Wollongong Olympic came into their Round 17 match at home to Tarrawanna on the back of a comfortable 2-0 win over Woonona. With their two title rivals facing the teams occupying the two bottom positions, the pressure was on Olympic to deliver three points against the 4th placed Blueys. As for Tarrawanna, a second half collapse against Corrimal last weekend killed off any hopes of finishing in the top three, however, veteran coach Peter Willis would be have been demanding a strong performance from his side.

The home side applied plenty of pressure on the Tarrawanna defenders in the opening passages of the match. Through this Olympic had three half chances in the opening ten minutes, two came for Yusuke Ueda who was unable to get either on target and the third came after Blueys’ keeper Adam Rodriguez spilt Stefan Dimoski’s shot but John Martinoski’s heavy touch saw the ball go out for a goal kick.

In the 16th minute, Olympic was awarded a free kick just outside and to the right of the Tarrawanna area. Shun Tokuno stood over the ball before guiding it over the wall and into the right of the goal. The fine strike was the lethal left back’s second goal in two weeks.

Tarrawanna struggled to move out of their half for the opening 20 minutes but after some nice link up play and a delicate Jared Fish cross, Liam Unicomb came close but his header sailed just over the top left corner of Hayden Durose’s goal. Most of Tarrawanna’s first half chances came through captain, Rick Goodchild who struck a number of shots from outside the box but none were able to truly test the goalkeeper.

Olympic had a big opportunity in the 31st minute when Tokuno cut the ball back for Martinoski near the penalty mark but his shot was blocked inside the 6 yard box by a Tarrawanna defender. Lukas Stergiou also had a solid strike from distance a couple of minutes before the interval but Rodriguez was able to deal with the whizzing ball.

In the first half an hour of the second half, Tarrawanna were able to retain possession of the ball and Olympic were unable to get the ball over the halfway line. Despite their dominance of the ball, Tarrawanna were unable to create any meaningful shots on goal with the final pass often trailing away from the targeted runners.

With ten minutes remaining, Olympic made the Blueys pay through another free kick. Haydyn Lloyd flung in a high free kick from only a couple of metres into Tarrawanna’s half, Ueda towered above his marker and his header was tipped onto the bar from a backtracking Rodriguez, however, the Japanese marksman was on his toes to tap in the rebound. The goal taking Ueda’s tally to 17 for the season with the golden boot all but sealed.

Tarrawanna scrambled to try and get back in the game, however, this opened up their defence which meant Rodriguez was needed to make a couple of solid stops in the final exchanges. Jared Fish had a shot on goal in added on time for the Blueys but it was dealt with by Durose and the match finished 2-0 to Olympic.

The victory means Olympic keep the pressure on Bulli who beat Picton 3-0. The two sides are separated by a single point and Olympic coach, Rob Birkin believes the title will be closely fought affair, “It’s one week at a time… Kemblawarra are still there as well so it’s going down to the wire.” The next match for Olympic is away to the Albion Park White Eagles who they lost against in extra time in the Bert Bampton Cup two weeks ago.

Tarrawanna remain in 4th, they are six points inside the top five and with some tricky upcoming fixtures, they need to be wary not to let their form slip. They host the Kemblawarra Fury next weekend.

 

Post match interview with Wollongong Olympic coach, Rob Birkin - https://soundcloud.com/dylanarvela/rob-birkin-after-wollongong-olympics-2-0-win-over-tarrawanna

 

Wollongong Olympic - 2 (Tokuno 17’, Ueda 81’)

Tarrawanna Blueys - 0

 

Saturday the 15th of July, 2017 at the PCYC, North Wollongong

 

Wollongong Olympic - Hayden Durose, Haydyn Lloyd, Shun Tokuno, Jack Keating, Harrison Brown, Lukas Stergious, Yusuke Ueda, John Martinoski, Jake Duczynski, Stefan Dimoski and Brendan Fordham

 

Subs - Blake Coates (on for Dimoski), Hayato Yakumaru (on for Brown), Brendan Belsito, Nuno Pires and Matthew Galanti (on for Martinoski)

 

Tarrawanna Blueys - Adam Rodriguez, Daniel Chapman, Matthew Naylor, Matthew Mazevski, Jake Morlando, Darren Stone, Joshua Chapple, Woo Oh, Liam Unicomb, Rick Goodchild and Jared Fish

 

Subs - Allister Carrigan (on for Chapman), Caleb Grace, Kazuma Nagaishi, Joshua Brown and Christian Pretto

 

Referee - Peter Ilcevski

 

Assistant Referees - Caleb Blanch and Jay Wapole

 

Report by Dylan Arvela, on Twitter @dylanarvela

 

Photo courtesy of Noel Wynn