Day: July 10, 2015

Both teams had positive results during their mid-week fixtures this week. On Tuesday night, a Milos Lujic goal deep into injury time gave South a 3-2 win against Green Gully at Lakeside Stadium. On Wednesday night, the Knights came from a goal down to level 1-1 with League leaders Bentleigh Greens, before goalkeeper Chris May saved a Bentleigh spot kick in second half injury time.

Chris Taylor’s side are currently in second place on the NPL Victoria ladder, two points behind the leading Bentleigh. The Knights are in outright fourth position on the ladder but will be looking to edge closer to Bentleigh, South and Heidelberg.

The two teams have already met on three occasions across three separate competitions in 2015. In all three matches, the Knights took the lead before South won with late goals. On 13 February, South won the FFV Community Shield 2-1 at Knights Stadium before winning the League meeting at Lakeside Stadium on 11 April by the same scoreline. Most recently on 5 June at Lakeside Stadium, two late goals from Nick Epifano sealed a dramatic 3-1 FFA Cup win against the Knights.

South Melbourne and the Melbourne Knights have enjoyed a long footballing rivalry that began when South Melbourne Hellas played Croatia on 21 April 1962 at Middle Park (a 6-0 win for South). The clubs have played 96 League matches against each other, with South winning 48 games, the Knights 25 and with 23 drawn matches.

Sunday’s derby match kicks off at 3pm at Knights Stadium. For those unable to make the game, it can be followed on the Club’s official Facebook and Twitter with the handles #SMFC and #PS4NPLVIC.

South Melbourne FC will once again be on the World Stage with one of our youth teams competing in the highly regarded Shanghai Youth Tournament over the next 10 days.

The Club has been chosen by the organisers to represent Australia, with squad members from our Under 15, Under 16, Under 18 and Under 20 squads all forming part of the SMFC team that will participate in the tournament.

The tournament brings together teams from a range of countries from right around the globe, with Australia, Cameroon, China, Germany, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and Thailand all represented.

South have been placed into Group C, which places them against a local squad from Shanghai, as well as Russian and German representative sides.

Speaking to smfc.com.au at the airport prior to departing for Shanghai, coach Sasa Kolman was optimistic about the squad’s chances in China.

“It would be a great opportunity for us to see how we are going to go against some big football nations, with some fantastic youth teams from Germany, Russia and Spain all represented in this tournament.

My eyes will be on developing and identifying players from this squad and hope that I can bring them into our Under 20s squad if they aren’t already there as part of this tournament. However it is an experience of a lifetime for these kids”.

Listen to Sasa’ Full Interview Here
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The players that are part of the squad which will be representing South Melbourne FC and Australia are Nicky Edwards, Lachlan Beever, Kirk Kyriakopoulos, Gerry Kavadas, Campbell Dovaston, Matthew Zilavec, Panayotis Avramidis, Massimo Pesce, Vincent Zhong, Costa Mesourouni, Charly Layton, Christopher Kaev, Mathiang Week, Archie Sweeney, Nashir Hussainy, Timothy Tselepis and Wishy Laurie.

With our first match on Saturday night Melbourne time, we wish the boys and coach Sasa Kolman all the best for the week ahead.