Manly United prevail on penalties to record historic elimination final victory.
Manly United have upset the Sutherland Sharks on Wednesday night at Seymour Shaw to advance to the National Premier Leagues Men’s NSW semi finals after outlasting the Sharks 5-4 on penalties after finishing 1-1 after 120 minutes
Both the Sutherland Sharks and Manly United marked a return to the National Premier Leagues Men’s NSW finals series on Wednesday night in front of over 2,000 spectators at Seymour Shaw.
Sutherland marked their first appearance in over 13 years whilst United returned for the first time since their run in 2022 that led them to their second-ever Grand Final appearance.
The two sides that finished fourth and fifth in the regular season began the elimination final in a nervous and frantic fashion, with neither team able to dominate the early possession or generate any chances in the opposition’s final third.
It wasn’t until the 20th minute that the two sides began to trouble the two keepers, with Ayumu Kimura blazing one over the bar for Manly before Brendan Gan put his shot narrowly wide for the home side.
The home side came the closest to breaking the deadlock during the first 45 with two efforts in quick succession. The first was a curling effort from Seung-Joo Choi that was destined for the top left corner. However, the strike was met by an even better acrobatic save from the 19-year-old Harry Turner.
Just moments later, the Sharks’ top goal scorer Nicholas Olsen fired a long-range effort that Turner had to watch all the way to ensure it sailed narrowly over the crossbar.
With neither team breaking the deadlock before halftime, the opening period of the second half proved to be vital in deciding which team would advance to this weekend’s semi-finals.
It would be the visitors from the Northern Beaches of Sydney that would almost open the scoring on the hour mark. Aston Hulme tried to curl an effort into the bottom right corner, but Danijel Nizic got down well to push the first effort he faced all evening away from the net. Though the rebound required Yanni Nicolaou to produce a goal line save to keep the scores locked at nil-nil.
United, keeping the pressure on the home side, would finally produce the game’s opening goal and a massive advantage in the hope of progression.
A searching long ball forward was not dealt with by the Sutherland back line, allowing Kimura to get behind the back five of Sharks. Manly’s number 11 then made no mistake in controlling and rolling the ball past Nizic to give the visitors the lead with just over 20 minutes to play.
Manly almost secured their spot in the semi-final with seven minutes to play though, Nizic made a great save with his outstretched leg to deny substitute Charlie Coles.
Urged on by the large home crowd, the Sharks went in search of the season-saving goal and forced the elimination final into an extra 30 minutes.
Just when it seemed that Manly were going to win their first finals match since 2022, the Sutherland prayers were answered with substitutes Richard Shoueiki and Tariq Maia combining to break United hearts and send the overwhelming majority at Seymour Shaw into absolute delirium.
An inswinging corner was met by the head of Shoueiki, who put it back into the six-yard box when Maia was awaiting and headed home his effort from point-blank range to send the elimination final into extra time.
With fatigue and adrenaline running through both sets of the team, the opening period of extra time was end-to-end, with more and more space opening up for the two sides to play into. Despite this, neither side conjured any changes to the scoreline.
With the second 15 minutes of extra time unable to produce the decisive goal, the sole semi-final spot would be decided from the penalty spots.
Both sides were flawless with their penalties however in one swift kick of the ball Tariq Maia went from hero to villain for the Sharks as his penalty hit the post and marked the lone miss in the penalty shootout with Manly winning the battle of the beaches 5-4 and setting up a date at Sydney United 58 this Sunday afternoon.
Swept up in the emotions post match, Manly United head coach Vladimir Knezevic was so proud of his side who continued to prove the doubters wrong.
“I’ve coached the last 14-15 years and what is happening in this moment, I have never seen before in my life,” Knezevic said.
“This season everyone has been talking about us [in regards to being] underdogs, relegations and now I don’t think so and people watch us differently now and have more respect for us.”
“It’s a miracle!”
Reflecting on the night the Sutherland Sharks coach David Perkovic found comfort in knowing that his first year in charge of the Sharks has been a resounding success and that there is still more to be written in the Sharks 2026 season.
“It is always difficult losing on penalties but if you look at the season as a whole from where we have started to where we ended up you can’t say it’s nothing but success,” Perkovic said
“Im just really proud that we one, got into the finals for the first time in 13 years and two, representing this community on the national stage [in the Australian Championship] is going to be awesome.”
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 1 (Tariq Maia 90’)
Manly United 1 (Ayumu Kimura 67’)
Wednesday 2nd September, 2026
Seymour Shaw
Referee: Jake Rose
Assistant Referees: Lance Greenshields and Daniel Cornofsky
Fourth Official: Ethan Zvargulis
Sutherland Sharks: 1. Danijel Nizic, 2. Lachlan Macdonald (10. Tariq Maia 75’), 3. Yanni Nicolaou, 4. Thijs Van Amerongen (22. Tye McGowan 88’), 5. Jordan Perez, 6. Riley Hollingdale, 8. Brendan Gan (18. Gian Fiorese 119’), 11. Seung-Joo Choi (7. Takumi Ofuka 65’), 14. Matthew Jurman, 19. Diego Bonilla (17. Richard Shoueiki 75’), 21. Nicholas Olsen
Substitutes Not Used: 12. Samuel Smith, 24. Dane Anderson
Yellow Cards: Lachlan Macdonald 29’, Riley Hollingdale 74’
Red Cards: Nil
Manly United: 4. Jesse Piriz, 5. Aaron O’Driscoll, 6. Saxon Hillyer, 8. Kakeru Ono, 9. Benjamin Koop, 11. Ayumu Kimura (14. Max Walker 97’), 18. Luke Nieuwenhof, 19. Cai Evans (93. Charlie Coles 78’), 21. Harry Turner, 28. Aston Hulme (31. Monty Peppel 101’), 29. Douglas John
Substitutes Not Used: 2. Luka Krizan, 16. Will Faulder, 20. George Russell
Yellow Cards: Cai Evans 16’, Saxon Hillyer 73’, Ayumu Kimura 84’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Aaron O’Driscoll (MUN)
2 – Danijel Nizic (SUS)
1 – Harry Turner (MUN)
By Keane McKenna
