Despite fielding a severely undermanned squad on Sunday, Sydney FC still managed to send their opposition on the back foot early in a remarkable come-from-behind victory against Central Coast Mariners.
Through injuries, COVID and international duty, Sydney FC’s inconsistent start to the season has in many ways been defined by player unavailability.
Most recently taking a hit from the absence of both Andrew Redmayne and Rhyan Grant to the Socceroos’ mid-week World Cup qualifier against Vietnam, the Sky Blues also bid farewell to star midfielder Joel King during the week, after his impressive international debut on Thursday night sent him packing his bags for Denmark on a reported six-figure transfer deal.
To make matters worse, Steve Corica and his men were forced to come up against a near-full strength Central Coast Mariners side on Sunday afternoon without midfielder Patrick Yazbek, a COVID-positive Patrick Wood, as well as being faced with a nightmare long-term injury list consisting of Adam Le Fondre, Kosta Barbarouses, Luke Brattan and Michael Zullo.
But the Sky Blues’ depth well and truly showed through on Sunday in a gutsy come-from-behind victory against the Gosford side, with the youthful reinforcements of Tom Heward-Belle and Callum Talbot successfully filling the void left by the recalled Socceroos.
The 3-2 win also helped the Sydneysiders to achieve revenge over Central Coast, following losses to them in both the FFA Cup semi-final from the previous week as well as their round four outing in the league back in early December.
Speaking ahead the game, head coach Corica sent a strong warning to his players not to repeat the mistakes which cost them during their last two encounters against the Gosford side.
“I think we’ve been starting games a little bit too slow by giving teams opportunities early on in games,” he said.
“And that needs to change. We need to come out on the front foot and show real urgency from the start.
Otherwise, you can get caught early on if you’re not ready to start the game.”
Following the Sky Blues’ eventual victory on Sunday evening, Corica was brimming with delight after watching his side burst out of the blocks at Leichhardt Oval.
“Excellent start,” he said.
“On the front straight away, urgency straight away.
“In today’s first half, I thought we could have been up two or three nil, to be honest with you.”
The head coach was also quick to credit new signing Mustafa Amini in leading the Sky Blues’ early run of attack, which included a shot on goal from the former Borussia Dortmund player inside the opening seconds of the game.
“He brings another dimension to us,” he said. “He’s very comfortable on the ball going forward.
“It was Musti’s first game and I thought he was excellent tonight.”
On the other hand, Mariners manager Nick Montgomery was left to helplessly watch on as his defence bared the brunt of Sydney’s early attacking onslaught.
“I thought we were a bit frantic in the first couple of minutes, so we had to change a few things tactically at half-time,” he said.
“But all credit to Sydney, I thought they played really well in the first half.”
After stumbling twice in the league to Melbourne City and Sydney over the last two weeks, the Mariners will now look ahead to their maiden FFA Cup final against league leaders Melbourne Victory, whilst the Sky Blues have found themselves back inside the A-League Men’s top six, albeit, having played four more games than Macarthur FC in fifth position.
Feature Image Credit: Jaime Castaneda
Enjoy this content? Support The Football Sack
Due in part to COVID and lack of current sponsorship we are at risk of not having the funds to continue running The Football Sack. If you enjoy our content and support our work in training talented young writers, please support us with a donation. If every reader contributed just $3, our funding would be covered for over ten years.
| DONATE |
