WATCH: South Melbourne edge past Sydney Olympic in opening night thriller
The Australian Championship got underway in phenomenal fashion on Friday night, as South Melbourne edged past Sydney Olympic 3-2, with a batch of spectacular goals.
South Melbourne snuffed out Sydney Olympic’s early lead on the stroke of half-time and fired into the lead soon after the break.
Another sensational goal squared the ledger for Olympic before the hosts responded with a special strike of their own to win the points on opening night.
South Melbourne FC 3 - 2 Sydney Olympic FC
The match got off to a quiet start, with the teams eager to prevent a shock in the opening 10 minutes.
Olympic soon showed some promise, pressing persistently, and were rewarded for their endeavour 12 minutes in. On-debut winger Ali Auglah fired a superb long-range strike that snuck past South Melbourne goalkeeper Javi Lopes, bouncing into the bottom right corner.
The hosts responded well to conceding and looked to make the most of a run of set pieces.
Sebastian Pasquali’s effort from the edge of the area looped narrowly over before a stretching Nahuel Bonada volleyed over as well.
The side came even closer from a set piece just before the half-hour mark when Marco Jankovic broke free in the box and nodded wide following a right-sided corner.
Olympic responded to South Melbourne’s barrage in the 40th minute. Ryan Fuetz wriggled his way into a shooting position on the edge of the box, forcing Lopez into a sharp, low stop.
The home team resumed their set-piece onslaught with one regular minute to play as a left-sided corner dropped to Oliver Lavale, whose first-time strike flew over the bar.
With virtually the last kick of the first half, South Melbourne’s set pieces finally paid off. A long throw-in bounced around in the Olympic box before Yuki Uchida hammered the decisive blow past the visitors’ goalkeeper Jack Gibson.
The teams went into half-time level, leaving it all to play for in the second period.
South Melbourne took their late first-half momentum into the second half and took the lead within the first 10 minutes. Following a sustained attacking move, the ball once again bobbled around close to Olympic’s goal, where Lavale slid in to flick home.
Buoyed by their turnaround, Hellas continued to pour numbers forward as Bonada headed wide before the hour mark. Soon after, Uchida powered down the right and blasted a shot that Gibson caught.
Despite South Melbourne’s strong spell, the away side remained a threat. In the 67th minute, the lively Fuetz jinked inside from the left and saw his shot cannon back off the far post.
The hosts carried on with their relentless attacking, with shots flying high and wide before Campbell Dovison’s strike forced Gibson to parry away expertly in the 83rd minute.
However, Olympic’s outlet Fuetz produced a special moment to restore parity moments later. The attacker received the ball outside the box and unleashed a dipping effort that nestled in the top right corner.
The game took another dramatic twist 87 minutes in as another outstanding goal flew in. Jordan Lampard side-footed a superb shot from the right of the area into the top left corner.
South Melbourne repelled the away side's late efforts to secure the first three points of the Australian Championship.