Gaitatzis breaks Blacktown City hearts

IT WAS a happy return for Harris Gaitatzis, whose penalty was the only goal as Sydney Olympic beat his former side Blacktown City at Lilys Football Centre.
It wasn’t a particularly pretty game as Blacktown City failed to test Olympic’s veteran keeper Paul Henderson, who was a dominant aerial presence when he had to be.
Evan Kostopoulos pulled the strings for Olympic who played some decent attacking football throughout, showing that they have fully recovered from the distraction of Sotirios Kygriakos’ guest stint.
His two games may have been good for publicity but on the park it seemed to have more negatives than positives.
Blacktown City meanwhile were second on the ladder at the start of play, but couldn’t produce some of the swashbuckling attacking play of the early part of the season.
Blacktown City had an early opportunity when William Angel gave possession away to Travis Major but he over hit the cross into the penalty area.
It was the same story when an accurate long ball, from Zac Cairncross, a rarity in itself, found Matthew Lewis on the left, but his first time cross was also well over-hit.
Cairncross probably should have given Blacktown City the lead when his header from a Yianni Fragogiannis free kick went over, before Olympic’s Evan Kostopoulos unleashed a rasping drive from 30 yards that flashed inches wide with Nenad Vekic beaten.
The clearest chance of the first half was Blacktown City’s.
34′ minutes were on the clock when Ryuji Miyazawa, who had a quiet game, crossed from the left. Arriving in the nick of time was Travis Major, but he could only direct his header straight at Henderson. It was a guilt edged chance for the Blacktown City co-captain.
The second half saw Olympic begin to take control with Kostopoulos at the heart of everything good.
His vision and poise on the ball was a highlight of a relatively dour match and it was he who won the penalty from which Olympic one the game.
On the hour mark, Michael Gaitatzis shot over from distance and then, two minutes later,  Kostpoulos ran at Blacktown City left back Giorgio Speranza.
Speranza lunged in and a penalty was given by referee Enrico Guerra, here from Umbira in Italy as part of the referee exchange program.
Harris Gaitatzis made no mistake, tucking the spot kick into the bottom corner even though Vekic guessed the right way.
The goal seemed to spark the game into life.
Lewis had a penalty appeal turned down by Signor Guerra just moments after the Blacktown City goal, before Sasa Macura had a shot blocked; unfortunately it was by his own team-mate Major.
In the 72′ minute Major had a chance of his own, sidefooting wide after a good cross by the lively Danny Choi.
Olympic though were absorbing the pressure and threatening on the break themselves.
A free kick from Troy Danaskos was headed narrowly over by the ever-involved Kostopoulos and then substitute Dimitri Hatzimouratis headed over a cross from Harris Gaitatzis.
Blacktown City were trying to take control of the game in the last ten minutes but were undermined by a succession of aimless long balls from Cairncross.
Choi was slid in on goal in the 88′ minute and just as he was to pull the trigger, Brayden Sorge made a perfectly time block.
Then, from the resulting corner Jacob Poscoliero had a header cleared off the line.
It wasn’t meant to be for Blacktown, but it is a sign of Olympic’s progress so far under Grant Lee.
Match Stats
Blacktown City 0
Sydney Olympic 1 (Harris Gaitatzis 62′ [PEN])
Sunday, 27th April, 2014
Lilys Football Centre, Seven Hills
Referee: Enrico Guerra
Assistant Referees: Craig Fisher and Andre Giev
Fourth Official: Roberto Matae
Blacktown City: 1.Nenad Vekic; 3. Giorgio Speranza (18.Daniel Araujo 77′), 4.Yianni Fragogiannis, 6.Matthew Lewis, 7.Travis Major, 8.Sasa Macura, 9.Ryuji Miyazawa, 11.Danny Choi, 15.Marco Travaglini (5.Jacob Poscoliero 46′), 16.Kearyn Baccus, 19.Zachary Cairncross (C)
Substitutes not used: 12.Joel Hardwick, 13.Blake Tuxford (GK), 14.Nicola Kuleski
Yellow Cards: Danny Choi 24′, Giorgio Speranza 62′, Zac Cairncross 76′
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson; 2.Brayden Sorge, 3.Troy Danaskos, 7.William Angel (19.Go Shirai 38′), 10.Harris Gaitatzis, 14.Peter Markovic (C), 15.Yianni Spyrakis, 18.Taiga Soeda, 23.Evan Kostopoulos, 33.Christos Tomaras (24.Amaury Gauthier 51′), 39.Michael Gaitatzis (9.Dimitri Hatzimouratis 77′)
Substitutes not used: 5.Bradley Treloar,12.Kresimir Kardum
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3- Evan Kostpoulos (OLY)
2- Harris Gaitatzis (OLY)
1- Kearyn Baccus (BLK)
– By Matthew Lopez, National Premier Leagues NSW Mens 1 Reporter, at Lilys Football Centre