Photos (Top to Bottom): Eagles' Steve Louden (left) gives chase to Olympia's Rory McCallum; Olympia's Robert Lebski (left) tries to elude Eagles' Alex Leszczynski; Eagles' Michael Anderson in possession in midfield; Olympia's Chris Kumpulainen (right) tries to beat Eagles' Mark Page down the flank; Olympia's Brady Cronk (left) and Eagles' Andrew Clark fight for possession; Eagles' striker Alex Leszczynski lunges at Olympia goalkeeper Dmitri Nester; Eagles' Adam McKeown beats Olympia's Adam Powell to a cross; Olympia's Adam Powell (left) competes with Eagles' Michael Anderson for a header; Eagles' Shane kent nods the ball past Olympia's Warren Wadawu; Olympia's Warren Wadawu has to remove his ear-rings under the watchful eye of referee Mr Patrick Galloway; Eagles' Ben Whitehall about to present Olympia's Jayden Wiggins with a problem; Eagles' Michael Anderson in a tussle with Olympia's Chris Kumpulainen; Eagles' Michael Anderson on the receiving end of a hefty challenge from Olympia captain Ben Phillips; Olympia's Adam Hedge (left) and Eagles' Steve Louden in an aerial duel [PlessPix]
Milan Lakoseljac Memorial Trophy Qualifying Round (South Hobart, Easter Monday, 5 April 2010)
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Olympia Warriors 0
New Town Eagles 3 (A Leszczynski 20, 90, J Vernon 76)
HT: 0-1 Att: 100 Ref: P Galloway
Olympia Warriors: Nester - Percy, Lebski, McCallum, Wiggins - Mason (Wadawu 59), Powell (M Hedge 81), Phillips, Kunwar (Kumpulainen 46) - Cronk, A Hedge [Substitute not used: Farrugia] [Coach: Chris Hey]
New Town Eagles: Pitchford - Page (Pope 85), Louden, Wass, Clark - Whitehall, Menzie (Kent 74), Anderson, Vernon (Hadfield 80) - Leszczynski, McKeown [Substitute not used: Minty] [Coach: George Krambousanos]
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Olympia Warriors looked out of their depth from the start of this cup tie and a deflected shot by Dipendra Kunwar in the opening minutes was as close as they came to threatening New Town Eagles in the first half.
Eagles’ Ben Whitehall provided a sign of things to come when he volleyed over the bar from the right wing in the 8th minute after Michael Anderson’s cross-field pass.
In the 16th minute, Whitehall’s excellent shot forced Dmitri Nester to make a fine save.
Four minutes later, Olympia failed to deal with a corner and Alex Leszczynski fired Eagles ahead.
Adam McKeown shot narrowly wide in the 21st minute as Eagles mounted attack after attack and threatened to increase their lead.
In the three minutes before the interval, Olympia somehow survived a tremendous assault by Eagles, but they had the woodwork to thank more than their defenders.
Whitehall had a shot deflected against an upright in the 42nd minute, while seconds later, Mark Page thumped a shot against the same post and Jamie Vernon somehow lifted the rebound harmlessly over the bar.
Eagles weren’t done yet, however, and a minute before the half-time whistle, McKeown’s goal-bound shot was turned onto the crossbar by a desperate Nester.
The Warriors must have relished the interval as it provided a much-needed respite from a battle they were clearly losing.
Nester again came to his side’s rescue midway through the second half when he turned Leszczynski’s shot over the bar.
Olympia introduced their Zimbabwe import, Warren Wadawu, in the 59th minute in place of Lee Mason, but his first bit of action came when the referee, Mr Patrick Galloway, stopped play and asked Wadawu to remove his ear-rings.
Mr Galloway’s attention had been drawn to this flouting of the rules by a woman, of course, assistant referee Hanna Manuela, who must be conversant with such things.
Olympia were unlucky not to equalise in the 70th minute when Brady Cronk broke through and landed a shot on top of the Eagles’ crossbar.
