APIA break Stallions Premiership hearts
APIA Leichhardt secured a 2-0 victory over a 10-man Marconi at Lambert Park on Sunday evening in the National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s ‘Italian Derby’ and all but threw a spanner in the Stallions chances of clinching the 2022 Premiership.
The match up had everything you would expect of a historic rivalry, with plenty of fire, physicality and intensity from both ends of the park.
The opening goal of the match came just before the half-time break for the hosts through Yianni Nicolau, with a converted penalty from Jason Romero in the 62nd minute taking the hosts to two goals and the visitors to 10 men as Roberto Speranza was sent from the field with his second yellow.
The loss has made taking the Premiership title much harder for Marconi, but has put APIA Leichhardt in a strong position to qualify for finals football.
The game started off with plenty of fire as the experienced players showed their hunger to get the win and get in the best possible position for the final round of the season next week.
APIA seemed most comfortable in the opening stages of the match as they used their home-ground advantage to create early pressure on their opposition.
Walter Scott played an attacking ball to Diego Celis in the 17th minute to start a golden opportunity for the hosts.
Celis used his first touch to play the ball to Jack Armson, who headed back to Celis leaving him in prime position just to the left of the goal, but he rocketed his shot over the bar.
APIA blazed forward in attack at the 38 minute mark as Jason Romero played a ball over the top to Celis, but Nenad Vekic came out to go one-on-one with the attacker and managed to apply enough pressure to see him drive it over the boundary line.
Marconi came close through a corner in the 40th minute as the ball reached Roberto Speranza at the far post, before going out for another corner that resulted in a flick-on header from Nathan Millgate that was collected by APIA’s veteran ‘keeper Ivan Necevski.
After sustained pressure throughout the opening 45, APIA Leichhardt managed to secure a valuable goal just before the half-time break.
Celis played the ball from a central position to Nicolaou just inside the 18-yard box on the left, who moved inwards to send a curling effort past a diving Vekic and into the netting.
After coming back to the field from the break with plenty of energy, both sides were showing their hunger in what was proving to be a tight battle.
Celis made an attacking run in the 62nd minute as Romero played him the ball, but despite the calls from Marconi of him seemingly doing so from an offside position, he moved into a dangerous position and Roberto Speranza brought him down with a tackle inside the area.
Referee Ben Abraham pointed to the spot and along with the penalty the incident saw Speranza awarded his second yellow of the match and subsequently a red card, bringing the visitors down to 10 men in the final 30 minutes of the match.
As the Stallions settled into playing with three at the back they continued to challenge the hosts with attacking pressure, but it was APIA who would again have the next real opportunity to score.
Substitute Matthew Cahill made a run down the right flank to create the chance for the hosts, centring for Romero inside the area. Romero took a few touches before cutting to Armson, who sent his shot wide of the target.
Romero was back in the centre of the action again in the 80th minute as he sent a shot towards the goal, but his effort flew over the bar as APIA Leichhardt hunted for a third.
Despite continued pressure at both ends, the match finished with a 2-0 victory to the hosts.
APIA Leichhardt coach Danial Cummins was pleased his side were able to put up a good fight and put themselves in a good position to continue to compete for finals football.
“It was always going to be a fiery match, they’re a good side, they’re the benchmark.
“They were playing to win the Premiership, so we knew we had to wrestle with them and boys were a bit stinging from the first round.
“If we lost tonight there’s no finals, so we’re still not guaranteed, we’ve got to win next week, so it was all or nothing and I’m really proud of the boys.
“I think this at least gives the boys a bit of hope, gives them a bit of confidence.
“We’ve been struggling the last four or five weeks, we’ve had some injuries, we’ve had Covid, and we’ve just haven’t been converting the chances so there’s nothing better than the Italian Derby to get us into form.
“They’re a good side, Sydney United, they’ve underachieved this year, I think Miro [Vlastelica] has got them playing better football, I think if Miro had them from the start, they’d probably be in the top five.
“We’ve got a few boys that are injured and injured from tonight so we’ll see how everyone pulls up but we’ll have to come up with a game plan because they’re not going to be easy.”
Marconi coach Peter Tsekenis gave credit to the opposition for their hunger in the match, while expressing his frustration at the lack of calls going his way in recent weeks.
“I thought they deserved the win, not based on not football, I just thought they were a bit more desperate,” he said.
“They probably felt like they had more to play for, but I think we had just as much to play for, for a Premiership but that’s gone.
“I thought the decision on the penalty was, in my opinion, offside, but we don’t get those calls and get a player sent off, it just made it difficult.
“I never doubt the players will to compete, it just didn’t fall for us today.
“We were up against a team that was a little bit hungrier, and everything fell for them today and they got the result and that was a very important result.
“That’s our fourth loss of the season, we’ll take that as a learning curve.
“What you saw out there was finals football, and we need to be ready for that come finals football.
“We’ll just dust ourselves off, see where we’re at and then put a big one in next week before the finals.”
Match Stats
APIA Leichhardt FC 2 (Nicolaou 45+1’, Romero 65’)
Marconi Stallions FC 0
Lambert Park, Leichhardt
Sunday, 24th July, 2022
Referee: Ben Abraham
Assistant Referees: Maddy Allum & Matt Staples
Fourth Official: Jackson Mackie
APIA Leichhardt FC: 1. Ivan Necevski, 3. Paul Galimi, 5. Nicholas Azzone, 8. Diego Celis (7. Matthew Cahill 73’), 9. Jason Romero, 14. Jack Armson (19. Fabian Monge 85’), 15. Themba Muata-Marlow, 18. Adrian Ucchino, 21. Michael Kouta, 23. Walter Scott, 38. Yianni Nicolaou
Substitutes Not Used: 4. Joshua Symons, 6. Simon Nicholas, 10. Franco Parisi, 22. Luke Turnbull
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Marconi Stallions FC: 1. Nenad Vekic, 2. Nathan Millgate, 3. Giorgio Speranza, 4. Roberto Speranza, 6. Domenic Costanzo, 7. Christopher Hatfield (17. Martin Fernandez 59’), 8. Connor Evans (16. Liam Youlley 73’), 9. Thomas James (35. Justin Vidic 71’), 10. Marko Jesic, 22. Taylor McDonald, 23. Brandon Vella
Substitutes Not Used: 13. Samuel Gulisano, 19. Zach Cairncross, 20. Dion Shaw
Yellow Cards: Roberto Speranza 38’, 63’
Red Cards: Roberto Speranza 63’
