Sydney United 58 take all the points at Lambert Park
After the game Sydney United 58 FC coach John-Paul de Marigny acknowledged that the three points meant a lot to his club.
?The boys worked extremely hard today and it?s a completely different game because it?s a game that you have to play in their half as much as possible,? he said.
?They [APIA] don?t take any risks and I thought our boys worked extremely, extremely hard and deserved the result.
?This [Lambert Park] is not a place where you can take risks and they are accustomed to this ground.
?We went against our grain a little bit. Today was a massive game for us and the three points mean a lot. We were very disciplined, very strong mentally and worked extremely hard.?
In the 13? minute a cross from the right by Wandi Jajaw made its way into the middle for Ethan Galbraith but his header was no trouble for Vedran Janjetovic who is arguably one of the finest goalkeepers in the NSW Premier League.
The tough and combative encounter certainly wasn?t going to render a lot of goal mouth action from general play and therefore the set pieces became crucial.
Sydney United 58 FC opened the scoring in the 21? minute when a corner made its way out to Ivo Bosnar who slotted the ball home nicely from just outside the box.
Ironically, it was Bosnar who had forced the corner in the first place with a shot that took a slight deflection away from the face of goal otherwise it may have actually been a goal there and then.
APIA-Leichhardt?s reply a couple of minutes later was also from a corner when David D?Apuzzo was given the ball by Andrew Bevin, but unfortunately for the home side Janjetovic made a great save.
Very late in the first-half Bevin had the ball at his feet but he cut the shot across the goal and perhaps the best chance of the first half went begging for APIA Leichhardt.
In the second-half, the best of the early chances fell to Sydney United 58 FC when a long ball forward made its way to new Reds addition Mirjan Pavlovic, who has returned to the club after his stint with the Wellington Phoenix, but, when he only had the out-coming goalkeeper to beat, he shot just wide of the intended target.
APIA-Leichhardt hit back with goal to Bevin after some delightful lead up work by Wandi Jajaw in the 67? minute. It was Jajaw who fought well and then delivered an accurate ball over to the unmarked Bevin and the young New Zealander struck gold once again this season for the Tigers.
A few minutes later Sydney United were back in the lead thanks to a long ball that made its way over to Ante Tomic who then drew out goalkeeper Stefan Giglio and, with an acute shot, scored much to the delight of the Sydney United bench.
APIA tried hard to get back into the match and two good chances in the space of a few minutes fell to Bevin.
His first chance was self-created when he ran a long way only to finish rather poorly with a weak shot.
A few minutes later he hit the side netting with a shot from close range that he was trying to squeeze into the goal.
After the game a disappointed Tigers captain Michael West spoke proudly about his team.
?I think they [Sydney United 58 FC] didn?t have a genuine chance in the second-half and we gifted them a very soft goal against the run of play,? he said.
?It?s heartbreaking really but we?ll dust ourselves off and we?ll be right. The boys battled hard especially against a good team like United. We have a few boys coming back next week from injury so we?ll be stronger.
?We have been on a very good run lately so we won?t be too disheartened about today because we definitely deserved a point.?
Also, after the game, the APIA Leichhardt president Mr Tony Raciti was very keen to be philosophical about the result because his club expects a big announcement fairly soon
?Although we are very disappointed about the result, I thought that APIA was definitely the better team today,? he said.
?A draw at best in the worst case scenario would have been fair, because Sydney United didn?t really do enough to win the game.
?However, we are very excited and focussed on our world class upgrade that is going to happen in September to Lambert Park.
?There will be some other news coming out of the club in the next 8 to 12 weeks. There is a serious amount of funding that will come to the club, even though from what source I cannot disclose, but there will be a mega 2,500 seat grandstand on the Marion St end of the ground that will be built.
?This all takes precedence this year over any actual results that we achieve on the field even though we are really playing very well,? he concluded.
Match Stats
APIA-Leichhardt Tigers 1 (Andrew Bevin 67?)
Sydney United 58 FC 2 (Ivo Bosnar 21?, Ante Tomic 73?)
Sunday 27th May, 2012
Lambert Park Leichhardt
Referee: James Lewis
Assistant Referees: Adam Coombes and Scott Edeling
Fourth Official: Nathan Roberts
APIA-Leichhardt Tigers: 1.Stefan Giglio; 2.Mark Byrnes, 3.Adel El Jamal, 4.Murisoo Gil, 5.Michael West, 8.Adam D?Apuzzo, 9.Ethan Galbraith, 12.Andrew Bevin, 13.David D?Apuzzo (17.Sam Salameh 72?), 15.Brad Bartels, 20.Wandi Jajaw (6.Danial Cummins 78?).
Substitutes Not Used: GK Jean-Luc Pilot, 18.Brendan Reilly,
Yellow Cards: Galbraith 51?, Byrnes 59?, Salameh 89?
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney United 58 FC: 1.Vedran Janjetovic; 3.David Wilkinson (7.Todd Brodie 14?), 12.Kyle Ewart 42?), 4.Michael Cindric, 6.Mitchell Stamatellis, 8.Jared Lum, 10.Steve Hayes, 13.Ben Vidaic (17.Mark Cindric 90?+2?), 16.Stjepan Paric, 18.Mirjan Pavlovic, 21.Ante Tomic, 23.Ivo Bosnar
Substitutes Not Used: 20.I. Johnson
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Ivo Bosnar (SU)
2 – Michael Cindric (SU)
1 – Mark Byrnes (ALT)
-By Joe Russo
