issues in the Mariners Academy defence however it was Alec Urosevski who found himself on the other side of the Academy backline and netted with his first chance of the match in the 30’ minute.
Nikolovski did well in an attempt to thwart the one-on-one opportunity but couldn’t get enough glove on the shot to send it off target which saw Rockdale take a 2-1 lead.
The final 15’ minutes were much more open as both teams shared an even take of the field position but neither were able to trouble the scorers, which saw the sides hit the sheds with Rockdale up 2-1.
Just 1’ minute into the second-half there was action as Rockdale’s Askin Oygur clipped the heels of Jed Prater who was holding the ball up in the opposition box, which won them a spot kick.
Again, it was Payne who confidently stepped up to take the penalty and made no mistake rolling his shot into the bottom corner which gave Diego Barcena no chance to make a save, leveling the score at 2-2 in the 46’ minute.
Pellegrino continued to light up the middle of the park, one instance in particular he was circled by four Rockdale players and still managed to dance his way out with the ball at his feet.
But it was some questionable goalkeeping that saw the Mariners Academy undo the deadlock off the back off a Gan shot that squeezed inside the front post of Nikolovski 62’ minutes into the match.
As the match progressed into the closing stages Paul Reid continued to show his experienced and dominated the centre of the park for Rockdale and took a lot of pressure out off his backline.
Gan continued to be an overarching influence in the match and curled in an inviting cross from the left side, after some scrap in the box Taneski ended up with the ball at his feet and finished accordingly to extend Rockdale’s lead out to 4-2 on 76’ minutes.
Taneski’s goal was well earned as he provided plenty of spark for Rockdale up front.
A minute later the Mariners Academy had a golden opportunity to pin one back with some more scrap in the box at the other end of the pitch but Rockdale’s desperate defence was enough to halt the attack.
At the death it was Rockdale who finished the match off in style as Reid combined with Taneski with a pin point cross in from the left for the attacking weapon to volley home at close range in the 90’ minute.
Mariners Academy’s Brad McDonald switched his focus immediately to next week and looked to put the tough loss behind him:
“That’s football mate, everything has to come to an end but we have one more game left and hopefully we finish on a win.
“I think we made a couple of silly mistakes, at times we played better football but other times they did, we just need to take our chances and they took theirs and that’s what counted.
“During the week we don’t have to change anything, the last two weeks have been good and if we stick to the same we’ll be fine, but on the day we need to take our chances and go man for man.”
After a stellar performance Brendan Gan was confident in his side’s ability and thinks they are good enough to go all the way:
“We’re feeling pretty good, we needed a win to get us on track for the finals and it was a big game for us coming an hour and a half away, which isn’t easy coming up against the Mariners, they are very structured and hard to break down but tonight we did the job.
“I was happy with my performance but I was more happy with the boys, we haven’t been playing the best in the last couple of weeks but tonight we came out and did the job.
“I think we’re good enough to win it, you could see tonight that we pretty much dominated, a few minutes here and there they had the ball but tonight it was our game, we’ve shown against the top teams with a draw or a win so I think we can do it.”
Next week serves crucial for both sides as Central Coast Mariners Academy will battle it out with South Coast Wolves which could decide who will remain in the top flight and Rockdale City Suns will need to pick up at least a point to ensure themselves a spot in the finals.
Match Stats
Central Coast Mariners Academy 2 (Christopher Payne 27’, 46’ (pen) )
Rockdale City Suns 5 (Paul Kohler 6’, Alec Urosevski 30’, Brendan Gan 62’, Nikola Taneski 76’, Paul Reid 90’)
Saturday 10th of August, 2013
Pluim Park
Referee: Stephen Lucas
Assistant Referees: Tim Turner and Thomas Lee
Fourth Official: Alec Mouawad
Central Coast Mariners Academy: 1.Jordan Nikolovski; 2.Matthew Crowell, 3.Jamie Lobb (11.Louis Bozanic 85’), 23.Bradley McDonald, 22.Liam O’Dell, 6.Christopher Payne (5.Brady Smith 79’), 7.Adriano Pellegrino, 16.Jed Prater, 4.Kieron Stallard, 24.Nathan Verity (8.Daniel Bragg 69’), 26.Mapu Ridge
Substitutes Not Used: 20.Imrako Behan, 10.Tomislav Cirjak
Yellow Cards: Adriano Pellegrino 60’
Red Cards: Nil
Rockdale City Suns: 1.Diego Barcena; 10.Richard Cardozo (11.David Talevski 87’), 7.Brendan Gan, 8.Paul Kohler, 6.Takuya Murayama, 23.Askin Oygur, 5.Paul Reid, 14.Nikola Taneski, 9.Alec Urosevski, 12.Idriss El Hafiane, 3.Giorgio Speranza
Substitutes Not Used: 24.Aaron Liddell, 13.Sam Munro, 15.Max Burgess, Roberto Speranza
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
-By Tyson Scott
White Eagles soar over Sydney Olympic in dominant display
Bonnyrigg White Eagles continued its fine run of form with an emphatic showing in the 2-0 defeat of Sydney Olympic on Saturday evening at Bonnyrigg Sports Ground.
