Sharks keep faint finals hopes alive

Sutherland Sharks have kept their PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s campaign alive with a 2-1 victory over Sydney Olympic at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday.

The Sharks continued their recent run of form to notch the win despite atrocious conditions at Belmore with Nicholas Littler and Tomohiro Kajiyama’s goals cancelling out a goal to Olympic’s Harris Gaitatzis

Olympic looked lively in the early stages of the match, and dominated with some slick interplay. Fullback Mitchell Stamatellis had the first crack on goal in the 10th minute, only to see his shot flash wide.

Six minutes later Sutherland, content to play counter-attacking football, had an opportunity of their own when they were awarded a free kick just outside the box on the right-hand side. Unfortunately, Joshua Da Silva opted to shoot when a cross would probably have been a better option, his effort causing no bother to the home side.

In the 18th minute Olympic’s Jacob Boutoubia unleashed a rasping long range free kick that just cleared the bar. But despite their dominance of possession, it was Sutherland who strung together some nice passages of play in the latter stages of the first half. In the 38th minute evergreen Olympic goalkeeper Paul Henderson was forced into tipping an angled shot over the bar. Jordan Figon and Joshua Da Silva proved to be a handful for the Olympic defence, and some nice interplay between the pair almost brought some reward. Fortunately for Olympic they escaped with their goal intact.

But in the 43rd minute the Sharks opened the scoring when fullback Nicholas Littler rose above the defence unchallenged to head home an in-swinging Da Silva corner from close range, exposing the home side’s naivety and inexperience at the back.

A short time later, referee Kelly Jones blew the whistle for halftime and the two sides went to the sheds with Sutherland holding an unexpected 1-0 lead.

Immediately after the break, Sutherland came out strongly. Chris McStay launched an attacking raid from halfway, and let fly from the edge of the box. Henderson saved comfortably but he was then called upon to tip the ball over the bar following an angled speculator by Da Silva. Figon then missed a half-chance from just outside the six-yard box, dragging his shot wide.

Olympic then countered smartly with Jacob Boutoubia breaking clear down the left only to be foiled in a one-on-one with Sharks goalkeeper Nathan Denham, who saved bravely at the Olympic man’s feet. The Sharks breathed a huge sigh of relief to maintain their lead.

Then in the 51st minute Sutherland’s Tomohiro Kajiyama beat his man on the left and sent in a ferocious, low cross that only needed a touch to strike gold. But nobody was lurking around the six yard box and the chance went begging.

Olympic didn’t panic and in the 56th minute Harris Gaitatzis slotted home the equaliser after a messy goalmouth scramble. But no sooner had the home side finished their celebrations, Kajiyama struck home to give Sutherland a 2-1 lead. The few Olympic fans who braved the abysmal conditions, couldn’t believe their eyes, while Olympic coach Grant Lee was left to rue his side’s lack of focus and concentration.

By the three-quarter mark the rain became heavier and pelted down relentlessly. The deluge became horizontal. But to their credit both sides did their best to play good football. Olympic almost equalised in the 68th minute, with Denham beaten, only to be saved by the bar.

Sutherland substitute Perry Moustakas then attempted to beat Henderson from 40 yards, but his effort didn’t quite have the legs, the Olympic custodian saving comfortably.

Meanwhile, the conditions deteriorated and the game degenerated into a farce, with the horizontal rain and flood-like conditions causing players to slip and slide in the murk. Any attempts at passing the ball became comical, with the waterlogged surface stopping any passes along the ground.

At the final whistle Sutherland emerged as victors, securing a valuable 2-1 victory and a precious three points for their troubles.

Sutherland coach Carlos Villazon was very happy with his side’s efforts.

“I’m very excited with the result because many, many games we play exactly like this, a lot of intensity, a lot of football, but at the end of the day we lost a lot of games,” Villazon said. “But today the boys did a great job and we deserved to win anyway.

“I think most of the players played really, really good but in defence Nick Littler was outstanding. He scored the first goal plus was very, very good in defence. Kaji (Tomohiro Kajiyama) played well but he has been the most consistent player during the year, he always plays well.”

Meanwhile, Olympic coach Grant Lee was bitterly disappointed with his team’s performance.

“It was terrible, we dominated the game and played all over them,” he said. “We should’ve won comfortably but conceded poor goals and put ourselves under pressure. We ended up throwing the game away and lost. Simple as that.”

“We didn’t take our chances. We weren’t disciplined enough in our defensive duties. We got ourselves back in the game and conceded again within two or three minutes. We’ve got a lot of young players but that’s no excuse. We’ve got a bunch of young kids who can play but they’re just very naïve, very inexperienced and lacking in maturity. There’s no way we should’ve lost that game. We weren’t clinical enough when we had our opportunities.”

Match Stats

Sydney Olympic 1 (Harris Gaitatzis 56’)

Sutherland Sharks 2 (Nicholas Littler 43’, Tomohiro Kajiyama 58’)

Sunday 19th June 2016

Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore

Referee: Kelly Jones

Assistant Referees: Andrew Giev, Janush Aoabjou

Fourth Official: Michael Herro

Sydney Olympic: 1. Paul HENDERSON, 3. Anthony TOMELIC, 4. Leigh EGGER, 5. Jason MADONIS, 6. Mitchell STAMATELLIS, 10. Harris GAITATZIS, 11. Jacob BOUTOUBIA (14. Jack GREEN ), 16. Oliver GREEN, 33. Nikolas TSATTALIOS, 37. Eoin MONTFORD, 90. Joshua GASPARI

Unused Subs: 8. Howard FONDYKE, 15. Jake De Marigny, 20. Denver CRICKMORE, 26. Cohan MORRIS

Yellow Cards: 37. Eoin MONTFORD 46’, 5. Jason MADONIS 71’, Nikolas TSATTALIOS 85’

Coach: Grant Lee

Sutherland Sharks: 1. Nathan DENHAM (C), 4. Stephen KAYES, 5. Nicholas LITTLER, 7. Jack PRESS, 8. Chris McSTAY, 9. Jordan FIGON (17. James ANDREW), 10. Joshua Da SILVA (16. Laureano GOMEZ-CASTRO), 12. Lukas Stergiou (15. Perry MOUSTAKAS), 19. Callum FITZPATRICK, 20. Mitchell FARMER, 35. Tomohiro KAJIYAMA

Unused Subs: 3. Takuya MURAYAMA, 21. Nikolas LOE,

Coach: Carlos Villazon

-By Derek Royal, PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s Reporter