Yoogali SC took a giant step towards National Premier League salvation with a stunning 2-1 victory over league leaders Gungahlin United at the Solar Mad Stadium in Griffith, a result that took the home team off the bottom of the table and left Canberra Olympic in a perilous position.
Football often throws up the unexpected, those results that defy expectation and make supporters look twice and make league tables and form seem like the most ridiculous concepts ever created. Yoogali SC, bottom of the league, with five points and having conceded sixty goals, facing Gungahlin United, top of the pile and closing in on fifty goals scored, and yet the underdogs prevailed.
A tight first-half saw no goals as the visitors, shorn of some of their usual starters due to injury and unavailability lacked their usual fluency in front of goal, as Yoogali defended resolutely and held firm whilst causing problems of their own at the other end of the park.
It took until a couple of minutes into the second-half for the match to explode into life, the home side raising the spirits of the home crowd, who braved the conditions, to take the lead. Mason Donadel swung over a left-wing corner which Darren Bailey met with a near-post flick-on to net a priceless goal into the far corner.
Gungahlin have enjoyed a stellar season and were to hit back in typical fashion with twenty-one minutes remaining. Daniel Olaoye was pivotal, his pass wide was floated into the penalty area by Christian Junna where the English forward had charged, and Olaoye rose highest to nod a header over Michael De Paoli to equalise.
Yoogali have discovered the belligerence that was a seminal part of their artillery in their Capital Premier League promotion campaign and incredibly found an inner-reserve to retake the lead with a superlative goal. Aiden Munford’s clearance was cleverly headed into space by Bailey for Joshua De Rossi who took a touch before blasting a 25 metre strike in off the base of the post.
It was a goal that might yet prove to be a moment that will reverberate in the history of two great football clubs, a moment that could provide the definitive telling point of the season in the race for survival. The onus was now firmly on Canberra Olympic heading into the Sunday matches, and for Gunners the title race was thrown wide-open.
O’Connor Knights claimed the bragging rights in the Croatian Derby, and a priceless victory that has pushed them firmly back into contention in the race to retain their league championship crown, as they overcame Canberra Croatia 2-1 at O’Connor Enclosed in a typically frenetic derby day atmosphere, on a pitch that was drenched with a pre-match shower.
It was the visiting team that started the sharpest, taking advantage of the loss of Lachlan Fields in the pre-match warm-up meaning that the Knights were forced into a late reshuffle and the promotion of Sam Van Dooren to the starting eleven, by scoring with their first attack of menace inside the opening three minutes of the encounter.
It was a goal of simplicity, but also genius. A pinpoint pass from Thomas James split the Knights defence and encouraged Daniel Barac to make a burst down the left-flank in a footrace with Connor Bill. Barac clearly won the battle, and squared for the onrushing Atiya Waraga who calmly placed a first-time finish back across the face of goal and into the far corner of the net.
Both teams created openings of note throughout the contest, Seb Arranz saving smartly from James, and Sam Brown likewise needing to be at his alert best to deny the Knights in their usual transition, but there was little the Croatia custodiam could do to prevent the hosts from drawing level with a finely worked goal in the 27th minute.
It was a milestone goal for young attacking midfielder Vincent Sanchez, his first at the senior level for his club, but taken with the aplomb of a 100-cap veteran. Micheal Adams dug out a cross and Sanchez rose majestically to divert his header across Brown and into the net via the inside of the goalkeeper’s right-hand upright.
That might have been enough for a point, but neither side wanted to settle for that outcome, and it was O’Connor who would be singing heartily and lustily at the final whistle after bagging the winning goal with seventeen minutes to play. Niko Kresic supplied the cross and Phakedi Manda, much as he did in the Australia Cup Round of 32, rose to head home a vital goal.
The battle for the top four swung in favour of Tigers FC with the home team winning the Battle of the Big Cats at the Australian Institute of Sport, coming away from the important match with Monaro Panthers having summarily seen off their fellow finals aspirants with a 3-0 success.
Two goals in the opening forty-five minutes paved the way for the Tigers, who could even afford to miss a second-half penalty, Nik Taneski seeing his effort brilliantly palmed away by Jacob Quinn, as they cruised to a victory that saw them jump above the Panthers on the table with a game in hand.
