Wolves hold out Olympic
A resilient Wollongong Wolves outfit has held out high-flying visitors Sydney Olympic to claim a 2-1 PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s victory at Win Stadium on Sunday.
The hosts scored both goals through star men Yuzo Tashiro and Patrick Antelmi midway through the first half. From that point on they held on well.
The visitors will consider themselves unlucky to have missed out on a point or even three as they continuously knocked but couldn’t barge the home side’s door down.
The visitors started the better of the two teams early on with pace up front. The first chance fell to Radovan Pavicevic who pounced on a defensive to go through only to put his shot wide right.
However it was the hosts to trouble the scorers, with Tashiro unleashing a powerful effort from just inside the 18 yard box from a clever ball by captain Chris Price.
It wasn’t long before they doubled that lead with Patrick Antelmi producing some individual brilliance to turn his marker before sweetly caressing the ball into the bottom left corner of the net.
The high-flying travellers would’ve considered themselves unlucky to be behind and almost had their breakthrough just before half time.
Striker Yu Kuboki went through after some more clever interplay only to be denied by Justin Pasfield.
The breakthrough finally came for them just after the break when substitute Nick Tsattalios found himself in the right place after Kuboki hit the bar off a good Tom Whiteside cross.
Provider nearly then turned to finisher when a corner shortly after a Whiteside was cleared off the line.
The game opened up and in turn with Olympic pushing forward, the wolves began to smell a third.
Tashiro came closest when he cut inside onto his right foot only for his curling effort to denied by an outstanding save from veteran keeper Paul Henderson.
It was Antelmi who had the chance to seal it several times with him getting on the end of subsequent breaks inside two minutes only to sky both of his efforts over the bar.
Then perhaps the visitors best chance arrived when Kuboki went through and tried to square it to Tsattalios who got agonizingly close.
Wolves Coach Jacob Timpano was delighted with his team’s effort.
“We grew into the game, got ourselves into it and had goals to show for it,” he said.
"After the break we fell asleep and let them into it.
“We dug deep, hung in there and got the deserved 3 points.”
Olympic Coach Peter Zorbas too could not fault his players’ efforts.
“The effort I can’t fault, we need to work on converting our chances,” he said.
“They’re a tough team and you can’t do that with an opposition like Wollongong."
Match Stats
Wollongong Wolves: 2 (Tashiro, Antelmi)
Sydney Olympic FC: 1 (Tsattalios)
Sunday 4th June 2017
Win Stadium, Wollongong
Referee: C. Hope
Assistant Referees: J. Adabjou & J. Park
Fourth Official: M. Bailey
Wollongong Wolves: 1. Justin Pasfield, 3. Darcy Madden, 6. Nick Montgomery, 7. Christopher Price, 11. Hrisitjan Tanoski, 14. Josh Macdonald (8. Brendan Griffin 86’), 15. Michael Robinson, 16. Patrick Antelmi, 17. James Markovic, 23. Steve Hayes, 30. Yuzo Tashiro.
Substitutes Not Used: 10. David Stojic, 12. Luke Kairies, 18. Nicholas Bernal, 20. Sean Eve.
Yellow Cards:
Red Cards:
Sydney Olympic FC: 1. Paul Henderson, 4. Thomas Whiteside, 6. Mitchell Stamatellis, 7. William Angel, 8. Jason Madonis (14. Mohammad Kahimi 45’), 9. Radovan Pavicevic (33’ Nick Tsattalios 45’), 11. Jinya An, 12. Yu Kuboki, 23. Tass Mourdoukoutas, 24. Christopher Gligor, 25. Liam Youlley (10. Peter Makrillos 69’)
Substitutes Not Used: 19. Darcey Burgess, 20. Ezequiel Consoni.
Yellow Cards:
Red Cards:
*Player Ratings hidden with points going towards the Team of the Year to be released at the conclusion of the 2017 PS4 NPL NSW Men’s season
-By Justin Smith, PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s Reporter
