Sydney Olympic dominate league leaders
Sydney Olympic provided the shock of the IGA National Premier League NSW Mens 1 competition with a dominant display in a 3-0 demolishing of Bonnyrigg White Eagles at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday.
A host of players including Phil Makrys, Elsid Barkhousir and Emmanuel Giannaros left the club mid-week after former coaches Peter Tsekenis and Peter Papoythis resigned from their positions, and the task at hand seemed well beyond new coach Grant Lee and his troops.
However, the team showed their pride with Luke Grima, Zak Elrich and Amaury Gauthier scoring to give the Blues the win against a lacklustre White Eagles.
Sydney Olympic started on the front foot stringing passes together in the Bonnyrigg half, creating a half chance in the 3’ minute only to be judged offside.
William Angel tested the White Eagles defence in the 12’ minute, sending in a low cross into the box only for Matthew Nash to claim.
A minute later the winger pestered the defence again and had a good shout for a penalty turned down after the ball seemed to deflect off a Bonnyrigg hand and out for a corner.
Luke Grima had the chance to open the scoring in the 15’ minute but the striker miscued his shot with the ball flying over the crossbar.
Bonnyrigg right back Jordan Crighton tried to lift his team 3’ minutes later with a great run down the line before his cross was just cleared by Marton Vass with Mitchell Long free in the box.
Angel was at it again in the 23’ minute but the classy winger could not control his volley as the ball sailed over the crossbar.
The home side’s energetic display gave them the lead in the 29’ minute when Chris Godoy Bascur split the Bonnyrigg defence with a lovely through ball sending Luke Grima one-on-one with the goalkeeper, the striker slotting the ball into the bottom right hand corner.
Olympic continued to pressure Bonnyrigg and after several tough challenges Ibrahim Haydar won the ball before sending Zak Elrich through on the right hand side only for him to shoot wide of the mark.
The White Eagles tried to come back into the match late in the half with Adrian Ucchino beating three Olympic defenders before shooting straight at Henderson.
The visitors showed their intentions to keep their unbeaten run going straight after the break with Robbie Younis getting on the end of a long ball but unable to get a clean shot off.
But it was Olympic who stunned Bonnyrigg scoring two goals within 3’ minutes. Firstly, Elrich met a great through ball before rounding Nash and putting the ball into an empty net in the 49’ minute, and only 2’ minutes later Gauthier’s free-kick was misjudged by Nash with the ball bouncing past him and into the net to make it 3-0.
White Eagles coach Brian Brown turned to his bench minutes later bringing on striker Aaron Peterson in an attempt to salvage something from the game.
The league leaders were not giving up and slowly tried to get back into the game with a string of good passes ending in Long’s shot going well over the bar in the 61’ minute.
Long was at it again in the 72’ minute with his 18-yard shot deflecting out for a corner.
Sydney Olympic almost made it 4-0 in the 79’ minute when a lovely one-two by Grima and Demetriou led to the latter’s floating effort hit stamping the top of the crossbar and out for a goal kick.
Former Blues attacker David Gullo almost made an immediate impact off the bench with his shot well saved by a diving Henderson with 6’ minutes remaining.
It wasn’t to be for the White Eagles as Olympic gave new head coach Grant Lee the perfect start to his tenure.
Following the match Lee said he was proud of the effort his team put it:
“I couldn’t ask for anything better, we were playing against the league leaders who were undefeated this year which is a very hard task,’’ he said.
“For us to get that score line was a fantastic effort from the boys.
“It was a lovely opening by Luke (Grima) with that first goal which gave the boys the confidence and then two goals in the opening five minutes of the second half killed the game off.’’
In the away dressing room Bonnyrigg coach Brian Brown admitted his team was outplayed by an enthusiastic side:
“Full credit to Olympic they outplayed us, they chased us and out enthused us,’’ he said.
“They were like the team that really wanted to win and we were like a team that didn’t want to play.
“Hopefully it will be a wakeup call for us. We’ve never thought the competition was over, we just had a bad day today.
“I don’t think can pin point anyone to say he didn’t play well or anything, we just had eleven boys who really struggled.’’
Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 3 (Luke Grima 29’, Zac Elrich 49’, Amaury Gauthier 51’)
Bonnyrigg White Eagles 0
Sunday 19th May, 2013
Belmore Sports Ground
Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson; 14.Petar Markovic, 4.Ibrahim Haydar (C), 6.Marton Vass, 11.William Angel (21.James Demetriou 38’), 19.Chris Godoy Bascur (10.Renato Franco Ramirez 72’), 9.Luke Grima, 22.Amaury Gauthier, 12.Troy Danaskos, 8.Kingsley Williams (5.Bradley Treloar 87’), 42.Zak Elrich
Substitutes Not Used: Nil
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Bonnyrigg White Eagles: 1.Matthew Nash; 10.Mitchell Long (23.David Gullo 75’), 7.Tynan Diaz (19.Aaron Peterson 54’), 14.Jordan Crighton, 9.Robert Younis (16.Howard Fondyke 75’), 21.Bo Hyun Chun, 5.Chris Tadrosse, 8.Alex Canak, 18.Adrian Ucchino, 4.Vuko Tomasevic, 15.Steven Hesketh
Substitutes Not Used: 33.NIkodin Matic
Yellow Cards: Vuko Tomasevic 90’+1’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Amaury Gauthier (SO)
2 – Chris Godoy Bascur (SO)
1 – Luke Grima (SO)
-By Chris Georges
