APIA Leichhardt play it safe at home

Walking in to Lambert Park on a Saturday night is something different given that the APIA Leichhardt Tigers generally play their fixtures on a Sunday afternoon, but that didn’t matter for the home side as they convincingly outplayed the Parramatta Eagles who were newly promoted to the NSW Premier League in the off season.

Parramatta Eagles FC goalkeeper Anthony Costa made an enormous impression for the visitors with his sheer audacity between the sticks.

Afterwards his coach Brian Dene, when asked about Costa, was full of praise for his custodian.

“Anthony played for us last year before he went overseas,” he said.

“As you can see from his performance today, he’s a good goalkeeper and he showed what he is capable of doing.”

APIA Leichhardt opened the scoring early on when a wonderful cross from by Franco Parisi found Robert Younis in a good position and the latter could hardly have missed the back of the net from such a close range.

The game didn’t seem to be heading anywhere until about midway through the first half of play when a Chris James free-kick created havoc for the Parramatta defence.

It was Younis who in the end got hold of the ball and forced Costa into a good save.

A free-kick from Chris Camilleri shortly afterwards proved to be too hot to handle for Jose Bello-Amigo as he struggled to bring the ball under his grasp.

Younis was back at it again when he pounced on a loose ball, but despite driving forcefully towards goal, Costa was up to the task.

Nicola Rizzo forced Costa to once show his class between the sticks to deny him a certain goal as the Tigers always looked the most likely team to score.

Brian Dene, afterwards when interviewed, was not too impressed with his side’s first half performance.

“We didn’t press well enough in the first half; we didn’t put pressure on them,” he said.

In the second half, Younis forced Costa to once again save by turning the ball wide from a drive in the 47th minute.

In the 55th minute APIA found the back of the net again when David D’Apuzzo fired in a rocket with his left foot. Credit though to referee Alex Glasgow for playing the advantage.

Younis was clearly brought down in the area and Glasgow could well have awarded a penalty. However, he let play go just long enough as the ball was making its way to D’Apuzzo who didn’t miss the intended target.

D’Apuzzo should have scored his second shortly afterwards but just missed the target with another left-foot rocket from inside the box.

In the 70’ minute the Tigers were awarded a penalty when Younis was brought down by Costa. However, the in-form goalkeeper made up for his rush of blood to the head with a brilliant save to turn away Younis’ penalty which looked almost certain to go in.

Late in the game Brody Mooy had two chances for visitors in a short space of time, but couldn’t convert.

A.P.I.A. LEICHHARDT 2
(Younis 8’, D’Apuzzo 55’)

PARRAMATTA EAGLES 0


A.P.I.A. LEICHHARDT: 1. Jose Bello-Amigo, 2. Mark Byrnes, 13. David D’Apuzzo, 4. Cole Tinkler (19. John Kelso 67’), 5. Michael West, 6. Marton Vass, 7. Stephen Kayes 23. Chris James 11. Nicola Rizzo (8. Anthony Hartshorn 82’), 9. Robbie Younis (14. Samuel Messam 76’), 10. Franco Parisi.

PARRAMATTA EAGLES: 21. Anthony Costa, 2. Nicholas McInerney, 3. Daniel Borg (18. Almir Dizdaric 74’), 6. Thomas Wilson, 8. Bryan Soane, 9. Kutaiba Elrich, 10. Chris Camilleri (11. Peter Crevani 69’), 14. Fabien Iacovelli, 17. Matthew Osman, 15. Ben Delicata, 19. Brody Mooy.