*Header photo by Jaime Castaneda (@jamcas50)
Sydney FC 2 (de Jong 13’, Tratt 48’) def. Adelaide United 1 (Goodwin pen 50’)
Sydney FC have returned to the winners circle with a 2-1 victory over Adelaide United this evening at Jubilee Stadium off the back of a stunning first half free kick from Siem de Jong and a second strike of the season to Jacob Tratt.
Moments That Mattered:
- de Jong Screamer – 13’ – Ninkovic draws the foul on the edge of the box and de Jong makes no mistake, banging a beautiful free kick into the top right corner and leaving the Adelaide keeper puzzled.
- Izzo Save – 35’ – Le Fondre tussled his way into a scoring opportunity one-on-one with the keeper, but Izzo was up to the challenge coming off his line and pulling off a desperate save.
- Tratt Goal – 48’ – The defender steams onto a pinpoint corner from O’Neill and heads it low into the back of the net to give the Sky Blues a two-goal buffer right after halftime.
- Goodwin Penalty – 50’ – Moments after extending our lead, Calver gives away a penalty and Goodwin makes no mistake from the spot as he drills it into the bottom corner, just out of Redmayne’s reach.
- VAR No Goal – 64’ – de Jong looked to have scored his second and potentially sealed the win for Sydney FC, but the VAR overturned the decision after it was found Le Fondre was offside in the build up.
- Brosque Chance – 86’ – The skipper had been in everything since coming off the bench and he looked like he was going to seal it, but his left-footed volley from just outside the area narrowly missed.
- Redmayne Save – 90’ +2 – It looked certain that United were going to steal a point late but a fantastic low diving save from the Sky Blues gloveman allowed us to hang on after some later pressure from the visitors.
A sensational free kick from Siem de Jong and a header from Jacob Tratt has helped Sydney FC return to form at Jubilee Stadium with a 2-1 victory over Adelaide United in an entertaining affair.
The Sky Blues dominated proceedings early and were rewarded with a 1-0 lead at the break after de Jong produced a fantastic top corner free kick from just outside the penalty area, which gave the opposition keeper no chance.
Adam Le Fondre found himself in front of goal later in the first half but a nice piece of goalkeeping from Izzo allowed United to remain in the contest going into halftime.
Tratt scored to give the Sky Blues the perfect start to the second half, but it was cancelled out just two minutes later as Calver gave away a penalty and Goodwin made sure the contest would return to the one-goal deficit for the away side.
Sydney FC had looked to have scored a third before it was overturned via a VAR decision that showed Le Fondre was offside in the lead up, denying de Jong a brace after his first-half pearler.
Brosque had the chance to seal it with a few minutes remaining but his shot went wide, and it almost proved costly with the visitors close to stealing a point in stoppage time.
A ball came across goal and reached Kitto unmarked at the far post but Redmayne was down low to make a brilliant save with seconds remaining on the clock.
The Sky Blues meet Newcastle Jets next Saturday at Jubilee Stadium.
What They Said:
Head Coach Steve Corica: “Tonight was a much better performance defensively and at 2-0 we were looking good. We had the goal overturned and Brosquey miss that one at the end so it could have been far more convincing than it ended up.
“They only had two shots on target and Redders did his job when the time was right so we could get away with the win.
“I thought both Jacob and Danny were really good and it was great for Tratty to come up with a goal as well. We need to be better with the ball next week but I thought we were really good defensively today and both those boys played well.
“I had to rest Brosquey because six games in a month is a lot for him, so we had to freshen up the squad a little bit tonight. I thought Siem played his best game for us tonight scoring that really good free kick.
“We have some really important games coming up with Wellington on the 23rd and Victory down there on the 26th so we will need to look at giving some of the others a rest and manage that but we have the depth to do that and the players coming in are quality.”
Sydney FC: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE (GK) 2. Aaron CALVER 4. Alex WILKINSON © 6. Josh BRILLANTE 7. Michael ZULLO 9. Adam LE FONDRE 10. Milos NINKOVIC (8. Paulo RETRE 82’) 11. Danny DE SILVA (14. Alex BROSQUE 65’) 13. Brandon O’NEILL 18. Jacob TRATT 22. Siem DE JONG
SUBS NOT USED: 17. Anthony CACERES 20. Alex CISAK (GK) 31. Luke IVANOVIC
Yellow Cards: Brillante 36’, Tratt 82’.
Red Cards: None.
Adelaide United: 3. Scott GALLOWAY 4. Ryan STRAIN (2. Michael MARRONE 76’) 6. Vince LIA (7. Ryan KITTO 76’) 8. ISAIAS © 10. Ken ILSO LARSEN (14. George BLACKWOOD 45’) 11. Craig GOODWIN 17. Nikola MILEUSNIC 20. Paul IZZO (GK) 22. Michael JAKOBSEN 23. Jordan ELSEY 26. Benjamin HALLORAN
SUBS NOT USED: 1. Daniel MARGUSH (GK) 16. Nathan KONSTANDOPOLOUS
Yellow Cards: Jakobsen 80’
Red Cards: None.
Ground: Jubilee Stadium
Attendance: 11,560
Referee: Adam Kersey
