Blacktown City FC secure Waratah Cup Final berth
Blacktown City FC secured passage into the 2014 Waratah Cup Final after defeating fellow IGA NPL NSW Mens 1 side Sydney Olympic 2-1 in a thrilling encounter at Belmore Sports Ground on a wintery Wednesday evening.
It was a tentative opening spell with so much at stake with both teams attempting to play passing football through the middle and flanks with no goalmouth scares to speak of however inside four minutes, it was Olympic who had been caught offside four times, City pushing up at the vital moment.
Giorgio Speranza fired the first real shot in anger in the sixth minute that eventuated in a corner for Blacktown that was easily cleared.
Daniel Araujo sent a curling effort wide of Paul Henderson’s a minute later before Travis Major saw an attempt flick off the heels of the Olympic defence to safety as the visitors began to exploit their hosts left flank with Ryuji Miyazawa coming into the game.
Christos Tomaras replied with a curling free-kick from 30-yards out that failed to trouble Blake Tuxford, replacing Nenad Vekic, between the sticks as Olympic registered their first meaningful raid on goal.
City were in no mood to take prisoners when pushing Olympic back, the home side finding themselves under the pump without being breached until the 17’ minute when Travis Major slipped in to powerfully shoot across Henderson into the bottom corner.
Olympic’s resilience had been resolute until this point but the goal had been coming via the fluent play of their guests unlocking their defence with slick passing and movement.
It was oh so close to two when Mitchell Mallia wriggled free to unleash a shot that had Henderson imperiously plucking the ball from the air at full stretch 6’ minutes later.
It was perhaps the shock the Blues needed as they rolled up their sleeves to blunt the forward forays of their guests and created a couple of half chances of their own, nothing truly of note but they needed to start somewhere.
Blacktown were playing the offside trap to perfection and routinely caught Olympic straying too far forward too early allowing themselves to be put back under immediate pressure when having to regain possession.
Major again tried his luck when drifting in from the right with a left-foot shot that had power but lacked direction, a cross to the back stick perhaps the better option with Mallia menacing.
Go Shirai went on a run culminating in a left-footed dig clipping off the City defence for a corner late on in the half with Olympic beginning to find a little extra room in the midfield.
Mallia was left holding his head in frustration when played through one-on-one with Henderson only to see the giant shot stopper make himself big to beat the ball away on the stroke of half-time.
The second half started as the first finished, Olympic this time needing to clear off the line from another Major/Mallia combination.
Blacktown were sharper to the ball, quicker in thought and deed which left Olympic chasing shadows for much of the game.
In the 55’ minute William Angel cushioned a header down for Tomaras whose first time was deflected away for another corner.
Grant Lee rang the changes and brought on Harris Gaitatzis for Chris Godoy-Bascur to add further fire-power up front but it almost backfired when Mallia broke down the left and unleashed a thunderous shot that Henderson did well to again beat away in the 57’ minute.
The Blues were certainly making a better fist of things and upped their impetus in seeking parity and, perhaps, the chance of cup glory if they made the final.
It was all but wrapped up in the 70’ minute when Major again broke from midfield and slotted the ball under Henderson to give Blacktown a two goal advantage.
Olympic heads didn’t drop as they may have done earlier in the season and they rallied but to no avail.
Daniel Araujo centred for Ryuji Miyazawa who cheekily tried to back-heel the ball past Henderson however the giant gloveman showed all his agility in getting down to smother the ball on the line in the 74’ minute
Olympic hit back when Taigo Soeda slipped his marker and rounded the City defence before pulling the ball back for Dmitri Hatzimouratis to side-foot home into an empty net to bring the game back to life, the home side trailing but just the solitary goal once more.
The edge had returned in the game with Olympic now looking the hungrier and more desperate for the ball.
Angel skimmed past Araujo and centred into a crowded box that through a sea of legs saw a City defender skew the ball agonisingly wide of the post from an Olympic perspective.
