A review of the Round 5 Ericsson Cup match twixt UTS Olympic and Wollongong City played at the SFS on Sunday 2 November 1997.
Despite the excuse of having to play with 10 men for all but 18 minutes of the match, UTS Olympic were tonight handed a footballing lesson - be sure of that. Further notwithstanding the contribution of the home team in some of the goals, the 3-0 final scoreline does justice to the hiding meted out by the Wolves. I cannot remember a time when, by match end, the *home* team was so mastered into submission - figuratively cowering in a corner praying for the final blast of the whistle.
The positive pre-match mood offered by the announcement of Adam Ciantar's 50th appearance for UTS (and 150th in the NSL) and the new and repeatedly broadcast UTS promotional video clip (and a good one it is too - maybe someone's starting to listen at last :)) on the big screen lasted only minutes into the match at best.
Wollongong, despite whatever was to unfold tonight were here to play. It had been well documented that there hitherto failures (1 point out of a possible 9) did not fairly represent their form coming into the match. Well, all bar one in the OzSoccer Punters Club knew that the 5/1 odds on offer were none too clever :) - but I'm here to tell you I think it was a mis-print; surely they got the numbers the wrong way around!??! The Wolves were *that* dominant.
In as early as the second minute (and barely at that) Chipperfield had his moderately dangerous header cleared off the line. The tone of the evening for Olympic was set. From here on in it was a litany of events that you'll likely have foisted on you as readers as excuses for the home side's showing - uh uh! No way. Not insignificant by any means but the result was not going to be any different. In the next stoppage, Poimer had to limp off (knee injury) and was replaced by the fresh faced Steve Eagleton. With the substitution made, Wollongong proceeded with the corner they'd won. Taken superbly by Surjan, the cross was met with a forceful header by Perinich who was left woefully unmarked at the near stick. Barely three minutes had gone, and it was 1-0.
As in the last home game, Olympic's Ante Juric conceded a cheap yellow card in the 6th minute for felling Reda(?) late. With the foul occuring well outside and wide of the box, the angle of the ensuing free kick offered - or more correctly, *should* have offered - little to the attacking side because of the way in which the recipients of the cross would have to field the ball facing away rather than toward the goal. Nonetheless, the hail mary cross was delivered to the penalty spot where it would be a case of the luck of the draw. As luck would have it, it was Jason Connolly that got his nut to the cross first, but in truth, from about 10 yards out facing away from goal could not have been expecting too much. I guess at least not until he spun around to see Catlin in no-man's land in between the goal line and the pack. The ball seemingly easily evaded the horribly (mis-)placed Catlin into the unguarded net. 2-0 in the sixth minute!
Given that the crowd figure was a paltry 4,525, the UTS hierarchy couldn't afford not to be pleased that there was some big number of travelling Wolves who outshone the home support; whether that's more of a comment on the Wolves or UTS supporters I'm not sure.
Olympic's first strike at goal wasn't until the 15th minute of the half and even then was restricted to a pressurized (gotta hate that word!) bounce- header from a cross which cleared the bar. Wollongong replied in kind only two minutes later when Chipperfield was sent for a one on one with Catlin which the later snuffed out even though the shot was rather fluffed.
In one of those unfortunate scenarios where a defender is just caught out in trying to tackle a speeding wing back breaking down the line, Juric received his second yellow card, and with it Olympic's surrender in the 18th minute. The heart says "tough luck", the head says "tough challenge".
With the dismissal came a substitution and a reshuffle for Olympic leaving Tome isolated up front. (Poor Eagleton - himself a sub - having to be tactically sacrificed to allow Ballie, a defender note, onto the park).
Strangely, the match reached a temporary balance for a short period after the dismissal. However, for what it was worth, the Blues were restricted to two half chances - distanced shots from Jomaa and then Emerton - for the remainder of the half. Wollongong had only one for the remainder of the half, but it was the one that would see them go to the break 3-0 up.
