Rydalmere Lions crowned Mens State League Two Champions
Rydalmere Lions were a snippet too good for Southern Bulls in an excellent Mens State League Two Grand Final at Sydney United Sports Centre on Saturday night, winning 2-1 in a match that could’ve swung either way.
Several hundred braced the cold conditions to watch a scintillating game of football, Lions linchpin Kingsley Williams slotting home a late penalty after ‘Midas-man’ Amoury Gauthier had cancelled out John Fahmi’s early goal for Bulls.
It was also a match of great sportsmanship and neither team gave an inch; but in the end Rydalmere were deserved champions and Southern gave just as much in an intriguing contest..
As an indication of how formidable these combatants are, only one of their past six contests has been decided by more than a goal. It was Rydalmere’s first win over Southern this year and their ninth win away from home in 12 matches (they drew two others) to show a true champion’s character.
The final was anybody’s from the opening whistle as both sides signaled an early intent to attack, Bulls star Jason Garrido playing a beautiful ball in to Fahmi whose well-placed shot deflected wide for a corner a minute before Lions young gun Yoel Silvestre dribbled into the box at the other end and sent his shot just high.
Rydalmere’s Khalid Allybokus then brought down Kyle Romero at the edge of the area and Fahmi stepped over the ball to send a delicious curling strike around the wall to beat Lions keeper James Webb at the far post and stake a 1-0 Bulls lead after just seven minutes.
Rydalmere could’ve leveled within seconds as an unmarked Silvestre found space on the right and dribbled toward goal, slicing the ball past Bulls keeper Pablo Mezza but also just left of the upright, and Julian Aguirre released Silvestre down the wing with a deft pass off the outside of his boot, the young playmaker taking the ball to the byline, sizing up a pass that whistled past a diving Mezza and fell to an unsuspecting Teruki Ito alone in front of goal, but his last-second touch went the wrong way and was cleared from danger.
A moment of Allybokus madness could’ve ended in disaster when he was shown a yellow card for bringing down Rocco Luca recklessly at halfway, and was lucky not to face further punishment from referee Paul Faithfull (who governed a tight game very well) when he threw the ball away in dissent.
However, Lions were slowly getting on top and Mezza had to be brave in charging out to nick the ball off Aguirre’s shoelaces but he could do little to stop Gauthier’s clever strike from the top of the box as Rydalmere leveled on the half-hour, his 13th goal in a glorious 12-week spell with Lions squaring the ledger at 1-1.
Bulls showed their own mettle with a series of excellent close-quarter passing that allowed Fahmi time to open up inside the box with a neat jigger-run and sweet shot that forced a terrific diving save from Webb, his counterpart Mezza also showing courage in deflecting a Gauthier cross bound for an open Silvestre at the far post just before the halftime whistle blew.
A strong Southern second-half start had Mensah on the boil, the lanky defender delightfully rounding one defender and beating another before his tight-angled shot close to goal forced a corner, Nathan Niski finding space inside the Lions box seconds later to squeeze off a shot that Webb saved well to maintain the deadlock.
Romero thought he’d scored direct from a corner on the hour-mark when his floating cross drifted over everyone’s head and into the top right-hand corner, but the goal was cancelled following an infringement on Webb.
Bulls looked good from another corner when Fahmi’s laser-guided cross spiraled straight to Goran Ljuboja’s inviting forehead but the big man mistimed his nudge and the close-range header bounced straight down and into Webb’s safe hands.
Rydalmere almost took a fortuitous lead with 12 minutes remaining when Nicholas Kougious’ wayward cross floated on the damp night air and skidded off the crossbar, and they were nearly gifted a second advantage when a clumsy Mezza failed to grab Gauthier’s lack-lustre effort, the ball tricking under his body and rebounding off the upright behind him to ensure the stalemate continued.
Lions finally took their chance when Mensah was adjudged to have brought down Gauthier inside the area despite seemingly getting a toe on the ball and Kingsley Williams lined up the penalty kick sending it low-right into the netting for a 2-1 Rydalmere lead with 10 minutes to go.
Romero had a late chance to send the game into extra-time after an excellent Mensah opened up space for him at the top of the box, but the shot was a metre high and fulltime finally sounded to the delight of anxious Lions fans.