Brayden Sorge went on a surging run down the right and found substitute Harris Gaitatzis lurking in the centre only for the striker to see his shot parried away for a corner with City now finding themselves on the receiving end and needing to toil hard to stem an enthused Blues attack.
Harris Gaitatzis was shown a straight red card when appearing to lash out at Travis Major on the ground, with 2’ minutes remaining, ending all hopes Olympic had of salvaging anything although in all likelihood he was trying to retrieve the ball quickly to restart the game.
The final whistle blew to end an enthralling cup tie leaving Olympic coach Grant lee to state afterwards.
“I thought it was a good game tonight but sometimes we don’t do ourselves any favours.
“We were caught ball watching and silly things and when you look at the two goals that Travis (Major) scored you know what he does, you know the runs that he makes and you’ve got to be a little bit smarter as a defender. You don’t give him that yard, you don’t give him space to run in to so you just drop off and hold.
“I was a little disappointed that we gave them to two goals and gave them the start before we dragged one back but by then we are chasing the game but in saying that we looked a little flat early on and City wanted it really hard in the first 15-20 minutes and it took us a little time to get into it but after that initial spell I felt we stepped up and started playing and it was a good game after that.”
Mark Crittenden was buoyed by the result added.
“You always expect a tough ride when you play Olympic, you would expect nothing less from them and they gave us a good game tonight.
“I thought our first 30-minutes was superb, probably the best we’ve put on the park so far this season. The movement of the ball was crisp as you said and in the last 15, as you would think, ebbed and flowed a bit because obviously they had to chase the game and were always going to come at us.
“At 2-0 you sometimes get a little comfortable and then they pull one back and from then on it’s often a case of hanging in there.
“Although we are through to the final and we’ll celebrate that of course, we need to push that to the back of our minds and concentrate on our league form as we go out to win every game we play in. We are in a good position at the moment in the league and our aim, as always, is to finish as high as possible so we’ll put this one away and concentrate on our match with Marconi at the weekend.
“I’m sure we’ll have a few sore boys tonight as this was a pretty quick game, we played it high tempo and the impetus went our way but the pace was good throughout the 90-minutes.”
Would there be any suggestion of an easier training session before the weekend: “We’ll probably coddle them a bit on Friday,” laughed Crittenden; “But it will be business as usual at the weekend.”
Blacktown City FC will meet Manly United Sunday 6th July at Lambert Park with kick off set for 3pm.
Match Stats
Waratah Cup Semi-Final
Sydney Olympic 1 (Dmitri Hatzimouratis 76 )
Blacktown City 2 (Travis Major 17’ 70’ )
Wednesday June 11th, 2014
Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore
Referee: Ryan Shepherd
Assistant Referees: Lance Greenshields & Murray Wilson
Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson (g/k), 2.Brayden Sorge, 4.Brendan Hooper, 5.Brayden Treloa (25.Luka Falcone 84), 7.William Angel, 8.Chris Godoy-Bascur (10.Harris Gaitatzis 57), 9.Dimitri Hatzimouratis, 14.Peter Markovic ©, 18.Taigo Soeda, 19.Go Shirai, 33.Christos Tomaras (6.Ryan Keir 65)
Substitutions Not Used: 12.Kres Kardum, 39.Michael Gaitatzis,
Yellow Cards: 5.Brayden Treloar 56
Red cards: 10.Harris Gaitatzis 88
Blacktown City: 13.Blake Tuxford (g/k), 4.Yianni Fragogiannis (10.Shayne D’Cunha 63), 5.Jacob Poscoliero, 6.Matthew Lewis, 7.Travis Major © (12.Joel Hardwick 89), 8.Sasa Macura, 9.Ryuji Miyazawa, 14.Mitchell Mallia (11.Danny Choi 85), 15.Marco Travaglini, 16.Giorgio Speranza, 18.Daniel Araujo,
Substitutions Not Used: 1.Nenad Vekic (g/k), 21.Sam Perre
Yellow Cards: 8.Sasa Macura 25, 4.Yianni Fragogiannis 38
Red cards: Nil
-By Micky Brock
