Marconi and Sydney Olympic scoreless

Marconi Stadium was the venue for a replay of the 1989 and 1990 NSL Grand Finals between Marconi and Sydney Olympic.

Marconi managed to get a point but it was Sydney Olympic who played for a large chunk of the game with ten players that can rightly feel most satisfied with the result.

After the game an upbeat Peter Tsekenis, coach of Sydney Olympic, was full of praise for his team.

“I can’t really ask for anymore; we went down to ten men and the boys didn’t drop their bundle and maybe we could have scored which is a sign of a good team.”

In the 17th minute that the spectators were treated to some action when Josh Sama played a nice one-two with Matthew Mayora and shot from just outside the box which Paul Henderson turned away.

In the 26th minute a precise corner from Jerry Kalouris made its way to the far post for Brett Studman who headed just wide of the net. It was the closest Olympic got in the entire first half of play.

Late in the first half of play Sydney Olympic lost Chris Triantis after a rather cynical foul in the midfield on Graziano Trimboli.

“In the first half I think we did enough to stay with Marconi,” Peter Tsekenis said after the game.

“Not that we were any worse or any better, but I did think that the conditions played a part.”

On the other side of the fence Luke Casserly, Marconi’s coach, admitted too that the first half was rather lacklustre.

“We had a few half chances and our ‘keeper didn’t really have anything to do, but there were no real clear-cut chances in the first half.”

Sydney Olympic almost opened the scoring after the break when Emmanuel Giannaros played in a nice ball for Robert Mileski who turned and fired but the ball shaved the crossbar and ended up over.

In the 70th minute a Nahuel Arrarte free-kick ended up for a corner after a deflection.
From the ensuing set piece, Daniel Petrovski ended up with the ball before firing just over the bar.

In the 78th minute another corner almost rewarded Marconi when Mayora tried a spectacular overhead kick which ended up just wide of the goal.

The visitors replied almost immediately through a spectacular volley on the run by Hussein Akil that just shaved James Chronopoulos’ crossbar.

Afterwards, Casserly was very positive about his team’s overall performance.

“The only save our ‘keeper had to make was from an ordinary back pass from one of our boys,” he said. “I suppose that was to be expected when they had only ten men.
“I can’t question the effort of our boys out there today because they worked really hard. They worked for each other really well.”

MARCONI STALLIONS 0
SYDENY OLYMPIC 0

MARCONI: 22. James Chronopoulos, 2. Andrew Mailer, 3. Ali Haydar, 4. Umut Tokdogan, 8. Sean O’Connell, 14. Graziano Trimboli (11. Matthew Gordon 71’), 15. Matthew Mayora (18. Nathan Jagelman 81’), 20. Josh Sama, 23. Christopher Nunes, 24. Daniel Petrovski, 26. Nahuel Arrarte.

Subs not used: 12. Daniel Ott, 16. Domenic Trimboli, 21. Nikodin Matic

YELLOW CARDS: Tokdogan 21’

RED CARDS: Nil

SYDNEY OLYMPIC: 1. Paul Henderson, 2. Emmanuel Giannaros, 3. Brett Studman, 5. Richard Luksic, 6. Alex Smith, 14. William Angel, 22. Chris Triantis, 11. Robert Mileski, 16. Peter Triantis, 18. Jerry Kalouris, 19. David Gullo (9. Hussein Akil 75’).

Subs not used: 4. Ibrahim Haydar, 12. Bill Tsanidis, 21. Nenad Vekic, 15. Tod Bamber

YELLOW CARDS: Nil

RED CARDS: Chris Triantis 41’

Match Highlights courtesy of Football NSW