A number of missed chances cost Sydney Olympic dearly with the Blues now searching for answers in their bid to get back into the winner’s circle.
Both teams began testing each other from the first whistle as midfielders Chris Triantis and Brendan Maroney ran the show for their respective teams.
After good lead up play, Chris Triantis had the first chance to open the scoring in the 5’ minute, but his curling free-kick was easy pickings for Blacktown goalkeeper Mat Ryan.
The Sydney Olympic pressure continued in the 8’ minute as Mitchell Stamatelis threaded a great through ball to James Monie down the left hand touchline. A nice cutback popped up for Chris Triantis, but the in-form midfielder chose to turn the ball to his preferred right foot and missed the chance to get a shot on goal.
Blacktown sprung to life in the 10’ minute following a great counter-attack led by former Sydney Olympic player Tolgay Ozbey. Ante Deur was released into space however his shot hardly threatened the Sydney Olympic goal.
Immediately after, Mitchell Long won the ball off Stamatelis in the midfield and put Ozbey on goal only to hit a soft shot to the waiting Zanelli.
Blacktown’s counter-attacks finally worked, in the 14’ minute, as Ozbey got easily around Josh Lawson but was quickly brought down by Zanelli in goals leaving the referee no option but to award a penalty.
In true Ozbey fashion, the striker blasted the penalty to the right of Zanelli to give Blacktown the 1-0 lead.
Sydney Olympic tried to hit back straight away as Triantis sent a corner into the danger area only for Matthew Mayora to softly tap towards goal.
Blacktown City further shocked the Olympic faithful as they extended their lead in the 23’ minute.
A silly free-kick conceded by Josh Lawson led to a floated effort into the penalty-area leaving Zanelli in ‘no mans land’ with Lachlan Cahill heading the ball over the goalkeeper and Ante Deur calmly on the spot to head the ball into an empty net for 2-0.
Blacktown continued their counter-attacking football and almost made it 3-0 in the 28’ minute as Tolgay Ozbey sprung the offside trap to be one-on-one with Zanelli.
Fortunately for the home-side, his fierce shot was well saved by a dropping Zanelli to keep the score at 2-0.
Sydney Olympic finally capitalised on their majority possession in the 35’ minute as captain Matthew Mayora hit a stunning free-kick into the top right corner to get his team back to 2-1.
The goal seemed to spring the Blues back to life as in the 39’ minute, James Monie found Chris Triantis in the box but was brought down as the referee waved ‘play on’ much to the disgust of the vocal crowd.
In the dying seconds of the first-half Sydney Olympic continued to search for the equaliser but all efforts were to no avail.
The second-half began much like the ending of the first with Sydney Olympic firing to find the equaliser.
Blacktown’s counter-attack football again proved fruitful as they ended up scoring to extend their lead to 3-1 in the 54’ minute.
A James Monie mistake led to Mitchell Long feeding Ante Deur on goal as he calmly put the ball past Zanelli for his second.
Sydney Olympic coach Pat Morando then turned to his bench as he substituted Josh Lawson for Anthony Doumanis.
The Blues again took control of possession and in the 62’ minute Emmanuel Giannaros cut the ball back to Monie from the right but unfortunately blasted over the top in another chance gone begging.
In 68’ minutes, Sydney Olympic were gifted with a chance to peg one back but Matthew Mayora could not head the ball on target as it sailed over the crossbar.
Blacktown continued to play their game in their defensive half with a 3-1 lead, waiting for the chance to counter.
They didn’t have to wait too long as their fourth arrived via another counter on 74’ minutes, silencing the Olympic faithful.
After great work by Brendan Maroney down the line, Luke Roodenburg finished the rout as he clinically headed the ball across to the far post to give his side the 4-1 lead and embarrass the home team.
Blacktown assistant coach Mark Crittenden was extremely happy with his side’s performance:
“When you come here you know it is going to be a tough game so we are very happy with the result.
“We had a lot of young boys playing today and more experience on the bench so we were very impressed with them too.
“We came here with a game plan to frustrate them in the middle of the park and get them on the counter and it worked a treat.”
Sydney Olympic coach Pat Morando was quite embarrassed after a huge loss:
“Our players were found wanting in all areas of the park and we were beaten by the better team – as simple as that.
“We’ll just have to look forward now instead of looking back and regretting and just regroup.’’
In the Grade 20’s match Blacktown City FC scored a deserved 2-1 win against Sydney Olympic
courtesy of the NSW Football Federation