Second half blitz spurs Hakoah victory

Hakoah Sydney City East has put four goals past Parramatta FC to secure a 4-2 win in its Round 9 PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s clash at Melita Stadium on Saturday. 
The home side dominated play in the first half but Hakoah Sydney City East came out firing in the second half. 
They took control of the game and, with three goals in a short space of time, put the game out of Parramatta FC’s reach before a beautiful late goal added some respectability to the score line for the home side.
Hakoah Sydney City East opened the scoring in the seventh minute when a great shot from some distance by Andre De Jong ended up in the back of the net.
It was a nice way to begin the night for the visitors.
In the 11^th minute Marco Sama for the home side ended up with the ball across the face of goal and, from just outside the box, his shot finished a fraction wide.
Parramatta FC pushed dangerously forward in the 20^th minute when Tom Mallett dribbled his way beautifully from the right to the centre of the field, before lining up his shot which finished just over the crossbar. 
In the 25^th minute a free-kick from Ante Tomic sailed over the wall and just over the crossbar as the home side piled on the pressure in an attempt to equalise.
In the 34^th minute the equaliser duly arrived. A beautiful cross from the right by Tomic reached Gosue Sama who headed home superbly for the home side and, in reality, it was no more than they deserved.
In the second half not much happened until the 59^th minute when a rather scrappy goal gave Hakoah the lead.
In the end it was Tomislav Mijic who accidentally knocked the ball into his own net off a Neil Jablonski shot, but the Hakoah player deserved credit for the strike.
A minute later, the ball was fired into the back of net by Paul Orgad for Hakoah’s third goal and so the game had turned in favour of the visitors. 
In the 66^th minute a great cross from the right by Dylan Blumberg reached Hussein Akil who had just came onto the field a minute earlier, but his clinical header was stupendously saved by Luke Turnbull. 
Hakoah’s Kevin Lopes received a lucky deviated ball in the 73^rd minute and he knocked it straight onto the crossbar but it could easily have been the fourth for the visitors.
However, the away side didn’t have wait too long to get that elusive fourth goal. A defensive blunder basically gifted the ball to Akil who skilfully rounded the ‘keeper in the 76^th minute and, with an acute angled finish, he neatly slotted home for the visitors.
In the 83^rd minute a diagonal shot from close to the by-line by Tomic forced the visitors’ goalkeeper Anthony Costa into a one handed diving save.
Parramatta FC scored an absolutely superb goal in the 87^th minute when a long ball, in typical route-one fashion, from goalkeeper Turnbull reached Luke Grima who then, with an audacious lob, sent the ball into the back of the net to add some respectability to the score line.
Hakoah coach Mark Robertson was a very proud and pleased man after the match and stated that this was the victory that his team needed.
“The boys always try their hardest,” he said. “In the second half I changed a few things and had a word to them at the break about how good a team we really are, and from that we came out with a little more belief in ourselves,” he said.
“Parramatta is hard place to come to. I played here myself; it’s a great venue and a great setting but I knew that when teams come here, it’s always a hard place to win at.”
Over in the less-jubilant Parramatta FC dressing room, a frustrated Franco Cosentino spoke about the difficulty of losing such an encounter.
“Hakoah were on top of us in the first ten minutes but I think we dominated after that,” he said.
“In the second half they scored two goals in quick succession and that got us. We switched off twice and we didn’t recover after that.
“We didn’t take our chances but in the end it’s just not good enough and there is no excuse really. It’s very disappointing because we could have gone back-to-back wins.
“It would have made it that little bit easier to get into the top five. We have a mix of experienced and inexperienced players but we just need to develop a bit of consistency and be patient.”
Match Stats
Parramatta FC 2 (G. Sama 33’, Grima 87’)

Hakoah Sydney City East 4 (Orgad 7’, De Jong 59’, Jablonski 60’, Akil 76’)

Saturday 7^th May 2016
Melita Stadium, South Granville
Referee: James Lewis
Assistant Referees: Thomas Lee, Ray Osborne
Fourth Official: Cameron Lee
Parramatta FC: 1. TURNBULL Luke, 5. MIJIC Tomislav, 6. GULLO Daniel, 9. SAMA Gosue, 10. SAMA Marco, 11. TOMIC Ante, 17. GERSBACH Joshua (13. VAIS Andreas 68’), 18. MALLETT Tom, 19. BROWN Blair (14. GRIMA Luke 76’), 20. HAYDAR Ibrahim, 23. TAYEBI- DERAZKALA Aram.
Substitutes not used: 4. SYMONS Joshua, 8. REZO Daniel, 33. DIACONO Jayden
Yellow Cards: Mijic 52’, Grima 87’
Red Cards: Nil 
Hakoah Sydney City East: 1. COSTA Anthony, 3. BLUMBERG Dylan (14. JONES Lee 68’), 4. WALKER Bradley, 5. BOWDEN-HAASE Nathan, 8. ORGAD Paul, 9. JABLONSKI Neil (7. AKIL Hussein 65’), 10. GILMARTIN Deklan, 16. ANDRICOPOULOS Costa, 17. MUNDELL Jordan, 23. DE JONG Andre, 31. LOPES Kevin.
Substitutes not used: 18. D’MELLO Aaron, 20. McKENZIE Matthew
Yellow Cards: Bowden-Haase 24’, Costa 74’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings

3 – Paul Orgad (HSC)
2 – Andre De Jong (HSC)
1 – Marco Sama (PFC)
-by Joe Russo, PlayStation® National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s 1 Reporter, at Melita Stadium, South Granville.