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Spanish superstar David Villa took just 15 minutes to put his stamp on the A-League with his stunning equaliser earning Melbourne City an opening round 1-1 draw against Sydney FC.
Villa started the first match of his ten-game stint with City on the bench, but came on in the 48th minute and showed the Allianz Stadium crowd his class just past the hour.
Receiving the ball on the edge of the area, he steadied and drilled an unstoppable right-foot shot past Sydney goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic.
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Prior to Villa’s stunner, Sydney city youngster Corey Gameiro threatened to hog the spotlight with a show-stealing strike of his own.
Gameiro, who scored 12 goals in as many pre-season games for Sydney, curled a wonderful right foot shot into the net from the extreme left edge of the area.
Villa – whose introduction sparked applause from both sets of supporters in the 25,525 strong crowd – showed some nice touches, but was otherwise well contained.
It was his first game since scoring for Spain against Australia in the World Cup three-and-a-half months ago.
Sydney almost stole the game in the 86th minute when Terry Antonis rocked the crossbar with a spectacular 30 metre drive and substitute Max Burgess fired wide after pouncing on the loose ball.
A Sydney winner would have been harsh on City, who bossed the game in the first half and had a good share of play in the second.
City, who were missing marquee international Robert Koren through injury, but started the game with four new signings, should have been ahead by the break.
They created most of the noteworthy chances, while hustling Sydney’s defence into errors, as the visitors pushed high up the field.
Lively James Brown, who made way for Villa just after halftime, crashed a shot against the crossbar inside the first five minutes.
Janjetovic saved a free kick from Aaron Mooy and Sydney were fortunate to remain on level terms after an awful error from Sasa Ognenovski.
The former Socceroo defender took a horrid air swing at the ball which allowed Mate Dugandzic a clear run at goal, only for the City forward to spray his shot wide.
Dugandzic had another attempt pushed away by Janjetovic, while Sydney struggled to create meaningful chances.
Gameiro had an early shot saved by Andrew Redmayne and Nick Carle wastefully blazed over the bar following a good run and cut back from Sydney captain Alex Brosque.
City coach John van’t Schip said Villa couldn’t play more than a half, as the risk of injury was too high.
“We thought it was good to have him still a bit fresher and coming in direct from the bench,” van’t Schip said of the timing of Villa’s introduction.
“In a team that he never played in, only trained (with) four times, considering that I think he did well.”
Van’t Schip said it was a good result and he was happy with the performance, though he felt City lost their shape in periods of the second half.
Sydney coach Graham Arnold said he was proud of his team’s effort considering they were missing seven full and age group internationals.
He thought right back Seb Ryall, who was directly opposed to Villa was Sydney’s best player.
“In the first half we were a little bit tense, a little bit nervous, and Melbourne moved the ball around quite well and made us do a lot of running,” Arnold said.
“But they hurt us only once or twice. In the second half I thought we had more control.”
Arnold revealed prolific goalscorer Shane Smeltz couldn’t play after suffering a groin injury at training on Thursday.
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