Sydney FC took away all three points with a strong performance and a well deserved win against Wellington Phoenix at the Kograh Oval on Monday night.
The home side came into this game having previously beaten the Nix 2-1 in their opening game of the season in Wellington, as manager Steve Corica looked to maintain an unbeaten record against his ex-deputy Ufuk Talay.
Wellington were to ones to come out swinging as the referee blew the whistle to signal the start of play, as it took only two minutes for the first chance to be created. The Nix skipper Ulises Davila managed to get past three Sky Blues and made his way deep into the box and cut it back to striker Tomer Hemed. The Israeli produced an effort that defender Rhyan Grant failed to clear cleanly. The resulting ball fell back to Hemed, who sent it through to English striker David Ball to have a pop on target. But goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne produced a good save to deny the effort.
Less than 15 minutes had passed when midfielder Calem Nieuwenhof superbly played one to fellow youngster Patrick Wood, and the striker did well to drift to the right to make some space for himself and go through on goal. But the golden opportunity did not amount to anything as the shot went wide of the mark.
Just after the 30 minute mark was when the home side took the advantage making it 1-0. Midfielder Alexander Baumjohann characteristically sent in a brilliant pass to forward Kosta Barbarouses at the near post. The Kiwi waited for the ball to come to him and dispatched it across goal to hit the crossbar before it went into the back of the net for his first goal in open play in nearly a year.
However, the move that gave Sydney the goal began because young midfielder Cameron Devlin had been refusing to go off despite having sustained an injury early on in the game. Whether it was due to family, Olyroos boss Graham Arnold watching or just plain old soldiering on by the youngster, he was allowed to stay on the pitch. But that only lasted until the 43rd minute as he was unable to continue and was replaced by Matthew Ridenton.
The Nix began the second-half in an excellent fashing as midfielder Davila made an excellent run and got a shot off despite having three Sky Blue men in close proximity. But like so many before him and many more after, he learned one of the dirty tricks that a crossbar can play against an attacker.
A little more than an hour had gone when Sydney doubled their lead to 2-0. Goalkeeper Redmayne sent a long ball from a goal kick and young forward Jordan Swibel used his head to flick the ball into the path of Barbarouses, who made no mistake in firing a left-footed bullet into the corner of the net.
As the clock ticked on and 10 minutes were left, the Sky Blues’ midfield maestro Milos Ninkovic dribbled down and drove his way into the attacking third to set up young Swibel for a great chance. But the youngster scuffed his shot and the ball went tamely wide of the target.
Two minutes later, substitute Chris Zuvela went down in agony clutching his knee. While not immediately apparent, the injury appeared to be to his other knee and not the one he injured previously. Even so, Barbarouses immediately sensed the seriousness and rushed to the 24-year-old to provide assistance while the physio made his way into the middle. Unfortunately for the midfielder, he had to be stretchered off and the Sky Blues had to finish the game with 10 men as Corica had used up the maximum allowed three substitution windows.
With numerical advantage coupled with smart tactical aggression, the Nix pulled one back in stoppage time when a shot from winger Davila took a deflection that caught shot-stopper Redmayne flat-footed to go into the back of the net. A small but sizable contingent of Mexican fans had turned up to the game, and were sent into cloud nine following the goal scored by the captain of the Nix.
The travellers threw everything they had into the attack and even ‘keeper Stefan Marinovic was in the box during a set-play with only seconds to go. The free-kick fell to full-back Louis Fenton who sent in a glancing header that almost went in, but for the heroics of the crossbar. Shortly thereafter, the man in charge called time on the game and Sydney went up to third in the A-League standings.
Sydney FC travel down to Melbourne to lock horns with Western United in their next game on Saturday, while Wellington Phoenix play host to a resurgent Central Coast Mariners in Wollongong on Sunday.
