As the teams begin to settle into the season, Round 3 of the NSW NPL competition continued to dish out more interesting results – consecutive defeats for the reigning Champions, wins for the underdogs, and an unexpected draw between league favourites and the new kids on the block.
Match of the Round: Sydney University v Sydney Olympic FC
It’s a narrative that writes itself. Last season’s NPL2 Premiers and Champions, the newly-promoted Sydney Olympic, travelled to Sydney University Football Ground in Camperdown to take on last season’s NPL1 Premiers, Sydney Uni.
Coming into Sunday afternoon’s clash, these two teams were neck-and-neck at the top of the table, with Uni just edging out Olympic on goal difference. Having been the only two sides to produce two wins from their opening two games, this was bound to be a tight, exciting contest.
However, despite the flattering score-line of 2-2, this was a largely one-sided affair. The hosts dominated possession from the opening stages of the match and led their opponents overall in several attacking stats including total shots (21 v 6), shots on target (13 v 4), and corners (14 v 1).
This dominance made it all the more surprising when Olympic took the lead in the ninth minute, a reward for some slick one-touch passing across the field from right to left. After a gorgeous first-time back-heel pass from Susan Phonsongkham found Olympic team-mate Teresa Polias near the top of the box, the Sydney FC captain then sent the ball out wide to her left winger, Georgia Plessas. Driving into the empty space, Plesses then opened up with a pile-driver shot that sailed into the roof of the net to put the visitors up 0-1.
As Uni began to settle into the match, their chances began to pile up. Minutes after the opening goal, Canberra United and Uni striker Nicky Flannery found herself one-on-one with the Olympic goalkeeper after an incisive through-ball by Newcastle Jet Clare Wheeler, but Flannery hesitated and was tackled before she had a chance to get her shot away.
Olympic were almost at the double when Phonsongkham pinched the ball from a Uni defender close to her own 18-yard-box, but when she tried to chip goalkeeper, her shot was too low and was easily collected.
That wouldn’t stop the Western Sydney Wanderer from getting on the scoresheet, though.
Ten minutes after the opener, a poor back-pass from a Uni defender went straight to Phonsongkham who was standing in an offside position near the D. She took a simple touch around the onrushing goalkeeper and rolled it into the back of the net for 0-2.
But Sydney University were 2018 Premiers for a reason, and they were close to getting one goal back less than a minute later after Flannery got onto a well-weighted corner, only for her header to bounce dramatically back off the post and be cleared away.
The following fives minutes were a brilliant display of attacking pressure by Uni, who created several consecutive chances on goal through some clever recycling of the ball around the top of the box, but the visitors scrambled and blocked all incoming shots well.
Once again, Uni could have reduced their deficit in the 34th minute after Wheeler was found in the box by a perfect pass down the centre-right channel. While her low shot was parried by the goalkeeper into the path of Flannery, Olympic were able to throw bodies in the way of the striker’s follow-up shot. Less than a minute later, Wheeler was at the heart of the attack again, this time being brought down in the penalty area and yelling for a spot-kick. The referee, however, only gave a corner – but even that was a dangerous moment for Olympic as the incoming corner ball pinged around the 6-yard-box with several Uni players having shots on goal, but all were blocked and the ball was scrambled away.
Around the 40th minute, Flannery was back at it, breaking Olympic’s offside trap to go one-on-one with the keeper. Unfortunately, her touch to take the ball around the keeper was just too wide, and her following cut-back was cleared.
Flannery’s persistence would pay off in the 43rd minute after she once again broke through Olympic’s back line after a perfectly-weighted, looping pass from the right wing. The Olympic goalkeeper was caught in no-man’s-land after coming out to try to catch the ball in the air and realising she couldn’t make it in time; Flannery was therefore able to easily head the bouncing ball over the keeper and into the net. 1-2.
Uni could have equalised in the next attacking play as Sydney FC defender Julia Vignes’ cross took a deflection and seemed to be dropping in at the back post, but it bounced just wide.
The teams went into half-time with the score remaining 1-2, and it felt like it was only a matter of time before the hosts grabbed another goal to level things up.
As expected, Sydney Uni did not let up in the opening stanza of the second half, dominating possession and suffocating Olympic’s players when they were on the ball, forcing the visitors into errors. In fact, in the opening ten minutes of the second half, Olympic only found their way into their attacking third once – so effective was Uni’s pressing game.
The following 20 minutes were much like the opening ten, with Uni sending wave after wave of attack at the tiring Olympic defence. A 68th minute cross from Uni’s left wing was just missed by a lunging Flannery, and the following corner saw yet another scramble in the box before the ball was cleared away.
While Olympic’s late-stage substitutions seemed to give the visiting side a bit of life, with a handful of forays into their attacking third, it was Uni that kept their foot on the pedal and were ultimately rewarded in the 84th minute. Flannery first showed some fantastic improvisation, flicking the bouncing ball over her head on the edge of the area. The ball then fell into the path of Uni’s left winger Julie-Ann Russell, who had snuck in behind the Olympic defence, and slotted it low and hard under the keeper’s arms to make it 2-2.
Not one for sharing the spoils, the home side created yet another chance to take all three points in the 89th minute after Russell sent a sizzling low cross across the face of goal. Flannery stretched every sinew to try and get a touch at the back post, but it was just out of reach.
2-2 is how the game would end. Uni will come away from the game rather disappointed considering the number of chances they had created, while Olympic will be feeling slightly relieved. The two teams remain in the top four on 7 points a piece alongside the Illawarra Stingrays and NWS Koalas.
TEAMS:
SYDNEY UNI: Stephanie Augustis; Melissa Caceres; Aoife Colvill; Nicky Flannery; Bianca Galic; Mackenzie Hawkesby; Taren King; Annabel Martin; C. Mclean; Sarah Morgan; Courtney Newbon; Julie-Ann Russell; Chantelle Symes; Tori Tumeth; Julia Vignes; Clare Wheeler.
SYDNEY OLYMPIC: Natasha Aitken; Lieke de Bever; Rochelle Borromeo; Kiara De Domizio; Jessica Frampton; Sienna Fraser; Kate Halaska; Amanda Horafios; Angelique Hristodoulou; Emily Kos; Kristy Kunovski; Panagiota Petratos; Susan Phonsongkham; Georgia Plessas; Teresa Polias; Sarah Yatim.
Around the Grounds:
Manly United 0 – 3 FNSW Institute
North Shore Mariners 2 – 3 Emerging Jets
Northern Tigers 2 – 1 Blacktown Spartans
Bankstown City 1 – 2 NWS Koalas
Macarthur Rams 1 – 3 Illawarra Stingrays
Current Ladder:
| POS | TEAM | PLAYED | W | D | L | FOR | AGAINST | GD | PTS |
| 1 | Sydney University | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 7 |
| 2 | NWS Koalas | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 7 |
| 3 | Sydney Olympic | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 7 |
| 4 | Illawarra Stingrays | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| 5 | FNSW Institute | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | Northern Tigers | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| 7 | Manly United | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 3 |
| 8 | Macarthur Rams | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 3 |
| 9 | Bankstown City | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 3 |
| 10 | Emerging Jets | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 11 | -6 | 3 |
| 11 | North Shore Mariners | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 10 | -5 | 0 |
| 12 | Blacktown Spartans | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 10 | -6 | 0 |
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