A goal to Khanh Hoon Cho and a penalty to Patrick Savor cancelled Olympic’s lone goal from Dimi Petratos to secure the victory for the home side as well as a second for interim coach Nick Porreca after winning his first against St George City in Wednesday’s FFA Cup Round 4 fixture.
Both teams looked competitive in the opening stages of the match, with opportunities culminating at each end of the field.
Olympic suffered a big blow in the 21st minute, when Hagi Gligor was forced off the field with an injury.
The visitors took another hit just minutes later as their star striker Alex Sanchez was also forced to hit the sheds with an injury.
Things went from bad to worse for the boys in blue as Nikola Kuleski was ejected from the game, after receiving his second yellow of the night for his verbal exchange with referee Craig Fisher in the 45th minute.
The first half departures weren’t enough to keep Olympic down, with the visitors coming out firing after the break with only 10 men.
Petratos was the star for Olympic in the opening moments of the second stanza, playing off a stellar ball from Tom Whiteside to score the opener.
He weaved his way through the field to tap the ball out of reach of a diving Bradasevic and send a shot into the back of the net in the 49th minute.
The equalizer came in the 65th minute for the Suns, with Cho making a speedy run in behind Olympic to send the ball out of Henderson’s reach and into the net.
Rockdale continued to mount pressure on the visitors late in the second half and took the lead in the 83rd minute after being awarded a penalty from a challenge between Olympic defender Mitchell Stamatellis and Rockdale attacker Alec Urosevski.
Patrick Savor stepped up to the spot and sent his penalty shot past Henderson to take the home side to two and secure all three points from the game.
Olympic coach Abbas Saad was disappointed to lose three crucial players during the game but was pleased with his side’s effort to stay competitive despite being a man down.
“They tried their hearts out with 10 players,” he said. “We still had chances to score. We’ve just got to re-group and other players will get their opportunity to come into the team and join the form.”
Eclipsed by suns
ROCKDALE City Suns secured their second win of the season over a 10-man Sydney Olympic at Illinden Sports Centre on Sunday evening, a week after the club parted company with coach Paul Reid.
