Monday, 26 April 2010 9:21 PM
By John Kyrou (Photo by Cindy Nitsos)
South Melbourne FC has produced its best performance of the season by destroying fellow top four side Hume City 6-0 in the ANZAC Day clash at Broadmeadows Valley Park. Gianni De Nittis scored four of South’s goals, joining an elite list of only nine players to have ever achieved that milestone for the club.
South travelled to Hume keen on putting in a good performance to back up from the win over the Melbourne Knights and with hard games against Richmond and Oakleigh to come. Hume were keen on preventing this following their 1-3 home loss to Oakleigh last week.
Fernando De Moraes opened the scoring for the away side in the 35th minute, slotting the ball to the right of Hume keeper Lupce Acevski after being put through. Just before halftime De Nittis ended the match as a contest when he scored twice in a minute to give South a 3-0 lead at the break. His first goal was a tap-in at the back post after a cut-back by Keenan on the right side. From the re-start, South gained possession and put De Nittis one-on-one with Acevski. Despite having his shirt tugged, De Nittis kept his feet and coolly slotted past the Hume custodian.
De Nittis had his hat-trick shortly after the halftime break, converting another easy tap-in opportunity, after some excellent lead-up play by Daniel Vasilevski and De Moraes culminated in the ball being played across the goal to the waiting striker. Vasilevski then scored a contender for VPL Goal of the Year with a stunning free kick from outside the area that gave Acevski no chance. De Nittis then scored his fourth and South’s final goal of the afternoon with another tap-in, following another ball played across the goal by De Moraes.
After the match, captain Rama Tavsancioglu accepted the ANZAC Day Cup as De Nittis was awarded the Man of the Match award. South has now won both ANZAC Day Cup contests following the 2-1 triumph over Hume in 2009.
South Melbourne FC faces another tough assignment next week with a trip to Kevin Bartlett Reserve for a meeting with Richmond. Kick-off is at 8:30pm on Friday night.
FINAL SCORE: HUME CITY 0-6 SOUTH MELBOURNE (HT: 0-3)
Hume City:
Lupce Acevski, Fabio Dilizia, Steven Pace, Isiyan Erdogan, Alponso Opazo, Turhan Sumbul, Richard Cardozo, Goran Talevski, Tansel Baser, Dusko Delic, Michael Bosevski
Subs: Mehmet Karakilic, Serdar Pir, Marijo Roza, Ersin Kaya, Sam Dehaini
South Melbourne:
Peter Zois, Steve O’Dor (Stiven Mrkela 85’), Daniel Vasilevaski, Eddie Cetkin, Carl Recchia (Joseph Youssef 75’), Sam Torrens, Rama Tavsancioglu, Fernando De Moraes, Sebastian Petrovic (Yusuf Yusuf 68’), Gianni De Nittis, Joe Keenan
(Scorers: Fernando De Moraes 35’, Gianni De Nittis 42’, 43’, 53’, 88’, Daniel Vasilevski 74’)
SMFC Man of the Match: Gianni De Nittis
Venue: Broadmeadows Valley Park
Date: Sunday 25th April 2010
Crowd: 700