Brian Brown’s men were in complete control from start to finish, creating a plethora of goal scoring chances and this perhaps the only flaw in the performance – that the side managed to only score twice.
Aleksander Canak and Nikola Zonjic netted a quick-fire double late in the first-half to secure the win, as Sydney Olympic was limited to hitting on the counterattack in a difficult match for Grant Lee’s men against the in-form White Eagles.
Bonnyrigg opened proceedings on the front foot as Adrian Ucchino exquisitely played Mitchell Long into space. From the edge of the penalty-area, the White Eagles number 10 tried his luck with a diagonal effort that, only just, finished wide of goal.
Long was at it again 60’’ seconds later with a darting run to the right byline. The playmaker’s cut-back into the penalty-area area, however, was diverted behind for a corner by the retreating Blues defenders.
Sydney Olympic’s response arrived in the 7’ minute when Renato Franco-Ramirez majestically released William Angel in behind the Bonnyrigg defence. With some heavy attention on the winger by the Bonnyrigg defenders, Angel ran out of room, and legs, as he went down inside the area with the chance amounting to nothing for the visitors.
On 13’ minutes, a Tynan Diaz free-kick delivery picked out the head of Nikola Zonjic inside the Blues’ penalty-area though the defender’s powerful header failed to test Paul Henderson.
At the other end, Kingsley Williams nearly silenced the home crowd when his perfect technique very nearly saw him volley home on 15’ minutes. The midfielder caught the cross from the left impeccably well, though the final shot finished over Matthew Nash’s crossbar.
The Blues continued to hold some promising possession in the middle of the park with Franco-Ramirez a constant threat on the counterattack, assisted greatly by the presence of Marton Vass, though the slick movement of Ucchino and Canak constantly had the Blues defenders on alert.
Bonnyrigg carved out the best chance of the opening half-hour in the 25’ minute when Canak latched onto Long’s pass out on the right before picking out Younis. The burly striker took a touch before blasting on goal from a central position, sending his shot only inches wide of Henderson’s right-hand upright.
The home side did find the lead on 40’ minutes as Younis’ looping header, from a delivery on the right, came back off the crossbar and into the path of Canak who made no mistake heading into an open goal.
The goal spurred the White Eagles into action as Zonjic went one better than his earlier effort, heading home past Henderson, at the back post, a Diaz free-kick to double the side’s lead and send the home supporters into raptures, as the Blues went into the break visibly deflated after a positive showing over the first 40’ minutes of the encounter.
Bonnyrigg picked up from where they left off prior to the interval as Howard Fondyke and Robbie Younis had massive chances to add a third, both players denied by some desperate defending by the Blues.
Vuko Tomasevic showed his versatility, and trickery, as he pushed forward down the left shortly after, his delivery into the penalty-area cleared by the Sydney Olympic rearguard.
The Blues’ best efforts in the front-third were denied by the brilliance of Nash. Grima looked to get the better of his markers though the shot-stopper would not be beaten.
Back at the other end, Bo-Hyun Chun should have made it 3-0 when he scuffed a glorious chance. From almost point-blank range, the midfielder’s weak shot was swallowed up by Henderson who showed all his experience to wait until the last moment before going to ground.
Sydney Olympic continued to press forward in search of a goal as coach Grant Lee sent on Zak Elrich to add some further pace in the front part of the pitch.
On 61’ minutes, Vass went close with a header as he rose highest inside the penalty-area to meet a free-kick from the left, though the ball did not hit the target.
In the 66’ minute, Elrich had a golden chance to reduce the deficit though his cheeky chip was well read by Nash who made another timely intervention.
The miss proved costly as Vass picked up his second yellow card only moments later, leaving the Blues with ten-men to combat the final 20’ minutes of the encounter.
