Olympic bounce back with crucial victory

Sydney Olympic returned to winning ways in the PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s competition with a hard fought 3-0 victory over Parramatta FC at Belmore Sports Ground.

After a lacklustre first half display by both sides Harris Gaitatzis popped up to score an impressive hat trick to lead his side to victory.

Olympic started the match on the front foot and would have taken the lead in the 7th minute if not for an expert save by Parramatta FC goalkeeper Luke Turnbull. After William Angel blazed past his defender on the left hand side he sent a pin point cross to a free Joshua Gaspari’s whose impressive volley from point blank range was well saved by Turnbull.

Parramatta responded almost immediately with three consecutive corners all troubling Olympic’s defence.

The stringent defence turned into attack in the 13th minute when a horror mistake by Parramatta on their edge of the box allowed Harris Gaitatzis to get onto the ball with his shot squeezing under Turnbull and out for a corner.

Olympic kept the pressure on their opponents for a sustained period but Parramatta’s central defensive pairing of Ibrahim Haydar and captain Josh Symons stood tall winning a number of challenges to limit their shots on target and keep the scoreless heading into the break.

Both sides stepped it up in the second stanza moving the ball around at a quicker pace.

Sydney Olympic had a penalty shout turned down in the 48th minute as Angel was brought down in the box with the referee instead pointing to a corner.

Angel wouldn’t be denied the next time he got the ball. Parramatta were caught napping on the left hand side, Gaspari picked up a loose ball and found Angel on the right who took a touch to his preferred left foot before striking the ball past Turnbull.

Parramatta almost struck back immediately as they opened Olympic up easily two minutes later with David Gullo’s shot bouncing off the right hand post.

Returning Sydney Olympic captain Howard Fondyke found space on the edge of the box in the 66th minute but his attempt went well wide of the mark.

It didn’t take long however for Olympic to double their lead as Harris Gaitatzis held the ball up before splendidly turning Ryan Johnstone before poking the ball into the net.

Parramatta was not going to die wondering and in the 73rd minute countered well with David Gullo switching the play to Gosue Sama on the left. The latter took a touch before his shot was saved by Olympic goalkeeper Paul Henderson.

The match turned worse for Parramatta on 90 minutes when Sama was shown a straight red card for violent conduct.

Gaitatzis put the game to bed in the 91st minute when Madonis went through on goal as Parramatta sent numbers forward. With only the keeper to beat the midfielder squared to Gaitatzis to slot home to make it 3-0.

Following the match Sydney Olympic head coach Grant Lee said he was pleased his side’s fortunes turned around.

“We scored early in the second half and it forced Parramatta to come out and have a go at us,” he said.

“So the game opened up and you can have a bit more of a game like that.

“Whereas in the first half it was different, we had about 75 per cent of the possession or so and it was real hard to break down.

“In saying that in the first 10 minutes of the match we had a few chances where we should have scored and I thought that would come back to bite us which it has all season.

“But for the first time in a very long time things went our way.

“We dominated the game I thought and we got our just reward at the end.”

Match Stats

Sydney Olympic 3 ( H Gaitatzis 51′, 67’, 91’)

Parramatta FC 0

Venue: Belmore Sports Ground

Sydney Olympic: 1. Paul Henderson, 7. William Angel, 8. Howard Fondyke ©, 4. Leigh Egger (37. Eoin Montford 24’), 10. Harris Gaitatzis, 90. Joshua Gaspari, 5. Jason Madonis, 6. Mitchell Stamatellis, 3. Anthony Tomelic, 67. Christopher Gligor (16. Oliver Green 71’), 26. Cohan Morris (14. Jake Green 77’)

Substitutions not used: 20. Denver Crickmore, 15. Jake De Marigny

Yellow cards: Morris 45’

Red cards: nil

Parramatta FC: 1. Luke Turnbull, 20. Ibrahim Haydar, 4. Josh Symons ©, 9. Gosue Sama, 10. Marco Sama, 8. Daniel Rezo, 6. Daniel Gullo, 7. David Gullo, 2. Ryan Johnstone (13. Christopher Carboni 77’), 23. Aram Tayebi Derazkala

Substitutions not used: 12. Tomislav Borovickic, , 32. Corey Finch, 19. Christo Henna

Yellow cards: Haydar 43’, David Gullo 57’, Turnbull 84’, no.3 85’

Red cards: G. Sama 90’ 

-By PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s reporter Chris Georges