State League 2 – Round 21 Review
A mindboggling weekend of round-21 results has left the door open for so many possibilities for the State League 2 post-season – eight teams are still in the hunt for a playoff position while Stanmore will need to be blown off the planet for the Hawks not to claim a stunning minor premiership.
Nine first grade games were played this week Stanmore Hawks whipping Enfield Rovers 5-0 and Belmore United 3-0 to place one hand firmly on the minor premiership trophy (the Hawks would have to lose badly to bottom three sides Minotaurs and Scorpions to cause a major catastrophe), while Fairfield City Lions defeated Hurstville FC 4-0 and Belmore 3-1 to wrap up second spot on the ladder.
Southern Bulls wiped Western Condors 5-0 to grab a tentative third place, one point ahead of a charging Uni side (0-0 with Bulls midweek and 4-0 over Schofields on Sunday) that still has a scheduled midweek catch-up over Enfield, who downed Hurstville City Minotaurs 3-1.
Southern Branch had the round-21 bye but came from a goal down to beat Hurstville FC 2-1 on Saturday and drew 1-1 with Belmore to cling to a shaky fifth spot in their debut state league season.
With eight teams still in the playoff picture, what a week we have ahead to wrap up the 2013 regular season.
Individually Neil Philippou has blitzed everyone for the Golden Boot trophy and his 25 season strikes (with a final-round match-up with Schofields to come) dwarves main rivals Belmore veteran Pablo Cardozo (14), Uni star Joel Silvestre (13), Minotaurs player Haisam Morhi (12) and Condors ace Mauricio Navarrete (11).
Behind the leaders sit Stanmore’s Nick Paradisis (9), Hurstville FC’s Jonathan Joannidis (8), Fairfield newcomer Emile (8) and Belmore’s Paul Paras (7), while Jordan Haddow (Branch), Troy Eedy (Bulls), Farres Aoun (Lions) and Lachlan Wright (Hawks) have netted six times each.
In the grade-20 competition, Lions have easily claimed the minor premiership leading Minotaurs (39), Hawks (38) and Uni (38) by more than 10 points. Fifth-placed Condors (24) have a tough job in holding off Rovers (23), Branch (23) and Belmore (20) to claim the final playoff berth.
Round 21
Belmore United 0 Stanmore Hawks 3 (Jamal Koutkabout, Neil Philippou, Nick Paradisis)
Fairfield City Lions 4 (Emile Damey x3, Nas El Bacha) Hurstville FC 0
Western Condors 0 Southern Bulls 5 (Mile Petkovic x3, Kyle Romero, Goran Ljuboja)
Schofields Scorpions 0 University of NSW 4 (Joel Silvestre x2, Luke Ursino, Henry Kamleitner)
Hurstville City Minotaurs 1 (Angelo Vagenas) Enfield Rovers 3 (Grant Odei, Sooreyah Tith, Adel Ahmed)
Round 3: Fairfield City Lions 3 (Emile Damey x2, Jordan Aguirre) Belmore United 2 (Andrew Lazarou, Pablo Cardozo)
Round 9: Southern Branch 2 (Scott Regent, David Boscoscuro) Hurstville FC 1 (Amer Rady)
Round 13: Stanmore Hawks 5 (Neil Philippou x2, Lachlan Wright, Andrew Heath, Vince Leto) Enfield Rovers 0
Round 13: Southern Branch 1 (David Boscoscuro) Belmore United 1 (Paul Paras)
Grade 20
Belmore United 2 Stanmore Hawks 1
Fairfield City Lions 7 (J. Nakhoul 2, D. Del Rosario x2, N. Attard, S. Chabok, D. Mien) Hurstville FC 0
Western Condors 1 (N. Fernandez) Southern Bulls 0
Round 3: Fairfield City Lions 5 (J. Nakhoul, D. Del Rosario, N. Attard, S. Chabok, D. Mien) Belmore United 0
Round 9: Southern Branch vs Hurstville FC (Forfeit)
Round 15: Southern Bulls 1 University of NSW 1 (M. Nyawasha)
Hawks blot Belmore
Stanmore Hawks all but secured the 2013 State League 2 minor premiership with a constructed 3-0 win over Belmore United under lights at Blick Oval on Saturday night.
Jamal Koutkabout and Neil Philippou booted the competition leaders 2-0 ahead at halftime and Nick Paradisis locked up victory with a second half strike that sent Stanmore thee points clear of Fairfield City Lions with a game in hand, far superior goal difference and a final round match-up with bottom side Schofields Scorpions.
