McDonald’s Cup Semi-Final: Blacktown crash and burn as Spirit FC progress to McDonald?s Cup Final
The win has booked Spirit into the Grand-Final of the Cup, proving the quality of the NSW Super League competition is high.
The semi-final kicked off with an early flurry of goals. To the surprise of many, although not those who have seen the amount of upsets in the McDonald?s Cup this season, Spirit were the first to score.
In the 7? minute, Brendan Griffin played the ball through traffic on the edge of the penalty-area onto the feet of Leo Papanicolaou who turned and laid the ball back through the traffic to Adam Peatey who had time to touch the ball and set for his shot. Peatey placed the ball around Matt Ryan in the Blacktown goal, and just inside the post, into the back of the net. It was a superb strike along the slippery surface and confirmed Papanicolaou?s confidence in his teammate when he played the ball back into what seemed a worse position than his own.
3? minutes later and Blacktown were back on level terms as Joel Chianese in the middle of the park played the ball out to the right to Travis Major. Major went on a strong run down the right flank and once he hit the goal line he tricked his opponent and put in a good cross to the far side of the target. Tolgay Ozbey was able to retrieve the ball, drive to the target from the left and then fire home the ball. The effort packed such a punch that it put a hole into the side netting.
Spirit FC was not done, though. In the 17? minute Luka Dukic back-heeled the ball out of danger, or so it had seemed, however Griffin sprinted from the middle of the park to claim the loose ball and took a quick snap shot. The ball came off Griffin?s boot and went the wrong side of the post.
In the 26? minute Papanicolaou was denied by a correct offside flag as Peatey put a brilliant through ball down the middle of the park. 2? minutes later Joel Chianese was also denied as Tolgay Ozbey laid the ball back from the right and Chianese looked to have thumped the ball home only for a last second dive from Murray Nelson which saw him palm the ball away from danger.
This should have been a warning for the visitors but was one they failed to heed as in the 29? minute Blacktown City scored a second goal. A Blacktown player had been crunched in midfield but referee Andrew Best showed great judgment in playing the advantage, with the ball being played through to Ante Deur. Deur fired the ball home from a small angle but Nelson made himself big enough to deny the talented Blacktown player. Unfortunately for Nelson?s team the ball only deflected away and the first to pounce on the loose ball was Chianese who slotted it home at the far post to give his Blacktown City side the lead.
The play was then constantly interrupted due in part to the slippery conditions and also thanks to poor tackling from both sides. The last chance of the first-half looked to have fallen to Spirit in the 39? minute as S Wright put in a free-kick to Papanicolaou on the edge of the area but as he turned on the ball the defence combined to squeeze him off the ball and clear the ball away from danger.
Blacktown started the stronger team in the second period and this dominance was almost consummated with a goal. Joel Chianese took a shot from distance that came off the goalkeeper and fell into the path of Deur just metres from the goal. However, as he slid in to hit it, the defence managed to recover and deflect the shot the wrong side of the far post and to the relative safety of a corner.
In the 55? minute Papanicolaou proved himself to be more of a thorn in the side of his opponents. The Blacktown defence gave the ball away cheaply and the Spirit striker was sent goalwards by a team mate. He skipped past two defenders on his run and despite the attention of a third was able to slide the ball goalwards, back across the body of Matt Ryan. Ryan, however, was able to dive full stretch and stop the progression of the ball in a fantastic save to deny his opponents an equaliser.
The next thing to deny Spirit an equaliser was the post as in the 62? minute. Substitute Evan Daglis took a shot from the middle of the park that beat Matt Ryan but cannoned off the post. It landed in the path of Adam Peatey who found himself in a great position but like so many others this season he was denied by a great one on one save from Ryan.
Finally Papanicolaou lived up to his threats in the 70? minute as he beat the offside trap and chipped an advancing Matt Ryan to score the equaliser for Spirit.
The game then ebbed and flowed and in the 78? minute it looked as if Blacktown would re-take the lead as a corner was not cleared and Luke Austin thundered the ball straight at the target only to be headed off the line brilliantly by the desperate Spirit FC defence.
With 10? minutes to go Zac Cairncross went on a good run through the middle of the park but he could not keep his shot under the cross bar. However the good lead up play of Blacktown was coming to nothing, the shots were well off target and the Spirit side were still a major threat.
Disaster nearly stuck Blacktown in the 86? minute when Mirko Jurilj played the ball back to Matt Ryan who completely miskicked the clearance and Griffin tried to steal the loose ball and score the winner. However the ball spun away from him and Blacktown cleaned up the mess in time.
