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Eagles cruise past the Vipers for a showdown with Quake

31 Jan 2010

After an even start to the game where both sides traded goal attempts it was the Eagles who opened the scoring when Marino Musumeci stepped inside onto his left foot and drilled a low shot past Danny Georgakopoulos in goal.
Shortly after Sydney City made it two when Musumeci got inside his marker swiftly dribbled across court and found Ross Fazzolaro who lashed a shot into the far corner of the net to make it 2-0.
With a two goal cushion the Eagles eased off slightly and looked to maintain possession as their fast movement off the ball and quick counter attacks was often troubling the Vipers.
Led by Yavuz Ekinci at the back Mascot were always looking to get back into the game and came close to scoring when Ekinci played a nice one-two with Robert Issa but his shot was brilliantly saved by Peter Spathis in goal.
Mostafa Mohebbee was unlucky to see his shot strike the post plus a long range speculator from deep inside the Vipers half struck the corner of the post and crossbar and bounced out of play.
With Sydney City on 5 fouls the Vipers were unlucky not to get a penalty shot that might have changed the momentum of the game when a Mascot player was blatantly shirt tugged when on attack but the officials missed the offence and the chance went begging.
Just before half time the Eagles grabbed an important third goal when Ross Fazzolaro stole possession of the ball and ran almost the length of the court playing 2 excellent quickfire one-two?s with Chris Hanly before burying the ball into the net for a brilliant goal.
Early in the second half the Eagles almost scored again when Chris Zeballos combined with Marino Musumeci but Roger Cua made a great block to prevent a goal.
A few minutes later keeper Roger Cua was straight red carded for preventing an Eagles attack when way outside his area.
With the Vipers committing players forward the Eagles scored from a quick counter when Chris Zeballos slipped the ball past the keeper after Danny Georgakopoulos had blocked his first shot.
With Daniel McCann unavailable and Mostafa Mohebbee playing injured with a heavily strapped thigh an under strength Vipers were being outplayed and went further behind when Heber Carvalho weaved his way through the middle of the court and slammed his shot into the far corner to make it 5-0.
The Vipers opened their account when Yavuz Ekinci attacked the Eagles area, his attempt was parried by the keeper into the path of Robert Issa who made no mistake from close range.
The Vipers side have staged some dramatic comebacks on several occasions this season and they scored another goal to make it 5-2 when Robert Issa collected the ball from a quick counter and slotted the ball past the keeper.
The Eagles were in no mood to let things slip and went on the offensive. Heber Carvalho fired over, Dylan Maloney toe poked a ball just wide, Carvalho shot just wide from a Maloney pass then Heber Carvalho scored when he sweetly rolled the ball past the keeper to make it 6-2.
With 4 minutes remaining the comeback kings the Mascot Vipers scored two quick fire goals with Engin Ongel slamming the first then shortly after Robert Issa grabbed his hat-trick when he nicely flicked the ball up, turned and volleyed the ball into the net to make it 6-4.
Suddenly with only 2 minutes remaining there was a bit of doubt that the Eagles might not win the game after dominating most of the match.
With Yavuz Ekinci weaving his magic the Vipers continued to press hard for a fifth with Peter Spathis making fine block to deny Reuben Lagos and then desperately stopping a Robert Issa backflick on the goalline.
In the dying moments of the game Sydney city re-asserted their dominance when Chris Zeballos slid the ball into an open goal following a quick counter attack to seal an unlikely semi final scoreline 7-4.
Depsite a gallant fightback in the second half from Mascot the Eagles controlled most of the game and ran out deserved victors to set up a mouth watering clash with the Quake next weekend.
Teams
Sydney City Eagles                                                       Mascot Vipers
2. Peter Spathis                                                            1. Danny Georgakopoulos
1. Tudor Vasile                                                              4. Nick Hanna
12. Chris Zeballos                                                         11. Roger Cua
13. Ross Fazzolaro                                                        14. Reuben Lagos
14. Giovanni Leuzzi                                                        88 Engin Ongel
17. Marino Musumeci                                                     87. Robert Issa
19. Heber Carvalho                                                        10. Yavuz Ekinci
20. Dylan Maloney                                                         85. Mostafa Mohebbee
11. Chris Hanly
15. Jamie Amendolia