Adelaide United 4 Sydney FC 3
Sydney FC’s latest game against Adelaide United at Allianz Stadium, an away match at our own stadium, was game four for the weekend, and was definitely one of the most entertaining ones despite the Sky Blues’ capitulation. Having sweltered at Leichhardt Oval on Friday and caught most of the Central Coast Mariners’ game before this one, we were on a roll, and our game just had to be exciting. Taking an early lead and pounding the door for more, it was a shock to see the performance unravel and the ‘home’ team expose the frailties of the Sydney FC defence. A late comeback never really seemed on, and to call this a close result would be doing Adelaide a disservice; what we got though was a cracking A-League experience and a memorable day out at the country’s best rectangular stadium.
Our plans took an interesting twist – just missing a light rail tram by a few seconds, with a 14-minute wait til the next, we decided to walk up to our pre-game venue in Surry Hills. Walking past the Irish pub opposite the Royal Exhibition, the one where the Ireland fans had been trading chants with the Matildas fans across the road during the Women’s World Cup, and lo and behold there was King George, a familiar face from the terraces of many national team games, on his first drink. Our meeting spot was quickly rearranged and our gang converged, and it was a Qatar reunion, very appropriate ahead of the Socceroos’ first game in the Asian Cup later that night. The session was in full swing, but we made the call to get to the first game of the double-header, so Rails and myself caught the light rail up to the stadium and made our way in, ten minutes after kick off.
Sitting in the closest section of seats to the main gate, back where we used to sit in the old stadium when the kids were much smaller, it was a throwback to some memorable games at Allianz Stadium, the 5-2 defeat to Newcastle, the 2-2 draw with Wanderers. The football was good, one of my favourite players Christian Theoharous was starting for a change for the Mariners, and it was great to see the exciting duo of Zinedine Machach and Daniel Arzani playing for Victory in a game that didn’t mean anything to Sydney FC. The Mariners’ defence coughed up a silly penalty to hand Melbourne Victory the lead at the break and we made our way up to our usual seats up in Cove Heights, the birds eye view making it easy to see the whole field.
The Cove came to life as the game neared its completion – Mariners had scored a devastatingly simple goal to equalise and the temptation to berate the Victory fans with “f*ck you Melbourne Victory, ole” was too tempting. The Cove were in their rightful home, the crowd had been entertained, the Central Coast fans in full sun had their shirts off and were celebrating with their players. Everything was good in the world.
The rest of our crew had arrived, some comedy stewarding meant that some of our group were not allowed into our mainly-vacant section – they simply walked back down the stairs, up the next set of stairs and joined us from the other direction. Definitely making us feel like the away fans in our own stadium! We went for a walk around the stadium to pick up some food and drink, and stumbled on some activations – a bit of playstation and FIFA for the kids, facepaints, and you could get a temporary tattoo of any team’s crest – nice touch!
It was good to see the Heartbeat of Football crew out again, giving free heart checks, a feature during the live site at Darling Harbour back in July. The mascots were all there, the DJ was taking special requests from the kids, and the Adelaide fans were congregating in their corner next to where the Victory fans had been. There was no sign of any Victory fans hanging around for game two of the double-header. Completing the circuit of the stadium, half of the stadium may have been unaware of the activations – there was nothing at all on the other side.
Back in our seats with horrifically over-priced but delicious stadium food and bev, the Cove was bouncing down below us ahead of the game. The fireworks went off, sending colourful smoke around the stadium, the players arrived on the field, and the home fans sang “We Are Sydney” in defiance at being the away team.
