SUPA IGA NPL Men’s 2 – Round 17 Wrap
It was a round of large scores, shock results and some soul searching as the Mens 2 competition was turned on its head this weekend. Of the top five heading into the round, only fifth placed Mounties Wanderers won with the top four of St George, Macarthur Rams, Bankstown Berries and Northern Tigers all coming a cropper.
Mount Druitt Town Rangers won the battle at the bottom against Sydney University while in the goalscoring stakes, there was movement at the top with Parramatta’s Danny Choi moving level with St George’s Juan Chavez.
Parramatta FC v Macarthur Rams
For the second week in a row, Parramatta have come from a goal down early, only to recover late before claiming an all important victory. This time, Macarthur Rams were the victims as the Eagles jumped to fourth on the night, showing the rest of the league that they still intend to be busy come September.
There was plenty in this game to keep the spectators happy. A classy goal, a strong comeback, a penalty award and a see sawing finish which could have seen goals at either end.
Macarthur were the first to make their presence felt, starting the better and taking the lead after eleven minutes. It was a goal which was worthy of a greater stage and came when Joel Craig volleyed home a Craig Cooley cross, from outside the area. It never looked like missing, and was as accurate as could be, leaving Justin Biega with little hope.
It was a lead which Macarthur relished, and needed, to keep their title challenge on track, and apart from a Frank Martey strike for the Eagles, the Rams did look comfortable for the majority of the half, Chad Taylor in goals rarely put under pressure.
The Rams were playing it smart, giving Parramatta little time to play their football, or to build up from the back. Shannon Hankin and Almir Dizdaric pressured the Eagles backline, and Biega was forced to hurry away a number of backpasses. It was difficult for Parramatta who seemed to lack the fluency of recent times, but eventually they got their game together.
And they gained something of a lifeline too. A penalty award against Daniel Ramirez for handball midway through the second half gave Parramatta the perfect opportunity to draw level and it wasn’t going to be wasted. Danny Choi stepped up, and even though he had to take the spotkick twice, he was unnerved. Taylor tried his best to confuse, but Choi was having none of that and slammed the ball home for 1-1.
The equaliser lifted Parramatta who began to put together some decent passages of play. Choi had been the clear dangerman and his pace out wide, switching between right and left, was a problem for the Rams. And it was no surprise that it was Choi who put Parramatta in front.
A Craig backpass from out wide to his keeper was underhit leaving Taylor in a race for the ball with Choi. It was no surprise that the speedy Choi got their first, just, and his toepoke under Taylor swept into the net. It was disaster for Macarthur who had really gifted Parramatta two goals, although the turnaround in the scoreline had come from some strong Eagles pressure.
Parramatta kept the pace on, and but for a fine double save from Taylor, it could have been three. Choi also almost had a hatrick, an audacious lob over the Rams keeper from near the half way line almost coming off. Taylor backpedalled desperately as Choi’s attempt was on target but the keeper did exceptionally well, just managing to claim the ball at the last moment.
As the game drew down, the Rams retaliated and amazingly almost drew level in the last seconds in what proved to be a great finish to the match. But the points were with Parramatta.
Parramatta 2 (Danny Choi 72’ pen, 80’) v Macarthur Rams 1 (Joel Craig 11’)
Friday 19 July 2013
at Melita Stadium, South Granville
Referee: Ryan Shepheard
Assrs: Kelly Jones and Joon Park
Parramatta: 1. Justin Biega 2. Domenic Trimboli 4. Anthony Avati 8. Robert Tribbia 12. Hiroaki Kawasaki 16. Danny Choi 5. Daniel Gullo (7. David Rezo 37’) 15. Suad Ameti 6. Joshua Small (9. Niram Kanoun 66’) 11. Frank Martey 19. Wand Jajaw (14. Andrija Petkovic 87’).
