Two goals either side of half time have seen Sydney FC defeated away to Melbourne City.
Sydney FC 0 def. by Melbourne City 2 (Ugarkovic 45’, Maclaren 46’)
Moments That Mattered:
3’- LOLLEY NEARS THE CROSSBAR – A corner by Mak meets Behich’s head. The header travels straight into the feet of Lolley, who strikes the ball on the half-volley, but the attempt ends up inches away from the crossbar.
34’ ANDREW REDMAYNE SAVE – Behich runs onto a ball laid off by Jakolis however his attempt is aimed straight at Andrew Redmayne, and he saves it.
45’ UGARKOVIC GOAL – Behich slips the ball to Ugarkovic, who drills the ball into the bottom left corner of the Sydney net.
46’ MACLAREN GOAL – Melbourne City doubled the lead after Yakolis ran down the left edge of the Sydney defence before laying the ball off to Maclaren who slotted the ball past Redmayne.
59’ REDMAYNE SAVE– Ugarkovic thumps the ball from a long distance which ricochets off the palms of Redmayne.
73’ YOUNG SAVE– Kucharski sneaks past Talbot and releases the ball aimed for Fabio Gomes but it is dived on by Young.
81’ GOMES NEARS THE CROSSBAR– Caceres lobs the ball to Fabio Gomes who is unable to finish as the ball passes over the crossbar
What They Said: Rhyan Grant: “We obviously started preseason and the cup really well.
“Maybe we have been getting a bit complacent after winning the trophy. It’s obviously not good enough and pretty dire straits at the start of the season.
“Our fans are definitely not happy, we feel that too. We are not performing as well as we should be.
“We’re obviously a big club and we have higher standards, it’s hard to get out and to find answers at this moment. It’s not good enough at the minute.”
Match Report: Sydney FC have gone down to Melbourne City 2-0 in Friday night’s clash.
The Sky Blues were narrowly off target early on with Lolley shooting wide on a couple of occasions.
City kept possession and were rewarded when Steven Ugarkovic opened the scoring from outside the box on the stroke of half time.
The lead was doubled just after the break when Arslan played in Yakolis who squared it to Maclaren to finish.
Sydney FC came close to being back in the game when Gomes had two chances, as the Sky Blues began to build attacking momentum.
But Melbourne City defence held firm to record the win.
Sydney FC: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE, 3. Aaron GURD, 8. Jake GIRDWOOD-REICH (25. Jaiden KUCHARSKI 56’), 10. Joseph LOLLEY (19. Mitchell GLASSON 72’), 11. Robert MAK (9. Fabio Roberto GOMES NETTO 56’), 13. Patrick WOOD (12. Corey HOLLMAN 72’), 15. Gabriel Santos Cordeiro LACERDA, 16. Joel KING, (21. Zachary DE JESUS, 61’), 17. Anthony CACERES, 23. Rhyan GRANT, 26. Luke BRATTAN ©.
Unused Subs: 4. Jordan COURTNEY-PERKINS, 20. Adam PAVLESIC (GK).
Yellow Cards: King (27’), Wood (38’).
Red Cards: None
Melbourne City: 1. Jamie YOUNG (GK), 4. Nuno Pereira REIS, 6. Steven UGARKOVIC, 8. Hamza SAKHI (17. Terry ANTONIS 83’) 9. Jamie MACLAREN ©, 10. Tolgay ARSLAN (11. Leo NATEL 61’), 16. Aziz BEHICH, 21. Alessandro LOPANE (35. Zane SCHREIBER 79’), 22. Curtis GOOD, 25. Callum TALBOT, 44. Marin JAKOLIS (Max CAPUTO, 79’).
Unused Subs: 2. Scott GALLOWAY, 26. Samuel SOUPRAYEN, 33. Patrick BEACH (GK).
Yellow Cards: Talbot (31’), Good (56’).
Red Cards: None
Venue: AAMI Park
Referee: Daniel Elder
