Reigning premier South Melbourne was given a soccer lesson by the Wollongong Wolves in their national league match here tonight.
The two-time NSL champion was beaten 2-1 by the Wolves at Brandon Park but South coach Angie Postecoglou was not overly disappointed by the opening round loss.
"They (Wollongong) made the most of their chances, but I was quite happy with the way we played in the second half," he said.
It took just six minutes for Wollongong to take the lead, with Fijian international Esala Masi capitalising on some strong lead-up play to easily beat South goalkeeper Chris Jones.
Anthony Surjan started the sweeping movement when he played a ball to Scott Chipperfield who was able to turn and run at the South defence.
He slipped the ball to Masi who calmly found the back of the net.
The match then settled into a tactical battle with neither midfield able to dominate.
The Wolves kept pressing and scored a well-deserved second goal 10 minutes before the break.
Captain Matt Horsley was set free down the right and he ran 40 metres before crossing the ball to defender Robert Stanton, who initially appeared to have blown the opportunity when he mis-kicked from close range.
Luckily for Wollongong, Neil Harlock was on hand to clean up and put the ball into the back of the net.
Wollongong pulled men behind the ball in the second half in an attempt to limit South's scoring chances and it took the premier until three minutes into injury time to pull a goal back to Anthony Magnacca.
There was no time for South to chase an equaliser.
Wolves goalkeeper Daniel Beltrame had a great night for the home team, superbly saving a Steve Panopoulos drive in the 69th minute to maintain the 2-0 lead.
He continued his good night with another save shortly before the Magnacca goal.
Wolves coach Nick Theodorakopoulos was happy to collect the three points.
"We were very explosive, we looked to take them on in the early parts of the match.
"We were very organised defensively and that allowed us to keep the pressure on."
Theodorakopoulos was impressed by Beltrame's performance saying that he could become the number one keeper in the NSL in the next 12 months.
Masi also received praise from the coach with Theodorakopoulos saying that a rest through the off-season had Masi looking very sharp.