David Carney’s superb solo goal earned a ten-man Sydney FC a fighting 1-1 draw against Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
Victory looked on course to move three points clear of their Big Blue rivals when Jacques Faty was shown a straight red midway through the second-half, before Carney stole an equaliser with 15 minutes remaining.
Kosta Barbarouses earlier opened the scoring within a minute of the restart but both sides remained unable to break their respective winless runs.
GOALS
1-0 Kosta Barbarouses (46’) – Fahid Ben Khalfallah’s hopeful ball forward was reeled in thanks to Barbarouses’ speed. The Kiwi attacker propped inside the penalty area, turned away from goal and was afforded too much time by Rhyan Grant to fire inside the near post.
2-0 David Carney (76’) – This was a stunning, inspiring solo goal from a seasoned star to pull Sydney FC level. Carney caught out the absent Scott Galloway, pushed past the much younger Thomas Deng and fired lethally across Danny Vukovic.
KEY MOMENT
If David Carney’s goal single-handedly dragged Sydney FC back into it, then Matt Jurman replicated the feat in preserving their point.
An opportunity to win it opened up for Victory fullback Daniel Georgievski in the dying moments but Jurman lunged across his path to deflect the finish wide.
COACH KILLER
Seb Ryall’s yellow card had already enforced suspension upon one Sydney FC defender when Jacques Faty earned himself a straight red card.
Having botched his attempted pass-back, the former Senegal international compounded the error by tugging the arms and shirt of Besart Berisha.
TREATMENT TABLE
Matt Simon copped an inadvertent and seemingly innocuous whack to the stomach from Scott Galloway in the opening stages. The target man was uncomfortable thereafter and had to be replaced by Milos Dimitrijevic after just 20 minutes.
With their attacking options already thin, Graham Arnold will hope reports of cracked ribs are wide of the mark.
THE FINAL WORD
Melbourne Victory finally look ready to launch a late-season assault after adding to their encouraging AFC Champions League victory in midweek.
The reigning champions were the dominant teammate throughout but let a vital three points slip as Carney punished their defensive lapse.
The draw does little for either side as their Hyundai A-League winless streaks stretch to five and six matches respectively.
TEAMS
Melbourne Victory: Vukovic (gk), Galloway, Deng (Bozanic 83’), Delpierre, Georgievski, Broxham, Mahazi, Barbarouses (Ingham 81’), Finkler, Ben Khalfallah, Berisha (Thompson 83’)
Sydney FC: Janjetovic, Ryall, Faty, Jurman, Grant, Holosko (Stambolziev, O’Neill, Ninkovic, Carney, Simon (Dimitrijevic 20’), Brosque (Smeltz 69’)
Scorers: Barbarouses 46’, Carney 76’
Red Cards: Faty 64’
Yellow Cards: Brosque 24’, Mahazi 30’, Ryall 45’+1, Carney 71’, Grant 88’, Stambolziev 90’+4
Crowd:Â 20,112
Conditions: 21°C, dry