Yellow Cards: Suad Ameti
Coach: Lee Sterrey
Macarthur Rams: 1. Chad Taylor 7. Kyohei Kimura 13. Daniel Carrozza 5. Calum Fleming 16. Daniel Ramirez 2. Craig Cooley 15. 19. Alvaro Malmierca 15. Joel Craig (28. Blake Brooker 84’) 4. Slaven Ljuboja (22. Nicholas Mugridge 75’) 9. Shannon Hankin 11. Almir Dizdaric (23. Aaron Farringdon 84’).
Yellow cards: Chad Taylor, Shannon Hankin, Almir Dizdaric
Coach: Claudio Canosa
Fraser Park v Bankstown City
Carlo Musumeci scored a late winner to secure all the points for Fraser Park, keeping their finals hopes alive but effectively putting an end to Bankstown City’s season.
The Lions had taken the lead through Nicolo Sama but Hussein Akil equalised on the half hour. It looked to be headed for a draw but Musumeci’s winner in the 89th minute, knocked in from a corner, continues to give Fraser Park hope.
But it will be a tough assignment nonetheless.
“We still have a chance”, explained Fraser’s Albin Mikulski. “But really, many teams still have a chance. We have six games left and if we make it, it will be great for the club”.
It certainly looks like it will be a close run thing, the overall results this weekend doing nothing to make it any clearer.
Fraser Park 2 (Hussein Akil, Carlo Musumeci) v Bankstown City 1 (Nicolo Sama)
Mount Druitt Town Rangers v Sydney University
In the battle of the cellar dwellers, Mount Druitt Town Rangers kept their season alive with a 3-2 win over Sydney University, the game ending in somewhat controversial circumstances.
A very late “goal” to Uni, which would have sealed a 3-3 draw, was disallowed for dangerous play, or high feet, causing much displeasure amongst the Uni team. A parry from Rangers keeper Daniel Conway had then been turned into the net, only for the referee to rule out the goal.
Despite that controversy, the match was highlighted by a first half hatrick to Hosyar Cakal, his pace catching out the Uni backline on more than one occasion. His first came early after he was put through by Ozgan Cetinay, but Uni equalised through captain Peter Crevani.
Shayne Ardle then came to the fore, setting up Cakal twice more before the break. Cakal’s third was particularly pleasing for coach Nick Verdos, Cakal rounding the keeper neatly to slot away.
It looked good for Rangers at that point but University fought right to the end, the prolific Jamie Watt scoring to bring it back to 3-2, midway through the second half.
It was the Rangers’ third win of the season, but Nick Verdos is confident it won’t be the last.
“The atmosphere has been better in the dressing room lately, and we have started to gel more recently too. Maybe the Brumbies game wasn’t our best, but this result, and the good form of our Under 20s, has given the club a lift. Cakal’s goals too have been important, and while he has been out for seven or eight games during the season, he is really adapting now. He likes to target the Golden Boot too, like he did last year, so we just see how that finishes”.
While Rangers are mainly now concentrating on rebuilding for next season, they still have ambitions for this.
“We won’t finish last”, was the clear statement from Verdos.
Mount Druitt Town Rangers 3 (Hosyar Cakal 3) v Sydney University 2 (Peter Crevani, Jamie Watt).
Spirit FC v St George
Spirit FC handed St George only their second loss of the season, overcoming the league leaders 1-0 at a windswept Christie Park.
An early goal to Brad Gibson did all the damage, and while St George may have dominated possession, they were unable to break down the solid Spirit defence.
Spirit had the ball in the net for a second time, again through Gibson, but this time the effort was called back for offside.
“We set out to prove a point”, said Spirit’s Rob di Ceglie. “Our strength is our compact defence and when we play like that, we know we can do it. We live off minimum chances, and it was good to get that nice early one.”
“To be honest, I didn’t think they troubled us really. We knew that they would have a lot of possession, and we were happy to sit out at 5-4-1, and go, let’s see what you can do. We made sure that when they had the ball, they had it where they couldn’t hurt us”.
“There are no excuses”, said Saints’ Manny Spanoudakis. “Spirit played to their strengths and deserved to win. It is never good to lose of course, but it is our first loss since round two, and we need to be a bit philosophical about it. We will take this as a warning and make sure we don’t find ourselves in the same situation again”.