For Spirit it marked a small period of domination after Blacktown had had so much of the ball but they could not take advantage of this with a shot on goal.
Right on full-time Daglis earned a free-kick on the right corner of the D to earn Spirit their final chance of normal time. However, Matthew Peatey could only curl his shot over the wall but straight into the hands of Ryan.
The early parts of extra-time did not see any shots on target although there were opportunities to take shots created with both defences able to counter these efforts. The offside flag denied Spirit a half chance and keeper Nelson outran substitute Bernie Ibini to the ball to stop a chance for Blacktown.
In the 111? minute Travis Major put a seemingly harmless ball across the goal line but Paul Nicoloau almost turned the ball into the back of his own net with Nelson having to dive low at the last second once more to deny Blacktown taking an unusual lead. Then, in the 113? minute, Ozbey went down and the referee awarded a free-kick right on the edge of the area, although some of the home fans were calling for a penalty. The resultant attempt was off target from Ozbey.
The Spirit defence stood strong at the back as Blacktown tried to attack once more in the second-half of extra time. Blacktown also showed they were no fools in defence either, with strong tackling and excellent marshalling of their opponents.
In the 114? minute substitute and former Blacktown player Akwasi Agyei was given a great chance but his shot in front of an empty goal went agonisingly wide. There was not to be too much anguish for the Spirit FC bench though, as in the 116? minute Spirit did take the lead. A free-kick was conceded outside the area and captain Nicoloau lined up to take it. Keeping it along the ground he seemed to place, rather than shoot, the ball into the far corner, beating Ryan and giving Spirit what would be the winning goal.
Right on full-time Papanicolaou broke through once more but this time Jurilj showed all his experience in preventing him from scoring and getting the ball away from danger. However for Blacktown there were to be no more chances up front and Spirit had engineered an historic win.
Aytec Genc was once again disappointed with the performance of his Blacktown City side.
?Defensively we were poor tonight, we did silly things at times. We just were not good enough once again. At the moment we are simply not good enough.?
Spirit FC assistant Steve Appleby was delighted, especially after the difficult week at has been at the club.
?It has been a stressful week but the boys were up for it tonight and you could see the commitment out there on the park tonight.
?Blacktown are a good side but tonight we just wanted it that bit more. Leo (Papanicolaou) was superb tonight up front but I can?t go past our midfield, their work rate was incredible. We now have to get back on track in the league and take one game at a time but tonight was fantastic for our club.?
Match Stats
Blacktown City FC 2 (T Ozbey 10? J Chianese 29?)
Spirit FC 3 (A Peatey 7? Papanicolaou 70? Nicoloau 116?) After extra time
(Blacktown City FC 2 Spirit FC 2 at full time)
McDonalds Cup Semi Final
Tuesday 22nd June, 2010
Lily Homes Stadium
Referee: Andrew Best
Assistant Referees: Adam Coombes and Steve Nguyen
Crowd: 100
Blacktown City FC: 20.Matt RYAN; 4.Mirko JURILJ, 5.Luka DUKIC (6.Matt PRESSELLO 90?), 7.Luke ROODENBERG, (8.Chris BEDZO 112?) 9.Kain RASTALL (12.Bernie IBINI 96?), 16.Ante DEUR, (13.Lachlan CAHILL 59?), 17.Joel CHIANESE, 18.Travis MAJOR, 19.Tolgay OZBEY, 22.Zac CAIRNCROSS, 23.Luke AUSTIN
Substitutes Not Used: 1.Matt NEMES
Yellow Cards: Cairncross 30?, Chianese 65?, Cahill 79?, Austin 89?
Red Cards: Nil
Spirit FC: 1.Murray NELSON; 3.Lachlan HARTE, 2.Daniel CUNNINGHAM, 4.Paul NICOLOAU, 20.Scott WRIGHT, 6.Matthew PEATEY, 14.Mike IRWIN, 12.Brendan GRIFFIN (15.Akwasi AGYEI 96?), 9.Adam PEATEY, 8.Joshua DEKELLY (17.Evan DAGLIS 24?) (16.Grant MAUNDREL 100?), 10.Leonardo PAPANICOLAOU
Substitutes Not Used: 5.Nicholas TRIMBLE, 51.James IRWIN
Yellow Cards: Harte 75?
Red Cards: Nil
-By Stuart Jones
