St George FC spoil Kyrgiakos farewell match

St George FC recorded their first win in the IGA National Premier Leagues NSW Mens 1 competition as they defeated Sydney Olympic 2-0 at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday.

A strong defensive performance led by former Olympic defender Mirko Jurijl ruined Olympic’s farewell to former Greek international Sotirios Kyrgiakos.

St George was ruthless with their chances as Bruno Pivato and David Talevski scored in each half to record the victory.

The constant rain throughout the day stopped for kick-off as Sydney Olympic took the bulk of possession in the first five minutes of the match.

But it was St George who shocked the home side when they took the lead against the run of play in the 7′ minute.

Captain Juan Chavez took advantage as Sotirios Kyrgiakos slipped on the wet surface, making his way into the box before his shot was parried into the path of Bruno Pivato whose impending shot was deflected into the back of the net, making it 1-0.

Sydney Olympic were hungry to get the goal back and three minutes later Christos Tomaras’ free kick attempt went sailing over the mark.

Evan Kostopoulos’ move to the right flank almost paid dividends in the 18′ minute when he got around Lenox Tweneboa before sending in a great cross to William Angel for the latter’s header to be saved by a diving Dion Shaw.

St George’s work in the middle of the park created a half chance on 22′ minutes when they found Aleksander Jovovic on the left who beat Petar Markovic before his cross was cleared by Brendan Hooper.

Jovovic was at it again just minutes later when he made inroads into the Olympic box, only for Kyrgiakos to get back and save the day.

Pivato had his head in his hands in the 32′ minute when he blew a fantastic opportunity to double his team’s lead. After great lead up play in the middle of the park, Pivato fed Jovovic out wide who found the midfielder open in the middle of the box only for to skew his shot wide of the left hand upright.

Kostopoulos continued to be a menace two minutes later and unleashed a great shot from 30 yards out just missing the target.

Three minutes before the break Sydney Olympic had a great chance to equalise when they were awarded an indirect free kick inside the box after Shaw picked the ball up from a backpass.

Luckily for the keeper the impending free kick went sailing over bar.

Sydney Olympic came out from the break intent on a result with coach Grant Lee moving to three in defence and five in the middle of the park to combat St George.

In the 50′ minute the home side went inches away from equalising when Hooper just missed a great floating free kick by Kostopoulos while flooring Shaw in the process.

Gaitatzis- who was moved to  the right flank – provided Olympic with great width. The move almost worked in the 54thminute when he found Dimitri Hatzimouratis with a great cross only for the striker’s header to be well saved by Shaw.

Kyrgiakos could have made his fairytale moment in the 69thminute when he rose well to head the ball wide of the mark.

The flurry of missed chances came back to haunt the home side when St George doubled their lead with 15 minutes remaining.

After a great counter attack the ball fell to David Talevski who took a touch before unleashing a great left foot strike into the bottom right hand corner.

St George were not done there and with minutes left Jovovic went through on the right only for his shot to bounce off the bar for a goal kick.

Olympic fought hard to try get back into the match late but could not break a stubborn St George defence.

Following the match, St George captain Juan Chavez said he was impressed by his side’s defensive display.

“Micky Jurijl came in and we knew he was going to play from Tuesday and just his leadership in training was really good and you could tell today he was really organised at the back so we are very happy with the win,” he said.

“Dion with the save half way through the second half definitely our defence did well today. That early goal helped a lot as well.

“Hopefully this puts us in good stead for the rest of the season.”

In the home dressing room man of the moment Sotirios Kyrgiakos was upset with the loss.

“The match wasn’t great but the boys tried hard,” he said.

“I think the team does need a bit of work but they have a great future ahead of them and slowly they will become a very good side.

“This is another experience in my career, I had never played outside of Europe and I really enjoyed my time here.”

Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 0
St George 2 (Bruno Pivato 7’, David Talevski 75’)
Sunday 6th April, 2014
Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore
Referee: Khoder Yaghi
Assistant Referees: Lance Greenshields and Andrej Giev
Fourth Official: Daniel Stack
Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson; 7.William Angel, 3.Troy Danaskos, 10.Harris Gaitatzis, 24.Amaury Gauthier, 9.Dimitri Hatzimouratis (19.Go Shirai 63’), 4.Brendan Hooper, 23.Evan Kostopoulos, 14.Petar Markovic (c), 16.Sotirios Kyrgiakos, 33.Christos Tomaras (8.Chris Godoy Bascur 77’)
Substitutes not used: 40. Liam Jacobs, 5. Bradley Treloar, 39.Michael Gaitatzis
Yellow Cards: Markovic 31’, Hooper 39’
Red Cards: Nil
St George: 1.Dion Shaw, 11.Juan Chavez (c) (7.Chris Gomez 67’), 3.David Dascal, 15.Djordje Degenek, 12.Aleksander Jovovic, 6.Mirko Jurijl, 10.Bruno Pivato (16.Jonathan Castano-Acero 82’), 19.David Talveski, 13.Lenox Tweneboa, 2.Costa Andricopoulos, 38.Laureano Gomez Castro (23.George Codrea 75’)
Substitutes not used: 21. Lucas North, 18. Tayfun Bayukkopru
Yellow Cards: Gomez Castro 68’, Shaw 69’, Codrea 90’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3- Bruno Pivato (St George)
2- Dion Shaw (St George)
1- Evan Kostopoulos (Olympic)
– By Chris Georges