Sydney FC youngster Chris Naumoff scored in his third consecutive A-League pre season friendly tonight as a young Sky Blues side drew 1-1 with the Macarthur Rams at Campbelltown Stadium.
Sydney FC youngster Chris Naumoff scored in his third consecutive A-League pre season friendly tonight as a young Sky Blues side drew 1-1 with the Macarthur Rams at Campbelltown Stadium.
Naumoff made it five goals in three games with a delicate chip to level the scores midway through the second half after the Sky Blues went behind just after the break through a spectacular goal by Alvaro Malmierca.
Sydney FC Coach Frank Farina rested a host of first choice players ahead of the six-match three-week tour of Italy as Sebastian Ryall, Pedj Bojic, Matt Jurman, Brett Emerton, Corey Gameiro, Nick Carle and Rhyan Grant watched from the sidelines while Terry McFlynn and Yairo Yau made their first appearances of the pre season.
Despite the changes, Farina deployed his charges to work on the new system the Sky Blues have been adopting during the pre season, lining up in a 4-3-3 formation.
The match was played on a slippery surface at Campbelltown Stadium with both sides finding it difficult to get into rhythm. Sydney FC-s fluency was not helped by the number of changes but the Sky Blues did settle into a pattern after 15 minutes.
Mitch Mallia had the better of the chances in a disjointed first half, narrowly missing with two chances midway through the first half while Yau and Joel Chianese also came close with first half efforts.
Farina made further changes at half time, bringing on Naumoff, Anthony Tomelic, Luke Clifford, Jacob Tratt and Josh MacDonald for McFlynn, Ali Abbas, Marc Warren, Chianese and Lucas Stergiou as the Sky Blues looked to give the youth and fringe players some game time.
Macarthur took full advantage soon after the break with midfielder Alvaro Malmierca opening the scoring with a spectacular 30m curling shot to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
Sydney FC soon levelled proceedings when Naumoff found the back of the net in his third consecutive match. Naumoff latched onto a neat flick from Mallia and with the ‘keeper advancing chipped the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-1 in the 65th minute.
Neither side managed to add to the score during a stop-start final 25 minutes and the game finished 1-1 in front of 2324 fans at Campbelltown Stadium.
The Sydney FC squad departs for Italy on Friday morning where they will play six matches against Italian clubs as part of a three-week pre season tour.
Sydney FC 1 (Chris Naumoff 65) drew Macarthur Rams 1 (Alvaro Malmierca 53)
Campbelltown Stadium
Referee: Kris Griffiths-Jones
Crowd: 2324
Sydney FC team: Ivan NECEVSKI, Marc WARREN (Luke CLIFFORD ‘46), Tiago CALVANO, Daniel PETKOVSKI, Lucas STERGIOU (Jacob TRATT ‘46), Terry MCFLYNN (Anthony TOMELIC ‘46), Ali ABBAS (Josh MACDONALD ‘46), Peter TRIANTIS, Yairo YAU, Joel CHIANESE (Christopher NAUMOFF ‘46), Mitch MALLIA.
Sub not used: Vedran JANJETOVIC
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