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Socceroos star Brett Emerton scored as Blackburn edged A-League champions Sydney FC 2-1 in the final match of the Sydney Festival of Football on Saturday night.
Emerton’s neat chest-and-volley in the 37th minute set his side up for victory in front of 15,237 fans at the Sydney Football Stadium before Morten Gamst Pedersen doubled the advantage in the second half.
Striker Alex Brosque finally got Sydney on the board in the 81st minute in a solid hit-out for Vitezslav Lavicka’s side ahead of their season opener against Melbourne Victory next Saturday.
Blackburn put in their best performance of the four-team pre-season tournament to score their first win and finish second behind AEK Athens, who earlier made it three wins from three games by beating Rangers 1-0.
Emerton and Australian teammate Vince Grella started the match before both being substituted in the 57th minute while captain Ryan Nelsen also returned to the starting line-up following World Cup duties with New Zealand.
Sydney were far from disgraced and could have scored more than one had striker Mark Bridge not wasted a golden 65th-minute chance set up brilliantly by new marquee signing Nick Carle.
Shannon Cole also came close, threatening to equalise with a swerving long-rage shot that was brilliantly saved in the 84th minute.
Carle combined well with the likes of Brosque, Bridge and fellow new signing Scott Jamieson to hint at plenty of attacking promise for their title defence.
Sydney finished the tournament without a win but will surely benefit from testing themselves against high-quality opposition.
Their brightest moment in the first half also fell to Brosque after some neat interplay with Carle and Bridge, but the striker couldn’t beat Rovers ‘keeper Mark Bunn.
The deadlock was broken in the 37th minute when Emerton made the most of a gift from Sydney defenders, who failed to deal with a long-range Gael Givet free kick.
Givet’s ball missed just about everyone to find Emerton unmarked in close range and the Socceroos winger displayed fine skill in a swift manoeuvre to beat Liam Reddy.
Pedersen doubled Blackburn’s advantage in the 67th minute with a simple tap-in before Brosque got Sydney off the mark with a side-footed finish after he was played into space by substitute Brendan Gan.
Emerton was pleased to have scored for his club on home soil and praised Sydney’s effort against the Premier League side.
“It was difficult conditions out there … I’m not sure what it looked like from afar but the pitch was very, very heavy, but they gave a good account of themselves,” said Emerton, who admitted he expected bigger crowds over the festival.
“I think they’ll do well again in this A-League season.
“… Playing against teams like ourselves is a big step up for them and I think they’ve show not only tonight, but in their three games that they can be competitive.
“The Australian league obviously has some way to go but the standard is decent.”
Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce was also complimentary.
“They fought to the end,” he said.
“For us it was a better performance … and some players getting a bit of game time that they’ve not had since World Cup football.”
Brosque said Sydney, who started with a youthful centre back pairing of Seb Ryall and Antony Golec, would only benefit from the experience.
“In terms of opposition you really can’t ask for more when it comes to who we’re up against in the past couple of days,” Brosque said.
“I guess it was hard for us to play the sort of football we normally play through our season but we won’t coming up against the likes of Blackburn and Rangers in the A-League.”
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