Daily Archives: August 24, 2014

SYDNEY Olympic secured their place in the IGA National Premier League NSW men’s 1 finals with an emphatic 2-1 victory over the Rockdale City Suns at Belmore Sports Ground.

The home side dominated the first half with former Melbourne Victory striker Dimitri Hatzimouratis opening the scoring, connecting to a Troy Danaskos cross.

Rockdale captain Askin Oygur equalised with an inch perfect header hitting the back of the net early in the second half.

But nobody could stop Hatzimouratis’ rocketing free kick  midway through the second stanza which sees Olympic return to the finals series after missing out last season.

Sydney Olympic started the match on the front foot with great interlink play opening the Rockdale defence only for Arcaba to claim a soft shot from Troy Danaskos.

In-form Rockdale striker Nikola Taneski had a golden chance to open the scoring in the 7th minute when the ball deflected to his path and on goal but the youngster hooked his effort wide.

Eight minutes later Rockdale almost went down in embarrassing fashion when captain Askin Oygur headed the ball towards his own goal. Luckily for the Suns defender Takuya Murayama cleared off the line to keep the scores level.

Olympic kept the pressure on their opponents and almost caught their defence flat footed in the 20th minute with Danaskos feeding Harris Gaitatzis through with a long ball but Tomislav Arcaba came off his line well to claim the ball.

The home team’s patience paid off when they took the lead just three minutes later with Danaskos’ cross was met by Dimitri Hatzimouratis who calmly slotted the ball past Arcaba and into the bottom left hand corner.

The Suns looked rattled after the goal as Olympic continued to open them up out wide.

In the 29th minute Danaskos was at it again with a perfectly weighted cross to a free Harris Gaitatzis but the midfielder could not control his shot as the ball went sailing well over the bar.

Rockdale slowly got more possession in the back end of the first half led by influential midfielder Paul Reid.

Marko Jesic took it upon himself to try and get the Suns back into the game in the 40th minute with a strong half volley on the edge of the box forcing Paul Henderson into a smart save tipping the ball over the bar.

Sydney Olympic came out from the break intent to keep possession of the ball before opening up the Rockdale defence.

They did just that in the 49th minute with Michael Gaitatzis seeing his shot blocked by Murayama before Taiga Soeda’s follow up shot went wide of the left hand upright.

The missed chance came back to haunt the home side three minutes later when Rockdale equalised. Captain Askin Oygur rose well for a corner to head the ball into the back of the net and bring his side right back into the match.

Former Western Sydney Wanderers winger Tadj Minniecon bamboozled the Olympic defence in the 59th minute, finding space on the right before cutting back to Reid who laid back to Idriss El Hafiane whose shot went way over the bar.

The match completely opened up in the 65th minute when Dimitri Hatzimouratis’ pile driving free kick from 25 yards out rocketed past the wall and into the net to give the home side the 2-1 lead.

Both sides started going for it with Oygur again rising well for a corner in the 71st minute only to find the safe hands of Henderson.
Taneski stepped up to fire a great free kick goalward in the 77th minute but Henderson got down well to get hold of the ball.

With six minutes remaining Suns substitute Toufic Alameddine found space inside the Olympic box but hit his shot over the bar.

Hatzimouratis was unlucky to not have his hat trick in the 88th minute after putting the ball into the back of the net, only to be called back for being offside.

Rockdale continued to put the pressure on Olympic with Marko Jesic firing over the bar from a free kick in the 91st minute.

But the match belonged to Olympic with the former National Soccer League side sending a strong message to the rest of the competition.

Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 2 (Dimitri Hatzimouratis 23’, 65’)
Rockdale City Suns 1 (Askin Oygur 52’)
Sunday August 10, 2014
Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore
Referee: Chris Young

Assistant Referees: Scott Edeling and Andrej Giev

Fourth Official: James Tesoriero

Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson, 2.Brayden Sorge, 3.Troy Danaskos, 6.Ryan Keir, 9.Dimitri Hatzimouratis, 10.Harris Gaitatzis (7.William Angel 68’), 14.Peter Markovic, 15.Yianni Spyrakis, 18.Taiga Soeda, 19.Go Shirai, 39.Michael Gaitatzis (33.Chris Tomaras 79’)
Substitutions not used: 4.Brendan Hooper, 5.Bradley Treloar
Yellow cards: Yianni Spyrakis 76’
Red cards: Nil

Rockdale City Suns: 1.Tomislav Arcaba, 3.Steven Hesketh, 4.Sean Symons (7.Toufic Alameddine 68’),  5.Paul Reid (21.Hristian Tanoski 76’), 6.Takuya Murayama, 8.Paul Kohler, 10.Tahj MInniecon (2.Andrija Petkovic 76’), 11.Nikola Taneski, 12.Idriss El Hafiane, 18.Marko Jesic, 23.Askin Oygur
Substitutions not used: 22.David Bradasevic,, 14.Patrick Savor
Yellow cards: Paul Kohler 64’, Steven Hesketh 80’
Red cards: Nil

source: sydneyolympicfc.com.au

West Brom have completed the signing of Greek international Georgios Samaras on a two-year deal.

The striker has joined the Baggies on a free transfer but will not play in Saturday’s Barclays Premier League trip to Southampton.

He was available after leaving Celtic in the summer following six years in Glasgow.

Malaga and Southampton were interested in the 29-year-old, who joined Celtic from Manchester City in 2008, but the Baggies were Samaras’ first choice.

“We’ve signed a player with vast experience and I’m delighted to welcome Sami to the club,” head coach Alan Irvine told the club’s official website.

“He has played a lot of football at the highest levels – Champions League, European Championships and World Cups – and the feedback we’ve got on him, from people like Neil Lennon, states he thrives on the big occasion.

