Olympic rounded out the regular season with a thrilling 3-3 draw against Brisbane City at Goodwin Park on Sunday night.
Costa Psaros bagged a brace while Tasuku Sekiya also got in on scoring while Shannon Brady, Alexander Simmons and Matt Smith scored for the visitors in a result that seals City’s relegation to the FQPL.
Psaros opened the scoring in the ninth minute when he cut past Matt Jones and rifled a left footed effort into the top corner from the edge of the area after being played in by Jez Lofthouse.
Sekiya doubled Olympic’s lead ten minutes later with a sublime first time dink from the top of the box for what was the Japanese attackers eighth goal of the 2020 season.
With their NPL status on the line City managed to claw their way back to level the scores thanks to a pair of quick fire goals from Brady and Simmons in the early stages of the second half.
Olympic regained their lead in the 80th minute when Psaros scored his second of the night, finishing at the back post following a brilliant run by Lofthouse down the left flank.
City again equalised to snatch a point in the 88th minute through Smith who rose highest to meet Brady’s corner with his header that came back off the underside of the crossbar adjudged to have crossed the line by the match officials.
Sunday’s 3-3 draw makes no changes to Olympic’s league position with the Yeronga-based outfit already locked into second position on the ladder ahead of kick off.
Olympic now shift their focus to next Sunday’s home semi-final against Gold Coast Knights at Goodwin Park (6pm KO).
Speaking post-match, Cahn said he felt his side got the balance right with an eye on next weekend’s semi-final.
“It was a strange night. Obviously, it was a very emotional night for Brisbane City and it was difficult to try to detach from the intensity around the game,” Cahn said.
“We started well and scored two great goals but admittedly at two up, our priority turned towards next week so we dropped off a bit at a point where City’s desperation lifted and the game became really messy and frantic.
“The atmosphere was great, at times it felt like a finals game which was good for everyone to experience before next week.
“I’m very proud of the players, they managed to put in a professional performance, respect the integrity of the competition and importantly they stayed calm and managed to avoid getting involved in the emotion of the occasion and what it meant to City.
“In the end we just about got the balance right. We did what everyone in Queensland wanted us to do, and most importantly all of our players got through and we go in to next week with a full squad.”
MATCH DETAILS
NPL Queensland 2020 – Round 20: Olympic FC v Brisbane City
Goodwin Park, Yeronga
Sunday, 15 November
Olympic FC – 3 (Costa PSAROS 9’, 80’, Tasuku SEKIYA 20’)
Brisbane City – 3 (Shannon BRADY 58’, Alexander SIMMONS 63’, Matt SMITH 88’)