Louis Da Costa, Christos Gikas lead Darwin Olympic to upset win over Mindil Aces
A Darwin Olympic pair standing opposite ends of the pitch have led their side to their most important win of the season. Find out about the youngster who also impressed.
Soccer
Don't miss out on the headlines from Soccer. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Darwin Olympic has stormed into premiership contention after a 90th minute long-range shot from Louis Da Costa led his side to an upset 2-1 win over second-placed Mindil Aces on Friday night.
The standout Olympic player sparked celebrations when he nailed his shot from outside the box at Darwin Football Stadium to give his side their most important win of the season.
The special moment came after Jacques Matete had won the ball high up the ground to set up the long bomb.
“Louis just took a shot, I think he was about 30 yards out from goal and it just went into the top corner,” Olympic coach Louis Buntin said.
“So it was a great goal in the end, it was a stunner.”
Olympics' sixth victory of the season was also supported by goalkeeper Christos Gikas who pulled off some tip-top saves.
“Gikas kept us in the game, he pulled out some crucial saves for us,” Buntin said.
The win for Olympic takes them to fourth spot on the MPL ladder, knocking out University Azzurri after they went down 4-2 to Hellenic Athletic on Saturday night.
The triumph also marks a strong turnaround in form for Olympic who lost 4-1 to Azzurri last week and 3-1 to Aces last month on July 21.
In Friday’s encounter, it was Olympic who were the first to strike with Billy Kathopoulis finding the back of the net in the 40th minute before the Aces fought back to equalise in the 75th minute.
“It was a close call game, it was a gritty game but lucky we managed to win in the 90th minute when we got our second,” Buntin said.
“Glad we could come away with the win.”
Speaking about his side’s turnaround this season after being lower down the ladder, Buntin said it came down to connectivity.
“It’s the hard work we are putting in and they are slowly starting to gel,” he said.
“We had a lot of new lads come in this year, we had a lot of junior lads stepping up this year.
“They are slowly coming away learning week by week, coming away with wins and finding out how to win gritty games like they did on Friday night.”
Buntin also said he was impressed with the performances of skipper Samuel Kwana and youngster Isaac Voysey in the game.
“Again our captain Sammy Kwana, he was a standout for us in the backline,” he said.
“Isaac Voysey, being a 16-year-old, he dominated for us in the midfield for the majority of the game.”
Voysey, from the Brisbane Strikers youth academy in Queensland, made his debut for the Olympic as a 15-year-old earlier this season.
Casuarina will take on Darwin Hearts on Tuesday night to complete Round 15.
Colin Habgood hat-trick wins crucial game for Port Darwin in bottom of the table thriller
Colin Habgood bagged himself a hat-trick with the final kick of the game as Port Darwin distanced themselves from bottom-of-the-table Darwin Hearts in a 3-2 victory on Saturday afternoon.
Habgood, who now has five goals for the season, scored two penalties before nailing a late winner from a Matias Choque pass to hand his side a thrilling fourth win of the season.
Meanwhile the Hearts make their task of getting off the bottom of the table tougher with four points now splitting them and second-last Port Darwin.
It was a gritty encounter that could have gone either way but quality and experience prevailed from Port Darwin in the end.
Port Darwin were looking to press Hearts from the get-go and held a high defensive line.
This did however leave them exposed to some dangerous counter-attacks.
Hearts should have taken one of these opportunities early on as Dinash Devkota found himself through on goal in the sixth minute but couldn’t get enough power behind his shot to trouble the keeper.
Nevertheless, as the first half went on Port Darwin did manage to build some good momentum and started threatening the Hearts’ goal.
Habgood had his first big chance of the game when he hit the post from a corner with a looping header in the 35th minute.
Pressure continued to build around the Hearts’ goal but it looked as if they might make it to halftime unscathed.
However, deep into extra time Sunil Shrestha brought down a skilful Sebastian Mazzaresi in the box for a penalty to Port Darwin (45+2 minutes).
Colin Habgood stepped up and delivered a cool finish into the bottom left-hand corner to give Port Darwin the lead at the break.
