In reflection, Network 10 commentator Robbie Thomson described Saturday night’s Big Blue as “old school.”
“I like the fact that since the turn of the year, we’ve been having 4-4 (results), 4-3, 3-2, thrilling goals in the last minute in games, incredible goals everywhere,” Thomson continued.
“This was old school. Tonight was old school. It was a ‘Clásico’. It was a derby between two sides where this really counted. It meant so much.”
And it was a game which was ultimately decided by one touch of pure magic off the boot of Sydney FC creator Anthony Caceres, in a 1-0 win to the Sky Blues over Melbourne Victory.
But the shine was taken off the midfielder’s sensational finish by the contentious moment which preceded it: a touch off of Sydney’s Alex Wilkinson which deflected the ball over the byline for what should have been a Victory goal kick.
Wilkinson’s touch was missed by referee Alex King, who granted the home side a corner, from which Max Burgess and Caceres conjured an incisive one-two which set the latter up to score the match-winner.
“It touched me first,” Wilkinson admitted to Network 10 in reflection post-match. “I don’t know if it touched someone after – but I definitely got a touch on it.”
The impact of that missed decision led to a “frustrating and disappointing” night at Allianz Stadium for Victory boss Tony Popovic, who watched his side put together a solid road only to come away with no points against the club’s bitter rival.
It’s a result which leaves Victory stranded at the foot of the table.
“The decision, it’s hard to believe that the referee can get that wrong,” Popovic told Network 10. “If you’re not sure, and you’re 20 metres away, you can’t call that as a corner – but he did.
“What do you say? You perform that way away from home, your opponents’ only shot is the one that they scored from off a corner. So it’s an outstanding performance from the team, we just didn’t get what we deserved.
“We’re getting in the right areas. Constantly we’re in the box, and I don’t know what the stats are but, you know, maybe 15-odd shots to one away form home against a very good team, to dominate the way we did was frustrating and disappointing not to get anything from the game.
“We were clearly the better team, but we go home with zero. And that’s not good.”
It was, in fact, 15 shots to two in favour of Popovic’s side when the final whistle blew. Caceres’ match-winner was Sydney’s only shot on target, curled past Victory keeper Paul Izzo at his near post into the top-right corner in the 34th minute.
Sydney did put the ball in the back of the net 10 minutes prior, but offside provider Joe Lolley deprived Robert Mak a goal of similar quality to Caceres’ winner.
Victory failed to put Sydney keeper Andrew Redmayne under any significant duress throughout the remainder of the game, with Chris Ikonomidis spurning perhaps the best opportunity for an equaliser by bungling an attempted pass across the six-yard box he should have struck toward goal himself.
Burgess received a red card with five minute to play after kicking out at Bruce Kamau as the pair tangled across the touchline, but the 10 men of Sydney FC held on to forge a three-point gap between themselves and seventh-placed Newcastle Jets, whist moving to within a point of fourth-placed Central Coast Mariners.
The defeat was Victory’s 10th of the season, leaving Popovic’s side two points adrift of 11th-placed Perth on the bottom of the table.
But their form in the 2022-23 season is not for lack of trying; Network 10’s Andy Harper praised Victory for their industry in the post-match reflection:
“I will say at this point, for a wooden spoon contender, in 18 years of the A-League we haven’t seen a team playing as well at the bottom of the table routinely.”
“Normally teams at the bottom of the table are just hapless, and really struggling. Not so Victory.
“Struggling for results, struggling for confidence and now struggling for decisions. This is just what happens in sport – I’m not trying to diminish the pain of losing this game on these circumstances.
“But it does seem to be in sport, and certainly our sport, the one we love, that when you’re struggling, when you just can’t seem to get things going, more things go wrong than you would normally cater for.
”Teams at the top of the competition, you say you make your own luck, but I don’t think there’s really a difference between the level of output from position one to position 12 at the moment. All teams are having a deadset go every weekend.”
SATURDAY AGENDA
KEEPUP followed along LIVE to bring you all the goals, highlights and biggest talking points from four A-League Men fixtures on Saturday.
Wellington Phoenix 2-1 Newcastle Jets
MATCH REPORT: Phoenix boost Isuzu UTE A-League finals hopes with narrow win over Jets
Western United 2-1 Perth Glory
MATCH REPORT: Botic nets again as Western United move up A-League Men table
Western Sydney Wanderers 2-0 Central Coast Mariners
MATCH REPORT: Wanderers go second after fiery win over Mariners
Sydney FC 1-0 Melbourne Victory
MATCH REPORT: Caceres fires Sydney FC to Big Blue success
