Monthly Archives: September 2015

On a near perfect Sunday afternoon at Arthur Eden Oval, Hamilton Olympic came from 0-2 behind, to record a 2-2 draw against Lambton Jaffas and march into the 2015 NPL Grand Final with an aggregate 4-3 score-line.

Both teams spent the opening quarter of the game with physical exchanges and few chances, as you would expect in a game of this level of importance.

The first sniff at a goal scoring opportunity came in the 17th minute with a header by Luke Remington which didn’t appear to trouble Danny Ireland. Ten minutes later, Michael Bridges followed this up with a long range effort which went well over the Olympic goal.

The first opportunity to Olympic didn’t come until the 34th minute when Kane Goodchild weaved his way through a number of bodies, passed to Pat Brown who sent a great shot crashing onto the cross bar with Brad Swancott well beaten.

Seconds before half time, Luke Remington was given too much space and time on the ball on the left and from what appeared a harmless position, he sent Lambton Jaffas with a 1-0 lead into the break!

The second half began with the Jaffas team putting pressure on the Olympic goal which culminated in a 2-0 lead from a volley by Riley McNaughton, after Danny Ireland failed to clear a cross. It could have been curtains for Olympic when a long range effort from outside the box rebounded off the crossbar!

Olympic replied with a great through ball to Pat Brown who forced a great save from an outstretched Brad Swancott.

The urgency on the Olympic bench becomes apparent when they bring into the game Mathew Swan in place of Simon Mooney and Jason Korotkich in place of Ben Koina, with the later partnering Jacob Bailey in the midfield and Reece Cooper moving further forward, just behind Kane Goodchild.

Mason Campbell chips a delightful ball from the back to Mathew Swan on the left who sends in a ball across the face of the Jaffa’s goal and eventually to the head of Pat Brown who buries it into the net for a 1-2 score-line!

Olympic are enjoying a good attacking spell with the Swan brothers combining well and forcing a great save from Brad Swancott while an effort by a Reece Cooper – Kane Goodchild combination results in the Jaffa’s goalie clearing with his feet.

Olympic continue to press for the equaliser which will avoid the game going into extra time with Jacob Baley forcing Brad Swancott to finger-tip the ball out and Jason Korotchich firing a shot onto the body of the Jaffa’s goalie.

Despite the efforts of the Olympic players the game goes into extra time.

During this period, Olympic continue their attacking momentum but Jaffas attack too! We have an extra half an hour of open ended football with goal mouth action at both ends.

During an Olympic counter attack, Reece Cooper gets behind the Jaffa’s defence and with the keeper to beat, pushes the ball through Brad Swancott’s legs to record a final 2-2 scoreline!

Hamilton Olympic win 4-3 on aggregate and join Edgeworth Eagles next week in 2015 EPL Grand Final.

Earlier in the day U19s lost 3-0 to Broadmeadow Magic and were eliminated with a 4-2 aggregate score while U22s crashed out to Emerging Jets 2-0 for an elimination and an 8-1 aggregate score.

Source: Tom Tsamouras

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – SEPTEMBER 01: Nicholas Hegarty, captain of Hume City and his teammates celebrate with the Westfield FFA Cup Quarter Finalist Banner after winning the FFA Cup Round of 16 match between Hume City and Sydney Olympic at ABD Stadium on September 1, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

The magic of the Westfield FFA Cup was back on Tuesday night. Here’s what happened in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and the Gold Coast in the Round of 16 match day two.

Hume City 3

(Ingham 34’, Schroen 42, Markelis 83’)

Sydney Olympic 1

(Hatzimouratis 63’)

Hume City booked a place in the FFA Cup quarter-finals courtesy of a comprehensive 3-1 victory at home to Sydney Olympic on Tuesday night.

The hosts took the lead at ABD Stadium in the 34th minute when Jai Ingham’s driving run and shot was only parried by goalkeeper Paul Henderson, Daniel Clark arriving to poke home the rebound.
Hume doubled their advantage three minutes before the break, Nick Hegarty advancing down the left flank and finding Marcus Shroen in the middle of the penalty area for the midfielder to tuck home a simple finish.

The visitors from New South Wales refused to give up without a fight, Dimtri Hatzimouratis seizing on a rebound to beat Chris Oldfield from the edge of the area in the 63rd minute.

The result was put beyond doubt though with seven minutes to go when Shaun Timmins found space down the right and cut the ball back to Theo Markelis, who dispatched an emphatic strike past Henderson, sending the Victorian outfit into the quarter-finals.

