Round 17 Preview

The WIN Stadium hosts more Illawarra Mercury Premier League action in Round 17, with Picton Rangers and Cringila Lions acting as curtain-raisers for the Wollongong Wolves on Sunday at 1pm.

Two games in Round 17 pair up sides competing for the end-of-season Finals places. With last weekend’s results leaving everything to play for at the top of the ladder, these games take on even more significance, with only five rounds left after this coming weekend.

The big game at the foot of the ladder was washed out last week. Cringila’s showdown with Shell Cove is now scheduled for 3 August. But Round 17 has more relegation drama, with Woonona not out of the woods if they lose to current bottom side Shell Cove.

Meanwhile, Ben McDonald is not giving up his Golden Boot that easily. After a sluggish start to the season, he has been knocking them in recently and has now leap-frogged Robbie Shields and Shohei Okuno, with 13 goals to his name after last week’s brace.

Match of the round

Wollongong Olympic v Kemblawarra Fury@ PCYC, Wollongong – kick-off 2.30pm, Saturday 16 July

Wollongong Olympic go into this tie looking to venge a 3-0 defeat in the reverse fixture back in May. Since that Round 6 match, Olympic have gone 10 games unbeaten, so they are the IPL’s most consistent team at the moment.

The Fury, meanwhile, have relinquished what was a five point lead at the top of the ladder and now sit in second, a point behind Bulli. Most worrying for the visitors to PCYC this weekend has been the nature of last week’s defeat to Albion Park, when they were outplayed across the park, especially as it came only two weeks after defeat to then bottom side Woonona.

Robbie Shields, Matthew McNab and Sam Munro scored in the win over Olympic earlier this season and the Fury will be looking to these attacking players to take the game to Olympic.

Olympic’s top scorer is still Yusuke Ueda and he scored again in midweek. Kyle Hazebroek has been knocking them in too in recent weeks, so Fury’s back line will need to watch for him. And the Fury will be without David Hartas, who is suspended for this one.

This tie could go either way, so I’m going to go with a draw, though it’s not a result either side would welcome as they chase the best Finals slots come September.

Other matches on Saturday 16 July

Port Kembla FC v Wollongong United @ Wetherall Park – kick-off 2.30pm

With his seventh goal of the season in midweek, United defender Ben Brooks is now his side’s leading scorer for 2016. He’ll always be a threat from the set-pieces, but Port Kembla also need to keep an eye on Jinya An, Jonny Martinoski, Matt Floro, Karouna Michael and Klime Sekutkoski. They’ve all got four goals or more as well.

So Port captain Peter Richardson has a job on his hands to keep United out this weekend. United won the equivalent fixture 2-1 last season and won the reverse match in Round 6 by the same margin. It’s quite possible that this game could end with the same scoreline.

If Port Kembla can achieve a result here their relegation worries are surely over for 2016. They’ll need Takao Teramoto and Joe Lavalle to be wearing their scoring boots for that to happen, though.

And United are hungry for the points as they close in on the top two in the ladder, but also want to bank as many as possible ahead of the final decision on potential points deduction themselves. This could be another tight game, but I fancy United to come away with the three points.

Shell Cove FC v Woonona FC @ Barrack Heights Sportsfield - kick-off 2.30pm

Woonona have improved markedly in recent weeks. Their last four games have been against the IPL’s top four sides, so while they’ve lost three of those games, those defeats have been by the smallest of margins, and they will still be glowing from the 1-0 win over Kemblawarra Fury three weeks ago.

Goals have not come easy for the Sharks, with only 17 goals from 16 IPL outings. It’s hard for Shell Cove to know who to focus on, though, as those 17 goals have come from 10 different players across the squad. Top scorer is Ryo Suzuki with just three.

Woonona won the equivalent fixture in 2015 0-3 and might fancy their chances of repeating that against the ladder’s bottom side.

But Shell Cove won the reverse fixture this season 0-2 and have the talent in their squad to lift them off the basement. Last Sunday’s draw at Picton and the point they picked up at Port Kembla a few weeks ago show that Shell Cove are still fighting.

This will be very tight and I reckon a draw is on the cards. Woonona will have to do it without the suspended Aiden Breslin, though.

 

Albion Park White Eagles v Tarrawanna Blueys @ Terry Reserve – kick-off 3.00pm

Two defeats in a row have seen Tarrawanna slip out of the top five, so the Blueys are looking to get their challenge for a Finals berth back on track. It’s just bad timing for them that they come up against a White Eagles side still humming after their comprehensive win over Kemblawarra Fury last weekend, though the Eagles came down to earth in midweek with defeat to Wollongong United.

The White Eagles won the equivalent fixture last year 4-0 and the way they have been playing in recent weeks, that’s quite possibly going to be the scoreline again this time round. They are already the IPL’s top scorers now with 40 goals from 16 games.

All three of their Japanese imports have now scored hat-tricks this season. It was the turn of Riku Iwauchi last week, but Shohei Okuno and Kotaro Higashi are just as much a threat against any defence in the IPL.

The Blueys are also playing better this season than they did in 2015, so they can’t be discounted here, and they drew the reverse fixture 0-0 in May. The Blueys are also performing much better on the road than they are at home this season.

If Sang Yu Park or Bradley Welch can find their touch here, they could make things difficult for the White Eagles.

But on current form, it’s hard to oppose a home win in this one.

Sunday 17 July

Picton Rangers v Cringila Lions @ WIN Stadium – kick-off 1.00pm

When these two sides met in Round 6, Picton came out on top 4-1 in a match also played at the WIN Stadium. The Rangers clearly like playing on the WIN’s wide open spaces as they also won here in the District League Grand Final in 2015. And they must fancy their chances of making it three WIN wins in a row against a Cringila side that has been failing spectacularly in recent weeks.

Cringila’s main problem has been its leaky defence, which has conceded 59 goals already in 15 games, with 26 in the last four matches alone. So, this is no bad time for Cringila to come up against a team that has itself been slipping in form of late.

Goal scoring has been Picton’s main problem recently, the Rangers finding the net only twice in the last five IPL matches. That might also give the Lions some hope as they desperately look for opportunities to pick up a point here or there to avoid the dreaded bottom spot on the ladder.

Cringila’s chances are not helped by the loss of their top scorer in the transfer window. Daniel Atkins’ departure puts the onus even more on the likes of Joel Craig, Daniel Vasilevski and Mikal Awad.

Picton might well scrape home in this one, but the positives for Cringila will be if they can plug that leaky defence and keep the scoreline respectable.

South Coast United v Bulli FC @ Ian McLellan Park – kick-off 3.00pm

Bulli’s formidable front line all scored against Picton last week. Ben McDonald has been making scoring look easy again in recent weeks and is now once again the IPL’s leading scorer after another brace last weekend. But Dylan Lewis – with 12 goals to his name - has only scored one less than McDonald, and Julian Minutillo now has seven himself.

To make it even more difficult for South Coast United, Bulli also have the stingiest defence in the league now. The home side here will be looking to their top marksman Liam Unicomb to find a way past the Bulli back line.

United had a dreadful start to the 2016 season, but their form began to improve with the 2-2 draw they achieved in the reverse fixture at Balls Paddock back in May. Quite a few of their current squad may also remember United’s 3-0 win over Bulli in the equivalent fixture last season.

It’s a tough ask for United to repeat that this season, especially with Bulli now looking to consolidate their newly-acquired lead of the ladder.

I have to go with an away win here, but I think South Coast will make them fight for those three points.

 

By Simon Duffin

Photo courtesy of Pedro Garcia