Corica ‘very proud’ of Sydney FC response

Steve Corica was a proud man on Friday night.

The Sydney FC boss watched his side bounce back from their FFA Cup Final disappointment with an emphatic 3-0 victory at Melbourne City in the Hyundai A-League.

The Sky Blues had just three days off to recover from Coopers Stadium disappointment, but showed no signs of fatigue as Paulo Retre’s opener was followed by Adam Le Fondre’s brace.

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It was the perfect remedy for the travelling fans and left Corica with no doubts over the character of his side.

He said: “I’m very proud of the boys. It’s been a tough week for them, disappointment for them after the Cup on Tuesday night.

“But a great way to bounce back and showed great character, defended excellent tonight and with the ball we were very good as well.

“Maybe could have punished them earlier in the first half, I think we had a couple of great chances as well, we could’ve buried them a little bit more than what we did.

“All in all a good week and very proud of the effort they put in tonight.”

Corica couldn’t have asked more from his defensive unit, executing his game plan to limit the hosts’ chances.

“Perfect, perfect they were. I think maybe they [Melbourne City] had one shot on target, other than that they didn’t have anything else,” he added.

“Fantastic job defensively, led from the front with Alex Brosque and Le Fondre, they did a sensational job from the front pressing and all the way through to the back with [Andrew] Redmayne, and great leadership at the back from [Alex Wilkinson] Wilkes as well.

“They showed they bounce back very well tonight and showed the Champion team they are.”

Le Fondre

City boss Warren Joyce bemoaned his side’s inability to convert their 59.7 per cent possession into creating clear-cut chances.

He said: “We had a lot of possession but we weren’t good enough to break them down.

“We didn’t pass the ball quick enough, there wasn’t enough movement in the forward areas and we gave the ball away cheap as well.

“We had width and crosses went in but it’s the quality of the cross and getting on the end of them.

“I think the intent to close and press could’ve been better all night, I think the intent to win tackles and duels could be better, the intent to run in behind could be better.

“When you’ve got a lot of the ball you’ve got to move it quicker…because they didn’t really have to press that hard, we gave the ball away cheap and were chasing them towards our own goal.”