“He will certainly play in plenty of those in the Barclays Premier League.

“Georgios has played in big games for a Celtic team that have often had a lot of the ball and have had to work hard to break the opposition down.

“But he has also shown another side to his game in other matches when they haven’t seen as much of the ball.”

Samaras joins £10m club record signing Brown Ideye at The Hawthorns this summer and, with Saido Berahino and Victor Anichebe available, Irvine is pleased with his attacking options.

“We have now got four strikers with different qualities who can be used in different ways,” added the Scot.

“That’s great for us, because we need to have flexibility, the option to approach games in different ways and cover for injuries.

“I’m absolutely delighted with the four strikers we have.”

Samaras made 249 appearances for Celtic, scoring 73 goals, and won four Scottish Premier League titles with the club.

He helped Greece to the last-16 at the World Cup this summer and has 78 caps, and nine goals, for the national side.

Samaras cost City £6m in 2006 but scored just 12 goals in 65 games before moving to Scotland.

source: independent.co.uk

Juan Manuel Iturbe and Seydou Keita gave Roma a 2-1 friendly victory away to AEK Athens.

The Giallorossi travelled to Greece without Mehdi Benatia, who is reportedly on the verge of joining Bayern Munich for €30m. Miralem Pjanic stayed behind due to fitness issues, while Daniele De Rossi started at centre-back.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfjLtJMGfmQ

Morgan De Sanctis had early work to do on Pantellas, who got in front of Urby Emanuelson to force a save, then the goalkeeper parried both the Mantalos volley and Anakoglu follow-up.

Iturbe wasted a good opportunity set up by Gervinho, but made up for it in first half stoppages by curling a wonderful free kick into the bottom corner.

Straight after the restart Keita doubled Roma’s lead by rising to meet an Alessandro Florenzi free kick.

Zoric failed to make the most of an Alessio Romagnoli error, firing wide one-on-one with De Sanctis. AEK did get a consolation goal late on thanks to a soft Dacol penalty for Romagnoli’s tackle.

Roma could’ve had a third in the final moments of the game, but Keita finished inches past the post.

AEK Athens 1-2 Roma

Scorers: Iturbe 45 (R), Keita 48 (R), Dacol pen 85 (A)

AEK Athens: Anestis; Mpakakis (Sarris 78), Kolovetsios (Svarnas 78), Lambropoulos (Rovas 78), Petavrakis (Brecevic 78); Cordero (Yare Faye 75), Anakoglou (Georgeas 78); Platellas (Ntounis 59), Mantalos (Zoric 46), Barbosa; Aravidis (Dacol 64)

Roma: De Sanctis; Torosidis (Somma 75), De Rossi, Astori (Romagnoli 63), Emanuelson (Cole 75); Keita, Nainggolan (Sanabria 93), Florenzi (Ucan 93); Iturbe (Totti 63), Destro (Paredes 75), Gervinho (Ljajic 63)

source: football-italia.net

Olivier Giroud snatched a point for Arsenal in a dramatic 2-2 draw with Everton in the Barclays Premier League.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMMC5pL97gk

First-half goals from Seamus Coleman and Steven Naismith had put Roberto Martinez’s side firmly in command as Arsenal laboured on the back of their midweek UEFA Champions League exertions in Turkey against Besiktas.

But Aaron Ramsey bounced back from his red card on Tuesday night in Turkey to net his third goal in as many domestic appearances this term before Giroud, a half-time substitute, headed home from Nacho Monreal’s 90th-minute cross after Everton had allowed the full-back time on the left byline.

For most of the match, Everton gave a compelling demonstration of how well they can compete with the sides who finished above them on bigger budgets last season. But Ramsey and Giroud showed how hard overhauling the big boys will prove to be for Martinez’s enterprising team.

Despite scoring on the opening weekend against Leicester City, Aiden McGeady dropped to the Everton bench as Belgium forward Kevin Mirallas earned a starting role. Arsenal welcomed back Germany FIFA World Cup winners Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil, while Alexis Sanchez was handed a central striking role for the first time by Arsene Wenger.

Steven Pienaar’s early departure through injury appeared to unsettle Everton and a badly misjudged 15th-minute clearance by Coleman gave Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain a chance at goal but he shot narrowly wide from the edge of the area. Coleman soon settled his and Everton’s nerves, though, when he stole in behind Ozil to head home Gareth Barry’s 19th-minute cross.

Three minutes later, Naismith flicked on another excellent lofted pass from Barry to send Mirallas bearing down on goal, but he could only stab wide under pressure from Calum Chambers and Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Mirallas grazed the top of the netting with a 35th-minute free-kick. Just as it appeared that Arsenal had weathered the storm, Everton doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time.

Romelu Lukaku sent Mertesacker tumbling and raced towards the visitors’ goal, eventually picking the pass for Naismith to produce a measured finish under Szczesny.

Wenger replaced Alexis with Giroud at half-time and the France striker almost made an instant impact, smashing a volley over on the end of Oxlade-Chamberlain’s raking pass within a minute of the restart.

Barry continued to orchestrate the play for Everton in midfield and Jack Wilshere offered a demonstration of Arsenal’s frustrations when he fouled his former England team-mate for a yellow card.

Ramsey played in Giroud to rifle a shot narrowly wide from the edge of the area midway through the second half before the Wales midfielder drew a sharp stop from Tim Howard as Arsenal sought to launch a final assault.

Santi Cazorla, on for Wilshere, injected some clever footwork and an excellent low cross for Ramsey to reduce the arrears with seven minutes remaining, clearing the way for Giroud to steal the headlines.

source: premierleague.com