Birthday boy Alex Brosque scored with ten seconds remaining to salvage a point and maintain Sydney FC’s unbeaten record against Perth Glory.
Birthday boy Alex Brosque scored with ten seconds remaining to salvage a point and maintain Sydney FC’s unbeaten record against Perth Glory.
Sydney FC was heading for its first-ever Hyundai A-League loss to Perth Glory until Brosque, who had opened the scoring five minutes before half time, completed his team’s comeback from 3-1 down with his second goal of the game and his competition-leading fourth strike of the season.
Celebrating his 24th birthday, Brosque put Sydney FC ahead just before the break when he outmuscled Jamie Coyne to latch on to Brendon Santalab’s through ball, advanced into the box and stroked the ball past Tommi Tomich. Perth Glory captain Simon Colosimo voiced his disapproval of match referee Matthew Breeze’s decision not to blow for a foul and consequently received a yellow card.
Sydney FC’s players sucked on their half-time oranges 1-0 up but Perth Glory drew level seven minutes after the resumption. Emergency right back David Zdrilic conceded a free kick for a hefty challenge on Nick Rizzo that earned him a caution and, from the resulting quickly taken set piece, Dino Djulbic’s backwards header fell into the path of Jamie Harnwell, who scored from 12 metres.
Seven minutes later and Perth Glory took the lead through James Robinson after Sydney FC had let Coyne motor 40 metres down the middle of the pitch before playing a defence-splitting pass on to which Robinson ran and finished with great style.
The game looked done and dusted when, in the 69th minute, Patrick deflected Mitchell Prentice’s free kick past a wrong footed Clint Bolton but the Brazilian striker hauled Sydney FC back into the contest 120 seconds later after the ball has bounced around Perth Glory’s penalty area.
With Under 20 players Adam Biddle, Nikolas Tsattalios and Ben Vidaic on the park for Ufuk Talay, Terry McFlynn and Santalab respectively, Sydney FC went all out for an equalising goal. Patrick almost supplied it in the 83rd minute but Tomich blocked his shot from the edge of the box and then, two minutes into stoppage time, Juninho hit the underside of the crossbar with a free kick. The match and Sydney FC’s proud record of not losing a Hyundai A-League game to Perth Glory looked gone until Brosque latched on to Patrick’s clever downwards header to score at the death.
Perth Glory 3 (Jamie Harnwell 52′, James Robinson 59′, Mitchell Prentice 69′)
Sydney FC 3 (Alex Brosque 40′, 90+3′, Patrick 71′)
Date: Friday, October 12, 2007
Venue: Members Equity Stadium, Perth
Referee: Matthew Breeze
Crowd: 6,876
Perth Glory: 50. Tommi TOMICH (gk), 4. Simon COLOSIMO (captain), 5. Jamie HARNWELL (7. Anthony DANZE 85′), 6. Dino DJULBIC, 14. Jamie COYNE, 15. Mitchell PRENTICE, 16. Nick RIZZO (13. Nikita RUKAVYTSYA 80′), 17. Jimmy DOWNEY, 19. Naum SEKULOVSKI, 21. James ROBINSON, 25. Tyler SIMPSON.
Substitutes not used: 9. Mate DRAGICEVIC, 22. Danny MILOSEVIC (gk).
Yellow cards: Simon Colosimo 41′, Naum Sekulovski 48′, Mitchell Prentice 73′.
Sydney FC: 1. Clint BOLTON (gk), 2. Iain FYFE, 4. Mark RUDAN, 6. Tony POPOVIC (captain), 9. David ZDRILIC, 11. Brendon SANTALAB (13. Ben VIDAIC 83′), 12. PATRICK, 14. Alex BROSQUE, 15. Terry McFLYNN (3. Nikolas TSATTALIOS 73′), 22. JUNINHO, 23. Ufuk TALAY (21. Adam BIDDLE 60′).
Substitutes not used: 20. Ivan NECEVSKI (gk).
Yellow cards: David Zdrilic 52′.
