State League Two Round 1 Finals Series Review

Fairfield City Lions beat University of NSW 3-0 on Sunday to advance to an appetising major semi-final clash with premiers Stanmore Hawks, while Western Condors’ epic penalty shootout victory over Southern Bulls in Saturday’s knockout game (1-1 at fulltime, 2-2 extra-time) has Condors facing Uni in a sudden death semi-final.
Grade-20 premiers Fairfield meet Hurstville City in the major semi-final after the Minotaurs defeated Uni in a Sunday afternoon penalty shootout (0-0 at fulltime and extra-time), leaving Uni to challenge Hawks following Stanmore’s comfy 4-1 win against Condors in Saturday’s elimination final.
Check the footballnsw.com.au website for full details.
Qualifying final: Fairfield City Lions 3 (David Bromfield, Mojtaba Mohebbee, Nas Basha) University of NSW 0
Elimination final: Southern Bulls 2 (Mile Petkovic, own goal) Western Condors 2 (Gabriel Zihori, Michael Lalik) – (1-1 FT) Condors win 4-2 on penalties
Grade 20
Qualifying final: Hurstville City Minotaurs 0 University of NSW 0 – Minotaurs win on penalties
Elimination final: Stanmore Hawks 4 (M. Asad, L. Perez, V. Lambroglou, C. Bakoulis) Western Condors 1 (M. Elongo)
Lions lockdown Uni
Fairfield City Lions roared to a 3-0 victory over a cornered University of NSW in Sunday afternoon’s qualifying final at Bensons Lane Field.
Fairfield looked determined and grabbed the early ascendancy when fullback David Bromfield volleyed home from a clever set-piece to lift City to a 1-0 halftime lead.
While Uni searched for options the Lions pounced through a spectacular Mojtaba Mohebbee strike from outside the box moments into the second term and Nas Basha made it 3-0 in the blink of an eye to shovel more coal into the Fairfield furnace.
The solid victory catapulted Lions to a major semi-final showdown with rivals Stanmore Hawks and consigned Uni to an elimination bout versus Western Condors.
A comprehensive display that ultimately showcased City’s firepower up front chuffed coach Tony Basha. “The boys played really well today,” he said. “David Bromhead doesn’t score too many, it was probably the first goal of his life… it was part of some really good football; Uni is a good team but we didn’t give them much at all.”
Uni coach Jorge Piatta wasn’t getting carried away with a defeat to a very good football side. “We were beaten by a better team, simple as that. There was nothing more we could do today, they were more disciplined, more confident and they played some very good football… I think today I would’ve rather been a spectator than a coach,” he said.
Condors block Bulls
Western Condors won a thrilling elimination final against Southern Bulls at Ernie Smith Reserve on Saturday night, prevailing 4-2 in a penalty shootout after the game was deadlocked 1-1 at fulltime and 2-2 after extra-time.
A devine Elias Navarrete cutback freed up Gabriel Zihori in the box and his sweet finish lifted Condors 1-0 in front at oranges, hat-trick hero from their last encounter (a 5-0 win to Bulls) Mile Petkovic squaring things up straight after the break with a good goal as Bulls looked to turn its weight of possession into something more meaningful.
And Southern got their break in the dying minutes as a handball gave Daniel Chima the chance to win the game from the penalty spot only to boot the chance into the carpark as the whistle sounded for fulltime.
The home side made immediate amends as a dangerous cross resulted in Condors stalwart Joel Dunajcik blasting the ball into his own net to give Bulls a 2-1 edge in extra-time, but a Michael Lalik finish after Navarrete had razzle-dazzled his way across the box late in the second period of extra-time evened the ledger once again.
With the game to be decided from 12 yards out up stepped Condors keeper Rod Galiano, who saved the first Bulls effort, saw their second hit the crossbar and then parried another to help Western win the shootout 4-2 and stay alive in State League 2.
Condors coach Barry Zambrano Condors said his team’s first win over a top-five side definitely came at the right time. “I didn’t think we deserved those losses the last two times we played; we really played well and got nothing out of those games, and I told the players that we could make up for that now with a win today and they certainly did their part,” he said.
“Our goalkeeper Rod Galiano was our hero today; he’s a very experienced keeper but he did more than expected to help get us the win.”
Bulls coach Ramsin Shamon was clearly disappointed. “We really felt confident coming into this match and really dominated at times but Condors just wouldn’t go away and kept grinding, grinding, grinding and tried to make as much out of it as they could,” he said.
“In the end it just didn’t go well for us and I’m pretty devastated for the guys… but it’s lessons learned and they can see what it takes to concentrate and have the right discipline to be better footballers in the future.”
While Shamon had just been knocked out by Condors he added weight to a Lions favouritism, saying “Fairfield have the ascendency on everyone right now” and tipping City to win the title.
Grade 20
Hurstville City Minotaurs downed University of NSW in a qualifying final penalty shootout at Bensons Lane Field on Sunday afternoon to advance to this weekend’s major semi-final blockbuster with premiers Fairfield City Lions. A chess game broke out as neither side could break a 0-0 deadlock after 120 minutes of football and the game was decided from the spot, Hurstville ending on top.
Stanmore Hawks easily defeated Western Condors 4-1 in Saturday afternoon’s elimination final at Ernie Smith Reserve, turning a comfortable 3-0 halftime lead into a decisive three-goal victory. Stanmore now meet Uni in a sudden death semi-final match-up.
-By Dan De Nardi