Sydney FC lead, but are they really the best team in it?

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By Mike Tuckerman, 12 Jan 2010 Mike Tuckerman is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: A-League, football, Gold Coast United, Melbourne Victory, Perth Glory, Sydney FC, Vitezslav Lavicka

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It’s almost a case of “who wants it?” when it comes to league leadership in the A-League, as Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory slug it out in a heavyweight title fight, with an inconsistent Gold Coast United still hoping to pounce as the competition heads into its final rounds.

Vitezslav Lavicka may have delighted Sydney fans by taking up the option to stay on for another year at the club, but his team were largely unimpressive in their recent scoreless draw away at Perth Glory.

Fortunately for fans of the harbour city side, Melbourne Victory were even worse in their 3-2 defeat on the road at ten-men Newcastle Jets, as Ernie Merrick’s men crashed to their second defeat on the trot.

Gold Coast were not much better in their 1-1 home draw with bottom club Adelaide United – and goalscorer Shane Smeltz should have been sent off long before his dramatic stoppage time equaliser – leaving fans scratching their heads as to just who the league’s most dominant team is this season.

If momentum counts for anything, and in a competition as tight as the A-League it surely does, then Branko Culina’s unheralded Newcastle Jets could have a major say in the destination of the title.

Newcastle’s meteoric rise has been matched by Central Coast’s sharp decline, with the Mariners now in danger of missing out on the finals after looking a sure thing just two months ago.

All of this is probably good news for A-League officials, with the league campaign set to go down to the wire as teams continue to jostle desperately for a place in the top six.

I doubt AFC supremo Mohammed Bin Hammam was thrilled to see Wellington Phoenix scale to the dizzying heights of fifth, but even he must have been impressed by Eugene Dadi’s spectacular debut goal for the Kiwi club.

The 36-year-old’s stunning bicycle kick was as good a finish as you’ll see this season, but it was his bustling all-round performance that suggested Dadi could prove a key signing for Ricki Herbert’s team.

One wonders if the Ivorian veteran still had something to offer a Perth Glory side for whom Branko Jelic has proved an injury-plagued addition, not to mention the fact that there’s no guarantee that Mile Sterjovski will stick around until the end of the campaign.

Elsewhere Brisbane Roar and North Queensland remain in finals contention, although the former are seemingly wracked by internal conflict, whilst the latter have been decimated by an injury list more akin to the North Queensland Cowboys.

Only Adelaide United look forlorn at the bottom of the standings, with Gold Coast’s stoppage-time equaliser in Robina essentially sealing the South Australian side’s fate for the season.

It’s tight at the top, and happily for A-League fans we may have to wait until Grand Final day to determine who the best side truly is.

It’s Sydney’s premiership to lose, but even they will have to take a breather once another gripping league campaign comes to a close. After all, there’s still an entire finals series to negotiate!

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The Crowd Says (10) | Page 1 of Comments

Daniel King said | January 12th 2010 @ 7:44am | Report comment

Sydney were largely unimpressive? I think that is a little unfair, for a team to go to Perth and come away with a point isn’t too bad, not the best, but at least a little impressive. The real test will come on Sunday when we put the new boys in their place at the SFS.

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MV Dave said | January 12th 2010 @ 8:23am | Report comment

SFC are playing a Euro style of game…being ultra cautious away from home (admittedly Brosque was missing last game) and seemingly happy to settle for a point. MV’s form has been inconsistent and of late, just poor. GCU are also hit and miss and were lucky to gain a point on the weekend. It means that the title race and GF are wide open…great for the general interest levels of the HAL.
MV still have 4 of their last 6 games at home and this could be the difference, presuming their form at home improves. Also all the top teams still have to play each other. l’m hoping it comes down to the wire with the last game at SFS between SFC and MV the decider for 1st place…hope to travel up for that one.
MV as a team and club do have the experience of ‘been there and done that’ and this could be another factor that assists in their retention of the titles.
Prediction time for top 6 at the end of the H&A;
1. MV
2. SFC
3. GCU
4. NJ
5. WP
6. PG

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- Australian Football said | January 12th 2010 @ 5:08pm | Report comment
  
  C’mon MVDave ….. You’re dreamin’
  
