Round 19 of the 2015 NSW Men’s 1 premiership was not kind to any of our three local teams.
Out of a possible nine premiership points, the three teams collected none.
Sydney United 58 FC suffered a 1-0 loss at home to Rockdale City Suns, Bonnyrigg White Eagles was dismantled 5-3 by Parramatta and Marconi Stallions fought hard but just couldn’t avoid another defeat, 1-0, to Blacktown City.
At Edensor Park on a beautiful Sunday afternoon fans watched a game where both teams had their chances.
But it was a late first half goal to Alec Urosevski that made all the difference.
The goalmouth action started in the 14th minute, when the ball drifted across from the right into the path of Dylan Macallister but his first time strike was well held by goalkeeper Justin Pasfield.
Rockdale should have opened their account after 33 minutes when Daniel Petkovski was given far too much space and ran from his own halfway line before firing off a shot that Pasfield punched away.
The ball only got as far as Toufic Alameddine who, from short range, forced Pasfield into a diving save to his left.
In the 38th minute the visitors did break through after some great work by Macallister.
He delightfully back-heeled a pass that found an unmarked Alec Urosevski who slotted the ball home into the bottom right hand corner of the net.
In the last minute of play in the first half, a free kick from Marko Jesic from a dangerous position just outside the box sailed over the crossbar when he should have at least forced Pasfield into a save.
In the second half Sydney United 58 FC jumped out of the box with some real determination and an early corner by Koen Bosma reached Mark Cindric at the far post but his header was well handled by Ivan Necevski for what was the former Sydney FC’s custodian first call-to-arms for the afternoon.
Clearly the words of coach Mark Rudan at the break had the desired effect on the home team and the game was vastly different to the first half as both teams pressed at either end for a goal.
Sydney United 58 FC coach Mark Rudan was philosophical about the result and still very confident in his own team.
“It’s that time of the year now where it’s tough and we’re short on players as we only had 10 training on the weekend,” Rudan said.
“The players are working as hard as they can under the circumstances but I don’t just look at the game itself, as I look at the season as a whole.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“We’re in the Waratah Cup, Westfield FFA Cup and we’re consistently playing teenagers and no other team, particularly in the top five, can say that, so we need to put things into perspective and all the boys can do is keep positive and work hard because we’re still a chance for the top five.”[/social_quote]
RESULTS:
Sydney Olympic 3-2 Blacktown Spartans, at Lambert Park;
South Coast Wolves 1-0 APIA Leichhardt, at WIN Stadium;
Sutherland Sharks 0-1 Manly United, at Seymour Shaw Park;
Sydney United 58 FC 0-1 Rockdale City Suns, at Sydney United Sports Centre;
Parramatta FC 5-3 Bonnyrigg White Eagles, at Melita Stadium;
Blacktown City 1-0 Marconi Stallions, at Lily’s Football Centre
