State League 2 – Finals Week One Preview

As premiers Stanmore Hawks sit out the first week of the 2013 State League 2 finals, Southern Bulls host Western Condors in a delicious elimination final at Ernie Smith Reserve on Saturday evening, and Fairfield City Lions meet University of NSW in a blockbuster qualifying final at Bensons Lane Field on Sunday afternoon.
In grade-20 Fairfield earned the first week off as the elimination knockout turned to the skies as Hawks battle Condors at Ernie Smith Reserve on Saturday afternoon, and Uni tackle Minotaurs in Sunday afternoon’s qualifying final at Bensons Lane Field. Check the footballnsw.com.au website for full details.
This week’s finals preview includes a special statistical look at the 2013 State League 2 season.
Lions face Uni
Fairfield City Lions rumble with University of NSW in this Sunday afternoon’s qualifying final (2.30pm kickoff) and ironically the competition’s two best home teams meet in far-flung Richmond at neutral Bensons Lane Field.
Fairfield and Uni lost just once each as hosts all season (Lions 0-2 to Stanmore and Uni 0-2 to Belmore, both last month) and their road form is also deadlocked at a healthy 17 points from 10 away fixtures, so a no-man’s-land Richmond face-off could make for very interesting viewing indeed.
To underline the closeness between the sides Uni overcame a dreadful 4-0 round-seven loss to City at Rydalmere Park to dominate a 1-1 draw in the return fixture at David Phillips Field last month.
Both teams boast excellent defences with just 18 goals apiece conceded over 20 matches (Uni kept 10 clean sheets, Fairfield nine), but the Lions have been far more superior in front of goal scoring 54 times to Uni’s 31 as an incredible 17 City players etched their names on scorecards this season, 10 more than Uni.
But it’s not just goals Lions players have added to the scoresheet – a league-high 20 Fairfield players have been booked this year compared to Uni’s league-low 11, so the game could also feature a disciplinary angle.
 
And while the players battle it out on the park, another challenge will feature off it with two wily masterminds in Fairfield’s Tony Basha and Uni’s Jorge Piatta going head-to-head in a contest of wit, strategy and brave decisions.
Both coaches showed quiet confidence heading into this weekend’s affair, giving respect to the lottery that finals football can offer up. “Five minutes can change everything,” Piatta summarised.
Bulls meet Condors
What a match it promises to be when Southern Bulls square-off with Western Condors in this Saturday night’s elimination final at Ernie Smith Reserve (5pm kickoff).
Bulls won both encounters this year – a tight come-from-behind 2-1 round-10 victory followed by a gobsmacking 5-0 thrashing at Condors only a fortnight ago that threatened to derail Western’s finals hopes.
The venue location throws up an interesting twist: Bulls won just five of nine home fixtures this winter (including losses in their last two starts at Ernie Smith, both night games); while Condors have been defeated just three times in 11 road games to show some fortitude as visitors (only Stanmore was a better away team).
Condors are the sole State League 2 side from last season to make the finals and even though they’ve failed to beat any top-five outfit (scoring just four goals and conceding 13 in four draws and four losses) coach Barry Zambrano brimmed with confidence as he welcomed back a batch of fresh players into the line-up. “We’ve got no fear of the Bulls,” he said.
Bulls coach Ramsin Shamon also has players returning to the fold and believed they’d provide the firepower needed to win a pressure-filled occasion. “We’ll be ready for Condors,” he said.
How the other coaches see it
As five State League clubs prepare to battle it out in finals football, the coaches who didn’t make it are split on who’ll win it and only one picked a team outside top-two Stanmore and Fairfield to make the championship decider.
While the overwhelming sentiment backed Fairfield’s more beautiful brand of football, several believed Stanmore ultimately contained the potency and experience to overcome the Lions’ enterprising style of play.
Rovers coach Andrew Montgomery thought Uni would meet Fairfield in the grand final claiming Uni could win if their quality players fired up, Hurstville leader Steve Zoric hoped the Lions would be rewarded for the way they played their football this season, and Branch coach Brod Crighton thought it it’d be close between the top two sides, narrowly tipping Fairfield.
