Vitezslav Lavicka believes Sydney FC is finally starting to play the way he wants after the Sky Blues’ entertaining 1-0 win over the Mariners on Monday.
Sydney went top of the Hyundai A-League after the win and the former Sparta Prague supremo was full of praise for the way his side is beginning to play after nine rounds of the competition.
“We are happy now … I think especially first half we played well. We tried to play quickly, especially to attack to keep the ball down and in transition to attack,” he said after the game.
“We scored an excellent goal and Tezza celebrated a baby girl (born this week) and a comeback after his injury.”
However, the Czech-born coach was less happy with his second 45 minutes as the Mariners pushed hard and almost equalised through a Michael McGlinchey effort.
“I think we had some opportunities as well. But we played compact and it was a very, very important three points. But the opponent played well.”
But Lavicka cautioned though that the finishing of his forwards was still a work in progress. A midfielder scored the winner and he described that part of his game plan as still being ‘a process’.
“We know we need to improve especially the finishing part but the opponent had a very good defence but especially in the first half we created very good opportunities but we need to score more goals.”
Thankfully Lavicka had Northern Irish midfielder McFlynn who finished a beautiful move with aplomb on 20 minutes, which proved to be the winner.
McFlynn capped an unforgettable week with the birth of a baby girl Olivia on Thursday and a winning goal from his head.
“Every goal is special and this was important to get us to top of the league. As the boss says, we’ve been working hard towards it … I thought in the first half we played particularly well and we scored at the right time when we were playing well.”
In injury news, Stephan Keller’s head knock was not serious although the player was groggy in the dressing room after the game.
The win sets up an enticing encounter with Melbourne Victory next Friday night at Etihad Stadium.
