A fantastic solo strike from Sydney FC marquee player Filip Holosko in a dominant Sky Blues performance was cruelly cancelled out by a late Wellington Phoenix penalty at Westpac Stadium on Saturday.
Graham Arnold’s men were denied countless times by Phoenix goalkeeper Glen Moss who also saved a second half penalty from Andrew Hoole. Hear what the player’s thought of the key moments from our clash in New Zealand.
O’Neill hits the bar: Brandon O’Neill elects to take a Sky Blues free kick just outside the area in a central part of the field. Exhibiting a fantastic technique, O’Neill lifts the ball up and over the wall however there’s not enough dip on the ball and it clatters into the bar and is cleared.
“I thought it was in, turns out it wasn’t,” O’Neill said.
“I hit it cleanly and on another day it would have bounced back to one of our on-rushing strikers.”
Hoole penalty miss: After being brought down in the box by Muscat, Hoole steps up to take the spot kick however Moss guesses correctly and pulls off a superb save, diving low to his right, to deny Sydney FC from 12 yards.
“He’s a confident young boy so when he grabbed it I felt that he had the confidence to take it,” said Captain Alex Brosque.
“Penalties are all about confidence, if someone’s confident and thinks they can do the job then so be it, but a penalty is a 50-50 type thing and he’ll learn from it.
“For me it was a good penalty and the keepers saved it, the best players in the world miss penalties. I’m glad he had the confidence in himself to step up and take it.”
Holosko goal: Exhibiting all the qualities of a marquee, Filip Holosko carries the ball forward, eluding two defenders, before bursting into the area and curling a low effort beyond Moss and into the far corner for the opening goal of the game.
“I’m happy with every goal, but when I score we don’t seem to win though,” Holosko joked.
“I’m happy I have four goals now, every goal is good for my confidence and I think it was a nice goal.
“It’s unfortunate that we didn’t win, when I scored in the 84th minute I thought 100% we would win but unfortunately we conceded a penalty at the end.”
