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Sydney FC have overcome a stubborn Wellington Phoenix to record their third win in a row with a 2-1 victory in front of 14,000 fans at Allianz Stadium.
Knowing that a win could potentially move them up to third on the A-League ladder, Sydney FC started the game at a frantic pace.
Great passing in the midfield combined with some great defence and a brilliant performance from goalkeeper Janjetovic all eventuated in the win that they needed.
A note has to be mentioned regarding the standard of refereeing in this game. One can not begin to imagine what must go through a referees mind when making a call (or not) but in this game, I think at least be consistent with the calls.
Sydney defender was dismissed in the 65th minute after a second yellow card. both of which were very soft but on the other side, Many Wellington players were given warnings for challenges more worthy.
This is a note to all referees out in the football land, if your going to be bad, be consistently bad.
Do not come off on-sided like some referees do. Ok, enough about the referees!
The Phoenix, boosted with the return of the New Zealand All Whites from their mid week loss to Mexico, looked at times scrappy and tired and only came to life in the dying minutes of the game.
Harvier Hernandez was at the thick of everything for the lacklustre Phoenix but in the end, it was not enough.
Sydney FC did themselves no favours in this game.
Many players seemed themselves tired. Passing was not always crisp but as the old saying goes, when you play against crap, you play crap.
Below are the player ratings for the game.
Vedran Janjetovic: definitely, the confidence of winning the last two games has really started to show with this young keeper. Played the best game in a sky blue shirt since his debut just over a year ago. 8/10
Pedj Bojic: Played his usual solid game and was unfairly dismissed for a second yellow card. will be missed next week. 7/10
Nikola Petkovic: Going from strength to strength, Nikola will end up being the un sung hero for Sydney FC this year should they go all the way. 8/10
Seb Ryall: Keeps making it very hard to bench him with another solid performance. Really working well with Nikola. Possibly the new super defensive duo SYD FC have been looking for. 8/10
Ali Abbas: Worked tirelessly on the left wing and defence. Will make it very hard for Marc Warren to get his position back next week.
Brett Emerton: Great to see his form returning to the standard that we all know. Tonight, the ex-Socceroo was involved in everything and did not stop running for the entire 94 minutes. Passing accuracy and defence was on top tonight in a high pressure game. 9/10 (man of the match)
Nick Carle: Controlled and owned the midfield tonight. Displayed his quality in defence and attack plus his vision and composure when needed. 8/10
Alessandro Del Piero: Not one of his best games and yet still forced two great saves from the Phoenix keeper. 7/10
Chris Naumoff: Still searching for his first A-League goal, chris worked hard but at times seemed that he was lacking direction. Still young and will learn but overall good game. 6/10
Joel Chianese: Worked hard this evening but like Naumoff, seemed at times like he needed to be directed. overran some plays and did not read some other. 6/10
Richard Garcia: Played his usual tough, chase everything down game but tonight added what could be considered one of the goals of the season. 8/10
A special mention has to be made for new signing Ranko Despotovik. In his 18 minutes on the field, Sydney fans got to see the reason Frank Farina wanted to sign him.
He’s tall, quick, solid and most importantly, knows where the goal is. Great to have scored the winning goal in the last minute of the game on his Sydney FC Debut.
This a could be a fairytale start to a fairytale season for Sydney FC.
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