Hakoah, 5pm Sunday 29th July 2019 (Away)

The game against Hakoah at Hensley Athletic field was one that I had been looking forward to as it’s only a short bus ride from the city, added to the fact that I had to miss the Sydney FC game as they changed the kick off time, I was eager to get down and cheer on the boys (who are in somewhat of a slump at present). No win in 5 games in the league had meant that all of those below us were catching up as we headed towards the end of the season and made this a must win game. With Hakoah already relegated I was hoping that we could get a win on the board that would go a long way to cementing our place in this season’s end of season finals.

I hopped on the bus to Railway Square and changed to a bus that took me all the way to Westfield Eastgardens. From there it was a short walk across the road to Hensley. As the name suggests, it is more of an athletics ground than a football ground. There is one small stand with some benches either side, then the rest of the ground is surrounded by roads giving it a strange open feeling more akin to a public park. The track around the pitch does not help this, neither does the fact that only one side of the ground is accessible to spectators. The benches for the Coaches is also on the other side of the pitch, which again adds to the remote feeling of the place. That being said the view from the stand (or below it) was not too bad and the SUS were on hand to add some atmosphere to a desolate Sunday arvo. The programme was also the best quality of the season - full colour and superb paper (I know, little things!). The crowd was not large, hardly surprising given that Hakoah are already down and had little to play for. As the sun gave way to dusk, the teams walked out for the game. Simonoski was ruled out ill and Uskok was suspended so it was not a full team that Miro sent out, but one with enough quality to get a result. With a massive game against Budapest in the Cup Wednesday it would be a good rest for both of them.

Croatia got straight into Hakoah from the off and cut the home side defence apart twice in the opening 15 minutes. Unfortunately those chances were not taken and it looked as if the poor run may continue. We have been creating enough chances to win games, but have not had the luck in front of goal in the last month or so. But with Trifiro back in the starting line up we looked dangerous and always looked the more likely to score despite a few scares from the home side. Indeed the Croatia defence was sliced open but the chance went begging much to the relief of the sizable away following in the crowd. With around 10 minutes left of the first half Trifiro cut the defence wide open again and Antelmi made no mistake when through with a fine finish, pointing straight at the SUS to his left celebrating. At 1-0 Croatia were then almost caught on the break and it took a fine stop by Manos to keep the game at 1-0 right on half time.

$4 coffee at the canteen!

The second half started shakily for Croatia as Hakoah almost levelled it early doors and another fine Manos stop kept us in front. That appeared to knock the stuffing out of Hakoah, who were then outplayed for the next 20 minutes. Liam Rose was denied by a fine save from Noval in the home goal but just a minute or so later the game was put to bed as a contest in the 64th minute by Mcdonald who found space and curled a fine finish past Noval to seal the points. Michael Ruhs was brought on for McDonald and his shot led to another substitute - Maia on for Trifiro, lashing in the third after his shot was only parried. At 3-0 the game was over, but the result was soured at the end when Fragogiannis was sent off for a second yellow with the game won. It was a fine result against a team with a good defence. Before the game more than half the comp had a worse defensive record than Hakoah. Croatia now only require one win from the final two games to make the finals, at this point likely to be against Marconi first week. It’s the big one next, Budapest in the FFA Cup at Rockdale, get down and support the lads into hopefully the last 16. Sydney Croatia Ole Ole Ole….