On Saturday, Bulli travelled to Moore Park in the heart of Sydney to face Sydney CBD in their FFA Cup 3rd round clash. Bulli had a successful run in last season's FFA Cup where they came close to knocking out the Wollongong Wolves in the 5th round. Formed in 2014, Sydney CDB has had two high achieving seasons in the Sydney Amateur Football Leagues before gaining entry in the Eastern Suburbs Football Association Championship. CBD’s relative success combined with the synthetic surface at their Moore Park playing pitch promised a tricky encounter.

From the kickoff, Bulli was clearly the superior side with CBD forced to defend deep in their half for a majority of the opening 20 minutes. Bulli’s best chance in this period came to Guy Knight who managed strike a bobbling half volley against the right post.

In the 22nd minute Bulli forward, Marcus Beattie had a strong penalty appeal turned away. From this moment on, Bulli began to loosen their grip on proceedings and within minutes CBD had an excellent chance on the counter with striker Dipesh Soshi forcing Yuya Kuwada into an acrobatic save, tipping the ball wide of the goal.

Kuwada was keen to play out of his box and with 10 minutes remaining the first half, CBD’s Karel Cerman attempted an audacious lob from 40 metres out but the Bulli number 1 was able to cover back and claim the goal-bound strike.

At halftime, the score was 0-0 and Bulli were visibly frustrated with their ability to break down a stoic CBD defence.

The halftime break paid dividends for Bulli because within 4 minutes of the restart they had found the back of the net. Guy Knight drove a shot into the box and after ricocheting off a defender, Ben McDonald was able to nudge it to Dylan Lewis to tap past the keeper.

The goal lifted the tempo of Bulli’s play and in the 65th-minute they had their second. Guy Knight found himself high up the left flank and his cultured cross was poked out of the CBD keeper’s arms by McDonald into an empty net.

In the space of 3 minutes, Bulli doubled their lead. First through substitute Andy Gamble who rocketed a shot with the outside of his boot finding the top right corner - scraping the bar on the way in. Then McDonald profited from another cross, this time using his head to find the back of the net.

With 10 minutes to go, McDonald completed his hat-trick when he blasted a cut back into the top of the net to put Bulli up 5 goals to 0.

After the match, Bulli coach, Matt Bailey admitted his side struggled in the first half due to their slow ball speed and poor positional play but he was pleased with his side's ability to step up, “We changed a few things up at half time and our second half execution was much better and that was in the result.”

Next up for Bulli in the FFA Cup is an away match against NPL2 outfit, Macarthur Rams likely to be on Wednesday the 5th of April.

You can listen to the full interview with Matt Bailey here - https://soundcloud.com/dylaneloiarvela/bulli-boss-matt-bailey-after-ffa-cup-win-against-sydney-cbd

On Sunday afternoon, Picton travelled to Valentine Park to play Sydney North West FC and they managed to pull off a comprehensive 3-0 win. They will travel to the winner of Baulkham Hills FC and West Ryde Rovers, a match that has been rescheduled due to wet weather.

Kemblawarra Dapto Fury, who were originally scheduled to play at Macedonia Park on Saturday were forced (due to the rain) to travel to Seymour Park to play Coogee United on Sunday evening. With the scores locked at 1-1 midway through the second half, Fury managed to get the winner that sees them through to the 4th round. Their next opponents are Gosford City FC with the match set to be played on the Central Coast.

Wollongong United and Albion Park White Eagles are yet to play their respective 3rd round ties due to the wet weather.

 

5pm Saturday 18th of March at Moore Park

Sydney CBD 0

Bulli FC 5

 

2.30pm Sunday 19th of March at Valentine Park

Sydney North West FC 0

Picton Rangers 3

 

8pm Sunday 19th of March at Seymour Park

Coogee United 1

Kemblawarra Dapto Fury 2

 

Article written by Dylan Arvela - @dylaneloiarvela