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World Cup hopeful Alex Brosque has made a case for a starting spot in Australia’s match against Kuwait next month with a starring role in Sydney FC’s A-League win over the Central Coast Mariners on Wednesday.
In front of Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek and 12,689 fans at the Sydney Football Stadium, Brosque, who was inspirational, scored the only goal in the 1-0 win at the Sydney Football Stadium, surely boosting his chances of starting the crucial Asian Cup qualifier on January 6.
The win lifts Sydney level on points with league leaders Melbourne, while the Mariners have now lost a club record four matches on the bounce to sit precariously on the edge of the top six.
Brosque’s strike came in the 34th minute to reward a dominant opening period by the Sky Blues.
Northern Ireland midfielder Terry McFlynn’s clever pass with the outside of his boot found Brosque, who lashed a first time shot with his left foot past fellow Socceroo Danny Vukovic’s near post from outside the box.
The only other moment of note in the opening half was when a beach ball from the crowd blew into Vukovic’s path with Sydney on the attack.
But fears of a moment similar to that which famously helped Sunderland beat Liverpool in the English Premier League earlier this year were quashed as the attack petered out and Vukovic was able to remove the beach ball.
The best the Mariners could muster was when Michael McGlinchey’s pass found Dylan Macallister in the area in the 52nd minute, but his shot was well blocked by Clint Bolton in the Sydney goal.
The Mariners’ lack of self-belief was never more evident than in the 66th minute when Sydney’s Korean defender Sung-Hwan Byun appeared to handle the ball in the box and the visitors barely appealed for a penalty.
Sydney recovered well, but despite a long-range effort by McFlynn, two shots from captain Steve Corica and another smart strike by Brosque they couldn’t find the second goal needed to jump above the Victory on goal difference.
The Mariners had the better of the final ten minutes as they pressed for an equaliser, but lacked a finishing touch.
Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka, who called Brosque’s strike a “great, important goal”, said both the striker and defender Simon Colosimo were not going to leave the club in January to try to secure a spot in Verbeek’s World Cup squad.
“I’ve just met Pim Verbeek and he was very happy as well (with Brosque),” Lavicka said.
“We know that Alex and Simon are playing in the Socceroos at the moment but we are going to keep them in January now because we have a serious, serious goal to reach good success this season.
“We’ll help them after this season for good preparation to reach the World Cup.”
Sydney skipper Corica said the chance to win an A-League title with Sydney was a real one for Brosque.
“Obviously he wants to go to a World Cup but I think he wants to stay until the end and see the season out,” he said.
“If he does well and he wins the championship for Sydney that’s going to help him as well.”
Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna said he felt the Sung-Hwan incident was a penalty but that the referee wasn’t to blame for the result.
“Over the course of the season hopefully you get the breaks, we’ve lost four in a row now and we’re not getting any breaks,” he said.
“That’s just part of the game, it would have been nice but we had enough half-chances to finish.”
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