Rockdale City Suns 2

(Jesic 53’, Broxham OG 86’)

Melbourne Victory 3

(Makarounas 45’, 65′, Berisha 50′)

Melbourne Victory avoided what would have been a huge upset by holding off a gallant Rockdale City Suns to win 3-2 away from home in a memorable FFA Cup round-of-16 encounter on Tuesday night.

A first half of stout resistance and no little enterprise from Rockdale at Kogarah Oval was broken a minute before half-time when Daniel Georgievski exchanged a neat one-two with Fahid Ben Khalfallah before bursting into the penalty area and getting the ball to Jesse Makarounas, who picked out the far corner of the net expertly.

The visitors made it 2-0 five minutes into the second half following a well-worked move from a set-piece, Ben Khalfallah’s scooped pass finding the head of Besart Berisha, who made no mistake from close range.
The Suns got one back from the penalty spot on 53 minutes, Marko Jesic stroking the ball home from the spot after Thomas Deng was penalised – perhaps somewhat harshly – for handball.

The hosts’ hopes of a comeback took a big blow in the 65th minute when Makarounas curled home another well-taken finish from just outside the area, the attacker completing his brace and restoring Victory’s two-goal advantage.

The team coached by former A-League player Paul Reid refused to lie down, Nicholas Petrillo heading a deep corner back across goal and Leigh Broxham turning it into his own net to make it a nervy last four minutes for the league champions.

MetroStars 0

Oakleigh Cannons 1

(Pavlovic 66’)

A well-taken goal by Mirjan Pavlovic midway through the second half proved enough for Oakleigh Cannons to progress to the FFA Cup quarter-finals at the expense of MetroStars.

With a strong breeze at their backs at Elite Systems Football Centre it was the home side that dominated the first half arm-wrestle, but they were unable to turn their dominance into a goal.

Winger Rocky Callisto went closest to breaking the deadlock before the break, his close-range header superb clawed away by Cannons ‘keeper Lajos Hun.

Whatever Arthur Papas said to his side at half-time worked as they Cannons came out breathing fire, with Pavlovic and Dean Piemonte both squandering great chances.

But the breakthrough came on 66 minutes after shocking error by experienced MetroStars ‘keeper Daniel Godley.
The gloveman came racing out of his box to deal with a hopeful long-ball but it bounced over his head, allowing ex-Hyundai A-League attacker Pavlovic to race onto it and slam it home from a tight angle.

Despite a frenetic finish as the home side pushed for an equalizer, the Cannons held on for a superb victory much to the delight of the travelling fans on a fantastic night for the Melbourne club.

Palm Beach Sharks 0

Western Sydney Wanderers 2

(Delgado 26’, Hamill 86’)

The A-League powerhouse ended the Sharks’ FFA Cup run with a solid 2-0 win at Cbus Stadium on the Gold Coast.

The Sharks started confidently but Wanderers settled and soon eased past the Sharks. New signing Mitch Nichols released Sotirio on the right side of the box, and the youngster shimmied then crossed to the far post for Delgado to head home unmarked on debut.

Federico Piovaccari and Nichols had efforts on goal but the visitors weren’t able to add to their tally by the break.
Brendon Santalab came on in the second half for Piovaccari while another substitute Josh McDonald came close to making it 2-0 in a tight second half.

Jack Boxell, last year’s Cup hero for the Sharks, was introduced as the home side stepped up their efforts to equalise in front of the almost 1800 fans.

But in the final minutes Wanderers saw off the Sharks with a second after a corner wasn’t cleared and Brendan Hamill guided it home low past the keeper to make it 2-0 and book the red and black an FFA Cup quarter-final spot.

source:theffacup.com.au

A Jesse Makarounas brace has helped Melbourne Victory to a 3-2 win in their FFA Cup round of 16 match against Rockdale City Suns.

The victory was anything but comfortable for the A-League champions though as Rockdale took the match right to them on Wednesday night at Jubilee Oval.

Victory looked good for the opening 10 minutes of the match before an inspired Rockdale featuring former A-League starters Dylan Macallister, Marko Jesic, Paul Reid and Ivan Necevski showed their wares.

Macallister was instrumental early on, linking up with fellow forwards Toufic Alameddine and Hristijan Tanoski to cause the Victory defence several problems.

But it took 17 minutes for them to trouble Victory keeper Danny Vukovic for the first time when Alameddine had a skimming shot saved.

From there they piled on the pressure, but couldn’t find the final touch – the best chance falling to Tanoski who headed wide of the Victory goal when unmarked at the far post.

Victory found the net in the 20th minute through Besart Berisha but he saw that effort disallowed due to offside.

The Victorians made the most of a counter late in the half with Makarounas smashing a strike home after good lead up work from Daniel Georgievski and Fahid Ben Khalfallah.