In the 37th minute, the Wolves showed a sense of invention when a free kick well wide of the box was played to the top of the penalty area rather than across the face of goal. From 20 yards out, Spencer offered a side-footed(?) ground-hugging shot at Catlin's goal. Despite the forest of players before him, I'm pretty confident that he had a good sight of the oncoming ball - well, for his sake, I hope I'm wrong because he completely stuffed up the save which only required him to fall on the shot before him. Urrrrn! Unless there was a bad bounce before him - then Bobby, you'll be wearing the Goose T-shirt at training this week, let me tell you :). (BTW: I'm not sure that we'll see any coverage of the match as I could not see one camera at the ground and further had Mike Cockerill and his woman playing handies 3 seats in front of me - although he was taking notes presumably for his Sydney Morning Herald column).
The second half progressively became an exercise in damage control for Olympic. As the game wore on it became apparent that they would be best served by defending the 0-3 scoreline (and all the while on their home soil!!!!!). Wollongong were great. Not necessarily brilliant up front (better than average mind) but the midfield and more particularly the defence were masterful. Absolute joy to watch. As a team, as inviduals - superbly coached...this is the stuff on which the Coach of the Year award should be based. The half was most notable for mine because of the absolute style with which the Wolves defended and then played from the back. Olympic were limited to two opportunities in the second half (one fallling to Tome in the 10th after some excellent work from Emerton; the other resulting from a flicked header which came off Ceccoli's chest and just missed). Sure, a man down, but it just became an exrcise in taking the piss out of Olympic in a tactical sense rather than in an individual in-your-face sense.....brilliant!
For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that Wollongong had chances throughout the half Ceccoli's point blank header met with a fine point blank save in the 10th; Perinich debunking the offside trap in the 24th only to have his shot parried by Catlin into the path of Horsley - one of two followers - who smashed the ball into the base of the post from a tight angle; Perinich 34th; Sevin 36th - Perinich shooting into Catlin, Sevin shooting over..... but it was clearly all over soon into the half. The point that needs to be made is the class of the display - nay, the domination! Save for the brilliance of Emerton, the last part of the second half - and a big chunk at that - was about Olympic having the ball taken from them and being told to stand in their own half whilst the Wolves mounted attacks at their discretion. It seemed a match between an NSL side and a State League side.
Again, however, it was the structure of the Wolves defence which really hit home with me, and I ain't talking defending a lead. The organisation was immaculate - they were never panicked. Even on a break against them it was obvious that they had the confidence in one another to wrest possession from Olympic well before Hughes had to be involved. Converesely, all attacks were ignited from the defence which picked and chose as to when to strike - and there was nothing that Olympic was gonna do about it. This however serves to give the impression that the midfield and attack were merely adequate, but no, they kicked too. Some of the passing sequences were out of Brazil......and on it goes.
Wollongong take a bow. Nick Theodorakopoulous take a bow - forget about aspiring to be the coach of Olympic (as he has declared in the past), look to hold onto the squad you - not your predecessors - have nurtured.
On this form, Wolves for the finals; no risk.
Teams
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UTS Olympic: Catlin, Ciantar, Juric, Hristodoulou, Tome, Tsekenis,
Poimer (Eagleton 3rd, Ballie 20th), Emerton,
Taliadoros (Ardone 62nd), De Marigny, Jomaa.
Wollongong: Hughes, Ceccoli, Stanton (G. Souris 56th), Connolly,
Horsley, Surjan (15??Anyone help?? 77th), Reda (Sevin 59th),
Chipperfield, Spencer, Perinich, Harlock.
Cards
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UTS Olympic: Juric (6th, 18th), Taliadoros (45th), Hristodoulou (76th)
Wollongong: Ceccoli (40th), Horsley (50th)
Best
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3 pts: Each Wollongong player (seriously! All great!)
2 pts: Brett Emerton
Ref: Matthew Breeze Rating: 7/10 competent. Bit heavy handed.
Ref's Assts: A. Spiroski & B. Seymour
Crowd: 4,525
Youth Team: UTS lost 1-4 (name of opponent not displayed on scoreboard!)