(Interstate Friendly, South Hobart Oval, Saturday, 19 January 2019)
Hobart Zebras 0
North Sunshine Eagles 1 (Simon Tolli 53’)
HT: 0-0 Att:
120 Ref: N Coad
Hobart Zebras: Sam Whatman
- Dwayne Walsh, Luke Bighin, Jan
Charuza, Riley Dillon - Daniel Lapolla, Jordan Muller, Jeyden
Hey -
Matthew Pace, Luke Huigsloot, Mathew Sanders (Subs:
Nathan Reid, Lachie Burt, Jonny Jones, Jimmy Ackerley, Nicky Edwards,
Ryan Backhouse, Adam McKeown)
North Sunshine Eagles: Zaim
Zeneli -
Yoshitatsu Itano, Darren Lewis, Besnik Kutleshi, Edison Ponari - Ilir
Pali, Shane Rexhepi, Simon Tolli, Adnan Jumeri
- Ardi Ahmeti, Kazuki Okada (Subs:
Nicholas Bilchardz, Robert Zadworny, Deillon Memishi, Durim Acura)
North Sunshine Eagles beat Hobart Zebras 1-0 in a pre-season friendly at South Hobart Oval on Saturday.
The
first half was goalless, but the Victorian visitors could have been three goals
in front by the time the half-time whistle went.
Kazuki
Okada missed a good chance early on, as did Ardi Ahmeti, as the visitors put
together some excellent passages of play utilising the width of the pitch and
interchanging positions seamlessly.
On
the half-hour, Yoshitatsu Itano, who was excellent in defence, ventured forward
but blasted his shot high over the goal.
Photo: Simon Tolli is congratulated by team-mates after scoring the decisive goal [PlessPix]
The
breakthrough came 8 minutes after the resumption when an attack down the right
by Itano cut open the Zebras defence.
The ball reached Simon Tolli and he netted from dead in front and 12
metres out past a static rearguard.
Zebras
did not drop their heads, however, and they created at least three excellent
chances of their own.
Matthew
Pace was thwarted by Eagles keeper Zaim Zeneli when presented with a one-on-one
situation in which a goal seemed inevitable.
Photo: Zebras' Jayden Hey (left) in a tangle with North Sunshine Eagles' Adnan Jumeri [PlessPix]
Zebras
substitute Lachie Burt had two great chances, but the youngster fired narrowly
wide on both occasions.
Eagles
had a fine chance late in the match to kill off the game when they beat the
off-side trap, but the attacker was bundled over and was unable to get in a
shot. There were, however, no penalty
appeals by the visitors and they seemed happy to settle for the 1-0 win.
Photo: Kazuki Okada gets past Zebras' Victorian defender Riley Dillon [PlessPix]
Hobart Zebras coach David Smith said:
“I was pretty happy, to be
honest. It was a really good workout to
play against a team that attacked fairly well and took the game to us.
“We tried to play a 4-4-2
diamond in the first half, but probably got exploited a little bit because we
just didn’t quite cover the width. Their
wingers hurt us a little bit and their fullbacks pushing on. But, we’re trying this system and seeing what
we can do and where we can go.
“I was pretty happy with the
majority of it, but we didn’t get enough support in and we weren’t confident enough
on the ball.
“Second half, I thought we
came out and played a little bit better, backed ourselves a little more and
went to a 4-3-3 and created a couple of chances. They had a few more chances but the result was
probably fair in the end.
“For us, there were lots of
little positives. I was really happy
with Jayden [Hey]. That was his first
game for the year. Sammy [Whatman] played
his first game in goal and I was pleased with that. I thought it was the best I’ve seen Jan
[Charuza] play since I’ve been here.
There were lots of little positives out of it.
“It’s great to play someone
else, a team not from here and who want to play football. They’re an adult
team. We’re a young team. They’re spending a fair amount of dollars
trying to win the league this year and this is their big year, so they’ve got
some good players and they’re men, and we don’t have the men to physically
match them.”
Photo: North Sunshine Eagles starting line-up against Hobart Zebras [PlessPix]
North Sunshine Eagles coach Arben Isai said:
“We were very happy. A lot of us got off the plane three or four
hours ago. It was a tough ask to come down here with not our entire squad.
“Especially the first half,
in my opinion, we were quite good. We
created a lot of chances. I said to the
boys I would have taken two, potentially three, in that first half. I was very happy,
“Second half, obviously,
Hobart, to their credit, made some changes and went more attacking and they
probably had the ascendancy, but we defended well.
“Zaim [Zeneli] had to save a couple
of one-on-one chances, which he saved quite well. You need that as it’s important to keepers.
“We’re very happy with
that. We ground out the last 15 minutes and
probably could have snared a couple of the counter ourselves. I’m very happy with the boys.”
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