South had crept into the finals with little sense of winning form, and on a blustery afternoon at Epping Stadium they went behind within a minute of kick off, when Stefaan Sardelic's poor clearance lad to former South Melbourne junior Alfonso Opazo opening the scoring. South took time to settle, but then began creating some chances, and despite going into halftime 1-0 down must have felt they were in with a chance. Unfortunately South were caught napping, and Andy Vlahos headed home to double Hume's lead, and virtually put the game beyond South, in what would be Mike Michalakopoulos' last game as coach.[1]
Lineups[]
Hume City: Lou Acevski, Issy Erdogan, Serdar Pir, Tansel Baser, Ross Thompson (Mehmet Karakilic 67), Brendan Beni, Tony Sterjovski (Turhan Sumbul 85), Michael Bosevski, Zoran Petrevski, Alfonso Opazo, Andy Vlahos. Coach: Andy Vlahos. Goals: Opazo 1, Vlahos 47
South Melbourne: Stefaan Sardelic, Shane Nunes (Sam Torrens 58), Rhodri Payne, Steven O'Dor, Vaughan Coveny, Gianni De Nittis, Joseph Youssef, Rama Tavsancioglu, Fernando De Moraes, Goran Zoric (Francesco Stella 46), Sebastian Petrovic (Eddie Cetkin 75). Coach: Michael Michalakopoulos.[2]
Milestones[]
Final game: Vaughan Coveny, Shane Nunes, Francesco Stella, Goran Zoric.
Mike Michalokopoulos' final game as coach, resigning afterward.
Match Reports[]
Neos Kosmos English Weekly: South's finals march ends in heartbreak.