Saturday, February 28, 2009

South Hobart's fate hangs in the balance

SOUTH HOBART 0-0 HOBART OLYMPIC

[Hobart Olympic win penalty shoot-out 4-2.]
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South Hobart have to await the outcome of Saturday’s match between Tilford Zebras and New Town Eagles before they know whether they are in this season’s Summer Cup final.

This 0-0 draw was not enough to ensure them of a place in the final, and when they lost the penalty shoot-out 4-2, the situation became even more precarious.

Zebras must beat Eagles by 6-0 to pip South Hobart for a place in the final, while for Eagles to make it, they would have to beat Zebras by a dozen goals.

Eagles will be without as many as seven players for the match, so a 6-0 scoreline is just about feasible. That is the margin by which South Hobart beat Eagles in the opening round of matches.

Zebras squeezed into last year’s final because of other results, so it is far from impossible that they will do so again.

If they do, they may win, just as they did last season.

South Hobart had Sam Kruijver in goal in place of mark Moncur, whom was unavailable.

They lost strikert lost Ricky Eaves through injury after just 12 minutes.

He was replaced by Julius Ross, while new signing from Greece, Kostas Kanakaris, played a part in the match but was unable to make an impression.

Olympic relied on counter-attacks and one of these, in the 16th minute, almost paid off. Jonathon Ladic lost the ball in midfield and Akuel Guot skipped past goalkeeper Sam Kruijver on the right of the box, but the angle was impossible for a shot.

Guot played the ball back for Chris Tsakiris, but his powerful shot was blocked.

In the 25th minute, Julius Ross was given a through-ball, but he drove his low shot straight at goalkeeper Dmitri Nester.

Midway through the second half, Greg Downes did very well to beat Chris Tsakiris on the left of the box and cut the ball back for Shae Hickey, but his shot came back off the crossbar.

In stoppage time at the end of the match, South Hobart were again unlucky as Hugh Ludford fired against the crossbar from 25 metres.

Nester proved Olympic’s hero in the penalty shoot-out, beating out spot-kicks by Ludford and Downes.

Only Bart Beecroft and Ladic netted for South Hobart.

Olympic’s four spot-kicks were flawless, with Michael Bulis, Chris Tsakiris, Nester and Daniejel Djekanovic all scoring.
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  • South Hobart coach, Ken Morton, said:

“An entertaining game, and not much else.

“I thought we had good possession, good territorial advantage. They never threatened us. A couple of breakaways, that’s all.

“But, we have to turn our possession into goals, and we didn’t do that.

“But, as I’ve just said to the players, seven players, seven strikers - Ricky Eaves, Julius Ross not yet fit. Neither of them had a pre-season.

“You take Danny White, Billy Gasparinatos, Igor, Johnny Lo, Tommy Roach, all inside the last six months we’ve lost.

“But, as I just said to them, they’re good football players, they’re creating chances and they’ve got to turn them chances into goals to win matches.

“I was quite happy with the way we played, but we ran out of time. That’s the problem in these games, you know, to turn the screw a little bit.

“We live to fight again.”

  • Hobart Olympic coach, Farrell Shaw, said:

“It was a hard game. We did a lot of defending.

“I was very pleased with the way we defended.

“They had a couple of good shots at the end there which hit the crossbar from distance. So, they go in or they don’t go in from distance.

“I was very pleased with the defensive unit and the midfield. They worked their butts off.

“We’ve still got things to work on - passing, receiving the ball up front to try and create a few chances ourselves.

“I don’t think we created a real clear-cut chance, but that’s something to work on.
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South Hobart: Kruijver - Cooper, Ludford, M Brown, Scott - Heerey, Hickey, Upton, Beecroft, Ladic - Eaves [Substitutes: Ross, Pennicott, Di Falco, Downes]

Hobart Olympic: Nester - Lebski, P Tsakiris, Mohamad, Tsimiklis - C Tsakiris, Larzabal, A Hedge, Richardson - Bulis, Guot [Substitutes: Djekanovic, Kaproulias, Assenheimer, Kanakaris]

Booked: Lebski 20, Richardson 57

Ref: C Phillips

Att: 200

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a bit rich for Sth Hobart to bemoan the loss of White and Igor.

Anon888

Anonymous said...

yeah. How many games did they play between them? cant be many at all.

Anonymous said...

White , played two at the end of last season and Igor only played practise games in Victoria, so it is very rich of ken to use them in his excusse.Very poor for a man of Ken's pedigree.Not mentioned was the fact that the Olympic keeper went the right way every time and got his hands to four of the attempts saving two.Go Zebras !!!

Anonymous said...

Zebras did it!

Anon Killer

Anonymous said...

bit early to be using excuses kenny. has more depth than any other! downes and ross would start anywhere else.

- white played 2 games
- igor never played
- lo and roach left mid last season and were always moving north.
- ross lacked preseason. who's fault is that??
- eaves was a new signing as is!!

kenny needs to realise he has lost billy only from last year.

and maybe someone could perhaps remind him he has gained upton and heerey to his championship side....times sure are tough kenny!!

he also has a striker waiting on the bench, last time i checked dan brown made a southern squad as a forward.

cant wait for the real stuff to start!

Anonymous said...

South Seemed to get tired at the end. And they had some unused Players on The Bench. Bad move i Thought