Sydney FC 1 Lion City Sailors 0
That famous phrase about putting all your eggs in one basket came to fruition on Wednesday night when a dreadful season coughed up the ultimate slap in the face for the Sydney FC supporters with elimination from the second-tier Asian Champions League 2 at the semi-final stage. A performance that took us right back the final throes of the Steve Corica era saw the Sky Blues camp around the Lion City Sailors’ penalty area with no idea how to break through the defence, and it was only in the final five minutes that the home team looked capable of pulling off the unlikely. The immediate emptying of the stadium at the final whistle told a sorry story. This was a dark moment in a dark period for our famous club.
Wednesday night 8pm kick off meant a 5.15pm departure via Parramatta and Central, and I met Michelle from work in the city at the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park, a ten minute walk from Allianz Stadium. It’s been a long time since we’ve done pre-game at any other place other than the pub there, and we were experienced enough to know that you run the gauntlet if you order food at any of the venues here. Needless to say we waited an uncomfortable amount of time, finally tucking into our American burgers at the Winghaus with barely 30 minutes before kick off. Good food mind you, and a smashing beer to go wth it. On to Allianz Stadium then, and the ten minute walk past all the cars parked on Driver Avenue where there appeared to be a clearway in action. We wondered how many people would not have known the game was on, and the fact that the clearway was put in place late in the day – could have been a field day for the parking inspectors!
The crowd tonight, as the rain sprinkled, was a mix between die-hard fans and interested blow-ins, along with a good contingent of Singapore support in the away end, with their flags up on the seats at the back. The stadium was pretty empty, but there were a lot of people still coming in; not another pissy 5,000 crowd, but definitely not the numbers we’d seen on the weekend for the Auckland game. We made our way up to Cove Heights, where our usual section had been spread a little, but there were decent numbers.
Our Cove capo and drummer were straight from work in their shirts, leading away the Cove in good-natured sing-song. There was an early SFC chant and the customary “Come on you boys in blue” to the three sides of the stadium, which was well received. The mood was good, the stakes were high, and the game got underway with Sydney FC completely dominating. Anthony Caceres smashed one in near post that was pushed away for a corner up the far end, and when the corner came in, there was a mad scramble and Jordan Courtney-Perkins smashed in a goal. The celebrations were huge. Just the start we needed. However, as the players lined up for the restart, VAR was called into action, and the goal was eventually chalked off. We had no replays, we had no idea what was being checked, but the referee restarted with an offside call and we had our first hint that this was going to be a tough night. Deja vu at Allianz Stadium.
Adrian Segacic fired a free kick wide but it had taken a touch – it looked like a wasted opportunity – and the Sailors’ number 17 then found himself clear on goal. Harrison Devenish-Meares hesitated, but was fortunate to make the save and Sydney FC had escaped. The rain started to lash down, a curtain of mist coming across the floodlights, and we could feel the drops even at our lofty position in Cove Heights. Sydney were in command, but it all looked very pedestrian. Joe Lolley was an NPC, strolling around the field, Leo Sena was infuriatingly slow-moving, and the Sky Blues were seemingly content to wait for an opportunity that might never come. That chance appeared to come from nowhere just before the break, when our best player Anthony Caceres clipped a ball over the top and Rhyan Grant ran in to steer a header just out of the reach of the Lion City goalkeeper. It was almost like his winner in the Grand Final that time, but again the offside flag was up; we didn’t get a chance to see it, but we knew that the expert officials from the AFC would get it right.
The referee in fact had been good and bad. The good was that he refused to stop play for every pathetic flop to the floor. The bad was that he fell for some of them; at one point we had a two minute delay while a player was down for treatment, and then he let the player back on after one second on the sideline. This was all rather predictable by the visitors, and the home team were getting fired up. There were half chances for the Sailors as they broke three on two, but some stout defending kept the visitors to long shots.
Half time saw no half-time heroes on the field, no entertainment, nothing. There was instruction on the big screen of how VAR works. How very 1984. A quick walk around the stadium allowed a quick look at fans in the away end, who were loving the occasion, posing for group photos from the photgraphers on the field; I was back in my seat as the second half kicked off, ready to ride the emotion of another forty-five minutes of AFC Champions League 2 anguish.