Minotaurs mentor Peter Sarikakis didn’t see a standout side but thought although Hawks were a bit more professional Fairfield had more depth overall, Belmore coach Nick Kambounias said Stanmore’s firepower and experience would be countered by Fairfield’s creativity, movement and energy, while Schofields football general manager Alex Soncini backed Stanmore’s key players to dominate any game.
Grade 20
As grade-20 premiers Fairfield rest up the elimination final turns to the skies as Stanmore Hawks battle Western Condors at Ernie Smith Reserve on Saturday afternoon (2.30pm kickoff). Stanmore were too good in both encounters this season, winning 4-1 at Calabria Sports Ground in round nine and 4-0 at Arlington Oval a fortnight ago to almost block Condors’ finals entry, but anything can happen in finals football.
Uni tackle Minotaurs in this Sunday’s qualifying final at Bensons Lane Field (12pm kickoff). Uni have form ahead of this week’s clash, beating Minotaurs 2-0 in their final round clash at Fraser Park last weekend, but a tight 1-1 draw at Punchbowl Oval earlier in the season proves there’s little difference between them. Uni will again have to stop 20-goal Hurstville spearhead Jordan Yarza but it’s the league’s second best offensive unit Hurstville (a staggering 77 goals in 20 games, 11 less than Fairfield) up against the second best defensive line Uni (just 14 goals conceded, four more than the leaders).
It’s a numbers game
2013 State League 2 was as gripping as it was confusing with catch-up games throwing many schedules, plans and programs into complete disarray, throw in some late-season revivals and some darn unusual scorelines kept everyone guessing to the end what the final outcome might be.
And while competition points is the number that matters most, just ask minor premiers Stanmore, there’s plenty to gain from a statistical breakdown of this year’s league.
A telling factor on the final points layout was how much more competitive the second half of the season became with Uni rising through the ranks (from third-last to third), Enfield Rovers, Belmore United and Hurstville City Minotaurs providing stiffer opposition, Southern Branch showing they weren’t budging from a stellar debut year, and the top teams finally being brought down a notch or two.
A blistering 201 goals were scored in the first round of match-ups and only 156 in the second, fatigue playing a role as the weight of 19 rescheduled fixtures took its toll, but more that several teams fixed their leaky taps – Schofields conceding 58 goals in their first 11 games and 47 for the remainder, Enfield from conceding 24 goals in the opening rounds to 14 in the second half of the season, Belmore from 19 to nine.
Hurstville FC, Fairfield City Lions then Stanmore Hawks dominated the first half of the competition, Branch, Southern Bulls, Western Condors, Belmore and Uni jostling close behind them, but a hypothetical table taking into account just games played in the second 11 weeks of the season shows a remarkable twist – Uni and Lions would be top (26), followed by Stanmore (24), Enfield (20) and Bulls (19). Belmore would replace Enfield in the top-five based on the second round of results only.
Goals, glorious goals!
A neat 357 goals were scored by 106 different players in 110 state league two games at an average of 3.2 per match. It’s slightly down from the 3.6 average in 2011 division two and perhaps underlines the defensive prowess of several sides.
Round two produced the most goals with 27 from five outings (bloated by a 10-goal Scorpions defeat) just eclipsing the round seven mark of 24 strikes when Schofields had the bye. A 16-0 Scorpions round-11 loss was next highest with 23 goals scored, one more than last weekend’s final-round action.
A more competitive second round of fixtures produced less goals than the opening half of the season, round 18’s lowly nine goals coming when Schofields had the bye (to be fair, corresponding round seven produced a whopping 24 goals) and round 13 only conjured up 10 strikes in the midst of a low-scoring month of matches (45 goals in 20 games).
Stanmore broke the goal-line the most times bagging 66 times in 20 runs, way ahead of Fairfield (54), Belmore (37) and Hurstville FC (32).
The Hawks also dominated the defensive end with a miserly 15 goals conceded, just a few less than Uni (18), Lions (18), Condors (18) and Bulls (21).
It certainly was a goalkeeper’s year as 70 clean sheets were registered, Uni and Stanmore claiming league-high 10 eggs each (half of all their fixtures), ahead of Condors (9), Bulls (8), Branch (7), Enfield (6) and Belmore (5). Besides Scorpions (0), Hurstville FC (3) and Minotaurs (4) forced the least nil scorelines.