Philippou’s 25th goal of a glittering season is a winter the wily striker will remember for a long time (he also scored twice in the Hawks’ 5-0 romp over Enfield midweek), but he’ll have to thank a stellar support crew including Paradisis (9) and Lachlan Wright (6) that’s kept plenty of defenders occupied while he weaves his magic.
Incredibly it was Stanmore’s eighth away victory of the year (seven road points more than closest rivals Lions and Bulls), and they became the tightest defensive unit with an eighth clean sheet (just 15 goals conceded in 18 games).
No wonder Hawks coach George Paradisis is looking forward to finishing the job against Schofields next weekend. “What can I say; we will go into this match like any other and want to try and smash the [heck] out of them,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing – the boys are playing with confidence at the moment and really controlled the game [against Belmore].”
United coach Nick Kambounias finds his team in a playoff pickle sandwich… with three other pickles. The result (and a 1-1 draw with Southern Branch in Nowra on Sunday) means Belmore have to win their last two games over Bulls and Hurstville FC (they’re leading 2-1 with 19 minutes of a catch-up still to play) and hope Lions defeat or draw with Branch and FC do them a favour by beating or drawing with Condors in the final round.
“[Against Branch 1-1 on Sunday] We were winning 1-0 and had the game in our hands, then they stepped it up in the last 10 minutes and scored with 30 seconds to go to make it 1-1,” Kambounias said.
“We have to play the end of our Hurstville game sometime this week and with three players sent off against Stanmore we’ll be even thinner on numbers today… but even with just hope to play for at the moment the boys are still putting in and I’m really proud of them.
Fairfield down Hurstville FC
Fairfield City Lions locked up a home semi-final with a crafted 4-0 victory over Hurstville FC at Rydalmere Park on Sunday afternoon.
A neat Emile Damey hat-trick rounded out by a Nas Basha strike completed the comprehensive four-goal triumph and in doing so became this year’s strongest state league two side on home turf with 22 points from nine fixtures, three ahead of Branch (who enjoyed four extra home games this season) and four more than Hawks and Uni.
Lions coach Tony Basha was pleased with a performance that sews up second place on the ladder. “It was pretty convincing. The boys kept possession well and could’ve scored a few more, but Hurstville looked a bit tired out there.”
Amazingly Hurstville can make the finals – with a slight of hand and puff of smoke. If FC win their final two games against Belmore (they trail United 2-1 in a catch-up game with 19 minutes to play) and Condors, and the Lions defeat or draw with Branch, then Hurstville sneak into the playoffs on goal difference.
Bulls trample Condors
Western Condors gave up their defensive crown with a five-goal second-half concession that lifted Southern Bulls to a punchy 5-0 win.
A dour first half was all but forgotten as second-half substitute Mile Petkovic came on and ran amok, notching up a hat-trick to complement a stunning Kyle Romero curling volley and Goran Ljuboja strike and ice a cool five-goal romp.
The Bulls move into third place on the ladder ahead of a final round match-up with desperate Belmore and just one point ahead of Uni (who have games against Rovers and Minotaurs to play) – it’s a slim difference between sudden death knockout and a second-chance final and certainly not lost on an irate coach Ramsin Shamon at halftime on Sunday.
[At 0-0] I basically just walked in and yelled at them and they responded,” he said. “We were coasting a bit in the first half and not converting, so I had to read the riot act, but positively with all the things they had to do.”
“We really dominated that second half and moved the ball around really well. Now we need to consolidate our top three position… we’ve beaten everyone in the top four, so we know how to do it.”
The Condors situation is clear. Win against Hurstville next week and if Fairfield defeat or draw with Branch coach Barry Zambrano and his side are into the finals; a draw will see them roll the dice on other results.
“We managed to scrape through the first half and create a few opportunities, but were really missing key players and conceding so many goals was very uncharacteristic of us,” Zambrano said. “We didn’t handle the conditions well at all and a goal either way would’ve done the job today.”
“It’s very disappointing but we’re hoping to get this one past us. We got a few good results go our way today, so just have to cop this knock; it’s just our wake up call to turn it around next week.”
Uni defeat Schofields
University of NSW trotted to a 4-0 win over Schofields Scorpions over at the CSI Ground on Sunday afternoon, moving to within sight of a top-three position.
