Greens ground down weary Olympic: De Vries

Ryan De Vries says Bentleigh Greens executed their game plan to perfection after progressing to the Westfield Cup quarter-finals with a 2-1 win over Sydney Olympic.

The Greens capitalized on a slow start by the home side with goals from Liam McCormick and De Vries inside the first 11 minutes sending them on the way to victory before Taiga Soeda pulled one back in stoppage time.

Olympic were a little tired after playing in the NSW PS4 NPL grand final just 48 hours earlier and De Vries, who was a constant threat all night, revealed his side capitalized on that at Lambert Park.

“We knew they played 120 minutes against Blacktown (City on Sunday) so we knew fatigue was a big thing for them,” De Vries told www.theffacup.com.au.

“Our plan was to come out hard in the first 20 minutes and see if we could put a few goals in and hopefully make them chase the game and we did it successfully in the first half.”

After McCormick put the visitors in front on seven minutes, De Vries showed all his power and pace when he cut through the heart of the Olympic defence to double the lead four minutes later.

“It was just a splendid moment,” the 22-year-old said of his goal.

“I went up for the ball and when I saw it come off his head I thought ‘I’ve got to put this in, it’s just me and the keeper now’.

“When the ball hit the back of the net it was just a sigh of relief because I thought I mis-hit it but a goal’s a goal and that’s what took us through in the end.”