Superstar Romero slays Olympic
A killer cameo and hat-trick from Jason Romero helped APIA Leichhardt strike four times in the second half to earn a 4-0 win over Sydney Olympic in the ‘Festival of Football’ match on Sunday evening at Belmore Sportsground.
As the two giants of Australian football vied off in Belmore, it was United States international Romero who stole the show: the 27-year-old’s half-time substitution replacing Fabian Monge, which proved to be a lethal injection that swung a dour match comprehensively in favour of the men from Lambert Park.
The striker applied three fine finishes and set up another for Jack Armson, a virtuoso display that left Olympic, who had edged the first half, absolutely stunned.
Up until Romero’s arrival after the interval Olympic resembled the more likely side to break the deadlock.
Ante Juric’s men had played well without scoring in the first half and forced APIA shot stopper Ivan Necevski into action on several occasions, most notably on the cusp of half time where he made a pair of excellent interventions to keep out Roy O’Donovan and Darcy Burgess but that was about as good as it got for the hosts.
After entering the fray, Romero required five minutes to seize control by scoring a lovely solo goal.
Armson drove into space and found Romero in acres, a stepover dazed Nikola Ujdur, and a precise left footed sweep across goal left Nick Sorras with no chance.
Four minutes later, the ex-St.George City marksman added his second.
Romero led a counterattack and exchanged passes with Diego Celis before picking out the untracked run of Armson.
The finish from Armson was less convincing but had enough power to squeeze underneath Sorras for two.
Romero made it three in fifteen minutes with another excellent solo effort cutting in from the left and sealed his hat-trick on 75 minutes.
It was possibly the pick of the bunch, another superb counterattack from APIA that started from an Olympic corner and ended with Romero floating into the box from the left again and picking out the far-right hand corner to seal one of the most emphatic individual performances of the National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s 2022 campaign so far.
“Jason [Romero] is fast with the ball. Defenders don’t know whether he’s going inside or outside. He’s constantly putting defenders in two minds”, said APIA coach Cummins.
“Olympic are a good side. We had a purple patch in the second half. But we knew we could hit them on transition.”
Olympic defender Ben Van Meurs lamented his side losing their defensive shape in what was a disastrous second half.
“Disappointing. It’s all on us tonight. It doesn’t matter who comes on, we need to be aware positionally. There’s no one in the league we can’t stop, so we need to be better.”
The day was amazing across all fronts as both clubs had their 20s, top tier Women’s as well as a special Legends match take centre stage in what was a great crowd at Belmore.
Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 0
APIA Leichhardt 4 (Romero 50’, 65’, 75’, Armson 53’)
Sunday, 1st May 2022
Belmore Sportsground, Belmore
Referee: Craig Fisher
Assistant Referees: Joon Park and Patrick Teleki
Fourth Official: Rebecca Mackie
Sydney Olympic: 1. Nicholas Sorras, 3. Nikola Udjur, 4. Ben Van Meurs, 5. Michael Glassock, 6. Mathieu Cordier, 8. Sam McIlhatton (10. Brendan Cholakian 71′), 9. Oliver Puflett (41. Michael Vakis 80′), 19. Darcy Burgess, 22. Fabio Ferreira (17. Marley Peterson 60′), 23. Daniel Dias (24. Hagi Gligor 60′), 99. Roy O’Donovan
Substitutes Not Used: 2. Thomas Whiteside, 20. Christopher Parsons.
Yellow Cards: Dias, McIlhatton, Van Meurs.
Red Cards: N/A
APIA Leichhardt: 1. Ivan Necevski, 4. Josh Symons, 5. Nick Azzone, 8. Diego Celis (23. Walter Scott 75′), 14. Jack Armson (10. Franco Parisi 83′), 15. Themba Muata-Marlow, 18. Adrian Ucchino, 19. Fabian Monge (9. Jason Romero 46′), 20. Nathanael Blair (16. Sean Symons 46′) , 21. Michael Kouta, 38. Yianni Nicolaou
Substitutes Not Used: 3. Paul Galimi, 22. Luke Turnbull.
Yellow Cards: N/A
Red Cards: N/A
Player Ratings
3 – Jason Romero (APL)
2 – Jack Armson (APL)
1 – Adrian Ucchino (APL)
