Wolves and Suns play out hard fought draw
Rockdale City Suns and South Coast Wolves battled it out at John Crehan Park in Cringila as the full moon rose above the stadium in a keenly contested match that eventually saw a one-all draw transpire with no lack of incident.
The opening exchanges were hard fought and uncompromising with little in the way of chances created as each looked for an opening.
Alec Urosevski carved out the first chance with a half-chance in the 6’ minute that he hit on the volley with the outside of the left foot headed wildly wide of the mark.
Mike Robinson slipped the ball out wide for Mitch Del Turco in the 11’ minute but the cross was picked out by Paul Kohler in the centre who cleared the danger for the Suns as the home side started to produce some excellent flowing football.
It proved to be an even match up with both defences tested without being over worked however no clear strikes on target were recorded in the opening quarter-hour.
Brendan Gan powered his way through the middle and beat off a determined tackle by the Wolves defence and bore down on goal, nut-megging Daniel Collison in the home goal but the custodian managed to get something on the ball to take the pace off it allowing the defence to regather and clear in the 27’ minute as Rockdale turned the screws.
It came as a slight surprise when South Coast again broke down the right with Del Turco skinning the Suns defence before pulling the ball back in to a crowded penalty-area. The initial shot was blocked on the line by Takuya Muruyama but fell kindly for Chris Nathanial to fire home at close-range and give the home side the lead almost against the run of play.
Del Turco almost did it again in the 39’ minute when picking up a misplaced Gan ball in midfield and powering off down the wing with Gan in hot pursuit all the way to the by-line only for the Wolves player to scuff the ball by the near post sending it harmlessly behind for a goal kick. It was the home side who were now on top attempting to double their lead and pushing the Suns back.
It was a set-back for the visitors who had shown admirable recent form but a situation not alien to either team this season.
Askin Oygur looked comfortable at the back with silky control, Sam Munro was sharp on the left side of the Suns midfield and with Robinson prepared to battle and scrap for everything at righ- back for the Wolves, replacing the absent Jack Keating, it was encouraging to see the normally central defender getting forward and setting up moves, particularly for Del Turco who had been enjoying a tremendous run on the right during the opening 45’ minutes.
South Coast remained ahead by the odd goal at the break which, apart from the strike, had been an even affair with honours otherwise even.
The second-half promised plenty of fireworks if the score remained the same going into the latter stages of the match.
Rockdale came out showing clear intent after the break with a couple of half-chances inside two minutes that worked the Wolves defence hard but had nothing to show for their efforts with the only assurance nothing would be left in the tank at the end.
Urosevski stole in behind the right-back of Wolves and delivered a cross that took a slight deflection to take the ball almost over the head of Gan but unable to gain any purchase the ball looped up for Collison to gather with ease.
Moments later, Anthony Perri weaved his way into the box when cutting in from the left and curled his shot wide of the far upright as again the Suns cut the Wolves defence apart in the 54’ minute.
They were getting closer but were also leaving themselves vulnerable to the quick counter by pushing forward in numbers, something the home side looked to exploit but for poor ball distribution.
Sash Tirovski, Rockdale City’s captain, found the ball coming to him at pace in front of goal and his first time left-footed shot had Collison scrambling but again making a fairly comfortable save.
Urosevski fired in at the 59’ minute mark but the shot was weak and found Richard Cardozo in the box who quickly showed his class by back-heeling toward goal. It didn’t go in but the pressure was surely mounting for the Wolves.
It wasn’t all one-way traffic but South Coast were finding it increasingly difficult to break out of their own half to create anything worthwhile as Rockdale relentlessly pressed them back deeper.
When Del Turco put through John Martinovski, whose first time side-footed effort slipped past the far post, the miss proved costly. Immediately, when Branko Culina rang the changes by replacing Urosevski and Perri with Max Burgess and David Talevski in the 71st minute, the tables turned.
As the Wolves adjusted to the changes Cardozo was found inside the six-yard area and controlling the ball beautifully with his first touch he powered home the equaliser with the second.
