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Sydney FC defender Sebastian Ryall, found guilty of a hand-ball in Wednesday’s A-League match against Wellington, says controversy is part of the game.
“I think incidents like that are just part of football,” Ryall told AAP on Thursday.
“It happens, it’s happened to us in games before. You just have to deal with it.”
His response follows Wellington Phoenix defender Ben Sigmund labelling Ryall’s hand-ball in their match as blatant cheating.
Ryall was guilty of the hand-ball three minutes before Alex Brosque scored a goal.
It was one of two controversial goals scored by the Sky Blues, who won 3-1 at Sydney Football Stadium.
In the other case, striker Mark Bridge appeared to be offside before notching up his first goal of the season.
After the match, a frustrated Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert said it was “really disappointing” both goals were allowed by referee Gerard Parsons.
A response was sought from Football Federation Australia, but spokespersons were unavailable for comment.
But Ryall said there were a lot of positives to take from Wednesday’s match.
“We’re really building on a slow start to the season with good results at the moment,” he said.
“It’s really positive in the way that we’re playing attacking football and we’re defending much better now as well.”
He said the squad were finally creating chances and turning them into goals.
“We’re getting a bit of luck but we’re also playing well and the results are showing that,” Ryall said.
Sydney FC goalkeeper Ivan Necevski was happy with the win, but was disappointed Dylan Macallister got Wellington’s 82nd minute consolation goal past him.
“We sort of switched off for a few moments there and it cost us,” he said.
“We pride ourselves on, not just myself but the whole team, on keeping the goals out and keeping clean sheets and that’s what’s going to win you games.
“Hopefully we can pick up where we left off last week with a clean sheet up at Central Coast on Saturday.”
Sydney FC will take on the Central Coast Mariners at Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium in Gosford on Saturday.
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