Sydney FC have left Westpac stadium with a well-earned 1-all draw against Wellington Phoenix in Round 13 of the Hyundai A-League thanks to an Ufuk Talay penalty in injury time.
Sydney FC have left Westpac stadium with a well-earned 1-all draw against Wellington Phoenix in Round 13 of the Hyundai A-League thanks to an Ufuk Talay penalty in injury time.
After dominating the opening exchanges, Sydney FC conceded the opening goal in the 28th minute when Phoenix skipper Ross Aloisi cleaned up from a corner with close-range strike that gave Clint Bolton no chance of saving.
Sydney did not give up and continued to pressure their host-s goal and had it not been for the goalkeeping heroics of Glen Moss in the Wellington goal, Sydney would have gone into the break at least on par if not ahead.
The second half also Sydney FC again pepper the Phoenix goal with wave after wave of attacks. Again it was Moss and the woodwork that denied them.
Sydney FC then suffered a cruel blow in the 70th minute when captain Tony Popovic received his second yellow card of the match for a late tackle on Daniel and was given his marching orders by referee Peter Green.
With ten-men on the field and time running out, it appeared that John Kosmina-s charmed undefeated run was about to come to an end, but during the final period of injury Phoenix substitute Steve O-Dor brought Michael Bridges in the box which earnt Sydney a last chance penalty and himself a second yellow card.
Ufuk Talay celebrated his 50th Hyundai A-League appearance with a cooly placed penalty conversion which gave Sydney a share of the points and kept John Kosmina-s record intact.
Wellington Phoenix 1 (Ross Aloisi 28-)
Sydney FC 1 (Ufuk Talay 90+2-(pen))
Saturday 17 November 2007
Westpac Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
Referee: Peter Green
Assistant Referees: Paul Dunham & Nick Waldron
Fourth Official: Strebre Delovski
Crowd: 8,062
Wellington Phoenix: 20.Glen MOSS (gk), 5.Karl DODD, 7.Ross ALOISI (captain) (23.Costa BARBAROUSES 77-), 8.Vaughan COVENY, 10.Michael FERRANTE, 11.DANIEL (14.Steven O-DOR 87-), 12.Richard JOHNSON (22.Royce BROWNLIE 75-), 13.Steven OLD, 16.Kristian REES, 17.Vince LIA, 19.Greg DRAPER, 21.FELIPE.
Substitutes Not Used: 40.Stuart WEBSTER (gk).
Yellow Cards: Steven Old 61-/90+1-, Kristian Rees 77-, Vaughan Coveny 78-.
Red Cards: Steven Old 90+1-.
Sydney FC: 1.Clint BOLTON (gk), 2.Iain FYFE, 4.Mark RUDAN, 6.Tony POPOVIC (captain), 7.Robbie MIDDLEBY, 9.David ZDRILIC, 11.Brendon SANTALAB (21.Adam BIDDLE 59-), 14.Alex BROSQUE 22.JUNINHO (3.Nikolas TSATTALIOS 77-), 23.Ufuk TALAY, 28.Michael BRIDGES.
Substitutes Not Used:, 13.Ben VIDAIC, 20.Ivan NECEVSKI (gk).
Yellow Cards: Tony Popovic 27-/70-.
Red Cards: Tony Popovic 70-.