Now, there’s no point describing the action that you can quite happily search up on Google, and to be honest, the tequilas earlier in the day had perhaps affected my memory, but the first twenty minutes Sydney FC were absolutely dominant. Shooting towards our end, Anthony Caceres scored a lovely opener, Fabio somehow missed an open goal to leave us all with our heads in our hands, it was relentless. From then on though, the Sydney FC defence stood back and watched as Adelaide tore them apart. First, the big fella Hiroshi Ibusuki tapped in as the Reds sliced right through the heart of the midfield. Then he was on hand to turn inside and beat Andrew Redmayne from pretty much the penalty spot, taking advantage of the non-existent marking of the brittle Sydney backline. We were deep into injury time in the first half, a lengthy stoppage rewarding us with another goal, this time Ibusuki flying down the left to deliver a delightful ball in. Hot property Nestory Irankunda met the cross at the far post to drill goalwards, Sydney seemed to scramble the ball away, and the whistle from the referee appeared to signal some sort of infringement to save us. That wasn’t the case though, the ref had simply blown the whistle in his excitement at the goal and in the total confusion, Irankunda did his party trick with most of the crowd unsure as to whether the goal had stood. So, half-time, and after a majestic opening to the game, Sydney FC were deep in trouble.
The Cove was in great voice tonight, and despite being 3-1 down, the mood was one of hedony and mischief. We didn’t feel as though Sydney FC were out of it, and the next goal could be pivotal. Zac De Jesus was taken off, he’d been given a torrid time and exposed as having little to offer going forward, to be replaced by the much-maligned Jordan Courtney-Perkins, memories of the solid performances of the unwanted Kealey Adamson still fresh in the Sydney fans’ heads.
The half was going nowhere and the Sky Blues made attacking changes, crowd pleaser Maxi Burgess on and then Paddy Wood injected. Ufuk Talay was seen kicking out at the svertising hoardings in his technical area, things weren’t going well. And they got worse as an absolutely fantastic fourth goal sealed the game, a looping cross from the Adelaide right, down in front of us, was headed home majestically by Ibusuki for his hat-trick, again the defence giving him the freedom of the penalty area to get in position to pick his spot. It was hands over the eyes time for the Sydney fans.
The two-goal deficit was restored when Joe Lolley bundled home at the far end, we all expected a foul to be given; it’s always the way now when your team scores, you celebrate half-heartedly and wait for the VAR check. The goal stood though, and we still had time to claw it back. Mitchell Glasson was thrown on as the last roll of the dice, Rhyan Grant went down needing treatment, and Sydney belatedly pulled it back to 4-3 when Lolley smashed a shot from distance that took a kind deflection to wrong-foot the goalkeeper. Any thoughts of a grandstand final three minutes didn’t eventuate, and the final whistle confirmed our fate. A disappointing defeat to cap off an otherwise wonderful day.
The heavens had opened – Sydney was putting on a display of its true summer weather, scalding unexpecting visitors during the day and drenching them at night. The usual post-game mill-around while the players and fans interact was jettisoned in favour of heading straight to Cheers Bar in the city to catch the kick off for the Socceroos game; rumours had been circulating about the proposed live site at Moore Park, that it might not even be going ahead due to the weather. Rails headed off there all the same, while the rest of us took the light rail straight to the pub, where the game was already ten minutes old.
This was where Unite Round came into its own. We had many supporters of the national teams together in one place, Adelaide shirts mixing with Victory shirts, Socceroos shirts and Perth Glory hats everywhere. This was what it was about. Familiar faces, excited fans, and the Socceroos game served up a cracker, much closer than everyone expected, and the right result for the adoring public.
The beers continued to flow after the game and the pub thinned out, not much Premier League action to keep everyone in place, and we ended up quickly polishing off a quick pizza slice before catching a well-priced Uber back to the North Western suburbs of Sydney, back just as the players were warming up in the Newcastle v Man City game.
What a day! Top quality top-flight football from the A-League, plenty of friendly faces from Qatar and other national team outings, a sprinkling of booze to help things along and a warm glow as Unite Round reached its pinnacle. More football tomorrow, games five and six back at Allianz Stadium, would we be footballed out or would this controversial magic round give us more thrills and spills to keep us entertained?