Sport

Exciting win but no final spot for Blues

REIGNING champions Sydney Olympic have narrowly missed out on a place in the NPL NSW Men’s finals despite a final round 3-1 win against Sydney FC at Lambert Park.

Two goals to Alex Sanchez and one to Jack Stewart, was enough to silence the home side in what was a thrilling contest.
Benjamin Koop found the back of the net in the 13th minute for Sydney FC but it proved to be nothing more than a stat line as Olympic claimed all three points.
The win was not enough to secure finals football for the Olympic, as a tight battle for fourth and fifth position was won by Sydney United and Marconi Stallions respectively.
Olympic had a brilliant start to the game, scoring twice within the first 10 minutes.
Stewart opened scoring for the visitors in the 5th minute, sliding a left-foot strike into the netting from the edge of the 18-yard box.
Sanchez doubled Olympic’s lead just minutes later, working his magic to charge through Sydney FC’s defence and send his shot out of reach of Thomas Heward-Belle in the 8th minute.
Despite a five-minute period of dominance for Sydney Olympic, Sydney FC were competitive against Olympic, utilising their technical ability to counteract Olympic’s experience and physicality.
The home side worked their way back into the game in the 13th minute, with Koop breaking free from Billy Patramanis to knock in a header from a Callum Talbot cross.
The teams continued to battle it out, with both sides having their share of chances, but it was Olympic who would score again in the 68th minute through Sanchez.
The Spaniard scored his second of the match, connecting with a cross from Jinya An, to head home a third for the visitors.
Olympic coach Abbas Saad expressed his disappointment that his team weren’t going to be playing finals football this year.
“We’re disappointed but obviously very, very proud of the boys’ efforts,” he explained.
“We’ve beaten ourselves this year and that’s the disappointing factor, we could have done a lot better.
“It is what it is, we’ve beaten four of those top five teams that are going to be in the semi-finals.
“We felt if we could just get into the finals, maybe we could show our true colours.”