‘Deja Vu’ as Berries defeat Blues in derby opener at Belmore
-It is not out of the question ? though West Sydney Berries arrived at Belmore Sports Ground on a glorious late summer evening and left having dented all the pre-season hype and conjecture in a match that offered world class goals and exceptional football.
As early as the first minute saw Sydney Olympic?s Peter McPherson take a corner that was knocked back to him and his deep centre found Emmanuel Zunino inside the box. The number three had time to control the ball, beat a defender before scuffing his shot wide on a night where little seemed to go right for the home team.
Matthew Mayora was next to show for the home side but his effort found the side netting before the Berries were awarded a free-kick 25-yards out in what was surely their first foray into the home side?s territory.
Aheleas Kotsopoulos let loose a left-footed shot that beguiled the defence as it curled up and over the wall into the top left-hand corner of Michael Turnbull?s goal, leaving the hapless custodian to get his first touch of the ball when picking it out of the net.
Ten minutes later, Mayora played an exquisite ball forward for Tolgay Ozbey ? a full 35-yards with the outside of his right foot – only for the striker to be adjudged as handling the orb to control it when clean through. This was shortly followed by another effort when Berries goalkeeper Hamish McLean was rounded but the ball couldn?t be dragged back from the acute angle with both Anthony Hartshorn and Ozbey clear in the middle of the box.
Not that it was all Olympic as the Berries did better than produce a workman like performance, although they did look flat during the opening stanza, another goal near the break was pretty to watch for any football officiando as Liam Austin volleyed past the hapless Turnbull after a full length sweeping move from the visitors.
Adam Biddle replaced debutant David Smith at the start of the second period and was quickly followed by Peter Zorbas coming on for Emmanuel Zunino as Aytek Genc rang the changes and reshuffled his pack as Anthony Doumanis entered the fray for Matthew Mayora.
Sydney Olympic won a free-kick on the edge of the box over on the left and Ozbey finally opened his account for the home team when his sweetly struck effort rippled the net with the ?keeper stranded and the celebrations began as a fight back now looked likely.
The renewed hope lasted only a few moments as, from the re-start, the Berries waltzed up the other end and restored the two goal lead.
Dimitri Zakilas got an the score sheet with yet another extraordinary goal as the Blues defence looked lacklustre and were guilty of not concentrating after their side had scored; a cardinal sin in football.
The home-side had a marvellous opportunity to get back into it when Jack Sobczyk was harshly cautioned for a foul inside the box that saw Ozbey step up to take the spot-kick. He neatly rifled it low to the ?keepers right and was wheeling away when referee Lewis ordered a re-take for encroachment. Sadly, the striker couldn?t repeat the trick and McLean comfortably smothered the shot as the Berries held on.
Ozbey was cautioned when he headed Adam Wither as they forged toward the box. The striker went down under a challenge which appeared just on the edge of the penalty area. The defender protested the tackle was outside the box, the crowd roared for a spot-kick and the official reached for a card, presumably for diving.
Aytek Genc said afterwards:
?The graft of the opposition is what won them the game today.
?They closed us down, restricted our play and they defended well.
?Add to that two world class goals and that is what made the difference.?
When questioned about final ball options he said: ?We made a few mistakes today, you do in every game but we have a few new lads here and we?ll get it right.
?Our defence wasn?t the best at times but we?ll move on from here because although no-one wants to lose the first game of the season, we can learn from this and hopefully progress from here.?
A delighted Berries coach John Calleja stated:
?Apart from the opening minutes I?d have to say everything seemed to go our way in the first-half particularly but in saying that we were a little bit flat with our possession.
?We closed them down and stopped them playing their free flowing style of play and produced a very pleasing team performance where everyone stood up and was counted.
?I?ve told the lads that although this was a great win for us it isn?t going to make our season and although we can celebrate the three points we must concentrate and get our heads together for the visit of Penrith-Nepean next week.?
Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 1 (Tolgay Ozbey 60?)
West Sydney Berries 3 (Aheleas Kotsopoulos 7?, Liam Austin 44?, Dimitri Zakilas 61?)
Sunday, 1st March, 2009
Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore
Referee: James Lewis
Assistant Referees: Alex Glasgow, Murray Wilson
Fourth Official: David Morris
Crowd: 1150
Sydney Olympic: 26.Michael Turnbull; 2.Bobby Dragas, 3.Emmanuel Zunino (22.Peter Zorbas 53?), 4.Mirko Jurilj, 7.Peter McPherson, 9.Anthony Hartshorn, 11.Tolgay Ozbey, 15.Matthew Mayora (10.Anthony Doumanis 65?), 16.Jordan Simpson, 19.Kevin Chun, 27.David Smith (18.Adam Biddle 46?)
Substitutes Not Used: 20.Sam Emmanouil, 5.Michael Cindric
Yellow Cards: Peter McPherson 11?, Matthew Mayora 15?, Tolgay Ozbey 60?
Red Cards: Nil
West Sydney Berries: 1.Hamish McLean; 3.Omar Saadi, 4.Adam Wither (Lorenzo Muchucha 94?), 5.Michael Cunico, 6.Jack Sobczyk, 7.Peter Peralta, 10.John Tsironis (12.James Kovas 75?), 11.Aheleas Kotsopoulos, 14.Liam Austin (Ryan Jones 85?), 16.Kosta Lagoudakis, 19.Dimitri Zakilis.
Substitutes Not Used: 17.Chris Gaitazis, 22.Trinity Allen
Yellow Cards: Peter Peralta 61?, Jack Sobczyk 78?, Aheleas Kotsopoulos 82?
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 ? Peter Peralta (WSB)
2 ? Aheleas Kotsopoulos (WSB)
1 ? Peter McPherson (SO)
-By Micky Brock