But, six minutes later, Eagles asserted their dominance when a poor clearance by Nester was won by Eagles in midfield and Vernon raced through the middle to make it 2-0.
The third goal came in the final minute when Jayden Wiggins lost possession as he tried to dribble out of defence and up-field. Whitehall dispossessed the full-back and cut the ball across the face of goal from the right for Leszczynski to rifle home.
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· Olympia Warriors assistant coach, Dallas Joiner, said:
“A game is a game and, yeah, it was disappointing today.
“But, the club has put long-term plans in place and with the development of the young guys.
“As a club, we’ve probably got more 16-year-olds playing senior soccer at this stage, and younger guys, than any other team, and to think that we’re going to be top of the league, top of the table, this year or next year, is, that’s just not going to happen.
“We’re more about the longer term. When Chris and I were asked to come to the club, we had a look at all the other teams that brought their youth through, we’re not in the same situation as that.
“We’ve got a lot of 16-year-olds. We haven’t got many 19 and 20-year-olds which are coming through, which South Hobart have and this is the path we’ve got to do.
“We’ve got to throw these guys in at the deep end and keep on developing them.
“The team’s performance was poor today.
“White Eagles were clearly the better team”
· New Town Eagles coach, George Krambousanos, said:
“The game itself was a little bit scrappy.
“Let’s be honest. We should have won by about seven or eight one.
“They hit one post and we hit about five and made so many chances.
“We mightn’t play pretty football, but in terms of attacking football, we’re one of the most attacking sides in Hobart.
“We might be a little bit orthodox, but at the end of the day, we’ve scored 13 goals out of five games and that tells a story.
“The turning point for us was against Taroona and if we’d failed today it would have been a waste of time and energy.
“The boys celebrated pretty heavily on Saturday and we didn’t have a recovery period or preparation for this game, apart from coming here about an hour and a half early to do a bit of ball work. That was the only preparation we had for this game.
“I can’t say too much about Olympia Warriors. They had a couple of players missing, so let’s hope Chris and his players can get things together and I wish them all the best for the year.
38 comments:
Good to see the subtle art of sexist commentary isn't dead.
Walter, thank god we have you still covering games. Just looked on Julius' site and could have sworn it was a shrine to South Hobart. Even the way he writes the reports are biased heavily to South. Was at the South Olympia game andcant even remember the souht keeper's supposed great work to get to Dipendra's curling shot. The highlight of the match for me was the warriors keeper making back to back saves from six yards out to deny what should have been a certain goal, but there was no mention of that in the report. No wonder no one is bothering with his website.
Anonymous (8am), get off your 'political correctness' bandwagon and take the comment as subtle humour. I'm sure that's how it was intended.
Seems like Eagles have found their form,were impressive in both games over easter weekend. Going from Mondays line up seems Krambo has made some good choices in regards to his line up. Nathan Pitchford showing he is almost back to his best, Good finishes by both Leszczynski and Vernon. Good to see Vernon back in the line-up and showed why i believe with his work rate down the wing, excellent balls into the middle and setting up secong eagles goal, unlucky not to have a second goal. This is the same for Ben whitehall, showed speed down the wing and unselfish in setting up the other eagles goal. Defence strong for eagles, although hear there is an injury worry for Page??.
with the amount of chances that south had and the amount of saves the olympia keeper had to make, julius should be forgiven, you cant remember everything
Eagles with 6 goals in two games, hopefully have now found form and can keep this up with some tougher games to come. Was at teh game monday, but not saturday but agree with anonymous (9:50) in the decisions made by George in terms of line-up. Eagles were fit it the midfield, quick and strong down the wing, with the wingers creating all 3 goals for eagles, with Vernon scoring one, and also strong in defence. Good team goals. Impressed by Whitehall, Pitchford, Menzie and Vernon. From what i could see Olympia Warriors were missing a few players, and this was unfortunate but still believe Eagles were on top the whole game. Should be interesting if they can maintain this form, they will challenge some of the stronger teams.
