More than 100 Sydney FC fans invaded the pitch when captain Alex Brosque hammered home the match-winner in an explosive 3-2 A-League derby win over Western Sydney Wanderers.
The wobbly Wanderers blew a 2-0 lead on Saturday night at Allianz Stadium to sink to their second straight loss to open the season and will quickly need to pick up the pieces before next Saturday’s landmark opening leg of the Asian Champions League (ACL) final.
Western Sydney’s Brazilian import Vitor Saba was red-carded in the 69th minute with the score deadlocked at 2-2 and, 11 minutes later, prodigal son Brosque marked his return to Sydney FC with a clinical finish to complete an epic comeback.
In front of a record crowd of 41,213 – the biggest at Allianz for a regular-season game in any code – a brilliant occasion was again marred by an unsavoury incident.
Last season it was a racial vilification allegation from Sydney’s Ali Abbas against Wanderers’ striker Brendon Santalab.
This time it was an outrageous pitch invasion, when a wave of people from Sydney FC supporter area The Cove jumped the fence following Brosque’s goal and mobbed celebrating players.
Western Sydney fans threw flares onto the field before kick-off, but the potential dangers of a swarm of people rushing the playing surface is a major issue for the A-League.
“Of course it’s a concern. In terms of security for players, you don’t want to see that,” said Wanderers coach Tony Popovic.
But Sydney counterpart Graham Arnold wasn’t worried.
“Look, that just shows you how much it meant to our fans to beat West Sydney,” he said.
Sydney FC had the better of the early exchanges, but two goals in five minutes put the Wanderers up 2-0 after 24 minutes and it seemed last week’s 4-1 demolition at the hands of Melbourne Victory was just an aberration.
Mark Bridge hammered home the first against his old club and then a keeping howler from Sydney goal-saver Vedran Janjetovic left the home side reeling.
However, the game swung on the stroke of halftime, with Sydney young gun Corey Gameiro scoring his second goal in as many weeks to bring the Sky Blues back within reach.
When a fired-up Sasa Ogenovski – who pushed the boundaries with the match officials all night – scored a controversial equaliser, a classic Sydney derby was in the making.
The turning point came when Wanderers’ attacking midfielder Saba – to that point his side’s best player – went flying in on Sydney’s Terry Antonis with studs up and was given a straight red.
But Popovic felt his team were let down by poor officiating, highlighted by Ogenovski’s goal which appeared to come when Bernie Ibini was in an offside position.
“It’s clearly not a goal,” he said.
“They’re big games. We need officials who can handle that. There was a lack of consistency throughout.”
Tensions flared, but Sydney got down to business and Brosque – back this year from his stint overseas – made the most of sustained pressure on Covic’s goal.
“It’s a great night for our fans,” Arnold said.
Popovic has a mini-crisis on his hands ahead of the ACL final against Saudi side Al-Hilal, with his team guilty of defensive lapses and a lack of punch – and now injury dramas, with Brendon Santalab unlikely for Saturday with a hamstring problem.
Leonardo
Roar Guru
I'm still expecting WSW to win the first leg of the final 2-0 and hold them out in the 2nd leg. Al Hilal aren't that good and a west Asian team hasn't won a final for many years. They'll be easier to beat than Seoul. There were some good signs yesterday for WSW and they'll take a lot more confidence into next week's game. I'm more worried about the Roar bouncing back at home next week against SFC after 2 losses. Who would have thought - last years top two and grand finalists last with zero points after 2 rounds.
Leonardo
Roar Guru
Fantastic atmosphere and exemplary behaviour by both sets of fans, even after the game, given the size of the crowd. Following hundreds of arrests at the NRL and AFL grand finals, there were only minor incidents and flares and no police arrests and no fighting at the game. Congratulations Cove, RBB and WSW fans who were a big part of the whole event and behaved well and in the right spirit and approached the night in the right frame of mind.
Leonardo
Roar Guru
Half of them only watched on Fox because they couldn't get tickets. When is this derby going to be played at ANZ? :)
Leonardo
Roar Guru
Just for the derbies, not all games. Make ANZ your second home and watch the Sydney Derby get even bigger and more profitable for the Wanderers.
