South Melbourne Hellas, Victorian Premier League Options

[MiRmInGi]

From souths official site.

Saturday night sees South Melbourne travel to Parramatta Stadium for the opening game of the 2003/2004 National Soccer League against the Nick Theodorakopoulos’ coached Parramatta Power.

It’s no secret that in a period of financial gloom for the local game the Power have defied the norm and assembled one of the most if not the most powerful playing rosters in Australia.

The off-season has seen names such as Rech, Milicic, Dodd, Colosimo, Gumprecht, Durante, Pantelis and Bolton join the Power squad in what appears to be a last ditch attempt from the NSW-based club to secure a backer to maintain its future longevity.

South Melbourne have also added greatly to their playing roster, in Max Lohy and Michael Panopoulos South has managed to obtain two players with European experience, coupled with the return of Michael Curcija to lead the line and the confirmation that Con Boutsianis has committed himself for the next three seasons, it’d be safe to assume that Saturday’s encounter looms as a potentially high-scoring affair.

Retained from last season’s squad Parramatta top scorer John Buonavoglia and young Socceroo Ahmed Elrich add yet another dimension to the Power’s attacking presence. Coach Munro will no doubt be favouring a tentative approach early on, one looking to stifle the attacking ability of the Power and hence allow South to try and achieve some early confidence in the middle of the park. Crucial to this strategy will be the combination of Michael Panopoulos and Massimo Murdocca; both players have shown a cohesive understanding throughout the preseason, with Murdocca in particular looking to have emerged a better player from his off-season trials in Portugal.

Without a doubt the somewhat makeshift South Melbourne defence will come under close scrutiny, in Durakovic and Kovacevic South have two of the leagues’ most solid and confronting centre backs, however, new acquisitions Steve Laurie and Simon Storey remain largely unproven at NSL level. Levent Osman brings some much needed experience to the backline, however, the test of Rech, Milicic and Buonavoglia should go a long way in determining where the South Melbourne defence lies.


Game: Parramatta Power vs South Melbourne
Date: Saturday 20 September 2003
Venue: Parramatta Stadium
Kickoff: 6.30pm AET

HEAD TO HEAD (Overall):
Played: 8
Parramatta wins: 2
South Melbourne wins: 5
Draws: 1

HEAD TO HEAD (at Parramatta):
Played: 4
Parramatta wins: 2
South Melbourne wins: 2
Draws: 0

Last Encounter: Parramatta 4-1 home win - 1 March 2003

Position on ladder last season: 3rd V 7th


PARRAMATTA POWER SQUAD: C Bolton (gk), A Durante, A Ceccoli, S Colosimo, M Beauchamp, M Thompson, T Dodd, A Gumprecht, A Milicic, F Rech, L Pantelis, A Elrich, P Zorbas, J Buonavoglia, D Vukovic (gk)

IN:
OUT: K Salapasidis (foot - 4 weeks), P O'Grady (groin - 3 weeks), D Beltrame (shoulder - 10 weeks), V Ripepi (wrist - 4 weeks)





SOUTH MELBOURNE SQUAD: E Galekovic (gk), L Osman, S Storey, M Durakovic, M Murdocca, M Lohy, A Kovacevic, V Coveny, M Curcija, C Boutsianis, M Stergiopoulos, S Laurie, V Lia, M Panapoulos, M Theoklitos (gk)

IN:
OUT:

[MiRmInGi]

well it ended as a draw here is a match report from socceraustralia web site.

Parramatta Power first game hoodoo continued after South Melbourne held them to a 0-0 draw at Parramatta Stadium tonight. Power has now failed to win in the opening game of the season in all five seasons it has been in the National Soccer League.

A draw was fitting result and although Parramatta dominated for long periods of the match, South showed that they will be no pushover this season with a committed performance, especially in defence as they repelled wave after wave of Power attacks in the first half.

Although Parramatta dominated the stats for shots at goal, it was actually South that had the better of the opportunities in the match and always looked dangerous on the counter-attack, as Parramatta’s game slipped in the second half.

In just the second minute, a Power defensive error allowed Con Boutsianis to lay off to Vaughan Coveny on the edge of the box, and the New Zealander’s shot was just across the face of goal.

That was a big wake call for Parramatta who then proceeded to mount consistent attacks with precision passing. Simon Colosimo was the orchestrator for Parramatta, while Ahmad Elrich was causing problems on the right.

Colosimo was in everything and he twice went close in the 10th and 12th minutes. The first a deft chip, after twice winning the ball in tackles, went just over the bar and then a deflected shot that skimmed the top of the crossbar.

Parramatta’s movement and passing was causing the South defence a few nervous moments, but to their credit they scrambled well, with the Power unable to get any real good efforts on goal.

South was then forced to make a reshuffle when key defender Mehmet Durakovic went off with a hamstring injury, replaced by Sam Poutakidis, who was a solid performer at right fullback.

While Parramatta kept making all the play, they struggled at times with the final ball and then when they did get sight of goal generally blazed away and didn’t force a save from Eugene Galekovic in the South goal.

Right on half time, South should have taken the lead when Boutsianis was able to get clear in the Power penalty box, but his shot was blocked by the onrushing Clint Bolton and the Power keeper managed to grab the ball at the third attempt.

