Sydney FC youth, 1pm Saturday 27th April 2019 (away)
- philipkeegan
- May 1, 2019
- 3 min read
I would normally start off my report with a piece about the history of the team that we are playing, but as the team has no history to speak of I am finding it difficult to write anything about them. They play in blue shirts, have no tradition and are funded by the FFA and the A League. They have produced very little in the way of quality players over their short existence and have finished bottom and next to bottom of both seasons played in the NPL 1. Despite the funding they play out of Lambert Park, home of APIA as they have no home of their own.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for youth teams and I have nothing against the players of Sydney FC youth. I think youth teams do a great and important job. It’s Sydney FC as a (made up) club that I have a problem with – and the broken system that created them and tried to kill off clubs like Croatia!
This was to be a great football day. An early kick off in the bright sun of autumn and one of the few city games left in the calendar. I had been looking forward to the game all week. Then on Friday the club release a statement that it is to be played behind closed doors as the stand has been condemned. Firstly, the whole stand has not been closed, just most of it. The part near the gate is still open and was for the junior games that morning. The reason it was behind closed doors was the fact that they could not segregate the active support, according to the guy in a suit on the door. I told him that I just write a blog, there was only one of me and what was the trouble in me sitting on one of the benches on the hill? I even told him I worked for the club, but he wasn’t having any of it. What a joke - and they wonder why football in this country never gets anywhere? Anyway, there was no way I was going to miss the game so I watched it perched on top of a kiddies slide in the park behind the hill. I’m not kidding.
The game itself started off badly. I was still trying to get in when we fell behind right in front of me at the gate end. It looked like a rare error by Manos and the ball was tapped into an empty net. I then decided to go around the other side of the ground to find a good vantage point. As I did this I noticed a few old guys watching the game from the top of the slide in the park behind the goal. I joined them and watched Croatia take control of the game. We equalised 10 minutes later, Simonoski prodding home at the second attempt from a corner. It was all one way traffic now and we eventually took the lead just before half time and what a cracker it was. New Uruguayan import Sebastien Gallegeos picked up the ball way out, glided past two defenders and hit a beauty across the keeper, from just outside the box, which flew in. Manos in goal noticed me celebrating and gave me the thumbs up. The two guys then left and I wandered back to the gate to see if they would let me in for the second half. This didn’t happen so I went back to the park and took up the same spot. We then scored a third, Simonoski tapping in from close range to make it 5 goals in 5 days just after half time. With this goal I went around to the corner and found a hole in the fence that I could get through. I watched the game from this area but was spotted by security and made a hasty retreat, watching perched on the fence for the rest of the game. The third goal killed the game as a contest and it resembled a training session thereafter. The game finished 3-1 to Croatia and moved us to third on the ladder.
It was a routine win for the lads as we head up the ladder and onto the FFA Cup mid-week against Woonona Sharks. Sydney Croatia Ole Ole Ole
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