Finals Series Round 3 Review – Men’s State League

Simply too strong – After being jolted into action last weekend, Fraser Park produced one of their more dominant performances of the season against South Coast Flame running out 2-0 victors as Justin Smith reports.

The hosts were relentless in attacking the oppositions goal whilst at the other end, they gave away very little. Their goals came from Luiz Lobo just before the hour mark and Cam Philpot ten minutes after that.

Well, they were brave to the end, but this hurdle proved to be too much for South Coast Flame. Coming up against a team which finished with 13 points more than them during the regular season, it really showed as their goal was simply peppered for ninety minutes.

Their most encouraging moments of the game came in quick succession during the first half when Louis Connell broke through only for his touch to take him far too wide before a cross hung to the far post was taken just before it reached Julian Mushaba’s head.

Fraser Park took control early in the fixture and had multiple opportunities during the first half. Cam Philpot was menacing coming in late from midfield, whilst their front three of Matthew Nezval, Luiz Lobo and Shu Torihara all had their chances.

However, they weren’t the first opponent to meet a desperate South Coast Flame defense who didn’t think twice before throwing their body in front of the ball to block a shot. And if you got past that, captain Matthew White was there to make some crucial saves.

As the half time whistle blew, frustration was beginning to build for the hosts. And you sensed if the breakthrough was going to come, it was going to come through one man. That man Luiz Lobo and on the hour mark he duly obliged. Lobo scoring one of his trademark goals, receiving a ball from Alexis Wenzel before hitting a powerful drive from outside the box which hit the crossbar before bouncing over the goal line.

Then thankfully we didn’t have to wait another hour for the second although to call it opportunistic would be giving it too much credit. Cam Philpot showing a lot of smarts, took a freekick quickly from downtown which caught the South Coast Flame keeper off guard as it sailed into the net from 35-40 yards.

That was the death knell in the contest with the visitors unable to come back from that which means next week it will be the two best teams in the competition playing for the championship. Central Coast United against Fraser Park, we can’t wait!

Fraser Park’s coach Renato Jelen was happy with his teams’ control in the match.

“We were in control from beginning to end, we changed our approach for this game, played a little more cautious in defense and I thought we could have scored at least another couple.

“It was good to see Luiz Lobo hungry like that; we haven’t seen that much recently. Whilst Cam Philpot made a major difference tonight, credit should also go to Christian Mura who came on and performed well.”

South Coast Flame coach Neil Mineef was disappointed to go out but proud on how his team went over the season.

“It’s very disappointing to lose a semi-final. For the boys to get to this point was really outstanding after a pretty average start to the season.”

“We’ve effectively played four semi-finals in a row now, disappointing tonight but amazing to see such a young squad get to this point two seasons in for the club. Pretty proud!”

Match Stats

Saturday 7 September 2019

Fraser Park, Marrickville

Referee: D. Richards

Assistant Referees: A. Weir & J. Adabjow

Fraser Park: 2 (Lobo 60’, Philpot 70’)

South Coast Flame: 0

Fraser Park: 41. Thomas Alston, 2. Talan Myers, 4. Alexis Wenzel, 8. Dominic Siu, 10. Luiz Lobo, 11. Shu Torihara, 13. Rodrigo Cataldi, 14. Eric Tomesek, 18. Kaito Tokumoto, 24. Cam Philpot, 45. Matthew Nezval (17. Christian Mura).

Subs Not Used: 1. Casey Madon, 5. Edilson Farias, 19. Alexander Guerrieri, 33. Miles Beeston.

South Coast Flame: 1. Matthew White, 3. Darren Jones, 8. Andrew Christie, 9. Louis Connell, 10. Matthew Mazevski (11. Johnny Vicoroski), 13. Alexander Boardman, 15. Jayden Smileski, 18. Yuki Mandai, 22. Toru Suzuki (17. Justin Smith), 35. Wade Wilton, 39. Julio Mushaba (27. Jonathan Mushaba).

Subs Not Used: 32. Lachlan Morgan, 51. Riley Nicholl.

By Justin Smith (@smiththejustin)