The Victorian State Team has won the inaugural Mayor’s Cup after a 1-1 draw against Tianjin TEDA FC in the return leg played in China on Saturday night. The draw was enough for the Victorian’s to claim the trophy after a 1-0 win in the first leg in Melbourne earlier this year.

Playing in front of a 25,000 strong crowd the weather was perfect for the return leg. Tianjin began well and won a penalty after the ball was handled in the area in the seventh minute. The home side converted the spot kick and took the lead giving them the early advantage. Victoria rallied and Zoran Petrevski almost levelled in the 23rd minute after he got onto a Tony Sterjovski ball that forced the Chinese keeper into a fine save.

Despite almost levelling, Victoria was finding it hard to create play from the mid-field and allowed Tianjin to test Lou Acevski with a long range shot that the Victorian keeper managed to keep out. A 38th minute substitution saw Ryan Ollerton replace Marcus Stergioupoulos, which proved a good move for Victoria as Ollerton cleared the ball off the line shortly after coming on.

Victorian coach Ian Dobson made more changes during the interval, which saw Anthony Pelikan and Doug Mladenovic come on for Sterjovski and Sam Poutakidis. Victoria began the second half in aggressive fashion pushing for the vital away goal. Victoria’s pressure paid off after just five minutes into the second period when a long ball was sent deep into the Tianjin goal-square, which prolific striker Johnny Sapazovski headed in.

In the final minutes of the game Pelikan almost put Victoria in front after beating two defenders but not the keeper. Victoria held on to the draw which in the end was enough to claim the inaugural Mayor’s Cup. The Mayor’s Cup is a symbol of the strong relations between Melbourne and Tianjin

 As Melbourne’s representative, the Victorian State Team demonstrated poise and sportsmanship to come away with this symbol that marks 25 years of sister city relations. Taianjin’s Mayor Dai presented Victoria with the cup after the game. Victoria will play one more exhibition match against Shanghai FC tonight before returning to Melbourne on Thursday.

Monday, 20 June 2005

Victoria Squad: Lou Acevski (GK), Stelios Drakos (C), Dean Fak, Rod Vargas, Marcus Stergioupoulos, Tomi Razov, Tony Sterjovski, Andy Vargas, Bill Damianos, Sash Ognenovski, Sam Poutakidis, John Sapazovski, Zoran Petrevski.

Substitutions: Ryan Ollerton for Marcus Stergiopoulos- 38th minute Doug Mladenovic for Sam Poutakidis- 46th minute Anthony Pelikan for Toni Sterjovski- 46th minute Subs not used: Bill Damianos, Tomi Razov, Stuart Webster(GK) Goals:

Tianjin TEDA (7th pen), Johnny Sapazovski (50th)

Crowd: 25,000