  ~~~~~~~
  AF
  
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Gibbo said | January 12th 2010 @ 8:29am | Report comment

still shocked by the treatment Dadi recieved this season from the Glory… As the spearhead last year he just needed some firmer heads in defence and the team would have gone ok. as it turns out mitchell not only invested in defenders but by bringing in another target man (Jelic) and a winger in Sterjovski it looked like poor old Dadi had been removed from the plans before the season had even begun.

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mahony said | January 12th 2010 @ 8:31am | Report comment

Sydney were absolute tosh with absolutely nothing going forward, but like Adelaide teams of seasons 3 and 4 – they know how to ‘park a bus’ better than most. This will bring them the premiership IMO – and I say that with deep regret as a Victory fan.

Even in our effort in Newcastle Victory still clearly passed the ball forward – although it was usualy an incomplete pass which explains the absolute garbage we served up in the last month or so. A midfield of whimps (usualy our strngth) being fed by a defence still on holidays…..

It is a funny old game this beutifull game…..

Justin

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Vicentin said | January 12th 2010 @ 11:22am | Report comment

Sydney were very poor the other day in Perth, but considering their crap record against Perth and the absence of Brosque and Colosimo, Aloisi’s complete lack of form (and it seems the lack of confidence his teammates have in him) and Danning’s long term injury, I can understand why they were happy to get a point.

Really, no-one in the team, apart from Bolton perhaps, had anything like a good game. It was deeply uninspiring stuff with a barrow-load of good fortune (Perth’s woefullness in front of goal) thrown in. I also suspect that having known that Melbourne stuffed up they didn’t bother trying for the win. Still pleased with Sydney overall this season but that was a game they’ll want to put behind them.

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Daniel King said | January 12th 2010 @ 3:16pm | Report comment

MVDave

Perhaps Victory should play “Euro style” and be extra cautious away from home, that way you wouldn’t lose to ten men

I actually think SFC did totally the right thing, going to Perth with a depleted team, against a team tough to get anything from, maybe they did park a bus but so what? In the circumstances i’m very happy with that, SFC don’t need to prove a point about being able to pass the ball around, we’ve seen them do it a hundred times this season. They did what they had to do and came away with a very valuable point and became outright leaders of the HAL. Great tactics (we would never have got a point playing like we play at home, against that team, away from home with that 11 out there) and a fair bit of luck saw us through.

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Horza said | January 12th 2010 @ 5:05pm | Report comment

Sydney’s problem is that we don’t have a lot of depth or flexiblity in our game plan.

When teams figure us out we look very predictable, almost one dimensional. As well, creative as our attack has been we still struggle to put our chances away.

Then there’s the weird stat that could be quite telling – our inevitable victory when first scorers and defeat when not. This I put down to the narrow game we play and our striker’s aerial weakness. In a game dominated by big centre-halves guys like Brosque, Aloisi and Bridge are almost useless in the air, and when teams choke up their final third effectively that’s what we usually resort to.

I am fairly confident some good recruiting in the off-season could lead to us utterly dominating the league, but for the moment our lack of a proper 9 and dearth of left midfield options could keep the silverware out of our hands this season.

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Australian Football said | January 12th 2010 @ 6:30pm | Report comment

I can’t think any team can shine in Perth… It’s always a place where good football is of the least concern and just a place to try and grind out some sort of a favourable result…

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ItsCalledFootball said | January 12th 2010 @ 11:17pm | Report comment

I’ve always liked watching the Perth games, there’s always a lot of action. They should have kept Dadi and played him instead of Shroj.
SFC without their best attacker and best defender managed to get the point at Perth that puts them beyond a three point margin from the second team.

The difference this year is that SFC is taking its chances to lead the competition thanks to the coaching staff and Lavicka, more than the players.

Sydney have had numerous chances over the years to lead the A-League and have not taken them, particularly under Kosmina and Butcher – a number of frustrating results when SFC were near the top and all they needed was even just a draw to go top and they didn’t do it – they lost.

This time they are taking a more steady, controlled approach.

Although, MVFC have a game in hand and on paper appear to have an easier run in than SFC and it will be very tight for Lavicka’s team.

SFC remaining games against GCU at home, NJ and BR away and then PG and MVFC at home.
MVFC remaining games PG, AU and WP at home and then away GCU, home NQF and away SFC last round.

The last round could be the Premiership Plate decider and should be a good game to look forward to at SFS.

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