The Sydney side was now in full flow and put the Wolves under the pump, Collison called into action to push away an effort and Timpano & Co. at the back forced to increase the work load to retain parity in a fascinating tussle.
Cardozo almost stole all three points in the 87’ minute when spinning on the box and firing into the side netting with Collison looking beaten before the Wolves went straight up the other end for Del Turco to fire wide.
In a dramatic finale Rockdale shot stopper Diego Barcena needed to be down bravely at the feet of Martinovski to deny the home striker in the 87’ minute.
Burgess floated over a cross for Gan whose first touch was incredible but the second was forgettable as the ball sailed over the bar.
With 2’ minutes minimum of added time to be played the pace remained unrelenting, each doing everything to garner the spoils but with no breakthrough it ended honours even in a thrilling game of football but the question remained as to who would be the happier with the point.
Jacob Timpano stated after the match:
“I felt it was a pretty even game. Rockdale came here to have a go and they are a good side with Richie Cardozo and Brendan Gan and we knew they were going to be tough.
“Our goal was not to concede early and we managed that and went to the break ahead which was deserved and we restricted them to perhaps one good chance but in the end it was probably a fair result but we could have snatched it at the end.
Rockdale put them under the pump toward the end surely:
“Yeah but at the end of the day I felt it was a fair result and a pretty decent reflection of the game. There were two sides out there who battled it out pretty hard and we are lacking some players at the moment and a bit of experience so we’ll take that point.”
Branko Culina was less upbeat afterwards:
“A point is better than nothing but credit to them they defended well but we should have really finished the game in the first-half with the amount of chances we created.
“I want to look to the future of Rockdale City Suns and not the past when they may have lost a game like this because we are doing a lot of good things but still not enough consistently. “For example we conceded a soft goal in their first attack and we have to make sure we are harder to break down than that so that is an area we need to improve in.
“Obviously our finishing is something we need to look at as we had enough chances to win both of our last match’s but take nothing away from South Coast as they really fought hard, packed the defence but we have to be good enough and smart enough to unlock teams.
“The pitch didn’t help our style of play but I don’t want to use that as an excuse and I don’t think it was our final ball option that was bad but some of our decisions to shoot when we should have passed was suspect at times so another little area to focus on.
“We knew they would run out of legs, which they did, as we aim to be the fittest team in this league but everything fell for the Wolves today and in this game you make your own luck so it will even out over the course of the season but we are progressing and that is what we need to do.”
A fair result may not have been seen by all present but certainly enough to send the fans away happy.
Match Stats
South Coast Wolves 1 (Chris Nathanial 30’)
Rockdale City Suns 1 (Richard Cardozo 73’)
Saturday 27th of April, 2013
John Crehan Park, Cringila
Referee: Matthew Cropper
Assistant Referees: Craig Fisher and Nathan Wotton
Fourth Official: Daniel Stack
South Coast Wolves: 1.Daniel Collison; 3.Sam Chapple, 4.Michael Robinson, 5.James Baldacchino, 6.Chris Nathaniel, 11.John Martinovski, 12.Joseph Lavalle, 14.Mitchell Del Turco, 17.Zac Mackenzie, 21.Sam Matthews, 26.Jacob Timpano
Substitutes Not Used: 15.Matthew Floro, 20.Thomas Hamilton, 13.Justin Ivanovic, 16.Dusan Kolansa
Yellow Cards: Baldacchino 73’
Red Cards: Nil
Rockdale City Suns: 1.Diego Barcena; 5.Brendan Gan, 6.Takuya Murayama, 18.Seiya Kawamura, 8.Paul Kohler, 9.Alex Urosevsk (11.David Talevski 71’), 10.Richie Cardozo, 13.Sam Munro, 16.Anthony Perri (15.Max Burgess 71’), 17.Sash Tirovski, 23.Askin Oygur
Substitutes Not Used: 4.Michael Cindric, 20.Roberto Speranza, 22.Aaron Liddell
Yellow Cards: Urosevski 67’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Michael Robinson (SCW)
2 – Brendan Gan (RCS)
1 – Richie Cardozo (SCW)
-By Micky Brock