2 solid all round performances from Eagles this weekend. Maybe they have finally got their mojo. Just a side note, I dont know if its just me but has anyone else noticed the amount of handballs that the match officials have blown the whistle for in the past few weeks? Its good to see the game flowing even though some have been pretty obvious albeit unintentional...Just my observation anyway.
Eagles did look good. not exactly joga bonito but very effective with the big lads in. Olympia must improve with Grillas, Meredith, Fletcher, Richardson and Hey to come in.
Hi anon (9:23am).
I usually don't get involved in blog discussions but I believe that I have a right to defend your comments.
1. I completely disagree with your statement about South Hobart bias. I was of course at that match and South Hobart completely dominated the match. They had far superior possession and chances. That is not a bias comment, but the fact of the matter.
To quote Chris Hey after the match "They [South] dominated the play, but we always knew that was going to be the case" - it appears the Olympia coach was in agreement post match.
2. You appear to be exaggerating what was written.
"Great work" by Sam Kruijver was actually written:
"the keeper read the shot well and moved across to hold the ball safely". Nowhere have I described in that sentence that the keeper's work was 'great'.
3. If the highlight of the match was Nester making two saves back to back from six yards out, doesn't this confirm that Olympia were on the back foot?
Apologies for not including this incident, but I also omitted at least 5-6 other chances (South Hobart chances) that were worthy of mention as to prevent a repetitive and boring match report.
4. As the soccer writer for the Mercury, there is no ‘requirement’ for me to write match reports to a blog. I do it for people in the soccer community and I have had many requests to maintain the blog site, despite my very limited spare time.
As many of you would notice, my reports are often delayed in comparison to Walter's. I'll explain why:
a. After attending a match, I immediately rush home to write my report for the Mercury. After 1-1/2 hours (sometimes longer depending on the availability of coaches at other matches for comment) I have completed my report and quite frankly am usually pretty tired and hungry. I give myself a break from the day's duties and often I have a social engagement most evening so I have no time to then write another report for the blog.
b. I am also currently completing a Masters in Journalism at UTas so that takes a chunk of my weekends to.
c. I am also employed as the editor of the UTas student magazine, Togatus, which also requires a lot of my spare time.
d. People have asked ‘why don’t you upload your Mercury reports to the blog?.
I do not do this as it is a copyright infringement.
e. Another reason for the delay on my articles going up to the website is the fact that I have to write stories throughout the week for the Mercury.
E.g. I spent most of the night writing a profile for the Mercury on Olympia’s Ben Phillips.
f. So that's why, anon (9.23), "no one is bothering with [my] website".
One last point I’d like to make is that last night both Walter and I contacted each other to exchange results (including goal scorers) of all the fixtures that took place in the Statewide Cup. I helped Walter fill in a number of goal scorers and confirmed results with him (e.g. he had Lions had won the penalty shoot-out 4-2 when in fact it was 3-2) and he also confirmed the scorers in other matches. So I have contributed to this blog as well.
Wouldn't it be fantastic if you, anon (9.23) created a website in your spare time to increase the coverage of the game here instead of attempting to criticize those who do care and do try?
Cheers,
Julius Ross
*defend myself against your comments...
well said Julius. fair play to you son.
the Croatia v Juve games at KGV on Friday night should be entertaining. i have watched the knights reserves a couple of times and they have improved a lot, whereas Zebras reserves have been severely weakened due to the loss of bubble and bp, as well as some promising youngsters e.g Matt Hall. i tip Knights 4-1.
in the senior game, i feel that it will be a draw due to a few factors, the main one being eamonn kelly. so far, i've seen most of knights' senior games including the summer cup. eamonn's lack of ability in implementing appropriate tactics, let alone any at all will be Knights' downfall. his insistence of playing two attacking players in the middle of the park as well as constantly playing people out of position and not using their ability's to the teams benefit will kill them. Luckily, Knights have a lot of individual talent and some stirling defenders that constantly bail them out and hide eamonn's frailty's as a coach. From an outside perspective, something needs to change at Croatia. They have the depth now, get someone in who will utilise it and reward people who play well, instead of just playing people because of their names and what they have achieved previously.
tilford are doing a good job in their transistion, i believe freddy is doing a good job and is showing faith in his young talents. good luck to both teams!