A Joel Silvestre double plus Luke Ursino and Henry Kamleitner goals turned a 2-0 halftime advantage into a clinical four-goal victory, moving Uni into clear fourth place one point behind Bulls and games against Rovers (midweek) and Minotaurs to come (Bulls tackle a tricky Hurstville FC next week).
Uni coach Jorge Piatta wasn’t counting his chickens just yet but agreed a finals spot would be an amazing accomplishment. “Football is unpredictable and anything can happen but we want to try very hard to finish off the season well, the boys would love to finish third but just to make the finals would be a fantastic achievement after our start to the year.”
“[In regard to a hectic catch-up schedule] We’ve tried hard to play attractive football and create chances but it’s very hard for players to recover from games at this level, and to play the many games we’ve had it’s impossible for the players to recover fully.”
Rovers nip Minotaurs
Enfield Rovers outmuscled Hurstville City Minotaurs 3-1 at Punchbowl Oval on Sunday afternoon to establish a remarkable second-half winter run – Enfield has scored the same number of points over the last nine weeks as competition frontrunners Stanmore.
Matt Picone provided a terrific far-post ball to Grant Odei to smash in the first-half opener for Rovers only for Angelo Vagenas to return fire for the Minotaurs into 10 minutes later.
Second-half substitute Sooreyah Tith then showed his bright future with a smart turn and volley from halfway that caught the Minotaurs keeper well off his line to restore Enfield’s lead, Adel Ahmed icing the 3-1 win with an edge-of-the-box strike.
Rovers coach Andrew Montgomery thought his team could’ve done more. “It should’ve been a 10-goal win today. We completely dominated but only won 3-1,” he said.
“We spoke about their slow defenders and would they’d get tired and we really targeted that in the last 20 minutes. I pushed two up front and we completely dominated, we just missed a lot of chances.
“[On maybe nipping a late ladder position in their final game, a midweek catch-up with Uni] We’d like to finish as high as possible, but at end of the day we want to win every game we play.”
Minotaurs coach Peter Sarikakis hoped his players would put more of an effort in as he shapes next year’s squad, especially with the garde-20s qualifying for the finals.
“My boys were just disinterested today. We should’ve scored 4-5 in the first half as Enfield was nothing special, but a combination of tiredness and two send-offs at the end gave them the win.”
“I’ll have players missing for the match against Stanmore [midweek], but I can only motivate them to a certain extent, the players have to lift themselves. We just want to finish this year and move on.”
Branch hold firm
Southern Branch had the round-21 bye but made good use of a shining sun over Ison Park with a terrific come-from-behind 2-1 win over Hurstville FC on Saturday before a last-ditch 1-1 draw with Belmore on Sunday.
The results positions Branch in fifth spot but with plenty of work to do to hold onto their finals spot. Branch play second-placed Fairfield in Sydney next week; if they win they’re in. If the southerners draw they’re vulnerable to Condors and Belmore. A Branch loss would also bring Hurstville FC into play.
Coach Brod Crighton had a firm belief his side could do the job in Sydney – and why not, they’ve only lost one of five games in the big smoke this season, including claiming the big name scalps of Stanmore (2-1) and Fairfield (1-0).
“It’s three points next week, nothing less,” he said. “We have to win, otherwise we rely on someone else to do our dirty work for us. But we’re in this position simply because we didn’t win enough games during season so I won’t be satisfied unless we beat Lions… we want to deserve to be there.”
“The teams are so very equal in this competition that mostly it’s just a case of who’s going to get the couple of goals they need to win each game. We have that same job to do next week as we have in every game.”
Next week’s games
The State League 2 final round-22 is an all-Sunday affair (3pm kickoff) as Southern Branch tackle Fairfield City Lions at Rydalmere Park, Southern Bulls host Belmore United at Ernie Smith Reserve, Hurstville FC play Western Condors at Seven Hills Sports Centre, University of NSW face Hurstville City Minotaurs at David Phillips Field, and Stanmore Hawks meet Schofields Scorpions at Arlington Oval. Enfield Rovers have the bye.
In the final make-up games, Uni clash with Enfield at Pratten Park on Tuesday, August 27 (8pm), Minotaurs play Hawks at Seymour Shaw Park on Thursday, August 29 (8pm), leaving just the last 19 minutes of Belmore versus Hurstville FC (United leading 2-1) to complete all postponed round-12 fixtures.