Leonardo
Roar Guru
The people make the atmosphere not the concrete. Some of the biggest football games we've ever seen have been at ANZ The atmosphere created by the derby and the tension and rage in the players means they can win it anywhere. There could have been 60,000 or more screaming fans at ANZ last night and it would have been just as special for the SFC fans or RBB to witness.
Leonardo
Roar Guru
If Saba gets game suspension will he miss the ACL final or is that different jurisdiction? Rukya is ineligible for the ACL.
Bondy
Guest
Off topic I wish the media would stop using the term " foreigner " in relation to International players playing in the HAL it does not sound appropriate, they should use the term International/s player/s ..
zutto
Guest
How would the linesman know the ball is going on the right or left side of the keeper. They missed a clear offside. End discussion. Leave the video ref to the eggball game
j binnie
Guest
Fuss - Don't know where your source got his figures but I randomly sampled 2nd round aggregate crowds for the NSL and found the following,Season 98/99 - 51,565, season 02/03 - 28,979, and season 03/04 (getting close to the death year) - 34,317. The record shown on Internet doesn't show crowds for season 94/95 but it has to be said that there were 7 games played then as it was a 15 team league. Not denigrating your comment just pointing out a differential in factual info. The latest 2nd round figures for the HAL outstripped the first round fIgure by 118%. Fabulous result. The 10 game aggregate total for this season has outstripped last season's 10 game aggregate by 11 % another great step forward. jb.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Yeah I remember. I actually loved the rotation policy. It was good to see so many players get a go. Hope we see some of the same between now and May.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
For those who reminisce about the NSL days, this stat paints a clear picture - via Andy Howe Record attendences for a round of elite football in AUS: NSL: Round 2 1994/95 (6 games) 21,355 HAL Round 2 2014/15 (5 games) 106,082 We're not there yet, but we've come a long way.
Paul Nicholls
Roar Guru
I wonder what the people who complain about plastic teams/plastic fans are going to say about this. Surely they are running out of arguments now.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Agree, the Melb City crowd today was excellent. My point was that even with the traditionally low attendance teams playing at home, we still smashed the all time attendance record for a round of football in Australia. As far as I know, the Melb Derby will be overlap with the ACL finale. It will cannibalise some of the Foxtel ratings, but won't have any impact on the crowd. No one who follows MVFC or MelbCity would care about the ACL final when there's a Derby on.
Josh
Guest
It was the same last season Azz, remember the rotation policy dramas ?
Josh
Guest
We'll see what the FFA says about this week, I hope there's a few muppets sweating it out knowing he cops are going to turn up to your workplace (or most likely your school) and hand you a 5 year ban.
Paul Nicholls
Roar Guru
Wow, that really sucks. I'll definitely stick with the ACL final (and will support WSW) - I wish I had IQ
AZ_RBB
Guest
Yeah it is but I can't see it having any impact on the Derby crowd figure. Might have effect on the tv ratings of both games. Huge night for those at Fox haha
Wenwen
Guest
what a load of crap this is. I'm sure there were small troubles caused by both sets of supporters but no major issues. To say that syd fc supporters caused all the trouble, you have just lost all credibility. Where I was sitting, one wsw supporter kicked a chair so hard twice after Saba got sent off that it broke and hit the person in front. No syd fc supporters retaliated and he was calmly escorted out.
Wenwen
Guest
what a load of crap this is. I'm sure there were small troubles caused by both sets of supporters but no major issues. To say that syd fc supporters caused all the trouble, you have just lost all credibility. Where I was sitting, one wsw supporter kicked a chair so hard twice after Saba got sent off that it broke and hit the person in front. No syd fc supporters retaliated and he was calmly escorted out.
Paul Nicholls
Roar Guru
@ Fuss I actually thought the Melb. City crowd was pretty good. In years past they probably wouldn't have cracked 10k for this fixture. The fact that Melb City now have a bit of a pulse gives me reason to believe that the Melb derby could be on the up & up. General question. Is the Melbourne Derby being played at the same time as the ACL final 1st leg??