Hi Walter and Julius,
Thanks to you both for your great coverage of all games. Anon you need to get a life - shine to south I don't think so. I for one look forward to reading both sites and a fair and honest coverage of the games. It's comments like yours that shut the discussion down. I wonder if Walter would have written much different to Julius regarding the game. I doubt it.
agree with anon (9.50) ....eagles looked very solid over the long weekend.... mckeown and leszcynski looking very dangerous up front and forming a good partnership....scoring 5 out of the six goals between them in the two games....mckeown is creative smart and gets in really good positions causing mayhem for the opposition and showed over the w/e why he is the leading goalscorer in the league so far...while leszcynski is very strong, can hold the ball up well and is a imposing figure up front.....good combination in my opinion..... Pitchy and whitehall showing some good form with menzie very solid in the middle...where has he been all this time??.... eagles defence looking abit better than in previous weeks aswell....tipping eagles to finish 4th this season
Keep up the good work Jules
Taroona looked awful on saturday and gifted eagles 3 in the first half.
Eagles didn't look likely in the second when taroona played slightly better.
Both teams will struggle this year but taroona's possession game looks better than eagles.
Julius, in defence of my comments earlier, if you are so unbiased towards South then why is it that you have managed to provide a full match report on all South games but few of the other teams games?
They may be on top of the ladder but to provide a fair editorial, shouldnt you be trying to cover a broad range of matches?
If you want to "prevent a repetitive and boring match report" write about the incidents that are the most exciting like the one I was referring to. Comments like "the keeper read the shot well and moved across to hold the ball safely" will quickly send people to sleep.
I have never questioned your contribution to the game, just pointed out your personal tendancy towards South. Hopefull moving forward you will cover more of the other teams.
anon (3.17)....are u joking.....a freekick put top left from 22 yards out is no gift nor a great volley.....eagles were all over them....in the second half taroona never looked like scoring and the only reason they did was due to the penalty and on yesterday's game olympic were lucky it wasnt 6 nil at half time....eagles are a far better team than taroona
anon 3.24. manchester united, chelsea are both written more about than watford, or burnley. top team = top coverage. end of story.
Anon (3.24).
Thanks for your constructive criticism anon. I'll do my best to improve my reports just for you...
One reason - and an unintended reason - for the prevalence of South Hobart reports is that at the start of the season by a South Hobart member who is maintaining their website approached me and asked whether they could use my match reports to go on their website as well as take photos of the team for their website (I believe they contacted Walter to do the same).
I said to them that wouldn't be a problem, but a couple of times due to my lack of spare time (as mentioned in my previous post) I was often slow in putting up my reports.
The member of South Hobart actually rang me a couple of times and queried me as to where the reports were and so that acted as a stimulant for me to sit down and write the reports.
But I think that the suggestion that the match reports are biased is incorrect. I have criticised South on a number of occasions, both on this blog and in the Mercury, as well as criticised their opposition and other teams in match reports.
I have praised South and I have praised their opposition.
I have no association with South currently, apart from the fact that I am a former player and that I am providing their website moderator with content (any other clubs who want match reports are welcome to contact me and i'll happily do the same).
