Macallister the hero as Suns sink Olympic
Blustery conditions greeted Rockdale City Suns and Sydney Olympic at Ilinden Sports Centre on a sunny but chilly winter?s afternoon in Rockdale for a match that promised much and didn?t disappoint.
A heavy head clash saw Peter Triantis need attention to a split head that produced plenty of blood in the 5? minute, as the match was held up for over 5? minutes as the Blues medical staff treated the young midfielder.
Triantis was subsequently subbed for Kataiba Elrich in the 11? minute when Rockdale had a corner cleared off the line in desperate defence from a Dylan Macallister header in what had been a lacklustre start to the game.
The battle for midfield was fierce with neither giving way in a hotly contested encounter with periodic half-chances only being produced as each side probed for the weakness that would allow a telling opportunity to be produced.
Rockdale, aside from the Macallister header cleared from the line, produced a move down the right that ended with the ball bobbling around the visiting defence before falling to Tommy Cirjak, on the edge of the box, to unleash an effort that slipped narrowly past Paul Henderson?s right hand post.
The response from the visitors was to send in a corner of their own that Ryan Norval, the Suns goalkeeper, fumbled under pressure from the Olympic forwards; the ball was eventually cleared up field.
The game was held up again when Sam Awad went down in the centre circle in the 31? minute and required treatment in a physical encounter that was never dirty but certainly not one for the squeamish.
Elrich found himself in the referee Andrew Best?s book when going in hard on Norval in a tackle he was always second best to reach and a scuffle ensued, handbag stuff really, that was to see Brett Studman join Elrich on a yellow.
Ricky Perinich received a red card for a second caution 2? minutes into stoppage time at the end of the first-half to give Olympic the numerical advantage and they almost took the chance to head into the break in front when a Sam Awad header went across the face of goal with Norval scrambling.
The first-half had seen little in the way of goal action yet contained plenty of highlights without a goal to show for the sparse opportunities created.
Rockdale had claims for a penalty from the kick-off in the second-half when Macallister went down under a tackle in the area that was waved on as the ten-man home side came out of the traps strongly and took it to Olympic before they were able to make their superior numbers count by utilising the wings and stretching the home defence.
Suns captain Peter Apolevski slipped the ball to Macallister who in turn played in Pece Cvetanovski on 54? minutes, producing a point-blank save by Henderson in the Olympic goal. The shot-stopper was able to recover from and bat away before Takuya Muruyama lost the ball to David Gullo that produced another fine save by Norval at the other end. Norval repeated the feat seconds later to deny Olympic the opener as the match sparked into life.
Henderson was forced to push the ball over the crossbar in the 58? minute from a Tommy Cirjak free-kick from an acute angle as the scoring opportunities the game had earlier promised began to eventuate in a more open end-to-end period of the game.
Rockdale were awarded a penalty in the 63? minute when Apolevski was upended in the box by Troy Danaskos. Macallister took the spot-kick and sent the ball straight down the middle to spoil Sydney Olympic?s afternoon by giving the home side the lead.
Sydney Olympic went up the other end and when the ball came across for Sam Awad the striker appeared to handle the ball and was cautioned and subsequently substituted for Matthew Mayora in the 67? minute.
Macallister added a second for the day when heading home from another corner by slipping his marker as the day got better for the home side and Olympic had that sinking feeling.
Olympic fought back and produced several excellent chances that Norval dealt with or whistled wide before the numbers regained parity when Matthew Mayora received his second caution since coming off the bench and exited the field in the 84? minute as another twist to the match appeared.
Danaskos fired into the side netting from a smart Olympic move and the writing was on the wall in this local derby, summing up their performance on a day that held much before the kick-off and saw them leave Ilinden Sports Centre with nothing.
Peter Tsekenis, Sydney Olympic coach, stated afterwards:
?When you go down to ten players as Rockdale did you always seem to lift a gear and that was something I was worried about and to be honest I don?t think they had too much and we looked comfortable other than for about 5? minutes before the penalty in the second-half, which I am dubious about, where they put us under a lot of pressure.
?In my opinion the referee evened things up with the send-off of (Matthew) Mayora, bowing to pressure from around the ground and everything changed from there.
?We were probably our own worst enemies today where we had maybe four clear cut chances that we didn?t put away before they scored the penalty but take that away and we should have had a couple of goals there which we didn?t take and scoring breeds confidence and they scored and it lifted them. Though, take nothing away from Rockdale, credit to them for their performance.
?The big loss for us was in the middle of the park when we lost Peter Triantis to injury but that said I feel both sides didn?t play well in the first-half and with us both not playing for a couple of weeks and training indoors, not using that as an excuse, is perhaps part of the reason why and can be a telling factor.?
A somewhat happier Suns coach Mark Rudan commented:
?It was always going to be a battle against Olympic, they are the reigning champions and probably the most physical side in the league and very direct in the way they play too.
?We had to make sure we matched them in that department because the game isn?t always about tactics and formations but about intensity and you have to be up for games like these.
?I thought that with the send-off just before half-time it was a touch unlucky and I wasn?t quite sure what had happened whether Askin (Oygur) had taken a short free-kick or what ever, although we do that in these situations as I always encourage we play out of positions like this rather than lump it long but it happened and a lot of the boys were down after that.
?We set our stall out and I thought Askin and (Dylan) Macallister, who held the ball up well today, without singling out any players as the entire team performed well and we got the result we deserved against the champions.?
Match Stats
Rockdale City Suns 2 (Macallister 64? (pen), 72?)
Sydney Olympic 0
Sunday 17th June, 2012
Ilinden Sports Centre, Rockdale
Referee: Andrew Best
Assistant Referees: Adam Coombes & Michael Robertson
Fourth Official: Nathan Roberts
Rockdale City: 1.Ryan Norval; 2.Takuya Muruyama, 6.Joshua Lawson, 5.Pece Cvetanovski, 7.Peter Apolevski (C) (12.Huseyin Jasli 69?), 8.Paul Kohler, 9.Dylan Macallister, 18.Alec Urosevski (3.Giorgio Speranza 90?+2?), 11.Tom Cirjak (16.Anthony Perri 88?), 21.Ricky Perinich, 23.Askin Oygur
Substitutes Not Used: 14.Danny Slaveski, 22.Aaron Liddell
Yellow Cards: Perinich 26?, 45?
Red Cards: Perinich 45?+2?
Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson; 2.Emmanuel Giannaros, 3.Brett Studman, 7.Phil Makrys (C), 8.Peter Triantis (17.Kutaiba Elrich 11?), 10.Chris Triantis, 11.Will Angel, 12.Troy Danaskos, 14.Sam Awad (24.Matthew Mayora 67?), 19.David Gullo (15.Zak Elrich 62?), 21.Marton Vass
Substitutes Not Used: 1.Anthony Bouzanos, 6.Marco Sama
Yellow Cards: K.Elrich 39?, Studman 40?, Awad 66?, Mayora 74?, Angel 90?
Red Cards: Mayora 84?
-By Micky Brock
