Sydney FC 1 (Le Fondre 35’) def. by Melbourne Victory 2 (Toivonen 24’, Honda (Pen.) 71’)
Sydney FC has dominated its match again Melbourne Victory but narrowly fallen in a 2-1 defeat in front of a packed house at Jubilee Stadium.
Moments That Mattered:
- Redmayne Save – 4’ – Redmayne gets strong hands to deflect Barbarouses’ shot away from goal.
- Toivonen Goal – 24’ – A deflected shot from the Melbourne striker sends Redmayne the wrong way.
- Le Fondre Goal – 35’ – Thomas saves the Englishman’s penalty but Le Fondre follows up and buries from close range.
- Grant Chance – 49’ – O’Neill’s driven diagonal ball finds Grant’s head but it’s palmed away and cleared.
- Honda Goal (Pen.) – 71’ – Jop van der Linden brings Honda down before the Japanese international slots home from the spot.
- van der Linden Chance – 80’ – The Dutchman’s corner almost catches Thomas off-guard but is just tipped away.
In a pulsating first half, Melbourne drew first blood fortuitously through Toivonen as his deflected shot sent the ball inches away from Redmayne and into the net.
However, it took just over ten minutes for the Sky Blues to draw level through talisman Le Fondre after he followed in his own saved penalty to belt home from a metre out.
Whilst the Sky Blues dominated the second half it was Melbourne who retook the lead from the spot after van der Linden brought down Honda in the box.
Corica’s men pushed to the final whistle for the equaliser but it wasn’t to be.
Sydney FC now turn their attention to Central Coast at Gosford next Saturday afternoon, before returning home for a ‘Mates Night Out’ clash against the Wellington Phoenix at Jubilee Stadium (kick off 5:35pm AEDT).
What they said:
Head Coach Steve Corica
“Disappointing because I thought we dominated in the first and the second half, but two mistakes you get punished. We’ll learn from that. I’m proud of the effort from the boys.
“We would have liked to threaten more, we threatened more than they did but the score line didn’t show that.
“We’ve started looking to bring someone in January. With Buhagiar out, we lost a bit of pace so we’ll be looking at someone like that.
“We don’t like losing, especially at home. I think Melbourne will be happy as we were the better team but we need to take our chances.
“It was a fantastic atmosphere out there and it’s a great venue. We’ve played here before, we’ve won here before and we’re looking forward to our next game here and getting a win.”
Sydney FC: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE (GK), 4. Alex WILKINSON, 5. Jop VAN DER LINDEN, 6. Joshua BRILLANTE (2. Aaron CALVER 88’), 7. Michael ZULLO, 8. Paulo RETRE (11. Daniel DE SILVA 79’), 9. Adam LE FONDRE, 10. Milos NINKOVIC, 13. Brandon O’NEILL, 14. Alex BROSQUE (21. Charles LOKOLI-NGOY, 79’), 23. Rhyan GRANT.
Subs Not Used: 20. Aleksander CISAK (GK), 24. Cameron DEVLIN.
Yellow Cards: 23. Rhyan GRANT 74’
Red Cards: None.
Melbourne Victory: 20. Lawrence THOMAS (GK), 2. Storm ROUX, 3. Corey BROWN, 4. Keisuke HONDA, 5. Georg NIEDERMEIER (22. Nicholas ANSELL 90+3), 8. Terry ANTONIS (15. Raul BAENA 62’), 9. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 10. James TROISI, 11. Ola TOIVONEN (6. Leigh BROXHAM 68’), 14. Thomas DENG, 21. Carl VALERI.
Subs not used: 1. Matthew ACTION (GK), 16. Joshua HOPE.
Yellow Cards: Kevin MUSCAT (Manager) 45+1’, 10. James TROISI 62’, 4. Keisuke HONDA 84’
Red Cards: None.
Ground: Jubilee Stadium
Crowd: 19,081
Referee: Peter Green
