A 53rd minute strike to Brisbane skipper Matt McKay has steered the Roar to a 1-0 win over Sydney FC at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
A 53rd minute strike to Brisbane skipper Matt McKay has steered the Roar to a 1-0 win over Sydney FC at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night in front of 10,339 fans.
In a game that Brisbane enjoyed the majority of the possession, it was McKay-s goal that proved the difference, handing the Roar their first win of the season.
Without key duo Mark Bridge and Alex Brosque through injury, the Sky Blues struggled to get into the match, and it was the new-look Brisbane side that maintained their dominance over the Sky Blues at Suncorp Stadium.
Sydney FC will make a welcome return home to the Sydney Football Stadium next weekend when they host the Central Coast Mariners on Saturday night (7:30pm kick-off).
Despite the loss for Sydney FC, the match marked the Hyundai A-League debut of Japanese midfielder Hiro Moriyasu, who came on in the 77th minute.
“It-s very disappointing but we have two games at home now so we are looking forward to them,” goal keeper Liam Reddy said.
“One of them is the local derby against the Mariners so we will be primed for that.”
Although the Roar had 56% of possession in the first half, they couldn-t penetrate Sydney FC-s defence and the scores were deadlocked at halftime.
In a physical first half, Sydney FC defenders Hayden Foxe, Scott Jamieson and Sung-Hwan Byun and the Roar-s Henrique all picked up yellow cards.
After falling behind through McKay-s excellent goal, where the Roar skipper curled the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the net after receiving the ball off a deflection at the top of the box, the Sky Blues best chance to draw level came just minutes later when a Rhyan Grant header hit the cross bar.
Jamieson curled the ball in nicely with Grant doing well to get the long range header on target.
Brisbane almost went further ahead in the 75th minute but Byun cleared the ball off the line after a goal mouth scrap.
Brendan Gan and Shannon Cole were injected late in the game and Sydney pushed forward in the dying moments but couldn-t find the equalizer.
Match Details:
Sydney FC: 0
Brisbane Roar: 1 (Matt MCKAY -53)
Sydney FC Line-up: 1. Liam REDDY (gk), 2. Sebastian RYALL 3. Stephan KELLER, 5. Hayden FOXE (12. Shannon COLE -81), 8. Stuart MUSIALIK 10. Nicky CARLE (6. Hiro MORIYASU -77), 11. Kofi DANNING (7. Brendan GAN -70),15. Terry MCFLYNN, 21. Scott JAMIESON 22. Sung-Hwan BYUN, 23. Rhyan GRANT
Substitutes Not Used: 20. Ivan NECEVSKI (gk)
Yellow Cards: Hayden FOXE -11, Scott Jamieson -39, Sung-Hwan BYUN ‘45
Red Cards: Nil
Goals: Nil
Brisbane Roar Line-up: 1. Michael THEOKLITOS (gk), 2. Matthew Smith, 3. Luke DEVERE, 4. Shane STEFANUTTO, 5. Ivan FRANJIC (23.Milan SUSAK -18), 6. Erik PAARTALU, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 10. HENRIQUE (11. REINALDO -81), 15. Matt MCKAY, 17. Mitch NICHOLS (18. Luke BRATTAN -68), 22. Thomas BROICH
Substitutes Not Used: 20. Andrew REDMAYNE (gk)
Yellow Cards: Henrique ‘40
Red Cards: Nil
Goals: 15. Matt MCKAY -53,
Referee: Chris Beath at Suncorp Stadium. Crowd 10,339.
