Sydney FC have claimed victory in one of the longest games in A-League Men history, downing Perth Glory in a 3-2 win that took almost four hours to complete due to thunderstorms.
Ufuk Talay’s first home win as Sydney boss will live long in the memory after lightning strikes surrounding Allianz Stadium on Saturday caused lengthy delays.
Sydney were 2-0 up when the two sides went into the changing rooms at halftime just after 8.30pm local time.
The second-half restart was initially delayed by 15 minutes but that continued to be pushed back due to the storm.
Eventually, play resumed at 10.30pm with referee Alireza Faghani blowing fulltime at 11.20pm to bring an end to a marathon match which lasted three hours 35 minutes in total.
Only a Macarthur-Newcastle game earlier this year, which took four hours to complete due to high winds, has gone on longer in ALM history.
While fans headed for the exits, the majority stayed to see if Sydney could build on their first-half lead which came courtesy of goals from Joe Lolley and Robert Mak.
If the match had been abandoned at halftime, the result would have stood in Sydney’s favour.
“I experienced that kind of thing in Asia with the junior national teams and we waited for a game to kick off for two hours,” Talay said.
“It’s out of our control, it’s not ideal for both teams.
“The time kept changing when we were trying to get ready but we should really have killed the game off (early in the second half).”
Glory, who haven’t won away in their last 14 games, began with promise as Adam Taggart hit the post and Luke Ivanovic had a couple of opportunities to put Alen Stajcic’s men ahead in the opening quarter of an hour.
“I thought we should have been two or three up after 20 minutes and we were on top and didn’t take our opportunities,” Stajcic said.
“We lost total control in transition and got severely punished.”
Sydney made them pay for their wastefulness with Lolley firing past Cameron Cook with a well-cushioned curling shot to put the home side ahead in the 33rd minute.
Mak followed that up just before halftime when he drove through the heart of the Perth defence to tuck home and double the Sky Blues’ advantage.
After the lengthy delay, Sydney responded with intent, Lolley and Patrick Wood both going close to putting the game to bed.
Taggart found the net in the 63rd minute and the away side could well have clawed their way back level only for Aleksandar Susjnar to turn a Mitch Glasson effort back into his own net late in the game.
Oli Bozanic got one back for Perth from a free-kick in added time but it was all too little too late as Sydney walked away with the three points.
Garry
Roar Rookie
Holman was playing all the preseason games and I think was dropped during Sydneys slow start..he hasnt gone to the next level yet..ps game in 20 mins ! And I agree, Gomes looked a different player after the storm.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Outraged I am - I stuck it out to the not so bitter end. I thought Hollman looked very good, particularly his passing in attack. Hopefully he'll get more time under Talay than he would have under Corica. Also interesting was Mak dropping very deep at times, which worked well. Strangely, just after the old guys in front of me had a good old whinge about Gomes being hopeless he started playing good football. He looked clueless first half - but it could well be stage fright.
Garry
Roar Rookie
Another Sydney Fc man does good :happy: "Newly-appointed Director of Football at Auckland’s new A-Leagues expansion club Terry McFlynn promises “a high energy, attacking style of football that entertains our fans and challenges for silverware.”"
Garry
Roar Rookie
wuss!! :stoked:
chris1
Roar Rookie
I did the same thing. I pulled the pin at 10pm as it wasn't clear when it would restart. And at that point I thought the match would be abandoned as it was still thundering. Apparently the rule is if there is lightning within 10km of the ground, add 30 mins to the delay. I watched it at home though - i'm only 15 mins away :)
NoMates
Roar Rookie
The better team lost, a little bit of bias with the Ref SFC way but still Glory should be doing better in front of goal a bit like Roar atm. SFC only won this because of a fluke own goal cant see them winning there next game.
Garry
Roar Rookie
I mainly agree with BT ..strange game seemed a bit disjointed. Sydney shouldve won 5 -1 but in the end escaped with 3-2. Glasson celebrated his first goal then it was changed to an own goal .. mustve been disappointing. No sign of Caceres Burgess or Kucharksi so I guess they picked up late injuries. Without Caceres it looked like they decided to skip midfield. It was real end to end stuff with Perth mainly on breakaways. I stayed to the end so had to get a cab home!! Oh and why the different kit? As Ive said before teams should play in their regular strip UNLESS theres a good reason they have to change. I meant to talk about Brisbanes vomit strip last week I think but forgot!!
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Mak and Lolley they had enough chances for a hatrick each they were the ones who bottled it. The way the game was played it was all or nothing with Lolley hanging out on the final shoulder of the backline and Susjnar going forward and leaving him behind , instead of teams having numbers behind the ball they were trading attacking opportunities. You had a lot of 50-50 clashes in combination with Sydney playing the high line and offside trap. Sydney won most of the 50-50's and so they had endless chances with the major chances going to Mak and Lolley who were so wasteful. the times Perth won the 50-50 and beat the offside they were clear on goal though. Gomes started playing better as the game went along, He finally did some good shots towards the end of the game. He seems better with his chest than his head , his header goes anywhere. Wood had a good game and shot powerfully, he had one decent look on goal on an angle which he missed. Lolley on the other hard he had all these gilt edged opportunities and produced awful shoots. He and Mak are not going to get it this easy again this season how they were so wasteful with so many chances is beyond me. Susjnar outsmarted himself with the third Sydney goal, he did the old pullback the player while they were shooting at the right moment but then lunged in with his legs , if he had just pulled back the player as they were shooting it would have gone wide, he ended up redirecting the shot on target. Bozanic his free kick in the last minutes that was incredible the dip it had on it was perfect. Sydney if they repeat this style of play , and the opposition if they dont reciprocate , it will end up like the City match.
Grem
Roar Rookie
As much as I consider myself a rusted on Sydney FC supporter, I watched the second half in my car on the way home. When you live over one and a half hours away and the half time had got to 30 minutes with no signs of starting then I felt it was time. The worst part was that there had been a crash on Cleveland Street and it took an hour to get out of the car park! Glad that Sydney finally won at home, but they still don’t look that good. It may be a looong season!