Man-of-the-match Yoel Silvestre proved a real handful for the Bulls defence, his speed and guile worthy of Fagin’s gang, but he instead praised his helpful team-mates for a trophy-winning battle.
“That was a tough game,” he said. “The Bulls put a lot of pressure on us but we just had to keep playing our natural game, which is a passing game, and it was a great team effort that helped us win.”
“We have a lot of quality players in the side; they also have a big heart and everyone did the job they had to do.”
Lions coach Tony Basha may be small in stature but his post-game physique resembled the Colossus of Rhodes after seeing his charges home.
“It was a good game of football, nothing in it,” he said. “The early goal against us was good for us I think as I was always confident of coming from behind with so much football to play.”
“[Tied 1-1 at halftime] I just told them to enjoy themselves and keep playing the kind of football we play… but Bulls were good, man; Ramsin’s done a great job with them.”
“[Regarding Rydalmere] What a great club! Very professional, no politics, very much a big family where everyone enjoys doing their job; whatever we need [as a football team] we get, so we can just get on with developing good players.”
Defeated coach Ramsin Shamon couldn’t applaud loud enough for a fantastic Bulls effort. “I love my boys, they’ve done well!” he proclaimed after a gutsy loss to a quality Lions outfit.
“I feel like we’ve had a great season [only three losses all year]; we could’ve won the premiership and we dug in deep today [for the grand final]. We started well and played well in long patches and it looked like it was going to be a good night, but it wasn’t to be.”
“Good luck to Rydalmere, they did well to get their two goals that won the game and they deserved it. The good thing about football is you always get another chance and we’re already looking forward to next season.”
Match Stats
Southern Bulls 1 (John Fami)
Rydalmere Lions 2 (Amaury Gauthier, Kingsley Williams)
Southern Bulls: Pablo Mezza, Leigh Gunn, Dom Mecuri, Gordan Opacic, Goran Ljuboja, James Raiti, Jason Garrido, John Fami, Joseph Mensah, Kyle Romero, Mile Petkovic, Mirza Sehic, Nathan Niski, Nick Dionisiou, Rocco Romero, Rocco Luca, Luke Ursino, Stefan Sankovic, Tomilav Romic, coach Ramsin Shamon, assistants Jason Falzon & Ossie Riva, manager Anthony Yawanis.
Rydalmere Lions: Teruki Ito, Addison Sayan, Mark Nisbet, David Bromhead, Diego Andrade, Ballamadou Conde, Yoel Silvestre, Nicholas Kougious, Samuel Sesay, Julian Aguirre, Tomislav Semialjac, Daniel Kamel, Kingsley Williams, Amaury Gauthier, James Webb, Khalid Allybokus, Adrian Castro, coach Tony Basha, assistant John Skufris, manager Gabby Barakat.
Referee: Paul Faithfull
Assistant 1: Darrin Richards
Assistant 2: Dale Fuda
4th Official: Owen Ferguson
Prospect lift grade-20 trophy
Prospect United sent premiers Rydalmere Lions packing on a shivering Saturday afternoon at Sydney United Sports Centre, winning a tense grand final 2-0.
Wily Abanoub Mickael provided two second-half goals to spark a rousing post-match victory song from the Prospect faithful. It was United’s only win over Rydalmere in four tries this year but, emphatically, their 10th cleansheet in 21 games.
A chess-match first-half underlined a 0-0 halftime stalemate with no injuries, no cards, no saves and no shots on target as both sets of determined defences denied clear-cut chances in the tight affair.
There were a couple of loose shots at both ends but nothing to trouble the keepers, the brightest moment of a cagey half coming midway through when the doom and gloom of winter was finally broken by glistening golden rays of sunshine splashing across the pitch.
The first real chance of the game fell to Rydalmere five minutes after the restart, Jayden Nakhoul pivoting and shooting low inside the area to force Daniel Farias into a great drop-save and keep the scores level.
Minutes later Aaron Avery did well to find Nakhoul in open space and his cut-back to Joel Silvestre in the middle was deftly touched by Prospect’s Josh Smith, but only as far as Mawan Agar who cannoned his edge-of-the-box shot straight into the back of team-mate Silvestre to blow a golden Lions opportunity.
