Sydney FC have gone down 1-0 to a spirited Macarthur FC at Campbelltown Sports Stadium, seeing their home final hopes suffer as they couldn’t find a way through a compact Bulls defence.
Sydney FC 0 def by. Macarthur FC 1 (Drew 45+’2)
Moments That Mattered:
33’ REDMAYNE SAVE- Jed Drew streams down the pitch and centres it to Charles M’Mombwa. He releases a shot, but it finds the hands of Andrew Redmayne.
37’ VUJICA RED CARD – Joe Lolley looks to lob the ball over Ivan Vujica. Vujica’s foot clips the midfielder’s ankle as he attempts a volley, and after a VAR check, he is shown red.
45+ DREW GOAL – Drew runs through the Sky Blue defence and shoots. The shot rebounds off Redmayne and back into his feet, where he capitalises.
52’ REDMAYNE SAVE – Drew lays the ball off the Valere Germain, but Redmayne blocks his shot.
67’ SMITH RED CARD – As Sydney FC created an attacking play, Smith palmed Fabio Gomes, seeing him falling, clutching his jaw. After the VAR review, Smith sees red.
75’ LOLLEY DISALLOWED GOAL- Luke Brattan lofts the ball across the box and finds Joe Lolley. Lolley takes a touch and buries it beyond the keeper. But VAR called him offside.
What They Said: Joe Lolley: “We were just off a little bit of the pace and we weren’t winning of the duels, just a very bad night.
“It felt like we were going to get a goal and I thought we were going to win the game, but they defended well and we didn’t create enough, we didn’t do well enough.
“The [red] is shocking. He’s caught me a little bit, but it’s just football.
“You see those challenges every week and it makes you scared to try to even make a tackle.”
Ufuk Talay:
“We were collectively poor tonight. The decision-making, the duals, they were a lot more hungrier than us.
“Even when they went down to ten and then nine men, we tried to play around them.
“They gave us space on the edge tonight, but execution wise we were quite poor.
“It’s similar to our Brisbane game where we played the derby the last time. We’ve come off a massive high and then obviously [failed to] continue to back it up.”
Match Report:
Sydney FC was unable to salvage three points against a nine-man Macarthur FC despite controlling the contest.
A late first-half strike to Jed Drew proved to be the decisive goal as the Sky Blues could not equalise.
It was a fruitful start between the two sides gunning for a home semi-final, as they pierced each other’s defensive lines, troubling the keepers.
Macarthur began to work themselves into the match over the next period, pushing and pulling the Sky Blue defence. Still, they weren’t able to find a way in.
Twenty-five minutes in, Sydney FC began to press, flipping the Macarthur momentum from the previous ten minutes, closing down their attacks and moving into the Bulls box.
Macarthur, however, almost found the opener on the counter through Charles M’Mombwa, but Redmayne was there to meet it.
As half-time beckoned, The Bulls’ went down to 10 men after Ivan Vujica raised his foot and struck Joe Lolley’s ankle.
The Sky Blues continued to wrestle, but Jed Drew opened the scoring on the cusp of half-time when he received the ball and shot.
The ball rebounded off Redmayne’s knee straight back to Drew, where he thrashed it into the roof of the net.
With it all to do in the second half, Sydney FC looked intent to equalise, and then they thought they had done it within three minutes when an offside Fabio Gomes chipped Filip Kurto. However, Uskok cleared his attempt off the line.
The Sky Blues couldn’t find a way past the compact Macarthur defence and almost conceded their second when Valere Germain was given a through pass from Drew.
Sydney FC continued to shift around the Bulls, now clocking up to 60% of possession, as they pressed on looking for the equaliser.
And it became too frustrating for Macarthur as Tommy Smith palmed Fabio Gomes in a Sydney FC attack, seeing the defender concede the Bull’s second red card of the evening.
With nine men and 20 minutes to go, it seemed that the Sky Blues equaliser was imminent, and moments later, Joe Lolley equalised after Luke Brattan lobbed the ball into his feet. But, the fourth official called called him offside.
Sydney FC shook it off, moving into a growing fatigued Macarthur box, but they still couldn’t find the clinical touch.
The fourth official showed eight additional minutes as the Sky Blues continued to pour into the Bulls final third. Still, Macarthur held on, seeing them surpass Sydney FC on the ladder and take the three points.
The Sky Blues will look to turn their loss around against Perth Glory in the final round of the Isuzu UTE A-League home and away season next Sunday afternoon at Allianz Stadium.
Sydney FC: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE (GK), 9. Fabio GOMES, 10. Joe LOLLEY, 12. Corey HOLLMAN (11. Robert MAK 46’), 15. Gabriel LACERDA, 16. Joel KING (28. Nathan AMANATIDIS 90’), 17. Anthony CACERES, 22. Max BURGESS (25. Jaiden KUCHARSKI 69’), 23. Rhyan GRANT, 26. Luke BRATTAN ©, 27. Hayden MATTHEWS.
Unused Subs: 20. Adam PAVLESIC (GK), 3. Aaron GURD, 6. Jack RODWELL, 19. Mitch GLASSON.
Yellow Cards: Brattan (90+4)
Red Cards: None
Macarthur FC: 12. Filip KURTO (GK), 3. Tommy SMITH, 6. Tomislav USKOK, 13. Ivan VUJICA, 15. Kearyn BACCUS (4. Matthew JURMAN 74’), 17. Raphael BORGES RODRIGUES (24. Charles M’MOMBWA 21’), 18. Walter SCOTT, 23. Clayton LEWIS, 31. Lachlan ROSE (14. Kristian POPOVIC 82’), 37. Jed DREW (7. Daniel DE SILVA 74’), 98. Valere GERMAIN © (20. Kealey ADAMSON 82’).
Unused Subs: 1. Danijel NIZIC, 52. Ariath PIOL.
Yellow Cards: Drew (27’), Baccus (41’)
Red Cards: Vujica (37’) Smith (67’)
Venue: Campbelltown Stadium
Referee: Daniel Elder
