League championship winners Wollongong Olympic sent a strong message heading into the finals with a comfortable 5-0 win over Port Kembla at the PCYC on Saturday afternoon. A first-half double from Yusuke Ueda and one from Jamie Wakeling saw Olympic head into the break with a strong advantage. Despite a positive start to the second period from the visitors, they were unable to create anything of substance with the hosts scoring adding two more goals to their tally including Ueda’s hattrick and a goal to fullback Ikumi Saito. 

However, it was Port Kembla who started the game strongly and should have taken the lead inside 2 minutes as Dylon Nikolovski sent a clean header from a corner sailing past the left upright. Following this there were a few half chances, mainly for Olympic, before the 12th minute when Wakeling received the ball on the left hand corner of the box and lashed a strike goalwards which forced a fingertip save from Port Keeper Daniel Farina onto the post and eventually out for a corner. The deadlock was broken not long afterwards in the 15th minute after Ueda’s saved shot rebounded back to Olympic. The hosts worked the ball around well before Vaughan Patterson delivered an inch perfect cross from the left-hand side finding the head of Ueda who sent his header back across the keeper and into the bottom corner.

The next 20 minutes saw Olympic create four clear cut chances; starting when Wakeling split the defence by setting Ueda through on goal who was at the mercy of the pitch as the ball bobbled up and his impromptu volley went wide of the goal. A few minutes later Farina was called into a double save, first with a brave hand to deny Ueda’s attempting rounding of him before pulling of a quick reaction save to deny Julian Minutillo's follow-up shot.

In the 26th minute, Ueda  received the ball, ran at the defence and looked to have beaten the last man before getting tripped over on the edge of the penalty area by defender Toni Musumeci who was promptly cautioned. This was followed up minutes later when Ueda cleverly flicked the ball over his shoulder, cut the ball back to Wakeling whose shot was saved off the line by a sliding Musumeci.

Olympic eventually doubled their advantage in the 34th minute when Joey Lavalle played Ueda through face-to-face with Farina where he coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner. Just three minutes later the League Champions struck again through a counter attack when Minutillo collected the ball out wide, sent in an inviting low cross which was directed into the net off the thigh of Wakeling.

A combination of poor finishing and last-ditch defending spared Port Kembla's blushes heading into the break as three clear cut chances went begging for Olympic. This includes two mist tap-ins from Ueda and a Minutillo shot which was scraped away from goal.

Port Kembla started the second half strongly and in the 57th minute had their best chance on goal since the opening of the match. Mitch Di Pietro dribbled down the wing, beat a defender and produced a low cross that flashed across the face of goal and just missed the outstretched Port forward Sandy Lowcock. Just four minutes later, Port had another chance when a cross-field ball found Kenya Hara who snatched at the volley and sent it wildly over the bar. This small period of domination was in vain as poor crossing and lack of end product saw Olympic maintain their three-goal advantage and regain control of the match.

There was a flurry of chances for Olympic around the 70th minute mark including quick footwork from Minutillo which lead to a cross which agonisingly swept across the face of goal; and a one-on-one with the keeper which Joey Lavalle slipped just wide of the post.

It wasn't long before Olympic struck again when substitute John Martinoski made an instant impact after coming on in the 76th minute as one of his first touches was a volley which forced a sharp save from Farina. The resulting corner, however, was floated to the back post where Minutillo headed the ball down into the path of the oncoming Saito who smashed the half-volley into the roof of the net.

Olympic weren't finished there as five minutes later, a fluid team move down the right wing saw Martinoski, Minutillo and Ueda combine in what would have resulted in a brilliant goal were it not for the trailing leg of Farina who denied Ueda from close range.

Ueda would not have to wait too much longer to complete his hat trick though as in the 87th minute, a composed through ball from Martinoski put the ball on a plate for Ueda who cooly slotted the ball past Farina and rounded out a comfortable win for Wollongong Olympic.

However, the fresh legs of Martinoski were not satisfied with just the scoreline and in the last 5 minutes, had three chances to add to his goal including a bicycle kick which was comfortable collected by Farina; a one on one which was skied; and finally a volley which after dipping over the crossbar, saw the referee call full time.

While not directly impacting on the ladder position of either of the teams, the manner in which Wollongong Olympic dismantled Port Kembla and created chances is worrying for the other four sides heading into the finals series.

Speaking after the match, Wollongong Olympic striker Yusuke Ueda said that out of his four seasons with the club that this has been the best."(The squad) has the mentality of champions". He said.

"We are focused on winning the championship and nothing less"

Saturday 17 August 2019 at PCYC, Wollongong

Wollongong Olympic FC – 5 (Ueda 15’, 34’, 87’. Wakeling 37’. Saito 77’ )

Port Kembla FC – 0

 

Wollongong Olympic: Hayden DUROSE, Kojiro HORI, Jack KEATING, Peter PRANDALOS, Ikumi SAITO, Vaughan PATTERSON, Joey LAVALLE, Julian MINUTILLO, James KERR, Jamie WAKELING, Yusuke UEDA

Subs: John MARTINOSKI (LAVALLE 75’), Jack BALMFORTH (Wakeling 57’), Ekoue D’ALMEDIA (86’), Christian Pretto

 

Port Kembla FC: Daniel FERINA, Nobuaki MOCHIZUKI, Dylen NIKOLOVSKI, Antonio MUSUMECI, William MOBBS, Mitchell DI PIETRO, Aden WADE, Chris GOMEZ, Bradley ACEV, Sandy LOWCOCK, Fabian LACOVELLI

Subs: Kenta HANA (ACEV 55’), Michael KAROUNA (MOBBS 45’), Joshua CRAPIS (WADE 67’), Christofer Ramirez

 

Referee – Bobby MAZEVSKI

Assistant Referees – Graham CHARKER and Tim GIBSON

By Tomas Phillips