From outclassing the reigning champions one week to struggling against the bottom-placed side the next – comparing the best and worst of Sydney FC are like “night and day”, according to Vítezslav Lavicka.
From outclassing the reigning champions one week to struggling against the bottom-placed side the next – comparing the best and worst of Sydney FC are like “night and day”, according to Vítezslav Lavicka.
Sky Blues fans had reason to be excited after the nature of their 2-0 win over Brisbane at Kogarah last weekend, ending the Roar’s famed unbeaten run.
They were mobile, aggressive and clinical when they needed to be.
But that excitement would have dimmed somewhat in the wake of their tepid scoreless draw against Gold Coast United on Sunday.
The visitors missed a golden opportunity to continue their ascent up the Hyundai A-League ladder, unable to put anything past rock-solid United keeper Glen Moss on a frustrating afternoon.
Lavicka admitted he expected more from his men.
“To compare our performance as we did last weekend against Brisbane at home in Sydney, and [here]… it was like night and day,” he said.
“A draw is fair enough for both teams but we expected much more. We moved the ball so slowly in the first half and the opponent created chances.”
“We improved a little bit in the second half – we created a couple of chances but didn’t we score. Karol had two chances, Nicky Carle had a good strike as well but to be honest, they created some as well.”
Skipper Terry McFlynn echoed his coach’s remarks, saying things felt off from the outset for the Sky Blues.
“We retained the ball well in the first half, but in non-dangerous areas. Back third, middle third … we had no penetration,” he said.
“When we did get it into areas in the front, there wasn’t the support for the boys. It was coming back too easily.”
“Our transition wasn’t what we’re used to and what we work on every day at training. It was better in the second half but we didn’t convert the chances.”
Sydney had an interrupted lead-in to their trip to the Gold Coast, with the postponement of their scheduled midweek encounter with Perth due to an electrical storm that saw flights cancelled out of WA.
Their conditioning staff would have prepared their workload for a heavy schedule three games in seven days, and that plan would have been wrecked by the late cancellation.
But Lavicka wasn’t pointing the blame at Mother Nature for their poor performance on Sunday.
“We expected a tough week after Brisbane because we made our main focus Perth, the midweek game. It was postponed and then we had to make the focus for Gold Coast,” he said.
“We knew the weather was going to be tough, and it was – hot and humid – but there is no excuse for us. We expected much more.”
