Image courtesy: Daniel Flis

Article courtesy: footballfedvic.com.au

Hume City has advanced to the Alanic Victorian Premier League Preliminary Final after defeating Heidelberg United at Epping Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The match will be remembered as a one of missed opportunities for Heidelberg United, and also Hume City’s goal keeper, Lupce Acevski’s brilliance, defending countless shots at goal from the opposition.

Hume City went into the match with a noticeably different line up to the previous week, missing was their injured top goal scorer, Richard Cardozo, and 2009 Gold Medallist Ross Thompson, and coming in was coach Andy Vlahos and Jake Nakic.

Both teams had their opportunities in the opening minutes of the first half, not content to sit back and settle into the game, they were attacking at every opportunity. Heidelberg started to press and as a result, mistakes were creeping into the Hume City defence.

All the play was deep in attack on the right side for Heidelberg. Hume couldn’t get it past midfield and at the 17 minute mark a frustrated Philip Riccobene appeared to elbow Osagie Ederaro, sending him to the ground for a number of minutes.

Despite Andy Vlahos and Turhan Sumbul’s best efforts, they couldn’t get the ball past the half way line, with Heidelberg’s Saso Alexovski, Luke Byles and Ederaro picking off any loose balls.

During the course of the first half there were a couple of questionable challenges from both teams, but they were made out to be much worse than they actually were thanks to the vocal crowd.

In the 26th minute Heidelberg United squandered there first of many chances at goal throughout the game. With time and space just outside the box, Yanni Galanos sprayed his shot wide, following another Saso Alexovski long range shot.

Not long after, and against the run of play, Hume City scored their first goal of the day. Andy Vlahos, who had been working tirelessly out on the left, spotted up Zoran Petrevski on the opposite side of the pitch. Petrevski slipped past a couple of Heidelberg defenders and put the ball through to Alfonso Opazo, who dodged a defender and dribbled the ball along the ground past the keeper into the bottom left corner to finish a fantastic piece of team play by Hume City.

Vlahos received a yellow card on the 34th minute following a questionable challenge on Ederaro. Ederaro was awarded a free but a frustrated Vlahos booted the ball away, earning himself the card.

Towards the end of the first half Hume City’s ‘keeper, Lupce Acevski, was called into action for the first of many times throughout the remainder of the match, making a great reflex save after the ball slipped over the back from a corner kick. George Slefendorfas was waiting and he turned and fired the ball low towards the right bottom corner, but Acevski was good enough to get down to it.

At the 42nd minute mark Hume City extended their lead, after Serdar Pir crossed the ball perfectly to Turhan Sumbul who was able to head it over the ‘keeper.

Going into half time both teams had had their chances, with Heidelberg United wasteful on many occasions.

After half time Heidelberg United came out fired up, determined to get on the scoreboard in this second half. The fantastic battle between Vlahos and Ederaro resumed, with Ederaro playing away from his familiar striker position. 

Yanni Galanos had Heidelberg’s first opportunity to score soon after half time, he had a shot from inside the box but Acevski pulled off a brilliant save to deny Heidelberg. This was quickly followed up by another fantastic save from the Hume ‘keeper. Alexovski headed the ball goal bound, but it was deflected back out by Acevski straight back at him, who smashed the rebound again at goal, but a fired up Acevski was too good, denying Heidelberg again.

Heidelberg had stepped their intensity up a gear, they had a couple of corners but luck wasn’t on their side and Hume remained on top.
Both teams used up all three substitutions towards the latter stages of the second half. Noticeably Andy Vlahos was replaced by Brendan Beni in the 70th minute; Vlahos has been managing injuries all year and has struggled to run out the full 90 minutes.

Heidelberg United’s dominance was evident, but there lack of scoreboard pressure was causing much frustration to not only their supporters and coaching staff, but also the players, who were starting to make silly mistakes. A wasteful Slefendorfas performed a brilliant run down the left, but his cross went straight into a wall of Hume defenders.

Heidelberg was throwing everything at Hume towards the end of the match, as they sensed their season slipping away. On the 86th minute Ederaro pulled the trigger from distance, but it was again denied by Acevski. The resulting corner saw the ball pop out to waiting Heidelberg players, but again Heidelberg’s shot at goal was stopped by the man of the match, Acevski.

Soon after, Les Doumbalis fired a rocket at the goal from 30 yards out, but it smashed into the crossbar, summing up Heidelberg's afternoon.
Despite their best efforts, Heidelberg United remained scoreless and the match finished 2-0 to Hume City.

Heidelberg United will be disappointed to end their season this way after having so many opportunities to score, but they will be delighted with their overall 2010 season, after bouncing back magnificently following a terrible start to the year.

Hume City will now play Richmond next Sunday afternoon in the Preliminary Final at Knights Stadium, with the winner advancing to the Alanic Victorian Premier League Grand Final at AAMI Park on Saturday 11th September.