Blacktown City demolish lethargic Sydney Olympic
A confident Blacktown City FC produced a dominant display to brush a sluggish Sydney Olympic aside with a resounding 3-0 victory on Sunday afternoon at Lily Homes Stadium.
The hosts never looked like losing this one and perhaps could have won by more after letting numerous chances slip against their opponents who produced a lacklustre display on the afternoon.
Travis Major and Sean Rooney put Blacktown City on their way with two well-taken first-half goals before Harris Gaitatzis rounded off the victory with a composed finish on the hour mark to leapfrog Blacktown City above Olympic and into third place on the ladder.
While Sydney Olympic moved the ball around well in the opening minutes the first chance of the clash fell to Blacktown City; Matt Lewis looked to have picked out Major on the edge of the six-yard box with a well-weighted cross however the youngster couldn’t get the touch he needed to divert it goalwards as the chance drifted harmlessly wide.
The chance certainly provided early encouragement for the hosts who quickly turned momentum into their favour however they couldn’t muster up further chances against Olympic’s disciplined defensive line.
The visitor’s first chance fell to Marton Vass when Zac Elrich picked out the big defender with a crossed free-kick only for Vass to glance the header wide of goal.
Kearyn Baccus then fed Major his second chance of the match; again the midfielder couldn’t produce the required finish as he curled the ball high and wide with a first time shot from outside the box.
Sydney Olympic’s best chance of the opening period fell to Elrich midway through the half when a William Angel’s smart cutback fell perfectly into his path only for Patrick Gatt to bravely deflect the winger’s finish over the crossbar and away for a corner.
Major then spurned his third chance of the match when Baccus set him up once again with a brilliant cross that floated onto his head only for Major to head over from six-yards to let Olympic off the hook.
Blacktown City began to gain a strangle hold on the flow of the match as Ryuji Miyazawa began to make his mark on the match.
The Japanese import did well to manipulate space on the left flank before firing a cross narrowly beyond Rooney who also grew in confidence as the match progressed.
The warning signs were there for Olympic and they soon fell behind just after the half hour mark when Gaitatzis put Major through on goal with a brilliant ball over Olympic’s flat backline.
This time Major made no mistake, controlling the ball well before firing his finish past Paul Henderson and into the back of the net.
The goal provided Major with the lift he needed to wreak havoc on Olympic’s defence for the remainder of the match as he created chance after chance for his side.
With the momentum completely in their favour Blacktown hunted for a second goal as Gaitatzis picked out Baccus who then touched the ball off for Miyazawa who fired over under pressure from his marker.
The visitors then hit the self-destruct button minutes later when Rooney read Troy Danaskos’ weak back pass, rounded the goalkeeper, and tucked the ball into an open goal to give his side breathing space before the interval.
Another Olympic error in possession almost set the hosts on their way to a third when Miyazawa stole possession from Chris Godoy Bascur in midfield; the fleet-footed attacker then played a smart one-two with Rooney and then cut inside the last man before seeing his finish touched wide of goal by Henderson.
The visitors closed out the remaining few minutes of the half in damage control as Blacktown City took their two goal advantage into the break.
With it all to do in the second-half Olympic began the half brightly as they looked to have regained some composure and soon produced their first shot on target of the match, albeit from range as Amaury Gauthier saw his driven 30-yard strike held by Brody Crane.
The hosts continued to produce more of the same as they continued to appear the more likely to score.
Major stole the ball in his own half before finding Rooney who returned the favour to feed the ball back to Major in space on the left wing.
Major then darted goalward before cutting inside Brayden Jorge and curling a spectacular strike against the crossbar; the rebound fell to Rooney who dragged his finish wide.
The chances kept coming for Blacktown as Major flicked the ball to Matt Lewis who drew a fine save from Henderson before Rooney fired another chance wide after Major again provided the assist.
The crowd sensed a third goal was coming and they didn’t have long to wait as Gaitatzis made it 3-0 on the hour.
Major was again the architect as he held up the ball well before teeing up Gaitatzis on the edge of the box; the midfielder produced a composed finish, firing the ball low and inside the far post to all but seal the win for his side.
English import Kingsley Williams came close to immediately pulling a goal for Olympic yet Crane shrugged off the effects of having little to do in the opening hour to produce a fine reflex save.
The chances then began to dry up as Blacktown comfortably saw out the remainder of the match with substitutes Luke Clifford and Ray Miller coming off the bench to try unsuccessfully their luck from range as their side held on for the win and the clean sheet.
Blacktown City FC coach Mark Crittenden was happy with the result, taking time out to praise the performance of his side, most notably that of Major who was instrumental throughout:
“Very happy mate,” smiled Crittenden.
