First Team:
Sunshine Coast Fire 1 v Olympic 2
Olympic FC held off a fast-finishing Sunshine Coast Fire to win their sixth straight NPL Queensland match, prevailing 2-1 at Goodwin Park on Sunday.
Goals from Rhys Meredith and Danny Byrne either side of the break put the hosts 2-0 ahead before Futa Nakamura pulled one back, but Olympic closed out the contest to safeguard second on the ladder.
The hosts threatened inside the opening minutes, with a series of shots blocked inside the Fire penalty area, however soon Olympic made the breakthrough.
A flowing team move in the 10th minute saw Reuben Way link up with the fast overlapping Kazuya Ito, who struck an inch-perfect pass across the face of goal for Meredith to tuck home at the far post.
The goal was Meredith’s fourth in five matches since joining the Yeronga-based club, and his fellow attacker Way almost doubled the advantage four minutes later but for a brave Chiharu Kosuge block.
Sunshine Coast twice went close to reducing the deficit before the break with both efforts from captain Paul Arnison, who first drove a rushed clearance just wide of the upright before then planting a free-kick on to Brandon Cuminao’s crossbar.
Despite those scares it didn’t take long for the home skipper Byrne to double the lead after the restart, powerfully finishing past Fire keeper Sam Nickolls after a cross from the left.
Fire hit back in the 63rd minute when Nakamura found space inside the penalty area to shoot from a tight angle, deflecting off an Olympic defender and in to halve the the host’s lead.
The end-to-end action almost brought about another goal in the aftermath as Ito dribbled at speed through the middle before feeding Smits on the right.
The striker forced a good low save out of Nickolls, but Brock Messenger still needed to be alert to clear the loose ball ahead of the lurking Byrne.
Fire’s best chance to salvage an equaliser fell to Reyze Kelly in the 76th minute, who did everything right at the back post to rise high and nod Jordan Miller’s cross toward the bottom corner, only for Mark Fisk to clear off the line.
The defender’s intervention proved decisive as his side saw out the 2-1 win without giving up another clear chance.
The three points sees Olympic sits comfortably in second and has now won seven straight in all competitions ahead of Saturday’s Canale Travel Cup Final against Brisbane Strikers at Carmichael Park in Wynnum.
Fire remain a mathematical chance of qualifying for the NPL Queensland Finals Series but have their work cut out after dropping to eighth are seven points behind fourth-placed Moreton Bay United with three matches remaining.
Olympic FC 2 (Rhys MEREDITH 10′ Danny BYRNE 60′)
Sunshine Coast Fire 1 (Futa NAKAMURA 63′)
Under 18 Boys:
Sunshine Coast Fire 1 v Olympic 5
The Fire got off to the best possible start with Matt Kennedy creating an opportunity for Jacob Fulluck to take the lead in the first minute of the game.
Fire continued to play good football but soon conceded two quick goals against the run of play.
Fire should have done better defensively, however lead by an impressive Luke Devitt, the team continued to play the better football.
A Jordy Lloyd shot was saved at point-blank range and Fire went into the half-time break trailing 2-1.
Coach Paul Arnison was upbeat during the half-time talk and told his players we could win this game if we scored the next goal.
Minutes into the second-half a Matt Carrick free-kick hit the bar. Just moments later Olympic scored on the counter-attack to kill off the game and went on to score a 4th and 5th goal to put the game beyond doubt.
“Luke Devitt was excellent from start to finish, and the score line did not reflect the game…or the good football and effort displayed by the Fire team,” said Coach Paul Arnison
Man of the Match: Luke Devitt
Under 16 Boys:
Sunshine Coast Fire 3 v Olympic 1
After a good win against the league leaders Brisbane Strikers last week, the Fire was bought back to reality this week with a weak performance against Olympic. Although lucky to record a 3 -1 victory, the Fire was given a wakeup call about the need to provide a consistent performance every week.
