Football NSW clubs Sydney Olympic, South Coast Wolves and Manly United have all booked their place in the inaugural Westfield FFA Cup.
Former NSL heavyweights Sydney Olympic will potentially face Hyundai A-League opposition in the Westfield FFA Cup 2014 Round of 32 after defeating Sydney United 58 FC in the Quarter Finals of the FNSW Waratah Cup on Wednesday night at Belmore Sports Ground.
Grant Lee and Mark Rudan both named strong sides for this one, with the added carrot of FFA Cup qualification guaranteed to the winner.
The first genuine chance was Olympic’s and it brought with it the first goal.
A break down the right by Brayden Sorge opened up the Reds defence and when he cut the ball back into the area, Go Shirai slotted the ball past the helpless Diego Barcena.
Olympic then made it 2-0.
Evan Kostopoulos burst free down the Olympic right, before cutting back to Harris Gaitatzis, who made no mistake with a superb finish into the top corner.
United 58 FC needed something extraordinary to haul them back into the match and it came courtesy of young striker, Alec Urosevski who netted a double, his second from the spot.
The action resumed very quickly in the second when Michael Gaitatzis put Olympic ahead again in the 53′ minute.
Dimitri Hatzimouratis had been on the field for all of two minutes, but that was all he needed to put the game away with a fantastic left footed arrow in the top corner to finish the game in the Blues favour 4-2.
Olympic coach Grant Lee said post-match: “I’m very happy. All four goals were quality, although we conceded two poor ones.
“The goals we conceded were naive, but we created five or six chances.
“You could see by the quality of team selections that we take this (the FFA Cup) seriously. We want to be part of something big like the FFA Cup.”
In the evening-s other two matches the South Coast Wolves booked a spot in the Westfield FFA Cup with a tense 5-2 win at Melita Stadium against Parramatta FC after the game ended 2-2 in normal time.
The Wolves had Jordan Murray to thank as he scored early on before the home side replied via Joshua Symons. An own goal was to be the Wolves- savior as they took a 2-1 lead only before Daniel Rezo netted a 90th minute equaliser sending the game into extra time.
It was one-way traffic from there however as a second goal from Murray and a double by Ricky Zucco, one being a tremendous bicycle kick all but sealed a spot in the FFA Cup for the former NSL Champions.
Cromer Park also played host to a tense match as Manly United took the plaudits in a 5-3 win over the Northern Tigers on penalties after the match ended 1-1.
The home side took the lead through Jimmy Oates before the visitors replied early in the second half via Aram Tayebi.
It was the left to the dreaded penalty shoot-out as Manly keeper Tonu Liiband proved to be the hero of the evening pulling of a great stop before club captain Graeme Forbes all but sealed a precious FFA Cup spot.
Thursday evening will see the final Waratah Cup Quarter-Final clash as Hakoah Sydney City will take on Blacktown City FC at Hensley Athletic Field at 7:30pm.
