A resurgent White City FC upset high-flying West Torrens Birkalla 2-0 in Round 13 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia at Frank Mitchell Park on Saturday night.

Srdjan Semiz and Hermann Fombason scored in each half to hand the hosts a deserved win.

Semiz described the win as a “very good team effort by the whole squad.”

“We worked really hard as a team defensively and executed exactly what our coaching staff asked us to do, to expose them on the counter attack,” Semiz said.

With White City focused on their defensive duties, West Torrens controlled the majority share of possession in the opening 15 minutes without ever threatening the home-side’s goal.

That would cost them dearly after 17 minutes, when a long ball from defence made its way to Fombason on the right wing, who fought his way past the opposition’s left back to cross it to Semiz, who neatly lobbed the ball over West Torrens goal-keeper Julian Torresan for the unexpected 1-0 lead.

The rest of the half played out like the opening 15 minutes with West Torrens controlling possession but failing to create any scoring opportunities, whilst White City patiently waited on the counter.

The tactic almost worked out again for the hosts in the 22nd, 27th and 43rd minute, but the score would remain the same at the end of the first half.

West Torrens returned in the second half with more intensity and an even bigger share of possession, but that mattered little as they were soon a man down five minutes after the restart, as Kurtis Rowe was shown the red card.

In response to the dismissal, West Torrens went all out, bringing on the club’s leading goal-scorer Jordan Watson.

However, the substitution didn’t ignite the expected fireworks with Birkalla being shut down in the midfield by Lachlan Barr, who was marshalling the area with military proficiency.

And it would be Barr that would set up the second goal in the 72nd minute, when another counter attack led Barr to the right wing, where he made his way past the defender to square the ball to Fombason, who squeezed the ball past Torresan to double the hosts’ lead.

In the last 10 minutes, West Torrens made several desperate long distance attempts on goal but it would be to no avail.

White City saw out the match to move up to 13th, whilst West Torrens dropped down to 3rd place on the ladder.

Article by Christopher Munker