South Coast United arrived at the PCYC on a 4-game losing streak, facing a rampant Olympic who were 5 games without dropping a point, so one would be forgiven for writing off the fixture before it even began.

Play began rather energetically, with both sides frantically chasing down possession at every opportunity, not a single player afforded a meaningful amount of time to relax on the ball. On what was a warm afternoon, this intensity kept up for the entire first period, a frenetic half with limited chances on goal.

South Coast United forged the first chance of the match on 6 minutes, Oliver Carrasco's deep cross finding the head of Abdul Lawal at the far post, doing well to beat his marker in the air, however his well won header was straight into the arms of Olympic goalkeeper Hayden Durose.

From there, the first half was all Olympic - Shun Tokuno providing consistent crosses from the left flank into the constant aerial threat of Yuseke Ueda, flashing two headers wide either side of the half hour.

The best chance of the half came from nowhere, Stefan Dimoski picking up a loose ball in broken play, dribbling to 20 yards out and striking with the right boot across goal, Kaydin Harrison in goal for SCU beaten all ends up, only for the shot to strike the base of the upright and fly out.

On the brink of the interval, a rare Olympic defensive mix-up fell the way of Julio Mushaba, the rushed shot scuffed wide of the target whilst under heavy pressure.

At the interval, it would've been Olympic on top, however they didn't have a goal to show for their troubles. South Coast were battling away and could have snagged a goal on the counter, but spent most of the time parked in their own half.

Dimoski nearly started the second half with a bang, an acrobatic volley onto a Lucas Stergiou cross, however the connection was lacking and the shot was sprayed well wide of the target.

Chris Valic brought down the winger inside the penalty area six minutes into the second half, a trailing leg felling Dimoski as he cut inside. Ueda stepped up for the spot-kick and sent Harrison the wrong way to open the scoring.

Less than ten minutes later, Ueda had his, and Olympic's , second. A solo run down the left side saw the striker find his way into the box, before rifling a powerful shot in emphatically at the near post.

On the most part, that was the end of the excitement for the match - a rather even affair won by the hosts in a 15 minute period. The rest of the action was limited to Durose spilling a simple Greg Valic free kick as SCU attackers swarmed the area.

South Coast United played well at the back and used their width in midfield to their advantage, however much of the days tale was told by the defensive solidity of Olympic, and their central midfield bossing SCU out of the game.

 

 

Saturday 19th August - PCYC

Referee - P. Ilcevski

Assistants - K. Harrison, M. Francis

 

Wollongong Olympic 2 - Ueda 51', 64'pen

South Coast United 0

 

Wollongong Olympic - Durose, Lloyd, Tokuno, Keating (Belsito 70'), Brown, Stergiou (Yakumaru 79'), Ueda, Perlovski, Dimoski (Wakeling 85'), Fordham, Pires

Subs - Belsito, Wakeling, Yakumaru

South Coast United - Harrison, C. Valic, G. Valic, Dimitrievski (Cordina 59'), Nimal, Pappas, Shozu, Carrasco (Liberti 38'), Lawal, Bratjanscak, Mushaba

Subs - Kinjo, Takaiashi, Liberti, Cordina, Pauline, D. Valic

 

Report by David Atherton - Twitter @daveatho5