Rockdale City Suns and APIA Leichhardt Tigers played out an exciting 1-1 draw in Round 3 of NPL NSW at Ilinden Sports Centre. Rockdale hosted the current champions and it was courtesy of two late first half goals that will see both clubs walk away from this game with a point each.
The visitors started off this game strongly by pressing the Rockdale defence relentlessly, creating several goal scoring opportunities but the home side were resilient in defence and managed to hold out APIA’s efforts.
Rockdale took the lead late in the first half when one of their defenders won a tough challenge and played it through to Alec Urosevski who slotted it home on his left foot. The Rockdale attacker celebrated in front of the home fans as he put his side 1-0 up against the champions.
It was mere minutes after the first goal that we witnessed a second and it was the visitors this time as Adrian Ucchino curled a stunning free kick into the top corner to level up the scores.
1-1. Game on.
Bradasevic came up clutch for Rockdale as the keeper made a crucial save to keep Rockdale in the game by denying APIA a half time lead.
Possession went back and forth between the two sides in the second half as both sides looked for that elusive winner that would give them the three points.
APIA looked certain to take home the win when Franco Parisi was played through on goal, struck the ball and hit the post.
Ultimately it was the lack of composure from the home team that resulted in a stalemate as they squandered chance after chance in front of goal. Rockdale created a plethora of chances but were too hesitant when it came to the final third.
The experience of veteran keeper Ivan Necevski also proved to be handy as he pulled out a few late saves to keep his team in with a chance.
Rockdale fans had their hearts in their mouth when APIA’s Sean Symons found himself in a one on one situation with the keeper in the last minutes of the game as he curled the ball just wide of the post to end this game in a stalemate.
