Nathan Amanatidis is off the mark for Sydney FC after he netted in a 2-1 pre-season victory over NWS Spirit on Tuesday night, adding onto a first half Pat Wood strike.
Steve Corica named a rotated side for this encounter with Zac De Jesus starting at right back and Corey Hollman starting in the middle alongside Anthony Caceres. Joe Lolley and Robert Mak started along with Adrian Segecic and Pat Wood.
With Sydney FC dominating the territory and play in the opening stages, they were caught out by a long ball by Spirit who opened the scoring via Peter Kekeris.
It was almost an instant response from the Sky Blues, however Pat Wood was flagged for offside after a great delivery from Joel King was nodded home. He wasn’t to be denied for long though as moments later, Anthony Caceres slid a perfect ball to Joe Lolley who played through Wood to slot past the onrushing keeper to level the scores.
It was constant Sydney FC attack for the remainder of the half with Lolley missing a cut-back in front of goal, Adrian Segecic striking the up-right and Jack Rodwell forcing a good save from the Spirit keeper.
As per the normal during pre-season, substitutions were observed with Nathan Amanatidis and Jaiden Kucharski soon entered the field of play for Robert Mak and Joe Lolley in the 30th minute with Corey Hollman making way for Matty Scarcella in centre midfield at half time.
It didn’t take them too long to get involved as Pat Wood was released in behind again by Kucharski but under pressure from the defender and stretching for the ball he could only prod past the post as the ball trickled out for a goal kick.
Amanatidis looked hungry as he linked with Joel King on the left hand side and at one point cut inside on his right foot and smashed a shot off the far post which left the goalkeeper rooted to the spot, with the team in yellow able to clear the resulting ball.
As the game ticked into the 60th minute, a raft of changes were observed from both sides with Sydney FC finishing the game with the vast majority of players hailing from the Academy.
Gus Hoefsloot made his first team debut along with stand out performers from the NPL like Hayden Matthews, Dylan Rose, Aden Green and Mitch Glasson to name a few.
Hoefsloot was called into action from a header as the game neared it’s conclusion, however Nathan Amanatidis would get on the scoresheet in his second pre-season appearance to seal the victory. A ball was slipped in behind the Spirit backline and the speedy winger latched onto it and placed it beyond the on-rushing keeper to give the Sky Blues a 2-1 lead with minutes remaining.
That would be the last action of the 90 as another important hit-out for Sydney FC is concluded, with the Australia Cup match against the Central Coast Mariners nearing closer, on the 13th of August at WIN Stadium in Wollongong.
Sydney FC (Wood 20′, Amanatidis 88′) 2-1 NWS Spirit (Kekeris 8′)
Sydney FC
GURD, RODWELL, SEGECIC, LOLLEY, MAK, HOLLMAN, WOOD, KING, CACERES, DE JESUS, PAVLESIC
Subs: SCARCELLA, GLASSON, KUCHARSKI, HOEFSLOOT, AMANATIDIS, MATTHEWS, ROSE, MCLACHLAN, GREEN, ADAMSON
NWS Spirit
MARQUES, KOKUBO, ODAKURA, KAVANAGH, KEKERIS, WIGGAN, NICHOLAS, KATSETIS, MITWALI, LUM, LOBO
Subs: YOUNIS, GOMEZ, MADDEN, CRAUS, SHAW, CAHILL, NAJJAR, AWAZ