Stanmore were the most prolific scorers, netting in all but one match (beaten 1-0 by Bulls) – Fairfield and Belmore were next best with only three scoreless outings, Branch and Bulls grabbed a goal in all but five games. At the other end, Schofields (18), Enfield (9), Minotaurs (7) and Condors (7) were held to nil the most times.
Celebration time
Fairfield found the most number of strikers in their squad with 17 players putting one in the onion bag, 10 of them netting on multiple occasions, way more than Stanmore (13), Enfield (12) and Hurstville FC (11), while Condors (8), Minotaurs (8), Uni (7) and Schofields (1) fielded the least number of scorers this season.
Stanmore’s Neil Philippou claimed the Golden Boot trophy with his 25 season strikes well ahead of Belmore veteran Pablo Cardozo (17) and Uni rising star Joel Silvestre (16), while Haisam Morhi (Minotaurs), Mauricio Navarrete (Condors) and Nick Paradisis (Hawks) blasted in a dozen goals each.
Behind the frontrunners were Jonathan Joannidis (Hurstville FC), Paul Paras (Belmore) and Fairfield duo Emile Damey and Farres Aoun with eight goals apiece, while Lachlan Wright (Hawks) and Luis Escalante (Minotaurs) both hit seven, Jordan Haddow (Branch), Troy Eedy (Bulls), Angelo Vagenas (Minotaurs) and Mojtaba Mohebbee (Lions) netted six times each, followed by five-goal efforts from Adel Ahmed (Rovers), Zach Chapman (Bulls), Dario Borovickic (Hurstville), Paul Gagro (Hurstville), Coskun Tabak (Lions) and Julian Aguirre (Lions).
What home ground advantage?
In an interrupted year of midweek fixtures and several changed venues it’s perhaps not surprisingly home ground advantage stood for very little.
Of 110 games the home side won just 48 times (43%), Fairfield and Uni losing just one host fixture all season despite visiting teams springing a rousing 47 victories of their own.
Stanmore dropped just one road game over winter to gain a staggering 27 points in 10 away matches, a phenomenal nine more points than Condors in a brilliant pirating display of ‘pillage and plunder’.
Interestingly only 15 of the 110 fixtures finished even at fulltime (14%) – Condors claimed a league-high seven draws (four at home), while Uni had five to leave both clubs speculating on possible higher ladder positions. First and last Stanmore and Schofields were the only sides not to register a draw at all.
Home points (games)
Fairfield                        25 (10)
Uni                   21 (10)
Stanmore          21 (10)
Branch              19 (14)
Bulls                 16   (9)
Condors           13   (9)
Belmore            13 (10)
Minotaurs          12 (10)
Hurstville FC     12   (9)
Enfield                7   (9)
Schofields          0 (10)
Away points (games)
Stanmore          27 (10)
Condors           18   (9)
Fairfield                        17 (10)
Bulls                 17   (9)
Uni                   17 (10)
Belmore            17 (10)
Enfield              13   (9)
Hurstville FC     11   (9)
Branch              10   (6)
Minotaurs            9 (10)
Schofields          0 (10)
 
Who’s a naughty boy then?
Plenty of games finished a player or two short this year with officials tested on many occasions. In all, 39 red cards and 324 yellows were dished out to 172 different players during 110 hotly contested fixtures.
Hurstville FC endured the most dismissals, their eight reds in 20 matches noticeably more than Scorpions (5), Minotaurs (4) and Condors (4). At the other end Branch had one player sent off all season and Bulls two.
Cautions were distributed slightly differently with Condors (36) receiving the most followed by Bulls (32), Hurstville FC (32) and Minotaurs (31). Uni were the most disciplined unit gathering just 20 yellows in 20 matches, eight less than Scorpions, Branch and Fairfield.
The playing numbers booked again aligned dissimilar with a league-high 20 Fairfield players being shown cards throughout winter, ahead of Belmore (19) and Hurstville FC (17). Uni (11) and Branch (13) had the least number of players booked.
Bookings          Red      Yellow  Players
Hurstville FC     8          32         17
Schofields        5          28         14
Minotaurs          4          31         14
Condors           4          36         14
Belmore            3          30         19
Enfield              3          29         16
Fairfield                        3          28         20
Stanmore          3          30         16
Uni                   3          20         11
Bulls                 2          32         16
Branch              1          28         13