Olympia Warriors will be seeking a third consecutive win in the NPL Tasmania Summer Cup series when they host South Hobart at Warrior Park today at 7.30pm.
This
will be South Hobart’s first game in the competition and they will face three
of their former players - Adam Gorrie, Loic Feral and Ben Hamlett -
after they signed for Olympia this summer.
Olympia’s
new American goalkeeper, Davis Smith, arrived from South Carolina yesterday,
but he will probably be jet-lagged and confined to the bench, if indeed he is
named in the squad.
South
Hobart also have two Americans in their squad
- goalkeeper Chase Webert and
centre-back Patrick Kibler.
It
would be interesting if both American keepers did play, but that is unlikely.
Photo: South Hobart's new American goalkeeper Chase Webert (right) being shown the ropes by South's veteran custodian Mark Moncur [PlessPix]
Olympia
welcome back midfielder Nick Mearns and fullback Adam Gorrie, who missed the
3-1 win over Kingborough Lions United last week.
Declan
and Callum Brown return this afternoon from overseas but both will be jet-lagged
after their flight from New York and will not be named in the Olympia squad,
which is, of course, coached by their father, Andrew Brown.
Photo: Olympia's Japanese import, defender Kazuma Kobayashi, is playing at the left of a three-man defence [PlessPix]
“I
think anyone can beat anyone and we’ve got a squad that is good enough,” Andrew
Brown said.
“We’ll
go out like in the last two games and try and play good football.
“It’s
early days but I think we’re good enough to beat them [South Hobart].
“It’s
a matter of how well we’re prepared. We’re
still on the up in our cycle but we’re probably three or four weeks away from
being at our best.”
South
Hobart lost to Devonport 2-1 in a pre-season friendly last weekend, which puts
a lie to the doomsayers who say the club is finished after losing as many as
nine players from last season’s squad through transfers or retirement.
Such
a narrow defeat against the reigning league champions is not to be sneered at.
Photo: South Hobart coach Ken Morton (right) with South's Championship coach Enzo Botte, who recently joined the club from Clarence Zebras [PlessPix]
South
Hobart are expected to play a 4-3-3 formation with Webert in goal and a
back-four of Tobias Herweynen, Reilly Morton, Patrick Kibler and Tae Evans.
The
midfield trio will be Kobe Kemp, Ewan Larby and Declan Foley, while the
attacking trio will be Sam Berezansky, Bradley Lakoseljac and Samson Juju.
Attacker
Kasper Hallam has a leg injury and will not play.
Photo: South Hobart will expect much from Bradley Lakoseljac (left) and Kobe Kemp [PlessPix]
Olympia
are playing a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 formation this season. Formations are flexible, of course, and can
change several times in a match depending on what is happening and what the opposing
team is doing.
“We’ll
field out strongest line-up,“ said South Hobart coach, Ken Morton.
“It’ll
be a stern test for us after Devonport, and we did play very well against
Devonport.
“We
matched them throughout the 90 minutes and they had a couple of good moments,
although we probably had the better of the game and that was a step forward for
us.
“I
think today’s game will be a massive test for us over 90 minutes, physically, and
whether we can handle that type of pressure from more experienced players. It’ll be a test of how we cope with that.
“I’d
like to think we can give a good account of ourselves.
“If
we were playing on paper, Olympia would win hands down. Luckily, the game’s not played on paper and
we can out and have a go and see where we sit.
“We’ll
go out and try and win the game and that might give us some indication of where
we are and if we need to bring any people in.”
Morton
said the two American players had settled in well, but he would not be drawn on
whether or not he was satisfied with their performances at this stage.
3 comments:
Great Write up Walter .
Hard to judge at this time of the year so until after a full round of the league it's all on the table. At the moment though Olympia won't beat Dport
Olympia will go out and ‘try to play good football’ .
I presume this means that they haven’t played good football yet . I hope it does because the games I have
seen they definitely did not do that
Then again not everyone’s interpretation of ‘good’ is the same ist it?
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