Taneski had earlier calmly converted his first penalty of the afternoon, awarded nine minutes before half-time, a goal that added to the first of the afternoon netted some seven minutes earlier. That goal was the provenance of Angus Bailey, the midfielder striking for the second week in succession.
Nikos Kalfas played his part, controlling the ball amongst a crowd of Panthers defenders, but when it broke for Bailey he made no mistake, absolutely leathering his shot from twenty-five metres out past Quinn who barely saw the strike such was the velocity with which Bailey hit it.
After Taneski doubled the lead from the spot, the Panthers regrouped and came out seeking a response, however it was the home team that secured the points with the third goal before the hour. Once more it was a thing of beauty as Tomohiro Ogawa’s cross was crashed into the back of then net by Kalfas, the forward unleashing a blast across Quinn that buried itself into the side panel of the Panthers goal. There was no way back for Monaro, and Tigers took pole position for fourth.
The precarious position occupied by Canberra Olympic worsened on Sunday afternoon as a Steve Nealon hat-trick helped Tuggeranong United to a convincing 4-1 win at Kambah 2 in front of a decent crowd, supplemented by the great and the good of Tuggeranong past on Old Boys Day.
Fittingly, in front of the United alumnus, it was a teenage tearaway that stole the show, the next generation of youthful talent in Nealon producing a glittering display, and a treble of goals, that has sunk their illustrious opponents closer to oblivion in terms of NPL survival.
Already damaged by a quartet of players unavailable to injury, Olympic shuffled the pack, but came out sparring. As is the norm in Tuggeranong matches, there were two penalties, the first awarded when Michael John was upended in the area confidently converted by Sam Habtemariam to give Olympic the lead.
But they were unable to repel the United attack, particularly the long throws from pat Hislop that caused consternation in the visitors defence. It was from one of these that Nealon equalised. The ball criminally allowed to bounce inside the six-yard box from where Nealon was able to gleefully nod home from close-range.
The young striker was just getting started. After the interval, with Tuggeranong dominant, Euan Peterkin released Nealon down the right flank and his pace took him away from the defence before an unerring finish low and hard past Seb Usai at his near post put the home side ahead, much to the delight of the majority of the crowd that included a number of juniors.
Nealon was on target once more on the hour. United were awarded a penalty of their own and, after a slight delay where the players of both teams debated the merit of the decision, Nealon confidently rammed home to complete his first senior hat-trick and take his personal tally to eight for the season.
To cap off a glorious afternoon for Tuggeranong there was a fourth. Again, a long throw caused problems, by the clever Sam Walker flicking it on and watching as the ball cannoned off the back post and fell invitingly for substitute Matt Williams who clumped in his first senior NPL goal in off the underside of the crossbar. It was that kind of afternoon. Delight for Tuggeranong and potential doom for Olympic.
RESULTS
ROUND 19
Saturday 17 August
O’Connor Knights 2 (Sanchez 27’, Manda 73’) Canberra Croatia 1 (Waraga 3’)
Tigers FC 3 (Bailey 27’, Taneski 34’ (p), Kalfas 59’) Monaro Panthers 0
Yoogali SC 2 (Bailey 46’, De Rossi 75’) Gungahlin United 1 (Olaoye 69’)
Sunday 18 August
Tuggeranong United 4 (Nealon 37’, 55’, 60’ (p), Williams 83’) Canberra Olympic 1 (Habtemariam 20’ (p))
