It?s hard not to admire the workmanship and determination of A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt who started the season poorly but are now coming home with a special wind in their sails.
Perhaps that energy and inspiration is coming directly from their enigmatic Tigers president Tony Raciti who could hardly contain his elation when Parisi scored.
?Our extraordinary run continues and from Round 7 to Round 22, if we were only to count those rounds, we would have finished approximately 12 points in front of any team on the ladder,? he proudly stated.
?It would have been extraordinarily disappointing to have lost here today.
?We said before the game that these are really 50/50 matches and that?s what we saw out there today.
?However, I thought that Marconi?s long ball game was definitely anti-football and I was disappointed with the referee too because Marconi focussed on the man and not the ball.?
If there were smiles all around the dressing rooms of the home-side, then across the corridor in the Marconi Stallions sheds one may have expected a different story. However, despite their elimination at the hands of their historic rivals for season 2010, the mood was upbeat. And it was with good reason.
Marconi had punched above their weight for too long.
A young side, who suffered the stop-start and then stop-again saga of some African imports who never eventuated, the Stallions displayed quality and playing style across the park not often seen from some other teams.
The future of their coach Lee Sterrey is still to be decided but the former national coach of Fiji made it clear that he would love to continue in the role at the club that he considers is his own because of his long association with Marconi as a player, youth coach, assistant coach and two stints as senior coach.
?I thought we had a good season,? he said. ?I?ve worked with the youngsters at the club and they have done a tremendous job but I can?t speak highly enough of the core senior group of players because they had led these young players all the way.
?It?s my third stint here as coach if you include youth coaching and I definitely want to stay on.
?It was always going to be difficult when we lost four of our best players, but I certainly want to continue on next year and the rest is up to the club.?
The match itself didn?t really get going until well into the first-half. In the 13? minute a lovely cross from Nick Rizzo from the left was placed dangerously into the box, but Giorgio Speranza beautifully headed the ball away for the visitors.
This was about as close as it got early on and it was clear that it wouldn?t get any easier. It was a tight affair, one could say in a most understated way.
Both teams were not prepared to concede any space to each other and it was obvious what this game meant to them both: a place in the next round of the finals of the NSW Premier League.
There was a real finals atmosphere in fact about the place from the moment one entered the gates of Leichhardt Oval.
In the 19? minute Stephen Kayes somehow found some space on the edge of the box, but his shot was well stopped by James Chronopoulos.
In the 30? minute Franco Parisi created an opening through the middle when he superbly cut a path in the heart of the Marconi midfield and defence but, as he charged towards goal leaving three players fallen in his wake like dominoes, he saw his powerful finish only marginally go wide of the intended target.
Marconi?s reply arrived almost immediately afterwards when Speranza sent in a dangerous cross from the left to Aleksandar Canak who fired his first time volley just over the crossbar.
In the 36? minute Canak did all the hard work and nicely set up Jared Lum, but the youngster had one too many thoughts about what to do with the ball at his feet and, so when he finally pulled the trigger, his shot was deflected for a corner.
In the 39? minute Marconi had arguably their best chance of the first stanza of play when Christopher Nunes found Jason Naidovski in the box but Danial Cummins came sliding home with a magnificent tackle to deflect the ball away for a corner.
From the ensuing corner taken by Mitchell Mallia it was Canak who rose above the pack to head the ball just over the crossbar.
Early in the second-half a powerful drive from Parisi from outside the box was well saved once again by Chronopoulos, but then Marconi took control without actually scoring.
In the 57? minute a powerful shot by Mallia forced Matthew Nash into a brilliant diving save and then a minute later Christopher Nunes set up an unmarked Jason Naidovski who fired over from almost point-blank range.
Lum then set up Naidovski in the 63? minute but his shot was fortuitously deflected by a defender into the hands of goalkeeper Nash.
In the 68? minute Nick Rizzo had a diagonal shot that tested Chronopoulos before Parisi sent home the only goal of the game 10? minutes later when he took advantage of a defensive error and fired a rocket into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.
?Franco Paris was outstanding and was definitely a great player for us today,? said Tony Raciti.
?Very little credit though is given to our whole back four and our goalkeeper. They never put a foot wrong all day in what was a flawless performance from the back four.?
Lee Sterrey saw the goal somewhat differently: ?The passage of play before the goal was our own fault because it was really the only passage of play where we allowed them to do anything on the ball? he said.
?Our tenacity was really good considering that we had four or five players out again today. I thought we set up the game well and hit them on the counter and on the break.
?We were right in the mix ? we were younger and fitter and I would have been happy to go into extra-time and I think we may have run them over.
?However, good luck to them [A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt]. They certainly hurt teams from the midfield forward and good luck to them because they are a good football side.?
Meanwhile, in the Grade 20s division Bankstown City FC defeated Sutherland Sharks 3-1 after scores were locked at 1-1 at full time.
Michael Svircevic opened the scores for Sutherland in the 9? minute before Cameron White equalised for Bankstown in the 40? minute.
In the extra period Troy Danaskos scored twice for Bankstown in the 97? and 106? minutes of play. The last gaol was beautifully finished after a spectacular through ball.
Match Stats

A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt Tigers 1 (Franco Parisi 78?)

Marconi Stallions 0

Sunday, 8^th August, 2010

Leichhardt Oval, Leichhardt
Referee: James Lewis
Assistant Referees: Lance Greenshields and Scott Edeling
Fourth Official: Khodr Yaghi
A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt Tigers: 1.Matthew Nash; 2.Mark Byrnes, 3.John Kelso, 4.Andrew Vitucci (17.Matthew Fsadni 65?), 5.Michael West, 7.Stephen Kayes, 19.Danial Cummins, 8.Anthony Hartshorn, 11.Nick Rizzo, 9.Robert Younis 10.Franco Parisi.
Substitutes Not Used: 13.David D?Apuzzo, 14.Paul O?Grady, 18.Bishara Stephan, 40.Terry Dal Broi 
Yellow Cards: Younis 29?, Cummins 54?, Parisi 56?, Fsadni 84?
Red Cards: Nil
Marconi Stallions: 22.James Chronopoulos; 4.Umut Tokdogan (34.Nathan Jagelman 79?), 5.Adel El Jamal (11.Matthew Gordon 88?), 8.Aleksandar Canak, 16.Jason Naidovski (39.Sean O?Connell 79?), 18.Jared Lum, 23.Christopher Nunes, 25.Dominic Trimboli, 26.Nahuel Arrarte, 31.Mitchell Mallia, 42.Giorgio Speranza.
Substitutes Not Used: 21.Jose Bello-Amigo, 14.Daniel Ott.
Yellow Cards: Trimboli 70?, Nunes 76?
Red Cards: Canak 82?
Player Ratings:
3 – Franco Parisi (ALT)
2 – Mark Byrnes (ALT)
1 – Jared Lum (MS)
-By Joe Russo