Sydney Olympic fall to deadly Blacktown City

Blacktown City has flexed it’s PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s premiership credentials with a hard fought 3-2 win against Sydney Olympic FC at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday.

City looked on track to cruise to an easy win before an inspired second half performance from Olympic forced a nervous finish for the visitors.

An own goal from Yianni Spyrakis in the second minute was compounded by a Daniel Araujo strike in the opening exchanges, while Danny Choi had the result seemingly wrapped up inside the first half with a goal five minutes from the interval.

However, the game would take a dramatic turn during the second 45 minutes as a Yu Kuboki double gave Olympic hope of a miraculous comeback.

Blacktown sit in third spot on the ladder after the win, only one point behind leaders APIA Leichhardt Tigers, and are the only undefeated side alongside the Suns in the competition.

It was a catastrophic start to the match for Sydney Olympic with Spyrakis scoring a bizarre own goal after only 90 seconds.

It went from bad to worse for the home side with Daniel Araujo doubling Blacktown’s lead only moments later with a skilful run and finish past Olympic shot stopper Paul Henderson.

Blacktown really twisted the screws midway through the first half when Danny Choi extended Blacktown’s lead to 3-0 when he finished a slick set up from Mitch Mallia.

Sydney Olympic went into the break shellshocked after a whirlwind opening 45 minutes.

The home side had a new found vigour in the second stanza and it was obvious from the opening moments.

Max Burgess began to find more space and time on the ball with Olympic pushing forward with intent.

Blacktown held tight for most of the half but speedster Kuboki wouldn’t be denied in the 62nd minute.

Running onto a defence splitting through ball from Burgess, Kuboki broke into space and shot past a diving Tristan Prendegrast in the Blacktown goal.

The fightback was on and Kuboki set up an exciting close to the match when he scored his second of the game in the 80th minute.

Blacktown were backs to the wall in the last 10 minutes of the match as Olympic threw everything forward in hope of an equaliser.

However, Olympic couldn’t give their fans what they were hoping for and Blacktown did enough to cling on to the 3-2 win.

Blacktown City coach Mark Crittenden said fatigue nearly cost his side the win but praised his players for a much improved performance from their 1-1 draw with Parramatta a week ago.

“If you told me we were going to be three goals up inside the first half at Belmore I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said.

“It was a great first half where we took advantage of our opportunities. It was pretty obvious the fatigue from playing on Thursday night but we did enough to cling on.

“To be without our starting central defenders and get a result like that is a testament to the players efforts.”

Sydney Olympic coach Monroy rued his team’s poor first half performance but felt the second half was a better reflection of where his team is at.

“There is not much you can say about the first half. We made a number of silly mistakes and Blacktown capitalised,” he said.

“The second half was how Sydney Olympic plays football. We had all the momentum late on and if there was another five minutes in the match I’m confident we would’ve found an equaliser.

“We will learn from our mistakes and improve for next match.”

Match Stats

Sydney Olympic 2 (Kuboki 62’ 80’)

Blacktown City FC 3 (Spyrakis 2’ OG, Araujo 5’ Choi 30’)

Sunday, April 23 2017

Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore

Referee: Kurt Ams

Assistant Referees: James Tesoriero & Kearney Robinson

Fourth official: Hassan Jomaa

Sydney Olympic FC: 1. Paul Henderson, 5. Yianni Spyrakis 6. Mitchell stamatellis, 7. Will Angel, 8. Jason Madonis, 12. Yu Kuboki (9. Radovan Pavicevic), 14. Max Burgess, 10. Darcy Burgess, 33. Niko Tsattalios, 99. Paul Katsetis.

Substitues: 4. Tom Whiteside, 17. Steven Drewery, 20. Eze Consoni, 23. Tass Mourdoukoutas.

Yellow Cards: Spyriakis 67’

Red Cards: N/A

Blacktown City FC: 1. Tristan Prendergast, 3. Giorgio Speranza, 4. Roberto Speranza, 5. Grant Lynch, 6. Matthew Lewis, 8. Daniel Araujo, 9. Joey Gibbs, 10. Connor Evans, 11. Danny Choi (12. James Andrew), 14. Mitch Mallia (22. Yuta Konagaya, 17. Lewis Beumie

Substitues:20. Matthew Symes, 16. Jake Mamone, 18. Lewis Fraser.

Yellow Cards: Beumie 69’

Red Cards: N/A

Player Ratings

3 – Danny Choi (BCFC)

2 – Yu Kuboki (OLY)

1 – Matt Lewis (BCFC)