Sydney United take full points in local derby
The who?s who of football in Australia turned out for the game: Zeljko Kalac, Tony Popovic, Ned Zelic, Steve Corica and Mark Rudan were all spotted at the ground, or high up in the stands, watching the game.
In a bygone era of the National Soccer League there wouldn?t have been a spare seat in the house for such a clash when all of the above were playing for the two teams on display in the middle in of the park.
However today, besides the truly faithful and loyal supporters, such an exciting, technical, tactical and entertaining clash in the NSW Premier League is sadly under-valued by football?s new brigade of cognoscenti and gravy-train riders of supporters.
The game itself came to life as early as the 2? minute of play when Marconi could well have taken the lead through Jared Lum. From just outside the box, he fired the ball straight into the post.
His coach Lee Sterrey, when questioned after the game, admitted that football can be a game of millimetres and an opening goal in Marconi?s favour would certainly have changed procedures.
?Definitely,? he said. ?Goals change matches but, after that, what other chances did we have when we had possession?
?We didn?t do enough with the ball, and as a realist as a coach, we are getting beat through naivety at the moment but Sydney United certainly deserved the win.?
Sydney United tended to dominate possession after that first courageous attempt by the Stallions, but there was nothing really of note to test James Chronopoulos in goal.
Todd Brodie fired wide a volley in the 21? minute after a long throw in but that was about it until the half hour mark.
Steve Hayes had the best chance to break the deadlock on the 30? minute mark but, despite a great run through the heart of the Marconi defence, he sprayed his shot just wide of the target thanks to a deflection by an alert Adel El Jamal.
Shortly afterwards youngster Giorgio Speranza, arguably one of the better players for Marconi, beautifully crossed for Christopher Nunes who unfortunately for the visitors couldn?t direct his header into goal.
In the 34? minute Mirjan Pavlovic beautifully set up Mitchell Thompson who fired his rocket against the post and at this stage, while there were no goals for either side, the post-hitting ledger was now even.
In the 39? minute though Glavas scored the first of his two goals after Hayes found him lurking with intent in the box and despite needing two bites of the cherry ? after initially being thwarted by Nunes ? he did finally manage to push the ball into the back of the net from close-range.
?They played two balls, three balls, four balls over the top and soon or later you?ve got to learn that they are trying to play them in behind and we got caught in bad situations,? said Lee Sterrey in a clear reference to the goal.
In the 44? minute Chronopoulos was judged to have brought down a flying Pavlovic in the box and Kris Griffith Jones, jogging on the spot, had no doubt that it was a penalty.
Glavas showed all of his expertise from the spot when he sent the Marconi custodian the wrong way to double the lead for the home-side.
In the end it was all Sydney United needed to secure the three points because the second stanza of play didn?t produce any goals.
?We wanted that third goal in the second half and we could have had it but, in the end, the game plan was to be very compact and to catch them on the break,? said Sydney United?s coach, the former Socceroo David Zdrilic.
?While we didn?t get a goal in the second-half, equally impressive is that we didn?t concede one either,? he stated.
Early in the second-half Elsid Barkhousir from close-range couldn?t direct his header into goal from a Pavlovic cross thanks to the good work from Speranza in defence.
Barkhousir had another chance in the 53? minute but his volley ended up just wide of the mark.
Marconi?s best chance during the second stanza of play fell to Erick Anabalon who, from close-range, couldn?t beat the goalkeeper and a myriad of defenders with his shot that ended up just wide.
From there it was all Sydney United. Thompson fired a powerful ball just wide in the 64? minute and in the 77? minute Pavlovic couldn?t quite control a ball from close range that was beautifully fired into him by Hayes.
Late in the game there were two more chances to Sydney United: Pavlovic fired wide of the goal with a lovely shot and Steven Veleski saw his shot end up just over the crossbar.
?I thought that we created some very good chances,? said David Zdrilic. ?We were patient and maintained our shape.
?Everything went to plan for us today. We got the goals, we could have had a couple more and we restricted them [Marconi] to very few chances if any at all.
?We?ve had quite a few changes in the side in recent weeks with players coming in and out, so I am very happy that we were able to knock the ball around today and play the way we want to play.
?It has been a positive week too because we have taken advantage of other teams around us on the ladder losing their matches.
?After a heavy defeat to Bonnyrigg last week, to come back and then beat Marconi is very good for us.?
Zdrilic?s counterpart Sterrey certainly echoed most of those sentiments and was taking nothing away from Sydney United.
?Congratulations to Sydney United,? he said. ?They deserved the win and were definitely the better team without a doubt.
?I played an attacking line up ? a midfield and a movement line up that?s quite quick ? but when we got our chance to play with the ball we just turned it over every two touches,? he concluded.
Meanwhile, in the Grade 20s Sydney United and Marconi Stallions played out a 1-1 draw.
Match Stats
Sydney United 2 (Glavas 39?, 44? (pen) )
Marconi Stallions 0
Sunday, June 20th, 2010
Sydney United Sports Centre, Edensor Park
Referee: Kris Griffith Jones
Assistant Referees: Nick Backo and Sarah Ho
Fourth Official: Thomas Klein
Sydney United: 1.Vedran Janjetovic; 7.Todd Brodie, 6.Joseph Vrkic, 5.Damon Collina, 10.Steve Hayes, 19.Mitchell Thompson, 23.Ivo Bosnar, 21.Sean Mitchell, 11.Luka Glavas (14.Petar Markovic 75?), 25.Mirjan Pavlovic (44.Kyle Ewart 90?), 16.Elsid Barkhousir (42.Steven Veleski 81?).
Substitutes Not Used: 2. Michael Cindric, 30. Ryan Norval
Yellow Cards: Thompson 90?
Red Cards: Nil
Marconi Stallions: 22.James Chronopoulos; 2.Brenton Rhodes, 5.Adel El Jamal (39.Sean O?Connell 75?), 8.Alex Canak, 17.Laurence Braude, 18.Jared Lum, 23.Christopher Nunes, 26.Nahuel Arrarte, 31.Mitchell Mallia, 34.Nathan Jagelman (9.Erick Anabalon 46?), 42.Giorgio Speranza.
Substitutes Not Used: 21.Jose Bello-Amigo, 38.Umut Tokdogan, 7.Tim McGowan
Yellow Cards: Braude 40?, Chronopoulos 44?
Red Cards: Nil
-By Joe Russo
