National Premier Leagues: Capital Football
Round 9 – Preview

Sunday 8th June
Tuggeranong United v FFA COE (Kambah 2-1)
Sitting on the cusp of the top four and having won their last two matches, Tuggeranong United are in good form ahead of the visit of FFA COE to Kambah 2 in Round 9 of the National Premier Leagues: Capital Football. The 2-1 win over Woden Valley at Kaleen Enclosed showcased the good and bad of the club as a dominant first—half was translated into a nervy second period that saw them hanging on for the victory when, with a little more care in the final third, a comfortable victory would have resulted. The FFA COE are not the kind of team that you can afford to be slack in possession against with the youngsters from the Institute aggressive in the tackle, quick in transition and clinical in the final third. They proved that with their 5-1 win over Monaro Panthers at the AIS last weekend despite being reduced to ten men after around twenty minutes. However, the field at Kambah is a far cry from the FIFA accredited surface at the Institute with a narrow field and a notoriously partisan local crowd awaiting Tony Vidmar’s squad. If United can continue their recent run of good results they will put themselves in a great position heading into the second half of the NPL campaign, a defeat however would allow the chasing pack to close in.

Cooma Tigers v Canberra City (Nijong Oval)
Someone has flicked a switch at Cooma Tigers and, whatever they have managed to achieve in doing so, has turned a team that started the season at a pedestrian pace into one that looks genuine title challengers as we hit the half-way mark. And with a struggling Canberra City the visitors to Nijong Oval on Sunday afternoon for Round 9 of the National Premier Leagues: Capital Football, there is optimism amongst the Tigers support that they will carry on their excellent recent run. Much of that success has been due to the outstanding form of Robbie Cattanach. His brace in the 4-2 win over Belconnen United at McKellar Park was simply world class and with nine goals in five matches in the NPL the forward is in rare form. City knows that they will have to come up with a solution to deny Cattanach the room to manoeuvre but with Stephen Domenici and Goran Josifovski also amongst the goals, the trio have scored all of the Tigers nineteen efforts this season, that is easier said than done. City has the ability and potential to get results in this competition. They need a bit of luck, the self-belief and a lead to defend. If they can start well here then they could well frustrate the Tigers and gain their overdue reward.

Canberra Olympic v Canberra FC (O’Connor Enclosed)
A few weeks ago with Canberra Olympic in a form slump you’d have found few people willing to back the 2013 Grand Final winners to a repeat performance against a Canberra FC team that was simply sweeping everyone in its path aside with apparent minimum fuss. However, in just a fortnight Olympic have turned things around and successive wins over Belconnen United and Canberra City, and ten goals in the process, have put them right back into the championship hunt to such an extent that a victory here would leave them just a point behind the leaders, albeit having played a game more. But beating this Canberra FC outfit is no easy task. With an impressive haul of thirty-one goals in six league matches this season, plus ten in their Federation Cup annihilation of Monaro Panthers, FC are in red hot form. Any team that can field the striking talents of Alex Oloriegbe, Philippe Bernabo-Madrid, Domenic Giampaolo and Daniel Bennett will be feared and with Adam Spaleta and James Field nearing match fitness, FC Head Coach Ray Junna has an embarrassment of riches from which to select. This match has the potential to be a cracker and there should be a lot of goals shared around. A repeat of the 8-5 Grand Final match of 2011 is unlikely, but not impossible!

Monaro Panthers v Belconnen United (Riverside Stadium)
Belconnen United travels to the Riverside Stadium on Sunday afternoon for their Round 9 National Premier Leagues: Capital Football match on the back of a brace of defeats and looking to find the form that saw them to a five game unbeaten run at the start of the season. It would appear that someone has run over the proverbial black cat at McKellar Park having seen luck desert the Blue Devils over the last fortnight. A particular case in point was the Round 8 loss to Cooma Tigers in which Dean Ugrinic’s team saw three goals chalked off for a variety of reasons and wasted numerous glorious chances before falling to a 2-4 defeat that would have frustrated the camp. Their visitors 5-1 on the new synthetic turf at the Institute. What would have worried the Monaro management team was the ease with which the FFA COE opened up their defence despite playing with ten men for around seventy minutes of the match. With the Belconnen attack much vaunted and having hit plenty of goals so far in 2014, it’s a concern for Njegosh Popovich ahead of the fixture. Expect plenty of goals in this one, possibly at both ends.

TABLE

LEADING SCORERS
10 Daniel BENNETT (Canberra FC)
9 Robbie CATTANACH (Cooma Tigers)
7 Alex OLORIEGBE (Canberra FC), Mark SHIELDS (Canberra Olympic)
6 Robbie DEELEY (Canberra Olympic)
5 Dustin WELLS (Belconnen United), Stephen DOMENICI, Goran JOSIFOVSKI (Cooma Tigers)
4 Jason UGRINIC (Belconnen United), Philippe BERNABO-MADRID, Aaron EVANS (Canberra FC), Thomas JAMES (Monaro Panthers)
3 Goran MUKEVSKI, Michael TAURASI (Belconnen United), Domenic GIAMPAOLO (Canberra FC), Peter KEKERIS (FFA COE), Jon TOOLE (Tuggeranong United), Lukas COLE (Woden Valley), Own GOALS
2 Jack BLACKLEY, Tom McLACHLAN (Belconnen United), Misko NAUMOSKI (Canberra City), Michael REEVE, Callum SMITH (Canberra Olympic), Daniel ARZANI, Daniel MASKIN, Kosta PETRATOS (FFA COE), Josh CALABRIA, Darian McGARRY-WATSON, Deng PADIET (Monaro Panthers), Muad ZWED (Tuggeranong United), Regan WALSH (Woden Valley)
1 Taylor BEATON, David KEMP (Belconnen United), Adam DOBELL, Gimale ESSACU (Canberra City), Ian GRAHAM, Josip JADRIC, Ryan KEIR (Canberra FC), Nick BOBOLAS, Daniel FULTON, Josh GASPARI, Oliver WIEDERKEHR (Canberra Olympic), Nicholas D’AGOSTINO, Charlie DEVEREUX, Kye ROWLES, Zak WATERS (FFA COE), Kamal AHMED (Monaro Panthers), Daniel COLBERTALDO, Michael JOHN, Sean KIDDEY, Harry PETTIT (Tuggeranong United), Conor NOLAN, Andrew SLAVICH, Mitch STEENBERGEN (Woden Valley)