Sydney FC have been defeated in Gosford by two early, quick goals from the Central Coast Mariners’ foreign stars.
Costa Rican Urena and Brazilian Moresche did the damage in the opening 16 minutes and that was the end to the scoring in the game.
Sydney FC 0 def. by Central Coast Mariners 2 (Urena 13, Moresche 16’)
Moments That Mattered:
URENA GOAL – 13’ – Van der Saag is tackled by Bozanic and Moresche plays the ball behind the defence to Urena who finishes first time.
MORESCHE GOAL – 16’ – Miller gets to the byline on the Mariners right and squares the ball to Moresche who finishes from close range.
LE FONDRE HITS THE POST – 26’ – Neat build-up play involving Caceres and Ninkovic finds Le Fondre in the box. The striker turns and shoots only to see the ball come off the inside of the post and away.
LE FONDRE SHOT SAVED – 45’+1’ – Le Fondre drills a low shot from 12 yards which Birighitti gets down well to save.
BUHAGIAR SHOT TIPPED OVER – 86’ – Buhagiar gets into a good position in the right penalty box channel and drives a shot which Birighitti tips over.
What They Said: Steve Corica: “I was disappointed the way we started. I knew the Mariners were going to start like that, we mentioned it before the game.
“I don’t want to use the midweek game as an excuse because it’s not, I think we saw out the game quite well and put them on the back foot in the second half.
“It was a disappointing first half performance, we weren’t competing and we gave away cheap goals.”
Sydney FC have gone down to two early first half goals which a fight back, including a Le Fondre shot off the post couldn’t overcome.
Playing their first home game of the season, the Mariners came out of the blocks firing and were two up within minutes when Urena was played in behind the defence in the 13th minute and Moresche finished a low centre from Miller.
The Sky Blues fought back and Le Fondre was twice denied, once by the post when his turn and shot rolled back across goal, and on the stroke of half time by a fine save from Birighitti.
The second half became a somewhat scrappy affair as the Mariners defended deep and the Sky Blues move onto face Wellington at home next Sunday night.
Sydney FC: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE, 3. Ben WARLAND, 4. Alex WILKINSON, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. BOBÔ (11. Trent BUHAGIAR 45’), 10. Milos NINKOVIC (27. Elvis KAMSOBA 45’), 14. Adam LE FONDRE (33. Pat WOOD 60’), 16. Joel KING, 17. Anthony CACERES, 22. Max BURGESS (35. Patrick YAZBEK 45’), 21. Harry VAN DER SAAG (25. Callum TALBOT 78’).
Unused Subs: 20. Tom HEWARD-BELLE (GK), 2. James DONACHIE.
Yellow Cards: Burgess 45’, Yazbek 69’, .
Red Cards: None.
Central Coast Mariners: 1. Mark BIRIGHITTI, 3. Lewis MILLER (15. Storm ROUX 53’), 4. Josh NISBET, 7. Cy GODDARD (25. Matt HATCH 75’), 8. Oliver BOZANIC, 10. MORESCHE (17. Damien TSEKENIS 70’), 12. Marcos URENA, 14. Kye ROWLES, 18. Jacob FARRELL, 23. Daniel HALL, 34. Harrison STEELE (16. Maximilien BALARD 75’).
Subs: 40. Ricardo RIZZO (GK), 5. Noah SMITH, 33. Harry McCARTHY.
Yellow Cards: Roux 80’ .
Red Cards: None.
Venue: Central Coast Stadium.
Referee: Tim Danaskos.