Sydney FC had no choice but to go for it in the second half. That left the door open for the visitors, and they had the first chance, an overload on the left allowing a free shot that was blazed over the bar. Sydney came forward, but it was tough to watch. It was a throw-back to Corica-ball as the ball would be passed around the outside of the penalty area from one side to the other and then back again, going backwards more than forwards. Lion City Sailors were in defence mode and wouldn’t let Sydney into the penalty area or let them have any space for a shot. Patryk Klimala tried to con the referee into a penalty; it looked plausible, but with many fans looking at the coverage on their phones for a replay, it was difficult to tell whether or not there was a touch from the defender. I thought he was going down already anyway. He headed one on target soon after which the goalkeeper saved with a slightly over-the-top dive, and the ball just wouldn’t fall for us.
The game management tactics of the Sailors were as expected, the referee falling for one in particular when the striker went down after simply falling over, and a three-minute delay saw most of the Sydney players remonstrating with the referee as to why the game had been stopped. Rhyan Grant toe-poked a shot over the bar when he was well placed. An off-the-ball incident saw Douglas Costa booked – he must have put an arm in front of the player who immediately hit the deck in mock agony. There was even a red card check, the referee heading to the sideline to have a look, but he waved it away. This was heating up. We started to see replays on the screen, consistency never a big part of the AFC experience, but Sydney were continuing their ploy of buzzing around the box with no penetration whatsoever. Corners from Costa were ineffectual. Costa got involved again with a player who fell over from a bump. We held our breath.
Tiago Quintal was on. He got into some good positions on the right, but his crossing was hopeless, the ball cleared every time from the near post with no blue shirt anywhere near it. Segecic tried his luck again but it was blocked. We now had Costa running the show, even though his head didn’t seem to be in the game since the near-miss of the potential red card. Finally, Sydney struck, Joe Lolley taking a knock-back by Rhyan Grant on the right and given space to find a superb shot which nestled into the net to a huge roar from the crowd. We now had ten minutes or so to rescue this. Game on!
To be honest, I had watched the majority of the second half through my hands; we had never once been convinved that this was on. The Cove roared as always, and the volume went up after Lolley’s goal. The weary endings to games recently were forgotten and the whole stadium was invigorated. Costa even showed us his long throw, which we’d never seen. Caceres struck one near post, but the keeper was in control, Rhyan Grant had the last chance but it was way over. There were six minutes of stoppage time, but the whistle seemed to go well before that. Sydney FC had been dumped out of this painful tournament at the semi-finals when they could and should have won handsomely tonight.
The final whistle saw most people get up and leave. No booing. No fuss. Just resignation, even a feeling of being duped by the club when they said this was the biggest night in their history. No doubt the club will now try and convince us that we’re a good chance at the top six and try and pull in a crowd to a difficult timeslot on Easter Sunday.
We were out of there quick smart, and luckily out of the car park at Moore Park very smoothly, rocking up at home before 11pm, tired and still annoyed.
This was a Sydney FC experience to forget. For all the pontification about how we were going to win this trophy, the football on the field did its talking and we were made to pay for profligacy in the second leg, following a simply inept performance in the first leg in Singapore. The slow-motion attacking, the lack of ideas beyond the midfield, the inability to draw out the opponent and the lack of urgency to get into the penalty area were horrible to see. Memories of those dark days under Corica, a tip of the hat to Macarthur away when we couldn’t beat nine men with a full complement, this was simply not good enough.
With rumours of a contract extension for coach Ufuk Talay and persistent talk of disquiet akin to Steve Bruce’s tenure at Newcastle United, Sunday’s game against free-scoring Newcastle Jets looks like a potential Waterloo. The gritted teeth, bitten fingernails and disconsolation of tonight’s game may put off a lot of people on Sunday, but we’ll be there, clinging to the hope of a finals spot to rescue this awful, awful season for the club. Forza Sydney FC.