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | Gungahlin United* | 19 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 48 | 21 | +27 | 41 |
| 2 | Canberra Croatia | 19 | 12 | 2 | 5 | 46 | 26 | +20 | 38 |
| 3 | O’Connor Knights | 18 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 36 | 26 | +10 | 37 |
| 4 | Tigers FC** | 18 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 40 | 23 | +17 | 31 |
| 5 | Monaro Panthers | 19 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 32 | 22 | +10 | 29 |
| 6 | Tuggeranong United | 19 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 30 | 32 | -2 | 23 |
| 7 | Yoogali SC | 19 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 11 | 61 | -50 | 8 |
| 8 | Canberra Olympic | 19 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 21 | 53 | -32 | 6 |
TOP SCORERS
17: Lukman AHMED-SHAIBU (Gungahlin United)
13: Atiya WARAGA (Canberra Croatia)
11: Roko STRIKA (Monaro Panthers)
8: Daniel BARAC (Canberra Croatia), Steve NEALON (Tuggeranong United), Nick PRATEZINA (Canberra Croatia)
7: Micheal ADAMS (O’Connor Knights), Aisosa IHEGIE (O’Connor Knights), Michael KATSOULIS (Gungahlin United)
6: Augustine BANGURA (Gungahlin United), Jeremy HABTEMARIAM (Gungahlin United), Own GOALS
5: Jenno CERUTI (Monaro Panthers), Luca FLOREZ (Canberra Olympic), Nikos KALFAS (Tigers FC), Archie MCGREGOR (Tigers FC), Nik TANESKI (Tigers FC), Keegan VUCETIC (Canberra Croatia), Sam WALKER (Tuggeranong United)
4: Ben BASSER-SILK (Monaro Panthers), Joshua DE ROSSI (Yoogali SC), Stephen DOMENICI (Canberra Olympic), Niko KRESIC (O’Connor Knights), Santiago LUPINO (Monaro Panthers), Davaadelger OKTYABRI (Tuggeranong United), Daniel OLAOYE (Gungahlin United), Jackson PAESLER (O’Connor Knights), Sam WHITHEAR (Tigers FC), Shandon WHITEHEAD (Gungahlin United)
3: Angus BAILEY (Tigers FC), Alen JAMES (Canberra Olympic/O’Connor Knights), Amilio KISTA (Tigers FC), Joshua MILICEVIC (Tigers FC), Tomohiro OGAWA (Tigers FC), Patrick O’ROURKE (O’Connor Knights), ROMEO (Gungahlin United), Daniel SPARROW (Canberra Croatia)
2: Nic EMANUEL (Tuggeranong United), Bevan FOXALL (Tuggeranong United), Michael JOHN (Canberra Olympic), Tyson LIVERMORE (Monaro Panthers), Zac MCLAREN (Monaro Panthers), Joshua PEDERSEN (Tuggeranong United), Niko PERINOVIC (O’Connor Knights), Michael PICCOLO (Canberra Croatia), Jordan REZEK (Tuggeranong United), Daniel SUBASIC (Canberra Croatia), Kristian TOKIC (O’Connor Knights), Harry TRUMAN (Canberra Olympic)
1: Darren BAILEY (Yoogali SC), Jack BITANI (Tigers FC), Samson CARR (Tigers FC), Izach CLEMENTS (Canberra Olympic), Elie DARWICH (Canberra Olympic), Adam DE FRANCESCHI (Monaro Panthers), James DRISCOLL (O’Connor Knights), Lachlan FIELDS (O’Connor Knights), Axel GARBIN (Yoogali SC), Jack GREEN (Gungahlin United), Sab HABTEMARIAM (Canberra Olympic), Marley JACKSON (Tigers FC), Thomas JAMES (Canberra Croatia), Christopher JOHN (Yoogali SC), Ryan KEIR (Canberra Croatia), Chirstian KRESKAS (Monaro Panthers), Zac LAWRENCE (Tuggeranong United), Jack LEVERETT (Tuggeranong United), Phakedi MANDA (O’Connor Knights), Marko MILUTINOVIC (Tigers FC), Patrick MITCHELL (Monaro Panthers), Shinzaburo NAKAYAMA (Canberra Olympic), Alessandro PENA (Tigers FC), Euan PETERKIN (Tuggeranong United), Joe PREECE (Yoogali SC), Sam ROESTBAKKEN (Canberra Olympic), Vinnie SANCHEZ (O’Connor Knights), Tony SPASESKI (Canberra Croatia), David SESELJA (Canberra Croatia), Patrick SHORE (Canberra Olympic), Julian SMITH (Gungahlin United), Michael SOUTHAM (Tigers FC), Tony SPASESKI (Canberra Croatia), Luke STEVENS (Tuggeranong United), Antoni TIMOTHOEU (Gungahlin United), Matt WILLIAMS (Tuggeranong United), Ryan ZANATTA (Yoogali SC)
*Gungahlin United deducted three points for field an ineligible player in the 3-0 win against Tigers FC
