Sydney FC claimed a share of the A-League lead, welcomed back their skipper and marquee star from injury and scored an emphatic five goals against Perth Glory today. Yet coach John Kosmina remained unsatisfied.
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“We should have killed them off,” the Sydney mentor said after his side’s 5-2 victory against a 10-man Glory at the Sydney Football Stadium.
“We were given three points and a lot of goals on a plate, and we ended up not finishing the meal.”
Kosmina was referring primarily to the second half, as Sydney slipped into cruise control almost immediately from the re-start after going in to the break 4-1 ahead.
Alex Brosque, Steve Corica, Mark Bridge and Shannon Cole all put their names on the scoresheet for Sydney in the opening 45 minutes – although Bridge’s effort may yet be changed to a Jamie Coyne own-goal after an official review.
Yet despite enjoying a one-man advantage for more than 70 minutes, Sydney’s only score in the second half came courtesy of a Nikolai Topor-Stanley own goal near the death as Perth showed plenty of fight in the face of Dino Djulbic’s controversial send off for spitting at referee Peter Green.
Kosmina chalked it down to complacency.
“Perth worked hard in the second half … but we stopped working and started doing silly things.
“It’s almost like a cancer, it starts to spread.
“In the end, we still made some really good chances to score and (Glory goalkeeper) Frank Juric made some really good stops, but having said that we didn’t go on with it.
“And we talked about just that at halftime, the biggest enemy we were going to have in the second half was ourselves.”
Juric’s performance ultimately cost John Aloisi a goal in his club debut as the Socceroos World Cup hero made his first A-League appearance in sky blue off the bench in the 66th minute.
Juric twice denied Aloisi with superb reflex saves late in the match, with the striker refusing to try and bluff his way to a goal after pressuring Topor-Stanley into his own-goal.
“That was admirable,” Kosmina said.
“A lot of other players would have claimed it.”
Aloisi was making his return from a foot injury, with captain Tony Popovic, who has also missed the opening two rounds with a hamstring complaint, also getting through unscathed after entering the fray in the 59th minute.
“It’s an expensive bench,” Kosmina quipped.
“And a bloody old one as well.”
The match turned in the 20th minute when Green pointed to the spot after Sydney stand-in skipper Steve Corica crashed to the turf under pressure from Adriano Pellegrino.
Djulbic’s send off compounded the situation with Corica converting from the spot to make it 2-1 and all but kill the game as a contest.
While Sydney join Melbourne and Adelaide three points clear at the top of the ladder, the loss keeps Perth tied for last – although coach David Mitchell remained upbeat about his side’s potential this season.
Ivory Coast international Eugene Dadi certainly seems like an exciting buy with the striker bagging a double at the SFS to go with his breakthrough A-League goal last weekend.
He put the Glory back on level terms in the 12th minute by heading home an Amaral free kick before drawing a penalty and then converting from the spot in the 66th.
jimbo
Guest
Good win by Sydney. The discipline was better and players started to play for each other especially in the first half. Shannon Cole is proving to be a top find and the forwards looked sharper - Bridge played his best game so far and Brosque has found a new pair of legs now that his spot is under fire. Competition for places is helping with the standard. Aloisi looked sharp too and shows why he is one of Australia's best goal poachers. He'll be back for the Socceroos by the time we play Guitar in Brisbane next month. Colossimo has been colossal at centre back and is taking the pressure off Poppa. And Corica just gets better with age. The top 3 teams - Adelaide, Victory and Sydney all starting to fire and scored 13 goals between them on the weekend. Sets up two great games - Victory v Adelaide and Jets v Sydney - when the competition resumes in 2 weeks after the international break this week. The 07 grand final re-match is a tough game for United at the Dome, especially when they have to face Kashima Antlers the following Weds in the first away leg of the ACL QF. Another great month of Australian football coming up.