Danaskos double powers St George FC past Olympic
Former Sydney Olympic star Troy Danaskos managed to haunt his old club with a brace to steer St George FC to a 2-0 victory at Belmore Sports Ground, preserving their unbeaten record in 2026 for another week.
Danaskos starred in his first start for 2026 as he and the entire Saints outfit proved too much to handle for Olympic, with the visitors earning their fifth win and sixth clean sheet from the opening six rounds to further strengthen their place near the top of the ladder.
The Saints opened the scoring in the 14th minute through captain Troy Danaskos as the former Olympic player met Christopher McStay’s cross and guided it on the volley with composure into the net.
The Blues produced a couple of chances in quick succession, the first arriving in the 19th minute when Bailey Callaghan went towards the ground for a well-worked header that goalkeeper Nicholas Sorras needed to tip over the crossbar.
The hosts then created another opportunity from the subsequent corner in the 20th minute wherein Marco Arambasic nearly scored from a goalmouth scramble only to have his effort blocked by the resolute St George defenders.
Danaskos managed to haunt his former club again in the 37th minute when Justin Poon delivered a great grounded ball across goal towards Jake Trew, who left it alone for his captain to tap in at the back post.
Olympic came agonisingly close to halving the deficit in the 45+1st minute following a driving run by Yuta Komura into the box.
The midfielder unleashing a strike that forced the first of three quick saves out of Sorras, with the shot stopper intervening for the rebound by Callaghan and then stopping Komura a second time to preserve St George’s perfect defensive record in the competition so far.
The hosts again came close in the 50th minute when wing back Ben Giason delivered a ball towards teammates Komura and Yujo Fujita in the box, but neither could get a head on the ball.
The Saints finished the game with ten players after Chris McStay was handed a second yellow card in the 86th minute following a high foot on Marco Arambasic.
Reflecting on the match and their season so far, St George coach Raphael Marie remarked on his pride in the quality of goals they are scoring.
“I thought the goals were quite good today, which for me is the main thing,” Marie told Football NSW while also stressing pride in their defensive displays thus far.
“For us, it is about being desperate in the areas where we are going to be suffering. Today, against a good team, we suffered and we played really well, and we scored when we needed to do.”
He remarked they could have played a little more football, though the end results and displays have still impressed him.
“We played good football, could have played a little more football but it is still early and these early rounds are so important to pick up points in,” he said.
“We didn’t plan to sit off so much (in the second half), we probably wanted to be more aggressive and score more goals but sometimes you don’t get the roll of the dice and I think we still defended well when we had to.”
Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 0
St George FC 2 (Troy Danaskos 14’, 37’)
Saturday 14 March
Belmore Sports Ground
Referee: Danny Horstead
Assistant Referees: Hayden Kaye and Amirhossein Hosnani
Fourth Official: Joshua Kermond
Sydney Olympic: 1. Josip Orlovic, 3. Samuel Bosnjak, 4. Joshua Hong (18. Kim Jun-Yong 81’), 5. Ziggy Gordon, 9. Marco Arambasic, 14. Jacob Tresoglavic, 16. Bailey Callaghan, 21. Yuta Komura (23. Brooklyn Mallia 64’), 24. Ben Giason, 31. Yujo Fujita (11. Giorgos Louca 64’), 34. Marcus Fernandez
Substitutes Not Used: 12. Peter Grozos, 30. Joshua Da Silva, 33. Maxamillion Luburic, 40. Anthony Carreras
Yellow Cards: Jacob Tresoglavic 53’
Red Cards: Nil
St George FC: 1. Nicholas Sorras, 3. Troy Danaskos (12. Stevan Stanic-Floody 81’), 4. Jayden Seeto, 7. Justin Poon (2. Rocco Smith 87’), 8. Evangelos Souris, 9. Jake Trew (22. Nicholas Stavropoulos 81’), 14. Katsuyoshi Kimishima (25. Harrison Farrow 58’), 15. Mark Rodic, 16. Kaidyn Wright, 20. Kota Toyooka, 88. Chris McStay
Substitutes Not Used: 11. Anthony Morabito, 13. Sebastian La Luz, 23. Javier Rodriguez
Yellow Cards: Chis McStay 68’
Red Cards: Chris McStay 86’ (second yellow)
Player Ratings:
3: Troy Danaskos (STG)
2: Justin Poon (STG)
1: Yuta Komura (SO)
-By Dimitri Kallos