Olympic started the game very brightly, pressing the Fire and not allowing Fire time to settle on the ball. Olympic moved the ball well but Fire was rushing passes and not holding possession.
After 21 minutes, Olympic was rewarded, taking advantage of poor playing out from the back from Fire. The Olympic centre forward finished well after dispossessing the Fire defender.
Only 6 minutes later, the Fire were gifted a goal to get back into the game. Although the Fire were pressing the Olympic defence, an innocuous back pass was completely missed by the Olympic goal keeper leading to an unfortunate own goal.
Going into the half-time period, Fire was lucky to stay in the game with the tall Olympic striker causing problems with his height and quality delivery from the flanks. The half-time talk focused on holding possession and changing the shape of the game.
The Fire delivered a much improved second-half. Jordon Vieira and Thomas Swane began to deliver good passes and hold possession. In the 48th minute, Fire took the lead. After good lead-up play from Sean de Chastel and Alex Van Kampen, Van Kampen set up Ari Easton who beat his defender and finished calmly into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal.
Fire began to dominate possession and run the Olympic defenders around. Adam Edgar marked his return from overseas by almost scoring from his first touch after a powerful header from a Fire corner. However, Olympic showed good resolve and kept pressing looking for an equaliser. Tyler Morse and Jordon Vieira were resolute in turning away a number of Olympic attacks.
In the 79th minute, Fire put the result beyond doubt with a clinically taken goal by Cameron Nairn after good lead up by Van Kampen. Nairn slotted his chance into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal to leave the Fire with a flattering scoreline of 3-1.
The Fire will need to ensure that they have consistent performances as they lead into the last four games of the season as they press for the premiership title.
Man of the Match – Jordon Vieira – providing great transition between defence and attack.
Under 15 Girls
Sunshine Coast Fire 2 v Olympic 1
The Fire Under 15 Girls became League Champions after defeating second-placed Olympic at Annerley Oval on Sunday.
After a highly successful season (17 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses from 21 games so far) the Fire was 13 points ahead of Olympic. In securing the 2-1 win, the girls took the Premiership out of contention, going 16 points ahead with just four games (a total of 12 points) left in the season.
The game itself was a very close contest played on a dry, hard field in hot conditions. Olympic started well, playing strong, possession-based football and took the lead early with a goal in the 16th minute.
Fire played out the majority of the game a goal down as neither team was able to convert their chances.
Fire was finally able to equalise with only 10 minutes left on the clock. A great combination of passes from the back four through the mid-field ended in the ball being delivered to Michelle le Roux who managed to win the 1V1 with the defence to score in the 60th minute.
Five minutes later the ball was passed and run up the left wing for Jodie Nugent to beat her defender and pass into le Roux who finished with a powerful left -foot strike into the top left-hand corner of the net.
Well done girls on securing the Premiership and on a great season. A full story is to follow on the Sunshine Coast Fire website.
Under 15 Boys:
Sunshine Coast Fire 1 v Olympic 0
After a strong win against Brisbane City last week, the Fire looked to continue the good run of form against top-of-the-table Olympic at Goodwin Park.
After playing Olympic midweek on July 31 and getting a strong victory, this match was assured to be highly contested.
Both teams started with a high intensity but made lots of mistakes while settling into the game. Fire had the first chance when some good work down the right lead to Jack Bowen crossing to Kobe Fuller, who had his shot blocked for Jez Lofthouse to hit the rebound just off target.
Olympic was next with a chance after Fire keeper Josh Wall hesitated when dealing with a through-ball; fortunately Abe Reeves picked up the scraps to clear the danger. Another mistake lead to Olympic’s second chance when a poor back pass from Mason Bell let the Olympic Striker go 1v1 with Wall, who pulled off a brilliant save from close range.
Olympic then had a few more chances as the team gained more possession and forced Wall into more saves.
