Photo: Olympia's young warrior, Bilal Aitmaamar, gets a close look at the ball [PlessPix]
Olympia
Warriors drew 2-2 with traditional rivals Hobart Zebras in an NPL Tasmania
pre-season friendly at Warrior Park today.
The
Warriors took the lead in the opening minutes through Joffrey N’Koso.
Midway
through the half, Jack Ryan made it 2-0 with a penalty.
Lachie Burt
pulled a goal back for Zebras before the interval, while Matthew Pace almost
levelled when his bullet-like shot struck the underside of the crossbar, bounced
down and then back into play.
Photo: Matthew Pace shoots past Olympia keeper Darby Randall and hits the underside of the crossbar [PlessPix]
There were
claims it had crossed the line, but the assistant referee did not flag and the
referee waved play on.
Pace
equalised in the second half and Zebras could have won the game in the closing
minutes but the Olympia keeper saved in a one-on-one situation.
Zebras had
two new players on view. One was a
Japanese defender from the Gold Coast and the other an attacker from Box Hill.
Photo: Olympia's Sam Hills (left) is pressured by Zebras Japanese triallist, whose passing was excellent [PlessPix]
Neither has
finalised a move to Tasmania and their signing with Zebras is still up in the
air.
“It was
similar to last week,” said Olympia Warriors coach, Rob Clarke. “We’re talking about minutes and a lot of
changes.
“We changed
the system today just to play something different and that was good for us.
“I think it’s
like costs and benefits. When we had the
ball going forward, we had a spare man, but when we didn’t have the ball, they
had a spare man.
Photo: Olympia's Ewan Sloan (left) puts pressure on Zebras' scorer, Lachie Burt [PlessPix]
“I like the
two strikers. That’s what we’re going to
try and work on a bit this year. Whether
we play three at the back or four at the back or whatever we’re going to do, we’ll
try and work with two strikers.”
Photo: Olympia's Nick Mearns was back with a vengeance. Here he tackles Zebras' Jordan Muller. [PlessPix]
Hobart
Zebras coach, David Smith, said: “I was
quite happy in principle. We conceded a
couple of soft goals.
“The first
half is really the only half we really cared about. We go through the motions when we make
changes. The first half, I thought we
opened them up a little bit.
“We were
poor defensively, especially on the left-hand side. We just gave the ball away too much.
“To be
fair, I was more than happy with what we got.
We created some things in the front-third, which I was really happy
about.
Photo: Zebras keeper Nathan Reid clears as Olympia's Joffrey N'Koso steams in [PlessPix]
“We need to
be a little more careful when we force things, but that’ll come with practice.
“I’m
reasonably happy at this stage of the season going forward.
“Defensively,
we can play, but we dropped off too deep and we didn’t pick up the runner, or
we didn’t close down the runner.
“In
principle, a great little warm up for us at this stage of the year.”
Photo: South Hobart's Pajari Sculthorpe (left) controls the ball while under pressure from a Beachside opponent [PlessPix]
In another
pre-season friendly at KGV Park, South Hobart’s NPL side beat Southern
Championship outfit Beachside 5-0.
Kyle
Vincent netted twice, while Bradley Lakoseljac, Connor Schmidt and Alex Walter
each scored once.
Photo: South Hobart's Alex Walter (left) scored one goal in today's game and went close on several other occasions [PlessPix]
In today’s
Under-18s practice match at KGV Park, South Hobart downed Beachside 6-1.
Meanwhile,
Southern FC have pulled out of the Southern Championship competition, which
will now consist of eight teams.
Photo: Adam Gorrie (No.3) sends a free-kick just over the Beachside crossbar. Gorrie has returned to Tasmania after training with Altona in Victoria but he must make a decision about his future soon. [PlessPix]
Photo: Zebras' Chase Clarke (right) wins a header against Olympia's Brayton Allen [PlessPix]
