West Torrens Birkalla v Adelaide Olympic
PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia

When: Satruday, 18 June.  Kick-off 3PM
Where: Jack Smith Park, Morphett Road, Novar Gardens.

Teams:

West Torrens Birkalla: 1. Julian Torresan (C) (GK), 2. Michael Mangafakis, 4. Tom Dittmar, 5. Scott Nagel, 6. Lawrence D'Arrigo, 7. Fumiya Suzuki, 9. Andrew Ciarla, 10. Paul Radice, 11. Ryan Yates, 12. Taro Kawamura, 13. William Plush, 20. Patrick Pietrosanti, 24. Ian Kamau, 28. Adam Le Cornu, 80. John-Paul Cirillo

Adelaide Olympic: Kosta Mantis, Fausto Erba, Michael Papacharalambous, Matthew Bouzalas, Gino De Lucia (GK), Ioannis Simosis, Thomas Brown, David Makridis, Jairus Wyten, Christos Pounendis, Christopher Mara, George Hristakopoulos, Haris Vuckic, Oliver Totani 

Form:

Birkalla: L W W                                                                                                                                                                

Round 12: Campbelltown City 1-0 West Torrens Birkalla
Round 13: West Torrens Birkalla 2-0 Adelaide United
Round 14: Adelaide Blue Eagles 0-2 West Torrens Birkalla

Adelaide Olympic: D L L

Round 12: Adelaide Olympic 3-3 West Adelaide
Round 13: Adelaide Olympic 4-5 Adelaide Blue Eagles
Round 14: Adelaide City 4-1 Adelaide Olympic

Preview:

Adelaide Olympic will look to return to the winner’s colomun when they travel to Jack Smith Park on Saturday to face third placed West Torrens Birkalla in Round 15 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia.

Olympic is in an interesting position where they are only a win outside of the league’s top six but also two points away from the drop.

Matthew Bouzalas is gunning for a win this week in hopes that Olympic can push on for a post-season berth.

“The league this season has been extremely tight.

“A win this week will see us back in final’s contention and hopefully get us out of this bad patch and the season back on track because we want to and believe we can play finals this year.”

Without a win in three weeks and coming off the back of a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of leaders Adelaide City, Bouzalas believes that Olympic will have their work cut out for them in breaking down the competition’s best defensive unit.

“Birkalla are a team that we rate highly and have to be very aware of the threat they have going forward.

“Also knowing that if we get a chance to score we must take that chance because, with such a solid defence, teams that have played them have found it hard to score.”

A win over Adelaide Blue Eagles last week gave Birkalla a four point advantage over fourth placed Adelaide Comets giving them a “breathing gap” according to left back John-Paul Cirillo, however, he said that they could not take their foot off the pedal this week.

“We don’t want to allow all the hard work from last week’s win to slip up this week against Olympic.

“We need to continue the way we are playing and continue to keep performing and doing the things we have been doing each game.”

Birkalla still sits two wins outside of the top two, but Cirillo said the Novar Gardens club were not focused on that.

“We are not phased by Campbelltown or City,” he said.

“We know if we continue to focus on ourselves and focus on picking up maximum points each week and putting that kind of pressure on we may hopefully find that a slip up between them may occur, but our focus is on ourselves.”

Last time the two sides met in round 5 Birkalla ran out 3-0 winners; this time around, both Bouzalas and Cirillo are expecting a different narrative.

“We are a different team,” said Bouzalas.

“We have prepared well for Saturday’s game and we also have a few players that were out for lengthy peroids that should be back this week.

“I’m sure the result will be different.”

Cirillo echoed similar sentiments.

“Yes, we expect every game to be different from last.

“We expect Olympic to be stronger than last time we met, they have picked up a few extra players which have bolstered their team.

“We have to be switched on and focused for the full ninenty.”

Bouzalas said a team effort would be required if their fortunes were to be turned around this weekend.

“We have to make sure we are tight and compact as a team and make sure we all work together.

“Eleven players shifting and working across the pitch will make it hard for them to play the free flowing game they like to play.

“I’m sure if the eleven players on the park put in the hard work, we will get the result we deserve.”

Written by Brendan Simpkins - @RealSimpkins