In a game which ebbed & flowed for a full ninety minutes, Bulli and Olympic had to settle for a one-all draw in this top of the table clash on Saturday.

The first ten minutes was spent with both sides 'feeling each other out' and it was quite clear early on that Olympic had come to this fixture with a preconceived plan of pressing high up the pitch in an effort to deny Bulli players with time on the ball.

This early pressure from Olympic paid early dividends when they opened the scoring on 11 minutes. Benefiting from an needless free kick deep in their attacking third, Brendon Fordham knocked in a delicate chip to the near post where Sam Gordon got his head to the ball which he steered towards the upright. A fortunate rebound came back off the post straight to Gordon who was able to poke the ball home at the second time of asking.

Olympic almost doubled their lead two minutes later when Bulli Keeper, Yuya Kuwata, made a hash of clearing his lines and threw the ball straight to Fordham (who was to have an outstanding game for the visitors), lurking 25 metres from the Bulli goal but 15 metres in from the sideline. Kuwata, along with his fellow defenders, could only hold their breath as the midfielder's attempted lob from distance went narrowly wide of the far post.

It took 20 minutes before the Keeper at the other end (Hayden Durose) was tested as a result of Olympic's high pressure game and it was Bulli's Leading Scorer, Ben McDonald whose shot on the turn from the edge of the penalty area caught Durose, a little unsighted but the Keeper was able to turn the ball away for a corner with his legs intervening.

From the ensuing corner, Guy Knight whipped a ball in to the near post where Julian Minutillo's header hit the crossbar and bounced down before the ball was cleared to safety after a bit of a scramble.

After that near miss, Bulli started to get a grip on proceedings with Olympic's pressure waning after a lot of high intensity work in the opening 25 minutes. The home side were now starting to muster some good field position high up the park which resulted in numerous corner kicks especially in the closing stages of the opening 45 minutes.

With so much of the ball at their disposal, it was a matter of time before the 'I' got back on level terms and the equaliser duly arrived five minutes before the interval.

Bulli had tried unsuccessfully on many occasions, to break down an Olympic defence, which had been resolute through the middle and on the fringes of the penalty area, admirably led by Jack Keating & Jake Ducynski. On this one occasion, the central defensive pairing and the Keeper, were found wanting as Aaron Baker had joined the attack down the right side. The overlapping full back's enticing deep cross reached an area around the edge of the six yard box where the three defenders appeared to leave the ball for one another with Minutillo nipping in to head home for a deserved leveller.

The second half began in a similar vein to the first half with Olympic trying to press high up the pitch but Bulli themselves started this second period with a lot more intent also which led to the game being more of a 'nip and tuck' affair.
Play was concentrated for long periods between the two penalty areas with both sides lacking the cutting edge in the respective attacking third of the pitch which led to a case of neither goalkeeper making a 'real' save of note.

Midway through the second stanza, a sweeping move which covered half the field, with Baker, Minutillo and Knight involved end with the latter's cross reaching the corner of the six yard box at the far post to find Dylan Lewis lurking the cross arrived at an awkward height which he had trouble with and his contact was wide of the target.
A short time later, one one of the rare occasions that Bulli were able to crack the combination on the fringes of Olympic defensive wall, McDonald was played through into a great position in front of goal but his first touch let him down and Durose was able to diffuse the situation without too much trouble.

With 18 minutes to go, Olympic had their best chance to score when Isaac Lee, not long on as a replacement player looked like he was capable of breaching Bulli's strong defensive line, before Kenji Takahashi snuck in and intercepted the ball before Lee could pull the trigger.

With time ebbing away, Bulli did look the favourite to perhaps snatch a late winner but appeared to run out of ideas in and around the Olympic penalty area. Too be fair both sides were structured well especially defensively and both teams kept their shape throughout the 90 minutes.

At the conclusion of the game, Bulli Coach Ben Smith was reasonably happy with his sides effort especially with the response in the second half after he gave his team a roasting at the break for a poor opening 20 minutes. He felt that the final pass let the team down on a number of occassions during the course of the game. Smith added that Olympic were very good defensively today.

His counterpart in the other dugout, Rob Birkin said he was happy with the point given that they were up against a very good side. They stuck with the game plan of closing down players they identified in the Bulli team as being good ball players and that worked a treat. Birkin was a bit disappointed at the way in which the goal was conceded.

The point for Bulli meant they closed the gap on Kemblawarra Fury to two points at the top as the league leaders lost to last placed Woonona in the shock result of the round whilst for Olympic, they dropped from 3rd to 6th in a congested middle of the table sees five sides seperated by just two points at the end of Round 14.

 

Match Stats

 

Bulli 1(Julian Minutillo 40')
Wollongong Olympic 1 (Sam Gordon 11')

 

Balls Paddock, Woonona

 

Referee: Steve Bozic

Assistant Referees: Mitchell Thorpe & Darcy Jordan

 

Bulli: Yuya Kuwata, Aaron Baker, Kensi Takahashi, Scott Best, Guy Knight, Jim Kerr (Matthew Naylor 87'), Sam Davies, Ryan Emerton (Daniel Carreno 83'), Ben McDonald, Dylan Lewis, Julian Minutillo.

Subs not Used: Lewis Clements, Kyle Jackson, Joao Oliveira.

Yellow Cards: Nil

 

Wollongong Olympic: Hayden Durose, Haydyn Lloyd, Jack Keating, Jake Duzynski, Sam Gordon, Ja Kon Yu, Lee Kiz (Isaac Lee 70'), Brendan Fordham, Kyle Hazelbroek (Andrej Gaseca 90'), Harvey Rodriguez, Yuseke Ueda.

Subs not Used: Chris Jackson, Maurice Aloegninou, Declan White.

Yellow Cards: Harvey Rodriguez 35', Kyle Hazelbroek 54'.

Report by David Naylor

Photo by Pedro Garcia (library archive)