This was the last of successive home games against some of the (dare I say it) less glamorous Ericsson Cup contenders - Canberra, Gippsland and Newcastle. All three came with sides full of young hopefuls, with the available experienced players concentrated at the defensive end of the park - not exactly a recipe for appealing viewing. The Breakers added a packed midfield to this recipe, with a lone striker toiling fruitlessly up front.
Using a formation which looked suspiciously like 4-4-2, Olympic struggled to make an impression in the centre of the pitch, even with Peter Tsekenis restored to midfield and Mehmet Durakovic making frequent runs forward. Branko Culina usually stands by his chair on the sideline. After 30 minutes of midfield trench warfare he was not only sitting down but also slumping lower and lower. About five thousand other people had assumed similar positions.
Fortunately Culina junior was still on the job, and his run and cross from the right finally opened up the Breakers defence. Durakovic flicked on and Pablo Cardozo had his first chance of the game. He didn t disappoint, although Bob Catlin managed to get a hand to his shot. Cardozo was even sharper just on the break, following a quick exchange of passes between Scott Thomas and Brett Emerton. All around, Cardozo s second was a terrific goal - I thought I was watching World Soccer with Les for a moment!
Cardozo now has six goals for the season, and looks better every outing. Unfortunately his striking partners did not fare so well. Norman Tome was carried off with an ankle injury, while his replacement, Nick Carle, also finished early with what proved to be a broken bone in his foot. With Adem Poric effectively sacked from the club, Olympic s squad is looking pretty thin. But if nothing else, Olympic have a pair of class acts in Durakovic and Cardozo, and they enlivened a second half that produced few thrills. I suppose this was the down side of an unusually secure Olympic defence. George Bouhoutsas replaced Jim Kourtis in goal, and saved well from Newcastle s one real chance of the first half.
Apart from some chances squandered by Emerton and others, most of the second half excitement was produced by a series of bizarre refereeing decisions. The ref also seemed to have left his cards at home, as Emerton in particular was unable to get satisfaction for a series of fouls. His main tormentor, Faoud Umlil, was also one of Newcastle s liveliest with the ball. With a few minutes to go Umlil did well to get on the end of a speculative cross and pull a goal back. But it was a bit too late for the visitors.
Speaking of bizarre, what has Mike Cockerill of the Sydney Morning Herald got against Olympic? He declared the match dire and the crowd figure (5,015) as dramatically inflated , which wasn t my impression. Strangely for a proponent of mainstream football, Cockerill always has good words for the hilariously misnamed Sydney United, whereas the new North Shore wonders could hardly attract more fulsome praise if he worked as their publicist. But something about Olympic clearly has got him offside, and his tirades become more hysterical after every home game. Perhaps that s another reason why the first round triumph at North Sydney was so enjoyable.
Next home game sees the visit of the high-flying Perth. An Olympic win will be a triumph rather than an expectation. Can t wait.