After dealing with Olympic’s attempts on goal, Fire then started creating chances. On the 34th minute the deadlock was broken when a barnstorming run from Bowen down the right side saw him run between his two markers and drive into the box to rocket his shot in from a very tight angle. The Fire continued to maintain the majority of possession and saw the half out with a 1-0 lead.
At half-time Coach Daniel Carew spoke about getting the midfield on the ball more and looking to get better rotation when the back four had the ball to create more opportunities to keep the ball.
“Our biggest problem was keeping possession – we turned over the ball too much. This was because our options were not good enough and then also when they were good we were not playing the pass,” he said.
Olympic came out in fierce fashion for the second-half and there were a few cards given out to both Olympic and Fire players as the ref looked to try settle the fierce challenges coming in.
It only took 10 minutes before the Fire had a chance to go 2-0 up. Some great interchanging passes from Kye Yamaoka-Chapman and Kobe Fuller lead to a great ball into Bowen who took his touch inside the box and just had the keeper to beat but blasted it wide.
At this stage the team talk about keeping possession and giving more options was not evident as both teams launched balls long and were unable to string good combinations.
Olympic had a great chance to draw level from a corner but the header was off target, and again Fire had a chance to extend the lead as Yamaoka-Chapman passed in to top goal scorer Fuller, who unfortunately poked his chance over the bar from close range.
Olympic then had more chances to equalise but Fire’s back four held strong as they defended five corners in the last 8 min to keep the 1-0 lead.
“Both teams were very poor in there build up play,” Carew said, “ and we seemed to not take on board what I had said at half time with lots of wayward passes and poor decisions.”
“This is something we will need to work on again; we have done a lot of on work playing out from the back and getting good options in midfield to open passing lanes for our front 3, however we just seemed very panicked today and put ourselves under a lot of unnecessary pressure.
“The team is not always going to be in sync, and I’m glad they showed good work ethic to grind out a result. It is a boost of confidence getting a result at Olympic and hopefully we can take that into our next match against Brisbane City and look to play the better brand of football that we are used to playing.”
Man of the Match: Mason Bell, he made one mistake but then settled and was a rock at the back.
Under 12 Boys:
Sunshine Coast Fire 2 v Olympic 1
The top-placed Fire Under 12 Boys took on second-placed Olympic at Goodwin Park on Sunday, managing to secure a 2-1 victory.
The Fire expected a tough game; Olympic is known for pressing well and playing an attractive brand of football, while Fire had a few players with illnesses. Nurofen, water and heaps of character from every player got Fire though the tight match.
Fire got off to a dream start as the first move of the match provided a well-crafted goal. The players had 5 or 6 triangle passes carefully bouncing the ball around through midfield, culminating in a great through-ball to release Colby Robinson. Robinson displayed his strong running with the ball skills before coolly slotting past the Olympic keeper into the corner to finish a quality team goal.
Olympic then settled and played good football for most of the first-half, scoring a deserved equaliser on 7 minutes after a nice move down the right and an intelligent ball into the box to an unmarked attacker. The striker had time, but struck the ball first time to wrong foot Fire keeper Ben Potter.
Olympic continued strongly whilst Fire worked hard and pressed. Fire’s chances were limited and the defence worked hard to keep Olympic at bay. The poor pitch did not help and most of the game was scrappy.
Fire showed a big improvement in the second-half. Both teams were even and battled hard against each other and the conditions. There were a few chances at each end but the Fire defence looked strong at important moments, with Potter and the back four playing well.
The match looked like ending in a draw, but on 42 minutes Byron Faleono was given a gift after a miss-kicked clearance from the Olympic keeper, and he finished well to bring the final score to 2-1 in Fire’s favour.
Coach Peter Higginson said the game was probably one of the toughest of the season, with tiredness and sickness playing a big part.
“Every player stood up and worked for each other. The character shown was just fantastic. And whilst the quality of football wasn’t what it normally was, it was probably was the most hard-working game of the season. To get a win was a bonus,” he said.
Man of the Match: Sam Fleming and Eze Hawkins- two good performances.
