Cringila visited the PCYC to face the high flying Wollongong Olympic four days after coach Wally Savor left the club to take on the head coaching role at St George FC. Under the guidance of youth team coaches Jorge De Matos and Steven Jovanovski, the Lions went down 2-0 with Olympic’s lethal striker Yusuke Ueda netting either side of the break.

The home side were the first to work a decent opportunity. In the 5th minute, Kojiro Hori picked out the head of Ueda from the right wing, however, the imposing number 9 couldn’t direct his shot on target. Ueda didn’t have any issues five minutes later when he put his side ahead. This time the cross came from John Martinoski who picked out the striker who got in front of his marker in guided the ball between Alex Boullosa and the near post.

Despite Olympic taking the lead, Cringila looked to have some threat going forward. Ex-Olympic forward Nuno Pires had a half chance with 20 minutes on the clock when he got on the end of a cross from the right, instead of hitting it first time from close range with his left, he took a touch and the chance was gone.

Cringila had two decent opportunities in the space of five minutes from the half-hour mark, both falling for Mitch Hall. The first saw the ball pop up just outside the box and his looping strike faded to the right and his second came from Mitch Di Pietro knocking on a throw-in but Hall laced his effort over the bar.

Olympic held on to their one-goal lead as the sides went into half time.

In the 55th minute, Pires had a beaming strike from distance that just went over the bar courtesy of a deflection, however, within a minute of this effort Olympic were awarded a penalty. Hori jinked into the box before being brought down and giving Ueda a golden chance to net his seventh of the season. The Japanese striker tucked the ball into the bottom left corner but he was forced to retake the penalty due to player encroachment. For take two he slotted it into the bottom right as cool as you like to make it 2-0 to Olympic.

With an hour played, Olympic were gifted a chance to score their third when a Bollousa miskick picked out Martinoski. The number 10 attempted a chip over the goalkeeper which went wide when he would have been better served squaring it to Ueda to tap home into an empty net.

Cringila worked hard to try and get back into the match but in fairness, the best they could manage was a Takao Teramoto header which flung over the bar with ten minutes remaining. The three points would be staying at the PCYC with Olympic winning by two goals to nil.

After the match, Olympic coach George Antoniou admitted he was just glad to get the result, “It was a battle today but we got the three points which is all that was important.” The win pushes Antoniou’s into equal first, however, competition leaders Bulli play South Coast United on Sunday. Next up for Olympic is an FFA Cup fifth round clash with NPL giants APIA Leichhardt at Macedonia Park on Wednesday night.

As for Cringila, they drop out of the top five and they could fall as low as eighth pending the results on Sunday. Next up for the Lions is a trip to Ray Robinson Field to take on Fernhill (note this match was originally scheduled to be at Crehan Park).

The full post-match interview with Wollongong Olympic coach George Antoniou will be on the FSC Weekly - Round 7. 

Saturday 28 April 2018 @ Wollongong PCYC

 

Wollongong Olympic - 2 (UEDA 10’, 56’ pen)

 

Cringila Lions -  0

 

Wollongong Olympic - Hayden DUROSE, Kojiro HORI, Jack KEATING, Jake DUCZYNSKI, Shun TOKUNO, Vaughen PATTERSON, Brendan FORDHAM, Lukas STERGIOU, Luke FOSTER, John MARTINOSKI, YUSUKE UEDA

 

Subs - Jack BALMFORTH (on for FOSTER), Haydyn LLOYD (on for STERGIOU), Robbie GAUDIOSI (on for MARTINOSKI), Christian PRETTO

 

Coach - George ANTONIOU

 

Cringila Lions - Alex BOULLOSA, Tyren MACLOU, James RALSTON, Anthony ROMEO, Josiah SHERWEN, Mitch DI PIETRO, Todd SPARKS, Nuno PIRES, Ibrahim SESAY, Mitch HALL, Jordan SEIB

 

Subs - Aleks PRENTOSKI (on for SPARKS), Steve HRISTOVSKI (on for ROMEO), Mitch ARCOSA, Takao TERAMOTO (on for PIRES), Kyle BOOTH

 

Coach - Jorge DE MATOS, Steven JOVANOVSKI (both interim)

 

Referee - Steven BOZIC

 

Assistant Referees - Jackson COCKS, Lottie CABASSI-POWER

 

Report by Dylan Arvela, on Twitter @dylanarvela