Spirit FC 1 (Brad Gibson 4’) v St George 0
Hills Brumbies v Bankstown Berries
What a week it has been for Hills Brumbies. Three games, three wins and nine points safely tucked away.
Bankstown Berries must still be wondering where it all went wrong as they took a 2-0 lead at Hills, both through Kodjo Adjassou, and were probably already thinking of those precious three points. But Hills turned the tables in no uncertain manner, scoring five goals without reply to leave the Berries shellshocked.
Dragan Savic was the first to reduce the arrears, bringing it back to 1-2 on the half hour, before Eros Bergamin made at 2-2 by half time.
Savic scored again within two minutes of the restart to put the Brumbies ahead for the first time before Kuag Reec and Jin Sung Lee pushed the result out to 5-2 by the finish.
The result throws the Brumbies right into the mix for the finals, but having played their complete schedule of matches, it may look a tough order.
“Nothing is in our hands anymore”, Mark Abi-Arrage accepted. “We are just going to go out and enjoy it and try and win each game. Whatever happens, happens. If we deserve to make it, it will happen, if not, so be it”.
The turnaround in today’s result wasn’t a surprise.
“Even though we went 2-0 down, we weren’t playing badly. We got caught watching a corner for the first and then their second was a scramble. But after we then scored twice, we went in at half time on a high, whereas the Berries would have been down. Our confidence was up, and that made a difference”.
Hills Brumbies 5 (Dragan Savic 2, Eros Bergamin, Kuag Reec, Jin Sung Lee) v Bankstown Berries 2 (Kodjo Adjassou 2)
Northern Tigers v Mounties Wanderers
This was a scoreline which turned many heads.
Mills Park has always been a difficult place to visit and take anything away from but Mounties did just that. A 4-0 victory was more than surely even the Wanderers faithful could have hoped for, and the 3-0 half time lead would have had the Tigers fans wondering what had hit them.
The Mounties have missed Alvin Singh for the past four weeks and he made sure his return was remembered. The Fijian international, normally a defender was pushed into the number nine position for this and didn’t disappoint, scoring the first two goals of the game.
Klime Setkukoski got the third before half time, and then hit his second of the day after the break to really hammer home the Mounties’ dominance.
“We came here with a plan and executed it to a ‘tee’”, said Aiden Desmond. “We wanted to play the game in their half and so we didn’t play it out from the back, but we were happy to play it long and to keep them having to turn, and it worked”, was the simple explanation.
Northern Tigers 0 v Mounties Wanderers 4 (Alvin Singh 2, Klime Setkukoski 2)
Leading Goalscorers
11 – Juan Chavez (St George)
Danny Choi (Parramatta)
10 – Sam Messam (St George)
Saso Petrovski (ex – Bankstown City)
Jamie Watt (Sydney University
8 – Daniel Severino (Mounties Wanderers)
Tom Spencer (Northern Tigers)
Under 20s
There is a new leader at the top of the Under 20s as Hills Brumbies overcame their midweek lapse to defeat Bankstown Berries 1-0 to take a three point lead at the head of the table.
A late strike from Luke Beezem helped Macarthur Rams to a 2-1 win over Parramatta on Friday night to keep a hold on third, while Spirit FC put last week’s shock loss behind them to put four past St George. Hayden Pronin, Abraham Majok, Todd Nelson and Daniel Jovic were the scorers as Spirit stay fourth.
The honours were shared at Mills Park where Northern Tigers and Mounties finished 2-2. Braden Cheng and Jordan Mbakwe scored for the Tigers with Stjepan Curic and Andrew Hirmiz getting on the scoresheet for Mounties.
Spirit FC 4 St George 0, Northern Tigers 2 Mounties Wanderers 2, Hills Brumbies 1 v Bankstown Berries 0, Parramatta 1 Macarthur Rams 2, Fraser Park 0 Bankstown City 0, Mount Druitt Town 3 Sydney University 2.