United quickly broke and Frederick Ankumah-Sey found space on the right but with his angle on goal getting cuter he could only blast high.
The match really opened up on the hour when man-of-the-match Ankumah-Sey galloped up-field, shrugged off Lions defender Karamo Kamara deep inside the box, settled himself and with Lions keeper Syuzo Tsunoda approaching steered the perfect pass across goal for a cutting Abanoub Mickael to drive home into an empty net from six yards out and set a 1-0 Prospect lead.
A Rydalmere equaliser looked likely midway through the term when Agar went clear on the left and tried a cheeky chip under pressure from Farias, the ball drifting agonisingly past the post and the score remained unchanged.
Prospect responded in kind with Jiho Katsumasa sprinting down the left and rifling a pass across goal that whistled past the toes of a diving Ankumah-Sey and out for a goalkick with 15 minutes left to play.
And United hammered a second nail in Rydalmere’s coffin in the 80th minute when Mickael capitalised on a defensive mishap to smash in from close-range and put Prospect two goals clear.
United had a chance to wrap it up a minute later when captain Tom Simpson snipered a great ball from halfway that sat up nicely for a sprinting Ankumah-Sey, but his shot wasn’t the best and it slipped wide for a goalkick.
It mattered little however as the fulltime whistled sounded with Prospect 2-0 in front.
Influential playmaker Abanoub Mickael scored both goals in what was his first ever grand final. He said a healthy confidence set his team up for victory.
“We came into the match with a belief in ourselves and just wanted to stay focused and back our own ability,” he said. “The coach made some tactical changes at halftime so we could get through them and we followed through with his instructions.”
“We could always see the quality in our team and today we showed everyone we can do it.”
You couldn’t wipe the smile from United coach Darren Camilleri’s face but you could also count a couple more wrinkles on his brow after a nerve-wracking 90 minutes of close football.
“That was a pressure-cooker first 45 and we could only get more into the game by making some positional and tactical changes at the break [playing most of their attack through Mickael in the centre of the park],” he said.
“Congratulations to Rydalmere, they were head and shoulders above every team in the regular season… but the grand final is won on the day!”
“We began in January with a new-look team and forged a good bond that grew in belief week-by-week after they set new levels for themselves and started achieving them. It was an excellent effort and very well deserved.”
Beaten coach Nas Basha was philosophical after an outstanding Rydalmere season was brought to a shuddering halt.
“That’s football, isn’t it? But it’s all part of their development,” he said. “We have plenty of young kids in the team and we achieved our main goal as a club by winning the club championship, which was mainly due to the efforts of this team.”
“Today, it was a good game of soccer played between the best two teams in the competition and Prospect deserved their win.”
Match Stats
Rydalmere Lions 0 Prospect United 2 (Abanoub Mickael 2)
Rydalmere Lions: Syuzo Tsunoda, Joshua Silvestre, Karamo Kamara, Alex Ghamraoui, Masihullah Mobbin, John Kavvalos, Mustafa Acka, Marvin Potrus, Alex Callisto, Jayden Nakhoul, Mien Deng, Mawan Agar, Aaron Avery, Yuichi Someya, Bradley McMahon, Nicholas Elbadaoui, Sam Chabok, Dimitri D’Jamirze, Tony Sleiman, coach Tony Basha, assistant Nassif El Bacha, manager Adam Burrell.
Prospect United: Abdul Bah, Frederick Ankumah-Sey, Julian Baumbach, Francis Cabriga, Tobias Elliott Orr, Aaron Hulley, Jiho Katsumasa, Jonathan Manibog, Mohammed Qunber Ali, Abanoub Mickael, Thomas Simpson, Joshua Smith, Emmanuel Vuciri, Steven Farrell, Brandon Whitby, Anthony Haddad, Simone Malcotti, Daniel Farias, Ryan Frost, Shannon Smith, coach Tony Caruso, assistant Darren Camilleri, managers Stan Gurling & Brian Vella.
Referee: John Garcia
Assistant 1: Brendon Koehler
Assistant 2: Muhammad Johari
4th Official: Stephen Prattent
-By Dan De Nardi
