Asteras soars to shutout victory against Thrasyvoulos

By: Peter Katsiris | January 19th, 2009

Asteras Tripolis collected just its second home win of the season on Saturday, as an avalanche of goals by Asteras’ strikers buried Thrasyvoulos in Tripoli. It was a successful combination of a dynamic one-two punch, featuring Lucio Filomeno and Vaggelis Kaounos – whom have had little time to become acquainted with one another.

Aside from his forwards, Asteras boss Nikos Kostenoglou relied heavily on Greek-born talents as he selected a remarkable amount of seven Greeks to the starting line-up. Meanwhile, their opponents were competitors in the bottom half of the Super League standings, but there was little resistance from Sakis Tsiolis’ men who gave nothing but a lacklustre performance in one of Thrasyoulos’ most important fixtures to date.

With just two points separating both sides ahead of kickoff in Tripoli, it was expected that a gritty match would pan out between two sides searching for safety. It all went to plan for much of the opening ten minutes. But as the clock reach double digits, Asteras looked to have the strength in numbers as they crept towards Thraysvoulos’ goal.

By the fourteen minute mark, the Peloponnesian side registered its first opportunity of the match with newly signed Kaounos testing Thrasyvoulos thoroughly. The winter acquisition perplexed the Thrasyvoulos’ defenders before firing a shot on ‘keeper Peterson Pecanha, who seemed over generous when he allowed a huge rebound for the Greek striker. Much to the Brazilian shot stopper’s relief, Kaounos wasn’t as accurate on the follow up effort and narrowly shot wide of the gaping goal.

Not more than fifteen minutes later, Kaounos made up for his prior miss with a strike etching Asteras onto the scoreboard. Left alone inside the box, Kaounos reacted quickly to slot home the loose ball past Pecanha.

In a hole after just twenty-nine minutes, Thrasyvoulos attempted to crawl back to level terms. The process looked to be rolling as of the thirty-seven minute mark, but a failed shot from Slovakian Josef Kozlej kept the score-line in Asteras’ favour.

Holding the lead heading into halftime, it was not long after the restart that Asteras pushed to extend the margin. Lucio Filomeno dribbled his way into the Thrasyvoulos box on fifty-seven minutes, and with a shot shortly after his magical run, the Argentine looked destined to score until Pecanha flashed out his right foot to make the save.

Continuing the trend of pressure, Filomeno had a second chance to tally and this time he made no mistake. Petros Kanakoudis whipped in a free-kick for the hosts, and with a great leap, Filomeno rose to the occasion and thumped a header past Pecanha to make it 2-0 for the home side.

Seemingly devastated by Asteras’ second marker on the scoreboard, Thrasyvoulos’ reaction was stunningly absent as Asteras continued to hold possession and linger around the Thrasyvoulos box.

However, it wasn’t until the eighty-fourth minute that Asteras scored again. Kaounos won his side a penalty, but his striking partner Filomeno took the honours and with a rather ugly effort beat Pecanha to pile up the misery for Tsiolis’ men.

Focusing their attention on their Cup encounter with Iraklis on Thursday, an important series of matches for Asteras Tripolis fortunately started off with a win for the Arcadian club.

Already eliminated from the Greek Cup, Thrasyvoulos will look to improve on its drop zone state when they meet with Skoda Xanthi in Fyli on Sunday.

Asteras Tripolis 3-0 Thrasyvoulos
Kaounos 29′, Filomeno 58′, 84′

Yellow Cards:
Asteras Tripolis – Ladakis 13′, Psomas 38′.
Thrasyvoulos – Sotirchos 18′, Katsikis 24′, Rocastle 67′, Martorell 83′.

Asteras Tripolis (Nikos Kostenoglou): Abaris, Esteves, Lazaridis, Kanakoudis (68′ Fytanidis), Psomas, Ladakis, Cardozo, Zairi (79′ Damonte), Kaounos, Rokas (46′ Marcelao), Filomeno.

Thrasyvoulos (Sakis Tsiolis): Pecanha, Belegrinis, Sotirchos, Ventura, Martorell, Rocastle, Katsikis (65′ Karamalikis), Michos (57′ Chloros), Kozlej (73′ Alves), Wellington, Barrientos.

Referee: Ilias Mazarakos

Venue: Asteras Tripolis Stadium, Tripoli, Greece.