Melbourne Victory have defeated Big Blue rivals Sydney FC 2-1 in front of a sold out crowd at Jubilee Stadium.
The Sky Blues’ first match at Kogarah this year was also their first defeat of the season. Ola Toivonen scored on debut for Melbourne Victory with Keisuke Honda’s spot kick putting the away team in front.
Sydney FC’s only goal of the match was also a penalty, scored by Adam Le Fondre.
Toivonen became the first Swede to score in the A-League when he put the Victory in front 1-0 midway through the first half. His debut goal was aided through a deflection after some good lead-up work and pass from James Troisi pass.
Sydney FC had the opportunity to equalise only ten minutes late when Paulo Retre was judged to be taken down in the box by Terry Antonis. With VAR siding with Peter Green’s initial decision, Lawrence Thomas was able to save Adam Le Fondre’s initial penalty but the Englishman scored from the rebound.
Victory went in front in the 70th minute as Keisuke Honda drew a foul from Jop Van Der Linden inside the box. Honda calmly slid the ball into the back of the net, giving the Victory to a 2-1 lead with Van Der Linden receiving a yellow card for his efforts.
Sydney FC will be looking to redeem themselves next Saturday when they take on bottom of the table Central Coast Mariners, while Victory are hoping to climb further up the ladder with their match-up against eighth placed Western Sydney Wanderers.
Sydney FC 1 (Adam Le Fondre 35’)
Melbourne Victory 2 (Ola Toivonen 24’, Keisuke Honda 70’)
Stadium: Jubilee Stadium
Referee: Peter Green
Assistant referee: Lance Greenshields and James Tesoriero
Fourth official: Stephen Lucas
Home Team: Andrew Redmayne (GK), Alexander Wilkinson, Jop Van Der Linden, Joshua Brilliante, Michael Zullo, Paulo Retre, Adam Le Fondre, Milos Ninkovic, Rhyan Grant, Alex Brosque, Brandon O’Neill, Daniel Da Silva (77’), Charles Lokoli Ngoy (77’), Aaron Calver (88’)
Unused subs: Aleksander Cisak (GK), Cameron Devlin
Away Team: Lawrence Thomas (GK), Corey Brown, Georg Niedermeier, Thomas Deng, Storm Roux, Carl Valeri, Terry Antonis, Keisuke Honda, James Troisi, Kosta Barbarouses, Ola Toivonen, Raul Baena (61’), Leigh Broxham (68’)
Unused subs: Matthew Acton, Joshua Hope, Nicholas Ansell
Feature image credit: Jaime Castaneda
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