Sydney FC 1 Adelaide United 2
Sydney FC’s Valentines Day love-in went off the rails on Saturday night as an insipid performance welcomed two ego-signings to the club with a disastrous home defeat at Allianz Stadium. An early Tiago Quintal strike had the sparse crowd expecting a deluge of goals for the home side, but they left the door wide open minutes later for a sloppy equaliser. The second period followed a script that the Sydney fans could see right through, and when man-of-the-match Harrison Devenish-Meares was deceived by a deflection with time running out, the major signings of Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and Ahmet Arslan were destined not to be the knights in shining armour and the cavernous stadium was left in apathetic silence. What an end to a peculiar week; now that the women’s team have their mojo back, the men are in free-fall.
Plenty going on during the day meant that our expected departure time from the North Western suburbs of Sydney grew later and later and we ended up opting to drive again, completely against tradition, and found our way through the horrendously expensive Epping tunnel, under the harbour and to the Entertainment Quarter car park in what I still call Fox Studios. No time for a Bat’n’Ball excursion, and we saw Joel King and Paddy Wood sitting on their own at Watson’s pub, so went in and joined them for a chinwag. Good to be able to talk honestly with the players, couple of lovely, approachable lads, and their meet and greet session ended with a quick photo. The crowd at the Entertainment Quarter was a peculiar mix, with massive queues forming for two concerts at two different venues, the 3D glasses being handed out for one of the gigs asking a lot of questions.
The short walk up Driver Avenue suggested a lower crowd than usual, and so it turned out, the stands almost deserted when we arrived, but plenty of people milling around the concourse. I even made a club merch purchase, the promise of money off a scarf too much to resist from the smaller, less-busy shop by Gate 1. Our group in Cove Heights was healthy, good numbers despite the culturally significant date; the state of the pitch was a topic of discussion though, a wide strip of lighter grass running from end to end, not symmetrical, and having patches of sandy dirt between the two different types of grass. If we ever build our own purpose-built venue in the burbs, we won’t have to put up with this; despite the great days when we play West Sydney here, it is just too big and we cannot justify being here, and the problems with the playing surface this year have been ridiculous. After seeing 4,000 rattling around CommBank Stadium on Friday and then this paltry crowd in an even bigger venue, is the A-League really that healthy?
As always, the teams took a long time to come out, with the flag-bearers and banner-holders in position, and once they were out, the Cove started up with We Are Sydney to bring some atmosphere to the occasion. Great to see capo Winston back in place after a long hiatus, and he was clearly revelling in it. His call out to the Cove to slow down the We Are Sydney chant in the parts where the drum is not making the beat was long overdue, the chant having become a mess recently as people try to make it quicker and quicker.
Sydney started brightly, but Adelaide were dangerous whenever they got close to Devenish-Meares’ goal, a looping deflection causing flutters as the ball dropped onto the top of the net, fans thinking it was in. Red Wig Steve looked like Ronald McDonald in the away end from a distance, the Adelaide fans choosing to be at the bottom of the away section. Fifteen minutes in and Sydney took the lead. There didn’t seem too much on when Paul Okon-Engstler approached goal, but the defensive tackle sent the ball out to Quintal, who controlled and fired the ball home from a tight angle. It was up the far end, we couldn’t really see what happened, but on the replay we could see that he had found the small window between the keeper’s legs, the ball bouncing through into the net behind. One-nil, get in, surely we’d be treated to a hatful of goals now.
Alas, no. No sooner had we scored than Adelaide were level, and what a shoddy goal it was. The zonal-marking defence was nowhere to be seen as a cross from the right was played in and two Adelaide players were free, Ryan Kitto having a simple task of turning the ball home for 1-1. That was as loose a defensive moment as we’ve seen recently, and Devenish-Meares had no chance.
