By JARROD POTTER
THEY are the miracle makers.
From the depths of despair South Springvale continues to find a way to get out of trouble and emerge triumphant in another Cup final.
In the round of 32 clash in the FFA Cup, South Cardiff, a Northern New South Wales powerhouse, drilled the opening goal in the fifth minute – which will go down historically as the first in the FFA Cup – to leave the Victorians on the back foot.
Alex Florea found himself unmarked at the back-post for a South Springvale corner in the 25th minute – slamming on the equaliser.
Dogged defending from the likes of Anstidis Drakos and goalkeeper Rani Dowisha kept the dream alive for Aris as the Gunners lived up to their moniker through the first half.
It would be a bad 10 minutes leading up to the main break for South Springvale as the visitors hit their second – A super-strike from Mitch Wallace putting the margin back to one before Florea was taken from the field after taking a cut above the eye to rule him out of the rest of the match.
The miracle man Ricky Diaco emerged from the bench in the 75th minute and started to shift the course of the match.
His play down the wings started to give South Springvale the upper hand – their former long bombs and desperation kicks became precision passes and subtle through balls.
Diaco’s hand in the match – covered by his trademark black glove – only took four minutes on the field to find the net – threading a textbook pass to Darragh Ryan who found Sotiros Dimitrakopoulos to kick the game back to equal pegging approaching the final whistle.
It left two halves of South Springvale dominated extra time, but the go-ahead goal was nowhere to be found as the Aris faithful were once again forced to watch on as penalties decided their fate.
A horror miss from South Cardiff’s Gazzard left the door ajar before Dowisha iced the game as he blocked Jarryd Johnson’s strike to take the 4-3 penalty win.
Aris coach Bill Lambropoulos was overwhelmed with the fight and determination from his boys to push on as the match dragged towards two hours game-time.
“I think my pulse went to about 220,” Lambropoulos said. “We were falling over at the end we were so tired and the boys were cramping up everywhere and I was worried we were going to concede, but what courage.
“What courage – I take my hat off to the FFA and Westfield for what they’ve done for us – they’ve opened the doors to grassroots clubs like ourselves that they never even knew – all of a sudden now we’re on FOX Sports, we’re in every paper … and it’s lifted the profile of the club.”
Lambropoulos praised veteran midfielder Ricky Diaco – who pushes through to give 55 minutes of skillful transition-play for the team when he was only asked for 25.
“We’ve worked really hard to get him ready and I asked him if he had 25 minutes and he said he had it, then he had to deal with extra time, but minutes under the belt are important for him right now ’cause we’re going to need him – no doubt about that as he was superb.”
The next challenge for South Springvale Aris will be its Dockerty Cup grand final against Melbourne Knights, which has been tentatively scheduled for Sunday 31 August at 5pm with a venue to be confirmed.
For more on South Springvale’s victory, pick up a copy of this week’s Dandenong Journal.
FFA CUP SCOREBOARD
South Springvale 2 (Florea 25′, Dimitrakopoulos 79′) defeated South Cardiff 2 (Ashton 4’, Wallace 41’) 4-3 on penalties.