In response to the question "shouldn't you be trying to cover a broad range of matches?" I have covered in full the following matches on my blog:
Olympia – New Town (Statewide Cup)
Olympia - South Hobart (Round 4 PL)
Hobart Zebras - Clarence United (Round 4 PL)
Glenorchy Knights - South Hobart (Round 3 PL)
South - Kingborough Lions (Round 2 PL)
Glenorchy Knights - New Town Eagles (Round 2 PL)
Hobart Zebras - South Hobart (Round 1)
Taroona - Olympia (Round 1 PL)
Kingborough Lions - New Town Eagles (Round 1 PL)
Glenorchy Knights - Clarence (Round 1 PL)
This means that I have covered the following teams:
South: 4 reports
Olympia: 3 reports
Knights: 3 reports
New Town Eagles: 3 reports
Hobart Zebras: 2 reports
Clarence: 2 reports
Kingborough Lions : 2 reports
Taroona: 1 reports
So i guess I have been overly biased towards South...apologies.
I guess I'll have to attend the Taroona game this Sunday so that I can even out the bias...Oh but they're playing South Hobart....
Cheers, Julius
Anon 3.24pm - in regards to your comments agaianst J.Ross:
I don't follow any particular team in Hobart but I also have a 'personal tendancy' to attend South Hobart games as they play great football!
Stop looking for things that aren't there son and appreciate the good work that is being done.
anonymus must be a very happy chappy.when he runs out of criticising fft the referees get get a serve,when that is done we belittle a few players and after that the reporters get a serve.all this ofcourse without offering an alternative.from now on we shall read anonymus match reports.thank you walter and julius but we no longer need you.anonimity is the obvious way to go.walter next time i am down south ill look you up and personally thank you for the great job you do.dont despair julius.
Why don't we leave Walter, Julius, FFT, the referees and Corey Smith alone. Lets focus on the important issues such as how crappola Olympia is.
Bakes ,the promising youngsters lost from the Zebras reserves are lost to their seniors. Isnt that the idea of developing players ?It will take time to develop others to replace the likes of Matt Hall and Adam Young in the reserves but that will happen .The Zebras have an adundance of youth at the moment. Look out in the next 3-10 years.
Hi Walter,
I for one love the fact that both you and Julius give great coverage on the local game. Three cheers I say!
As you know I report all your views and photos on our site and it would be a very dull place indeed without your opinion. In fact yours, Julius and Richards Rants commentaries are the highest hits we have on the South Website.
All of us just want to hear and read quality reporting about the local game. If anonymous 9.23 wants to give me his / her view of the game I am happy to put it up on the site.
Keep up the great work and many thanks from me.
Moreeta Pennicott
SHFC
of course anon, I was just saying their reserves are a lot weaker this year as a result. Good to see the young lads getting a gig in the 1's with freddy.
Keep up the great work Walter and Julius, the football community appreciates it.
I have read all the comments posted on thi post. For once, it contains no crap, and actually is constructive.
We have moved on from Uni and Beachs forfeits, fine them, and move on.
Walter, and Julius. You two are both shining light in Tasmania Football. Both do a wonderful job. The fact that you compare stats also shows great dedication to the game. Both keep up the great work.
Next. Zebra's depth. Yes, few have moved onto seniors, making the reserves obviously weaker. Thats what reserves are for though, to develop. Well done Zebra's on giving the kids a chance.
Game Friday night. Croatia Vs Juve. Big game, and should be an entertaining prospect between two attacking style teams. Croswell is back, and Croatia are obviously without Corey Smith, given his suspension. Thats the only pre gossip i am aware of. To back 'bakes', i do believe Kelly plays 2 attacking players in the middle far too often. Its hurt on many occasions. Other times however, he hasn't, and its worked in Croats favour. Play a defensive player in there Kelly! Not White, play the kid up front where he belongs. Look forward to this encounter.
This does actually prove my point Julius:
South: 4 reports
Olympia: 3 reports
Knights: 3 reports
New Town Eagles: 3 reports
Hobart Zebras: 2 reports
Clarence: 2 reports
Kingborough Lions : 2 reports
Taroona: 1 reports
If you take the fact that one of the Olympia reports and one of the Eagles reports are from Monday's cup game, it actually makes two a piece for the regaular season games. So really you have covered every South game and only a couple of all the other teams games (except for Knights which have played the Friday night games so have not clashed with the South game). Thanks for giving me the stats to point that out so clearly!!!!