Hearts’ coach Dipesh Kadel clearly had an impactful halftime break after he instructed his lads “don’t stay back and press up”.
That’s exactly what they did and a sluggish Port Darwin who were still asleep from the break struggled to deal with this sudden change in pace.
Two goals from Darwin Hearts followed in quick succession. The first of which came about after Shrestha’s thunderous shot was saved but fell straight to Rishi Magar for him to tap it in with his head (52nd).
This was followed minutes later by an ingenious quick free kick from Esborn Sikiah who played the ball through to Flavien Duval; he took the ball past the last defender and nestled the ball into the bottom left (56th).
Port Darwin were not down and out though as they managed to get a grip of the game once again.
They were awarded another penalty after Habgood‘s cross into the box was blocked by a handball.
Habgood produced a carbon copy of his first penalty as he placed his shot into the bottom corner, beyond the grips of the keeper to make it 2-2 (64th).
Port Darwin left it till late to finish off the ultimate comeback. Matias Choque rounded the keeper and squared the ball to Habgood for him to blast the ball into the roof of the net with the last kick of the game (90+3).
The game finished off with a well-composed hat-trick for Habgood as he managed to steal away all three points for Port Darwin.
He stated that “it all comes down to how far you dig in and keep going till the end”.
Port Darwin‘s coach Ryan Bailey gave an honest summary of the game explaining they were “lucky to get out of that one with all three points”.
They sit now just six points behind fifth place University Azzurri, but “must put a run of games together” if they are to catch them up.
Meanwhile this result for the Hearts means they now only have a point from the last 7 games, leaving them truly heartbroken at the bottom of the table.
In other games, Mindil Aces drew to Casuarina 3-all and University Azzurri defeated Darwin Olympic 4-1.
In the WPL, Olympic defeated Casuarina 3-1 and Aces thrashed Hearts 7-2.
Injury-riddled Mindil Aces put season ‘back on track’ with hard fought 3-1 win over University Azzurri
A decimated Mindil Aces stepped up to claim a crucial 3-1 win over University Azzurri to keep them in touch with the top of the table in the Darwin Men’s Premier League competition.
With all its regular defenders off the park including centre backs Thomas Bird and Jacob Meehan Lee, the Aces dug deep to come from 1-nil down to improve their win-loss record to 8-1-3.
It was a crucial victory after the side had dropped their first game in seven matches to Darwin Olympic earlier in the week on Tuesday.
Aces coach Daniel McCormick said he was stoked with the win in response to the disappointing 3-2 loss to Olympic.
“Happy with the overall performance of our side (in recent weeks), especially the game on Friday, bouncing back from the loss on the Tuesday because the squad has quite a few injuries and emotionally you’re a bit damaged after a loss,” McCormick said.
“So if we had lost on Friday, it could have been a bit of a slippery slope so I was very happy to get the win which puts us back on track.”
It was an impressive comeback performance considering the injuries, short turnaround and the mental challenge of missing the golden chance to jump to top spot after giving up a 2-1 lead to Olympic.
The bounce-back win was also enlightening due to the fact McCormick had to call upon younger players including 16-year-old Aces junior Matthew Barnard who had stepped up as a starter in the last three senior games.
He said he was “really happy” with the youngster’s performance particularly the way he has tackled.
The Aces are expected to see the return of Bird next game while other defenders continue working towards a return down the track.
In other games, Olympic scored a top 3-2 win over Port Darwin on Saturday to edge into fourth spot on the table.
Ladder leaders Hellenic picked up an impressive 5-1 win over Darwin Hearts who copped two red cards in the second half.
Casuarina had the bye.
Long time chief executive steps down from sporting body
A long-term sporting body’s chief executive has stepped down after more than eight years in the role growing the game he loves. Find out what happened.
Success and scandal: The highs and lows of NT sport in 2024
Whether it was premiership glory or success on the national stage Territory sport enjoyed a huge year in 2024. Here are some of the biggest stories from the year that was.