OAKLEIGH WIN NPL MEN’S VIC FINAL IN DOMINATING FASHION:
The Oakleigh Cannons have won the NPL Men’s Vic Final beating South Melbourne 5-0 at Olympic Village.
Oakleigh started off the game very strongly only taking them 48 seconds to score their first goal of the night through an Aryn Williams header from a Joe Knowles corner.
After the half-time break, Aryn Williams bagged a second goal from another Joe Knowles corner doubling their adavantage in the 47th minute of the game.
The Cannons continued to increase their lead with a Chris Lucas goal in the 77th minute of the game after a Joe Guest assist outside of the six-yard box.
During the celebrations, a frustrated Marco Jankovic saw red seeing him sent off a minute after the goal after booting the ball into Oakleigh Cannons captain Tyson Holmes.
The night for South Melbourne became worse after Oakleigh won a penalty due to a reckless challenge by Jake Marshall on Joe Knowles. This saw Joe Guest step up to the spot and slotted in calmly sending South Melbourne’s Lopez the wrong way extending the Cannon’s lead to four.
A fifth goal to Oakleigh in the 95th minute of the game was the cherry on top where substitute Wade Dekker headed the ball into the goal from a Joe Guest corner sealing the win in a rainy night in Heidelberg.
Aryn Williams was awarded the 2022 Jimmy Rooney Medal for being Player of the Match and the Oakleigh Cannons lifted the coveted NPL Men’s Vic Final trophy for the first time in their history.
SYDNEY UNITED BOOK THEIR TICKET INTO THE AUSTRALIA CUP FINAL:
Sydney have caused a major upset in the 2022 Australia Cup defeating Brisbane Roar in extra time to earn a place in the final.
But it was Brisbane who took the lead first with a Riku Danzaki goal in the 13th minute of the game from a Henry Hore assist inside the box.
However it wasn’t too long until Sydney United came back with an equaliser through a Matthew Bilic header from a cross from the right hand side from Taisei Kaneko.
Brisbane Roar could’ve taken the lead again just before the break after they were awarded a penalty due to a handball by the Sydney United defender.
Although, this wasn’t the case as Danijel Nizic’s penalty heroics from the Western United game continued where he saved a James O’Shea penaty keeping the scores level.
Henry Hore’s trickery inside the box won Brisbane another penalty after Taisei Kaneko tripped the Brisbane winger.
This time it was new recruit Charlie Austin to take the penalty where he powerfully striked it down the middle of the goal giving Brisbane the lead in the 63rd minute.
Eight minutes later, a deflected strike outside the box by Sydney United’s Patrick Antelmi saw the scores levelled once again giving Sydney United hope in this tight matchup.
In the 105th minute, Glen Trifiro’s volley into the bottom right corner was enough to send the NPL NSW club into the Australia Cup Final where they will face either Oakleigh or Marcathur FC.
NPL SA, WA AND QLD CHAMPIONS CROWNED:
In the NPL QLD, the Gold Coast Knights and Brisbane Olympic faced off in the final at Perry Park where the Kinghts were victorious winning the game 2-0.
Goals from Max Brown in the 24th minute and Pasquale De Vita in the 89th minute gave Gold Coast the win as well as their second title in their history.
In the RAA NPL SA, Adelaide City were named champions after defeating the Adelaide Comets 2-1 at ServiceFM Stadium.
This game saw an early red cad from Adelaide Comets defender Thomas Giannakopolous in the 23rd minute of the game after pulling the Adeliade City attacker to prevent a certain goal.
However, this only made it more difficult from the Comets as Adelaide City’s Nicholas Bucco and Aladin Irabona scored goals in the 25th and 41st minute respectively.
Although, Adelaide Comets’ Nathan Andijanto scored just before the break but it just wasn’t enough for the Adelaide Comets to get back into the game seeing Adelaide City as champions.
Floreat Athena were also crowned kings of Western Australia, defeating Perth RedStar 3-2.