If everyone else bothered to read my previous comments I have never questioned Julius' commitment. Personally I think its great to have two people covering games. But as the writer for the Mercury I think Walter had a much more unbiased approach to which games he covered and would hope that Julius would do the same.
i believe white has played up front the last two weeks, midfield has been great with fish and smithers but who will come in this week to the centre of the park? maybe james hopes as a ball winner or tony d?
Anon (9.55) - You are a disgrace, Pathetic that you are complaining about the number of games your team gets published on Julius's blog. obivously you're an attention seeking bratt who isnt getting enough attention and are jealous that south (who i cant stand by the way) are deservably getting the headlines.. try winning some games, play interesting soccer rather than make pathetic sniper comments on blogs..
WALTER PLESS OR JULIUS ROSS FOR CEO!! lol, if they spent half as much time in that role as they do on there blogs the league would be amazing.
Again I'll reiterate that I don't usually get involved in blog discussions because I see it as a pretty fruitless activity (most people never sway from their arguments - myself included) but to say that my Mercury reports are biased towards South Hobart is completely incorrect.
Yes, as I have revealed, on my BLOG SITE there are more match reports on South (one more than most other teams) which gives an 'impression' of bias. The other 'impression' may come from the fact that I am a former South Hobart player.
Also, just to clear up: there is nowhere in my Mercury job description that I am required to maintain a blog site - as I said earlier I am doing so to provide the soccer community with more soccer news.
My MERCURY reports have nothing to do with my blog site. It is foolish to associate the two.
I have covered a vast number of matches in the paper that I did not cover extensively on the blog.
My Mercury reports cover all matches in a fair, balanced and accurate manner. To accuse a journalist of being biased is to attack their credibility.
If you would like to attack my credibility please do so in person on the weekend. I will at all the matches, including South Hobart's visit to Taroona which is the only match on Sunday.
P.S. to those who do enjoy my Mercury reports (and support the development of Tas soccer) there is some great news for TIS player Jeremy Walker in tomorrow's paper.
Have a great weekend all.
Cheers,
Julius
Walter and Julius , I dont think either of you need to defend yourselves , to anyone . Walters commitment to the game is without question , while Julius is only getting started. As Julius has pointed out on many occasions he does it for the love of the game ( and some coin from the local rag lol ). So credit where it is due , to both keep up the good work. I for one love it !
Congrats Jeremy!
Irrespective of Julius' attraction to South Hobart. The Mercury should be ashamed there is not more coverage of Div 1 mens, premier league womens and even youth games as soccer attracts more registrations than any other sport in the state. If Julius can't be everywhere, employ more writers!
Walter, am truly disappointed at your, hopefully unintended, remarks regarding one of our very best assistant referees.
i would be the first person to accept that we can improve our referees and assistants. But i also recognise when they apply the laws as they are intended correctly.
Blame the player/s who often try to flaunt the laws about the wearing of jewellery, not the referees who correctly do their jobs, irrespective of their sex.
we should be congratulating and encouraging the likes of Hanna, not taking cheap shots at her.
why is it that there are so many faceless, 'Anonymous' bloggers?
does one have to hide one's identity so that he or she can have a free go at another person?
instead of criticing Julius, why don't you criticise the Mercury and its editors for the pitiful exposure they give to our game?
we do not need the opposing football codes to have a go at our football, we do a fine job on our own, don't we?
you may want to ask Walter, how often in his many years writing for the mercury, were his original reports published accurately.
Unless you nameless people can do a better job that is!
Jean-Pierre, obviously I didn't express myself well. Hanna is the last person I would criticize or offend. It was meant to be a mere statement of fact and not judgmental in any way. She did her job, which was to point out an infringement to the referee. I'm sorry if my comments were not clear or if they have been misinterpreted.
Agreed Walter, I think she's a great referee/assistant compared to some of the others.
Although whoever was the assistant referee on the bench side of the field actually should've checked for jewelerry prior to the player coming onto the field in the first place...
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