A dramatic Stuart Musialik strike deep into extra-time has seen Sydney FC salvage a 1-1 draw with the Queensland Roar at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday night.
With a matter of seconds remaining the dangerous midfielder found his way into the box to slam home the equaliser on the end of a long-range throw from man of the moment Shannon Cole.
The 93rd-minute strike denied the resurgent Roar a second-consecutive victory after an opportunistic solo effort from former Scottish international Charlie Miller handed the visitors the lead four minutes into the second stanza.
Both sides showed a willingness to attack from the outset but the first genuine chance fell to the visitors 12 minutes in when Reinaldo broke free but in-form Sydney custodian Clint Bolton proved up to the task with a spectacular diving save.
The end-to-end action kept the vocal 12,403 strong crowd entertained as first Cole sent a dangerous ball across the face of the Roar goal which just evaded the outstretched boot of Alex Brosque, while in the next breath Dutchman Sergio van Dijk came agonisingly close to scoring for the Roar on the end of a searching cross from Hyuk-Su Seo.
Marquee man John Aloisi looked to inject himself into the contest midway through the half, his deft flick to Mark Bridge and subsequent strike sounding an ominous warning to Frank Farina’s men.
The Roar continued to ask questions of the hosts’ defence attacking at every turn, but it was Sydney who looked the more likely to score.
Sydney’s best chance came in the 40th minute when Musialik put Alex Brosque in behind the defence however his right-foot strike on the run was just off the mark to keep things locked at 0-0 at the interval.
It took just four minutes for Miller to break the deadlock as the Sydney defence failed to shut down the dangerous playmaker who let fire from the edge of the box for his fifth goal in seven appearances this season, to hand his side a 1-0 advantage.
But it wasn’t enough to seal the win as Sydney capped off an entertaining encounter in thrilling style through the right boot of Musialik in the dying moments.
Sydney coach John Kosmina says it would have been an injustice had his side not achieved a point against the Roar.
“Queensland probably got, I wouldn’t say more than they deserve but it wouldn’t have been far off the mark saying that, because the way we played in the first half we basically tore them to pieces,” Kosmina said.
“The second half we only got ourselves in trouble I don’t think they really outplayed us we outplayed ourselves.”
“The goal that we conceded probably surprisingly rattled us a little bit I think, it wasn’t one that we expected … but look at the end of the day we scraped a point out of it and the good thing is that we kept going right to the death.”
Queensland coach Frank Farina couldn’t believe his side didn’t leave Sydney with the three points.
“I think Kossie (John Kosmina) should go out and buy a lotto ticket tonight as well, he got out of jail with 30 seconds to go,” Farina said.
“They fought to the end and I suppose that’s the rewards that you get but we could have finished them off when Charlie (Miller) stole the ball off (Tony) Popovic so we’re disappointed to be honest not to be taking the whole three points.”
When asked to respond to Kosmina’s claim Sydney had the better of the first half, Farina said: “What game was he watching? Tore us apart, maybe he’s talking it up because they were lucky to get the point … so no I don’t agree with that.”
Sydney FC 1 (Musialik 93)
Queensland Roar 1 (Miller 49)
at Sydney Football Stadium. Crowd: 12,403