Marcel Tisserand had been learning a new passing style in traning all week, and he was trying it out for the first time tonight. On three separate occasions he tried to play a flat pinging ball through the middle and three times he coughed up possession with these wayward, over-engineered and unnecessary passes. Not good enough – we expect so much better. Corey Hollman was industrious and Okon-Engstler was classy, but couldn’t make anything happen. Sydney’s lack of invention was exposed when Rhyan Grant was caught wondering what to do with the ball and was dispossessed, the Sky Blues surviving the break, but it was perhaps a taste of what was to come. Piero Quispe stubbed one wide, Tisserand knocked a header onto the bar, and Victor Campuzano tried to make the run from the left on more than one occasion, but the ball wouldn’t come his way.
A goal a-piece at the break was about right, Adelaide having fashioned some chances too, and the feeling was that this game was on a knife-edge and we could well be looking at a defeat if the predicted double-substitution didn’t have the right impact. The half-time kiss cam was pretty funny, a Colplay-esque couple refusing to kiss and instead sharing a hug out of embarrassment.
Devenish-Meares made a great full-length save up the far end as Adelaide looked to break ealy in the second half. Sydney did make the totally predictable double sub on the hour, Campuzano must be wondering why he signed after seeing these two new players transferred in, and with Hollman making way, it was attack attack from the home side. Stamatelopoulos almost headed in with his first touch, Arslan had a curling effort pushed away, Rhyno appeared from nowhere to stab wide from right in front – the desired effect had be made, surely Sydney would score soon.
There was an extended We All Follow Sydney from the Cove, there were two balls on the field at one point, the referee coosing to boot one of them out and getting in the way of play. Quintal was a victim of the two-tone turf, the ball bobbling up, but his close control in the area was fantastic, teasing and turning but nothing on the end of it. Stamatelopoulos let the ball run across him fo a shot, but the ball lifted off the seam of the two grasses and his shot was wild, the new striker turning to look at the grass in disgust. Quispe remained on the field but was looking a spent force, Lolley went off for Akol Akon to huge applause, the crowd remembering his exploits against the Wanderers here. Rhys Youlley came on and gave the ball away with his first touch, but to be fair he did track back and win the ball back. All the while Adelaide threatened, Devenish-Meares was superb, and the game was ready to go either way.
Just as Sydney were thinking there was no way through, Adelaide broke upfield, as they had done at will in the second half. This time Luka Jovanovic seemed to have let the chance pass by, but he advanced on Tisserand, took a step inside and fired on goal. Devenish-Meares dived and the ball lifted up and through his hands for the softest of goals with three minutes left. The benefit of the big screen allowed us to see an unfortunate deflection off Tisserand that changed the trajectory of the ball and we were behind. Fans started to make their way to the exits. It was a tough watch. The lack of urgency in the remaining five or six minutes of play was striking though, the lack of a plan B was there for all to see, and the storming finish of years gone by with the Jaidan Kucharski or Paddy Wood energy was completely missing. In the end, it was an incredibly insipid finish to the game from the Sky Blues, so much so that the final whistle was met with total apathy and the odd boo from the home fans and only two players came to applaud the Cove. To be honest, the Cove weren’t interested, and most fans were already heading for the exits, shaking their heads after a totally predictable second-half turn of events.
We headed out back towards the car park, past more live music, and made it out before all the entertainment ended at Moore Park. A quick run through to drop Carla in Leichhardt and then an easy run along Victoria Road and we were home well before 11pm.
Time will tell whether or not this week has been pivotal in Sydney FC’s recent history. Has the remaining hierarchy at the club made a massive faux-pas, bringing in two quality players to disrupt our over-performing team without a care for the rest of the squad? What must Campuzano and Quispe be thinking as two bigger, stronger players come in and limit their game time, and what about the fringe players who are going to be even more fringe than before? I fear that these are ego signings; we didn’t need them, and the good work that has been done to get us into a strong position, however fortunate, is now forgotten. See you all at Leichhardt Oval on Tuesday for what will be the turning point in our season. Forza Sydney FC!