The second half saw a fired-up Victory extend their lead through a diving header to Berisha, who took advantage of a great ball from Ben Khalfallah before Rockdale hit back through a penalty.

Tanovski’s strike hit the outstretched arm of Thomas Deng and Katie Patterson gave the penalty.

Former Newcastle Jet Jesic calmly stroked it into the bottom left corner of Vukovic’s goal, sending him the wrong way.

Minutes later the Suns had a penalty shout turned away when Carl Valeri slid at the legs of Jesic right on the edge of the area – replays showing he made contact just inside the box.

Makarounas made it 3-1 in the 64th minute when a superb curling strike beat the diving Necevski, bursting the side-netting.

Rockdale did not give up though and with a few minutes left chaos ensued when Leigh Broxham deflected one past Vukovic.

From there Rockdale went up a gear and had repeated corners in the last minute but just couldn’t beat desperate Victory defenders.

Wanderers overcome Palm Beach Sharks

Meanwhile Western Sydney Wanderers continued to put their inaugural FFA Cup blunder behind them by winning 2-0 over Palm Beach Sharks thanks to goals from Brendan Hamill and Delgado Morgado.

Hume City beat Sydney Olympic 3-1 with former Victory and Valencia attacker Theo Markelis stroking home the key goal.

The last team into the final eight were Oakleigh Cannons, who took advantage of a goalkeeping blunder from MetroStars keeper Daniel Godley to win 1-0, with Mirjan Pavlovic scoring the goal.

Victory now face Adelaide United in the quarter-finals but coach Kevin Muscat thinks they would have to improve significantly when they take on the Reds.

“It wasn’t great tonight,” he said.

“It should be an entertaining game (against Adelaide), now that both teams have got something to lose. There was only one team with something to lose tonight and in the end we just hung on.”

Victory striker Berisha was equally unhappy with the effort but gave plenty of praise to the Suns.

“We can play much better – but full credit to Rockdale – they played really good and I have respect for their performance,” he said.

Rockdale captain/coach, former Sydney FC player Reid was very happy with the effort of his team, even if they were unlucky.

“We went into halftime 1-0 down and I think we had the better chances. At the end of the day we can take a lot of pride in the performance,” he said.

“A bit of luck towards the end we might have got a draw and forced it into extra time.”

source:abc.net.au

Vidmar names 10 A-League players and six Socceroos for qualifiers against Turkey and FYROM

Olyroos coach Aurelio Vidmar has named a bolstered squad ahead of two matches against Turkey U21 and FYROM U21 in September.

The matches scheduled in Istanbul and Skopje are in preparation for January’s Olympic Games qualifiers and the AFC U23 Championships in Doha next year.

“These two matches against quality strong opposition are an important part of our preparations leading into next January,” Vidmar said.

“It will be a difficult challenge for us, with the players in the squad at various stages of preparation ranging from being in season, in pre-season or in some cases uncontracted, but we are confident that these issues will be resolved by October.

“There are a number of new faces included as well and this will be their chance to see if they can fit into the playing group.

“There are only a limited number of opportunities left for the players to claim a place in the final squad before we head to Doha in January and these matches will be a critical part of that process.

Present will be recent PAOK FC signing Terry Antonis, who made the switch from Sydney FC in the off-season, and Chris Ikonomidis, who is about to embark on his first full-season on Serie A club SS Lazio’s senior list.

The matches will feature on 4 September against Turkey U21, and September 7 against FYROM U21.

Squad:

Jack Duncan (Randers FC, Denmark), Jason Geria (Melbourne Victory FC), Giancarlo Gallifuoco (Swansea FC, England), James Donachie (Brisbane Roar FC), Milos Degenek (1860 Munich, Germany), Joshua Brillante (Empoli, Italy), Andrew Hoole (Sydney FC), Ryan Edwards (uncontracted), Jamie Maclaren (Brisbane Roar FC), Mustafa Amini (Randers FC, Denmark), Connor Pain (Melbourne Victory FC), John Hall (Adelaide United FC), Brandon Borrello (Brisbane Roar FC), Terry Antonis (PAOK FC, Greece), Scott Galloway (Melbourne Victory FC), Steven Ugarkovic (NK Osijek, Croatia), Daniel De Silva (Roda JC Kerkrade, Netherlands), Paul Izzo (Central Coast Mariners FC), Cameron Burgess (Fulham FC, England), Riley Woodcock (Sydney FC), Chris Ikonomidis (SS Lazio, Italy), Adam Taggart (Fulham FC, England), Brad Smith (uncontracted).

Source: SBS/FFA