“I thought our first-half was very good, in the second we sort of fell back a little bit but that can happen sometimes when you’re 3-0 up and comfortable.
“Trav (Major) probably could have had a hat-trick, or even four or five.
“Major is good, he enjoys playing in the top third and he did very well.
“He used a lot of pace, needs to work on his touch a little bit but he gives us good engine.
“I also thought our back four were excellent; Zac Cairncross was outstanding, Gatty (Patrick Gatt) was strong, the Italian boy Andrea (Del Brocco) was strong, Brody (Crane) was good.
“I’m very happy because we’re always battling against Olympic and it’s nice to get one over them.”
Crittenden will now look to take this form into the final third of the season as they continue to look towards finals football:
“I think we’ve been playing good football,” said Crittenden.
“We just have some poor lapses in concentration at times but we’re good at going forward.
“That’s now two clean sheets in a row which we’re very happy with.
“We’ve had a few pretty ordinary lapses where we’ve conceded three goals very quickly as you’ve seen so two clean sheet in a row will help us get there.”
Sydney Olympic coach Grant Lee credited Blacktown City with their win and also conceded that his young side created their own downfall today after their bright start under his guidance:
“I thought Blacktown did well,” said Lee.
“They set up a certain structure and have got players that are very mobile and have experienced ones that know how to play and work to their structure.
“In saying that I thought that we created our own demise in turning over possession too cheaply, gave the ball away in bad areas which helped them enormously to get over the top of us.
“I just thought that we were a little bit lethargic today which was something I was concerned about early on because we’ve had a tremendous run since I’ve been a part of the club and the young boys have stepped up really well.
“It’s a problem when you have young boys on the park and especially ones that are a bit inexperienced and haven’t played at this level continuously – they’ll come in and impress for the first couple of games and then you’re going to have that dip and you just have to hope it’s only one or two of them on the park and not collectively.
“Today we did have that dip and there was too many boys that were off their pace and it looked like we were in second gear for most of the game and never really got going.
“Then when you turn things over like with the second goal where Troy (Danaskos) has done very well to get across to get the ball first and then he’s relaxed and switched off to play the poor pass to Hendo and of course Sean (Rooney) has got in between to score the second one and that really kicks you in the guts as that summed up the day for us I think.”
Lee will now look to pick his side back up ahead of the derby match against Sydney United next weekend:
“It’s just one of those things with young and inexperienced players,” said Lee.
“You try to put an old head on young players is very hard.
“It takes a lot of work and time and effort and I can’t be disappointed or despondent about how they played, I knew this was just a matter of time and they were always going to cop goals and lose a game.
“It’s now a case of how do we react to that, how do we pick them back up.
“That’s a hard thing with a squad that’s very young, experienced players can turn things around whereas young players it’s going to be pretty tough to turn them around.
“That’ll show the character of these boys; how they respond next week against Sydney United who had a very good win today and will have their tails up while we’re coming off a tough loss here so it’ll be a tough game next week.
“That’ll be the key, how do they back themselves up and believe in themselves enough.”
Match Stats
Blacktown City FC 3 (Travis Major 33’, Sean Rooney 38’, Harris Gaitatzis 60’)
Sydney Olympic FC 0
Sunday June 16th, 2013
Lily Homes Stadium, Seven Hills
Referee: Michael Weiner
Assistant Referees: Daniel Stack and Valerio Bertuccioli
Fourth Official: Lachlan Keevers
Blacktown City FC: 1.Brody Crane; 3.Andrea Del Brocco (14.Shane D’Cunha 87’), 4.Yianni Fragogiannis, 5.Patrick Gatt, 6.Matt Lewis, 7.Travis Major, 9.Ryuji Miyazawa, 10.Harris Gaitatzis, 11.Sean Rooney (8.Ray Miller 73’), 12.Kearyn Baccus (16.Luke Clifford 78’), 19.Zac Cairncross,
Substitutes Not Used: 13.Blake Tuxford, 18.Osadolor Edosomwan
Yellow Cards: Patt Gatt 12’
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson; 6.Marton Vass, 8.Kingsley Williams, 9.Luke Grima (21.James Demetriou 64’), 11.William Angel, 12.Troy Danaskos, 14.Petar Markovic, 15.Zakeriya Elrich, 19.Christopher Godoy Bascur, 22.Amaury Gauthier (46.Michael Cindric 76’), 29.Brayden Jorge
Substitutes Not Used: 10.Renato Franco Ramirez, 23.Luke Kairies, 24.Brendan Hooper
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
-By Michael Shoolman
