United 58 continue winning ways against Bulls Academy
Veteran midfielder Glen Trifiro’s strike on the hour mark was enough to separate an experienced Sydney United 58 side against valiant Bulls FC Academy outfit at Sydney United Sports Centre on Saturday evening.
In an intense, fast-paced and action packed game both sets of players put on notable performances, putting their bodies on the line in pursuit of three points.
The United 58 faithful had to wait an hour until the first goal where Patrick Antelmi skilfully held up his defender and laid the ball off to Trifiro who neatly placed his shot in the bottom corner.
The first chance of the game fell to the fast-starting Bulls as Mason Wells picked out the head of Sebastian Hernandez at the back post but couldn’t get the desired power behind it and left Danijel Nizic with little work to do.
United 58 were gifted their first chances just moments later as Trifiro attempted to follow up on a fumbled save from Griffin Barry but was agonisingly denied by the outstretched foot of Oliver Jones.
The Bulls continued to push the United 58 defence to its limits with Mabior Garang leading the way in attack as the true dangerman, coming the closest to opening the scoring in the first period of the game.
Using his incredible speed and strength, Garang made his way down the by-line before cutting in with a piercing shot that smacked back against the front post, much to the relief of the visiting defence.
After having a couple of penalty shouts waved away, United 58 turned up the intensity in attack but were once again denied by a strong defence, with both Leroy Jennings and Jason Madonis having their goal-bound shots dealt with by either centre-half.
The visitors came within inches of an opening goal as Bailey Rule whipped a lofted cross to an oncoming Chris Payne who got all his power behind it but was sensationally denied by Barry.
After a thrilling first half of action, both sides went into the break with everything to play for in the final 45 minutes of play.
It was a fairly calm start to the half for both sides, with little to no genuine chances coming until the hour mark of the game.
United 58 opened the scoring just after the 61st minute after the substitute Antelmi laid a perfect ball to Trifiro in the middle of the box where he placed the ball in the bottom corner.
Tempers began to flare in the last 20 minutes of the game with both sides showcasing plenty of aggression and physicality on both sides of the ball.
The visitors had three consecutive chances to seal the result after Antelmi’s saved shot fell into the path of Taisei Kaneko, with his shot heading away from the face of the goal Trifiro sprinted towards the back post but saw his effort bounce back off the post.
With United 58 pushing for a second, the Bulls began to push numbers forward in search of an equaliser but were dealt a massive blow when Garang was given a second yellow card, leaving the hosts without their primary attacking threat for the final ten minutes.
Devante Clut made his impact felt off the bench and nearly came away with a late assist as his dangerous ball into the area forced Theph Theph into a goal-saving lunge to deny the chance.
United 58 walked away with the three points but they were forced to work their hardest for it against an improved Bulls side that would consider themselves unlucky to not have found the back of the net.
After a fifth win in six games, United 58 coach Miro Vlastelica was pleased with his side’s performance but gave credit to the strong Bulls outfit.
“They’re a good team the Bulls (they’re) well organised, there’s just sometimes when they switch off and the experienced boys punish you when you switch off,” Vlastelica said.
“A win is a win; the boys are happy… we just want to slowly build into the season, but we want to be consistent throughout the season and to keep the boys fit which they are.”
Bulls coach Zeljko Kalac was impressed with how his young side played but noted the lessons that were learned.
“I thought it was an outstanding performance from our boys but it just shows the naivety of young players coming up against a very good side, we did really well to get those opportunities but we just lacked composure in front of goals,” Kalac said.
“It’s not the first game, we’ve created a lot of chances but that’s what you get with young players you just have to keep working and developing them… performance wise it was fantastic.”
Match Stats
Bulls FC Academy FC 0
Sydney United 58 FC 1 (Trifiro 61’)
Saturday 11th March, 2023
Sydney United Sports Centre, Edensor Park
Referee: Joel Dunajcik
Assistant Referees: Daniel Drewitt and Cameron Wright
Fourth Official: Danny Horstead
Bulls FC Academy: 40. Griffin Barry, 3. Isaac Hovar, 4. Joel Bertolissio, 8. Mason Wells, 12. Charlie Ragg (21. Lachlan McDonald 80’), 16. Oliver Jones, 17. Rhys Youlley (9. Anthony Krilic 90’), 18. Sebastian Hernandez (14. Sunday Yona 59’), 22. Edward Caspers, 37. Mabior Garang, 39. Theph Theph
Substitutes Not Used: 41. Patrick Williams, 20. Adrian Knez,
Yellow Cards: Garang 72’ 82’
Red Cards: Garang 82’
Sydney United 58 FC: 1. Danijel Nizic, 3. Bailey Rule, 4. Adrian Vlastelica, 5. Anthony Tomelic (14. Andrea Agamemnonos 57’), 6. Christopher Payne (9. Patrick Antelmi 45’), 7. Taisei Kaneko, 8. Jason Madonis (11. Yianni Perkatis 57’), 17. Matthew Bilic, 18. Glen Trifiro, 21. Yianni Fragogiannis (16. Ante Bakmaz 80’), 22. Leroy Jennings
Substitutes Not Used: 20. Luke Cukar,
Yellow Cards: Tomelic 51’, Fragogiannis 64’, Antelmi 70’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 – Glen Trifiro (SU58)
2 – Bailey Rule (SU58)
1 – Eddie Caspers (BAFC)
Written By NPL NSW Men’s reporter Dominic Criniti, @DominicCriniti
