Waratah Cup: Sydney United 58 reach final in thriller
Sydney United 58 FC qualified for the 2015 Waratah Cup Final after a 3-2 victory over the Rockdale City Suns in a thrilling match at Sydney United Sports Centre on Wednesday evening.
The entertaining semi-final included everything a football match can have with five goals, eight yellow cards and two red cards seeing both sides end the match with ten men each.
The match started as a physical affair with both sides trying to outmuscle each other in the early challenges.
Sydney United 58 midfielder Chris Triantis created the first chance of the match in the 5th minute, picking up the ball in the middle of the park before sending a defence splitting ball for Koen Bosma to get through on goal. The striker took a touch before Askin Oygur got back well to toe poke the ball goalwards with Rockdale keeper David Bradasevic getting down low to his left to save the day.
Triantis remained in the thick of the action five minutes later when he got on the end of a great phase of play. United 58 passed the ball around with aplomb before a long ball by Mitchell Stamatellis found Robbie Mileski on the left. The winger played a one-two with Koen Bosma before finding Triantis whose mistimed shot went well over the bar.
Rockdale had their first sight on goal in the 17th minute after a counter led to a Hristijan Tanoski shot deflecting back to Marko Jesic. The former Newcastle Jets striker’s first time shot went sailing over the bar.
The missed opportunity came back to haunt Rockdale when the home side went directly to the other side of the pitch to open the scoring a minute later. After great lead up play ,Theo Kofinas’ cross from the right found a waiting Triantis inside the box who easily tapped the ball into the bottom left hand corner making it 1-0.
The lead wouldn’t last long however as the match turned on its head four minutes later.
United 58 were first reduced to 10 men as Kofinas turned from hero to villain after receiving a second yellow card.
Marko Jesic stepped up to score the resulting free kick which deflected off the United 58 wall, wrong footing keeper Justin Pasfield.
The goal sparked Rockdale into gear as they peppered United 58’s defence in numbers as Tanoski and Jesic combined for a second time in the 32nd minute with the latter’s volley swinging wide of the left hand upright.
Jesic would not make a mistake the next time around as he put his side ahead for the first time in the match on 40 minutes.
Mitsuhiro Iwamoto started the play in the middle of the park finding Takuya Murayama on the right whose clever flick found Toufic Alameddine in space on the right hand side. The winger cut the ball back to an oncoming Jesic who fired his shot into the bottom left hand corner.
United 58 were unlucky to not have a penalty on 43 minutes when it seemed like Nikas was fouled in the box by Suns captain Askin Oygur.
A minute later the side’s luck continued to haunt them as the ball cannoned off the cross bar from a corner.
The home side came out from the break eager to get back into the match as Triantis bamboozled the Suns defence in the 49th minute before being brought down Oygur earning his side a free kick which was easily blocked as the wall stood firm.
In the 56th minute it was Rockdale’s chance to extend their lead as Alameddine’s pin point corner went straight to the feet of substitute Isaac Savor whose half volley missed the target by inches.
The game would take a wicked twist in the 64th minute however when Rockdale were reduced to 10 men after goalkeeper David Bradesevic was shown a straight red card as he seemed to lead in with his head towards Mileski, igniting both sides into a scuffle.
Suns coach Paul Reid was forced to replace attacker Toufic Alameddine with reserve keeper Aleksander Visnic.
Unfortunately for the keeper his first job was to pick the ball up from the back of the net as Chris Triantis dribbled through the Rockdale defence before slotting the ball into the bottom left hand corner to make it 2-2 in the 69th minute.
The tide had truly turned as United 58 took a 3-2 win in the 78th minute with captain Stjepan Paric meeting a long throw in to head the ball over a diving Visnic.
Following the match Sydney United 58 coach Stjepan Paric said he was proud of his side’s come-from-behind win.
“It was a tough match and we are all very happy to get into the final,” he said.
“We played (Blacktown) a few weeks back and they got us so we will be looking for revenge.”
Paric wore the captain’s armband for the first time and said it was an honour.
“There are a lot of boys in that dressing room that could lead this side so for Rudes to pick me was pretty special,” he said.
“It was a privilege to be able to lead the boys and win the match.”
In the away dressing room a dejected Paul Reid was left wondering what could have been.
“We’re really disappointed because the boys worked hard to come back from 1-0 lead.
“We got into the lead and there was only one team in it until an incident which I didn’t see where we got our goalkeeper sent off.
“That was definitely the turning point in the game.”
Match Stats
Sydney United 58 3 (Triantis 18’, 69’, Paric 78’)
Rockdale City Suns 2 (Jesic 24’, 40’)
Venue: Sydney United Sports Centre, Edensor Park
Referee: Stephen Lucas
Assistant Referees: Nick Backo and Joon Park
Fourth Official: Adrian Arndt
Sydney United 58: Pasfield, Bilic (Camera 89’), Bosma, Mileski, Nikas (Tomelic 54’), Paric ©, Sherlock, Stamatellis, Triantis (Cardozo 81’), Kofinas, Zuvela (Haydar 77’)
Substitutions not used: Babic
Yellow cards: Kofinas 10’, 22’, Paric 30’, Stamatellis 35’, Triantis 62’, Mileski 64’, Bilic 87’
Red cards: Kofinas 22’
Rockdale City Suns: Bradasevic, Alameddine (Visnic 65’), El Hafiane, Hesketh, Imamoto, Jesic, Murayama, Oygur©, P. Savor (Loupis 86’), Tanoski, Urosevski (I. Savor 46’)
Substitutions not used: Pandetto, Petrillo
Yellow cards: Oygur 49’
Red cards: Bradasevic 64’
-by Chris Georges, Waratah Cup Reporter, at Belmore Sports Ground.
