It was a bit of a strange weekend for the National Premier Leagues (NPL) in Australia, as some of them were skipped, while others hadn’t even kicked off yet. But within those that continued normally, the participating Greek teams put on their good face, returning to form and sealing the wins. In New South Wales, Sydney Olympic finally managed to find their first win of the season against Hakoah, while Olympic FC added another three points to their recent string of success. The Olympia Warriors had a walk in the park against Riverside, while the only “dark spot” was Floreat Athina’s dramatic home loss against Inglewood.
OLYMPIC FC
Just one goal, scored by Alex Smith on the 72nd, after a wonderful assist provided by Jez Lofthouse (who was also named man-of-the-match) made all the difference in Olympic’s game against Moreton Bay United. The home side maintained complete control of the ball’s movements and created several opportunities to put the game to sleep from early on, yet they failed to make something of them. Their next game will be a lot more of a challenge for Ben Cahn’s men, as they will travel to the Lions Stadium to face the local team with whom they are currently tied in third place with 18 points apiece.
FLOREAT ATHINA
A highly suspenseful game was held at the E&D Litis Stadium, as Athina and Inglewood United gave it their all for the win. Eventually though, it was the visitors that managed to leave with the three points, after a thrilling conclusion that saw them scoring late in injury time.
Floreat broke the deadlock just after seven minutes of play thanks to a Murphy own goal, yet just two minutes later Hina put Inglewood back on level terms. Athina attempted to break away again on the 27th with Petkov, but the visitors made a counter-attack, equalising yet again with Mapet-Riak just four minutes before the break and gaining the advantage with Sokol two minutes after the start of the second half.
Whitney brought the two teams level for the third time in the competition, and just when it all seemed like they would neutralise each other, Blackmore came in the third minute of extra time to score and give the three points to Inglewood. Now Floreat shift their attention towards their next home game against Armadale.
OLYMPIA WARRIORS
The Warriors seemed comfortable against Riverside Olympic, despite the fact that they were forced to play for the majority of the game with a numerical disadvantage. Ryan and Nkoso had provided Olympia a two goal margin even before 10 minutes of play were up, and although the dismissal of McDonald on the 21st minute made the spectators believe that the game could be made a bit more competitive, not much changed.
Nkoso found his second, just four minutes before the end of the first half, while Ryan also added a second to his personal tally three minutes into the second. Nkoso completed his hat-trick and his team’s triumph just three minutes before the end of the 90′.
The Olympia players will hope to repeat this performance on Saturday night at Launceston as they continue to rise the ranks in the NPL of Tasmania.
Meanwhile, the NPL of South Australia also resumes this weekend, with Adelaide Olympic playing away at City and West Adelaide facing the para Hill Knights. Also, Hamilton Olympic will need to rise to the challenge of the Edgeworth Eagles in Northern NSW. Finally, this week marks the start of the 2019 season of the Capital Territory with the great derby between Canberra Olympic and Canberra FC standing out in the schedule of round one.