The home side continued to play to its home supporters, creating a number of chances with Younis and Hesketh both going close to breaching Henderson’s goal.
Adrian Ucchino did have the shot-stopper beaten in the 74’ minute when he unleashed a dipping volley on goal, though the ball ricocheted off Henderson’s crossbar in what would have certainly been a contender for goal of the season had it finished in the back of the net.
The closing stages saw Diaz too go close to adding his name to the score sheet. His shot-turn-cross from the right on 83’ minutes appeared to have Henderson beaten, though the ball, only just, finished on the wrong side of the post.
Chun then set sail on a marvellous slalom effort that saw him wiggle his wave past three defenders before his shot on goal was miscued wide of the target.
Long too chimed in with an exceptional bit of skill in the 86’ minute. The playmaker brought down a long searching ball with the most exquisite of touches before sending his diagonal effort only inches wide of goal as referee Mr. Christopher Young brought an end to proceedings.
Following the match, Bonnyrigg White Eagles coach Brian Brown was very pleased with his team:
“We are very happy tonight,” commented a visibly ecstatic Brown.
“Tonight, the boys were up for the match, the intensity was right and we played the way we wanted to play the match.
“We totally dominated the encounter, and perhaps the only negative to come from the 90’ minutes is that we were unable to close out the match sooner with all the missed chances.”
“Our objective is to win next weekend, we have another big match against Marconi. It seems that all our matches are big matches at the moment, so we will be concentrating on getting a win there and then we will see what happens after that with the other matches.
“Our objective, however, is always to finish first, so we will be looking to finish off with a win to head into the finals series,” Brown concluded.
Out of the Sydney Olympic camp, coaching staff member John Paul Brancato spoke of the Blues’ failure to limit Bonnyrigg’s possession:
“We did not start badly, though conceding two goals in quick succession certainly did not help us,” explained Brancato, Grant Lee’s Assistant.
“Tonight we gave Bonnyrigg too much possession and too much of the momentum, so we really did make things difficult for ourselves.
“We did know that coming here was going to be tough, they are a great side and we witnessed that further tonight,” ended Brancato.
Match Stats
Bonnyrigg White Eagles 2 (Aleksander Canak 40, Nikola Zonjic 42’)
Sydney Olympic 0
Saturday 10th of August, 2013
Bonnyrigg Sports Ground
Referee: Christopher Young
Assistant Referees: Andrej Giev and Scott Edeling
Fourth Official: Sebastian Brennan
Bonnyrigg White Eagles: 1.Matthew Nash; 4.Vuko Tomasevic, 6.Nikola Zonjic, 7.Tynan Diaz (C), 8.Aleksander Canak (19.Aaron Peterson 76’), 9.Robert Younis, 10.Mitchell Long, 15.Steven Hesketh (2.Alexander Mansueto 81’), 16.Howard Fondyke (14.Jordan Crighton 88’), 18.Adrian Ucchino, 21.Bo-Hyun Chun
Substitutes Not Used: 23.David Gullo, 25.Liam Gobbo
Yellow Cards: Steven Hesketh 24’, Howard Fondyke 66’, Tynan Diaz 88’
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson; 4.Michael Cindric, 6.Marton Vass, 8.Kingsley Williams, 9.Luke Grima (50.Giorgio Bertacchi 75’), 11.William Angel (5.Bradley Treloar 59’), 12.Troy Danaskos, 10.Renato Franco-Ramirez, 19.Chris Godoy Bascur (15.Zak Elrich 58’), 24.Brendan Hooper, 29.Brayden Sorge
Substitutes Not Used: 23.Luke Kairies, 49.Zav Vallorani
Yellow Cards: Luke Grima 35’, Marton Vass 41’, 67’, Michael Cindric 62’
Red Cards: Marton Vass 67’
-By Joseph Carlucci
APIA All White pushing for A-League shot
He came out of nowhere to be named in Ricki Herbert’s All Whites 2010 World Cup squad and despite not getting on the pitch Aaron Clapham could have been mistaken that his career was about to take off.
Three years on the 26-year-old Kiwi is still working tirelessly to get his big break and achieve his dream of playing in the Hyundai A-League.
Having played for Canterbury United in New Zealand’s top division he decided to think outside of the long white cloud and made the trip across the ditch to play for the APIA Leichardt Tigers in the NSW National Premier League.
“I realised that after returning from holiday that there was still a lot of time before the season started back up again so I spoke to NZ Football and they advised me to look at an NPL club,” said Clapham.
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