The game really opened up in the second half, with play going from end to other at a ferocious pace, but both sides defences remained solid although Coveny was proving a real handful until he was surprisingly replaced in the last ten minutes.

Despite the openness, shots at goal were hard to come by, but Colosimo again showed his class with a 30-metre shot that had Galekovic beaten, however the ball shaved the outside of the far post.

Bad news for Power coach Nick Theodorakopoulos as well with star striker Ante Milicic forced off with what appeared a groin injury.

South can take heart with its performance and fully deserved a point from the match and with several first choice players still to come in, they will definitely be a team to watch at the business end of the season.

While the pre-competition hype surrounding Parramatta didn’t really materialise tonight, they showed enough to demonstrate why they are considered favourites for this years title, especially with the classy Colosimo running the show.

[Amorgos]

COOL

[MiRmInGi]

From socceraustralia website.

Wollongong Wolves

A Crews (gk)
J Timpano
M Jurilj
A Hughes
M Hawrysiuk
S Lyons
N Arrarte
T Balabanel
S Young ©
J Majurovski
D Cummins
D Wells
B Blake
C Nwagazi
S Whalan (gk)

Players In:
Jacob Timpano

Players Out (from last week):
B Dragas (hamstring - 1 week)

Long term Injured/Suspended:
Vlado Zoric (knee - 2 weeks)

South Melbourne

E Galekovic (gk)
L Osman
M Durakovic
M Panopoulos
A Kovacevic
V Coveny ©
C Boutsianis
M Stergiopoulos
V Lia
M Lohy
M Murdocca
M Curcija
S Poutakidis
S Tunbridge
M Theoklitos (gk)

Players In:
Michael Panopoulos (promoted)

Players Out (from last week):
S Storey (twisted knee (test))

Long term Injured/Suspended:
Paul Trimboli (hamstring - 2 weeks)
Dean Anastasiadis (foot - 3 weeks)

[MiRmInGi]

from theworldgame website

South Melbourne has recorded its first win of the NSL season, crushing the Wollongong Wolves 4-0 at WIN Stadium.

Captain Vaughan Coveny was the chief destroyer for the visitors, who only managed a draw from their other match of the season against Parramatta.

The Kiwi’s first strike on 16 minutes gave South a 1-0 advantage which it held until the break, and he struck again on 53 minutes to double the advantage.

Wolves, who lost their opening two games to Sydney United and Marconi, battled to create chances and when their guests went three-up through substitute Michael Curcija on 78 minutes, all hopes of a comeback were lost.

South coach Stuart Munro took the chance to rest Coveny and Max Lohy, and another sub Sam Poutakids, chipped in with the fourth deep in injury time.

Wollongong Wolves 0
South Melbourne 4 (Coveny 16,53 Curcija 78, Poutakids 92)
Crowd: 2005 at Win Stadium

[MiRmInGi]

this is great result for us our first victory of the season and by a big margin thease are games that we need to win.

[Amorgos]

Great result for Hellas! In the past they stumbul in Woolongong but they did very well yesterday, good to see

[MiRmInGi]

yeah i know just thankful they didnt do what htey usually do when traveling away and that is loose but to do it like that, this team is gonna do something special this year.

[MiRmInGi]

A very disapointing result here i carnt believe it that we lost and at home oh well doesnt matter michael panopoulos played a terrific game. crowd was about 5000 to 6000 not bad but could of been better.

Hellas 0 - 1 Brisbane.

[Amorgos]

Fuck re, how did they lose to these guys?

[MiRmInGi]

we played well in the first should of had at least 1 goal but in the second half we absolutely played crap middle was no where it was the shambles hellas really didnt need to show a perfomance like that and it was the first home game i hope it doesnt scar the people off cause we got a good crowd about 8000.

[liverkewell]

hey Guys,

Didnt get a chance to see the game for myself, but from what i heard and read it was one of their worst performances ever, i hope this is not true, i know what south are capable of doing, i hope we havent hit a hurdle this early on in the year!

people were saying that they could barely string a pass together!

Pete

[MiRmInGi]

Well i just back from the game there was a pretty poor crowd about 2000 or so the game wasnt too bad although south didnt play that well. South won 4-1 coveny scoring a hatrick and og from the goalkeeper the other who had a shocker of a game.

South can only be thankful that they took the three points today against the top team.

[Amorgos]

Good win for Hellas! what did Olympic do??

[MiRmInGi]

Olympic los 2-1 to marconi.

[Amorgos]

GAMOTO! Thanks MiRmInGi

[MiRmInGi]

0-0

We have not coped a goal while playing away which is great news compared to last year.

If we can keep this up we are more than capable of finishing in the top two bravo hellas.

[Guest_Inferno7_*]

Sth Melbourne Hellas beat Marconi 2-0 today whilst Sydney Olympic lost 0-2 at home to the Croatians Melbourne Knights.
Its going to be a long season for Olympic

[MiRmInGi]

yeah it is dont what happened there, but for south it was a great win tumbridge scored and coveny now that puts us on 11 points same as marconi.

This post has been edited by MiRmInGi: Nov 2 2003, 05:59 AM

[The Grappler]

what about parra beating perth 6-0