Sydney FC has continued its strong start to the season with an emphatic 5-2 triumph over the Perth Glory at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.
Sydney FC has continued its strong start to the season with an emphatic 5-2 triumph over the Perth Glory at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.
A four-goal blitz in the first half laid the platform for the win as the teams shared the spoils in the second stanza in what was a thoroughly entertaining affair.
The match was not without incident with fiery Glory defender Dino Djulbic given his marching orders in the 20th minute for dissent – his dismissal was to prove pivotal with three of Sydney’s first-half haul coming after his departure.
Alex Brosque and Steve Corica were dangerous throughout for the hosts while prize recruit John Aloisi provided a glimpse of what opposition teams can expect as the season progresses in an impressive 25-minute cameo.
For the visitors, Amaral was again the star performer while Eugene Dadi was also dangerous on his way to a double.
Sydney coach John Kosmina wasn’t entirely pleased with the performance, but still happy to get the three points.
“We should have killed them off, we were given three points and a lot of goals on a plate and we ended up not finishing the meal,” Kosmina said.
“We started doing silly things, running with the ball when we didn’t need to, it’s almost like a cancer it starts to spread – one (player) does it and then the next one does it.”
Glory coach Dave Mitchell said that the sending off and penalty ultimately killed off the contest.
“It looked like it was going to be a tremendous game I think, once we equalised and got back in the game at 1-1,” Mitchell said.
“We were giving punch for punch and obviously with the red card and the penalty at the same time, going down to 10 men and (conceding a goal) you’re 2-1 down against Sydney at home – it’s not an easy task.”
The hosts made a dream start when Brosque pounced on some loose work at the back from the Glory to score the opening goal of the contest inside two minutes.
Brosque showed brilliant awareness to swoop on an ill-directed back-pass from Djulbic before delivering a clinical finish from inside the penalty box under heavy pressure from two defenders.
Perth steadied after the early setback as both sides showed a willingness to attack at every turn, but it was the visitors who were next to strike in the 12th minute when Amaral and Dadi combined for the equaliser.
The match turned on its head when Adriano Pellegrino was ruled to have brought Steve Corica down inside the box by referee Peter Green who had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Things went from bad to worse when Djulbic was red-carded for dissent – Corica made no mistake with the penalty to reclaim the lead.
With the benefit of the extra man, Sydney took full control of proceedings but had to wait until late in the half to add to their account when Mark Bridge finished off some good lead-up work from Corica and Brosque to extend the advantage to 3-1.
The onslaught continued two minutes from the interval when the Shannon Cole won the race to a searching Iain Fyfe cross for Sydney’s fourth goal of the period.
A brilliant save from Sydney custodian Clint Bolton denied Adrian Trinidad deep into stoppage time to preserve his side’s 4-1 lead at the break.
The first chance of the second half fell to Corica but the evergreen veteran could not add to his account from close range.
To their credit, Perth stuck to the task and looked the more likely to score after Corica’s early strike.
Scott Bulloch looked set to capitilise on a Simon Colosimo error at the back six minutes after the re-start but failed to control his powerful strike from inside the box to let Kosmina’s men off the hook.
The ever-dangerous Amaral found the target two minutes later but was denied by another top-shelf save from Bolton.
Pressure finally amounted into the Glory’s second goal when Dadi converted from the spot after he was felled in the box by Colosimo, to make it 4-2 with 25 minutes left on the clock.
Dadi’s second goal of the afternoon coincided with John Aloisi’s debut for the Sky Blues and it didn’t take long for their marquee man to assert himself with near misses in the 78th and 82nd minute bringing the crowd to their feet.
Aloisi appeared to have opened his account for his new club two minutes from time but Perth defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley was credited with the goal.
Sydney FC 5 (Brosque 2, Corica 21, Bridge 39, Cole 43, Topor-Stanley (og) 88)
Perth Glory 2 (Dadi 12, 66)
at Sydney Football Stadium. Crowd: 11,734
