Round 9 of Friday Hyundai A League action saw reigning champions Sydney FC continue on their winning ways with a non-entertaining 1 nil victory over hot and cold Adelaide United. This being the second time the teams have met in a fortnight, having recently played an entertaining FFA Cup Final, which was the complete opposite of this match. Graham Arnold has tried a few tactics this year, but he is adamant that a solid defense wins games, although boring to watch from the sidelines, there is no mistake in his philosophy, with Sydney starting to get a lead at the top of the ladder and both Newcastle and Melbourne City starting to drift behind on points.
Arnold’s tactics of being defensively solid, crisp passing and maximising opportunities if they arise fell perfectly into the Sky blues hands tonight, when in the 45th minute an uncanny error from Isaias turned the ball over to Josh Brillante who switched play cross goals to Luke Wiltshire who immediately hooked it cross goals passed keeper Izzo and Bobo was waiting for a solid finish, game set and match Sydney. That was the match over in 30 seconds. For all the wasted possession that United managed to win they finished a 90 minute game of football with just 1 shot on target, the other 11 shots that may have looked spectacular, were way off target and not troubling. Basically the Reds aren’t threatening any opponent’s goal at the moment. Maybe with some players to return like Vince Lia things will improve, but in the words of Marco Kurz there is plenty of room for improvement.
Sydney being the pinnacle of the A League continue on their winning ways. The way they can switch play, attack and pass back at ease, is a lesson on how to control games, even with Miloš Ninković not playing, they are a potent team.
Scheduling a match on the same evening as the 36ers is a bad move in Adelaide and with the Ashes also in town the crowd was a poor 7000 fans, hopefully United or the FFA can work on scheduling, we don’t need to compete with other codes for crowds especially in a small city like Adelaide.
Player of the match: Josh Bulldog Brillante; The bearded warrior was a train in the middle of the pitch and inspired most of the attacking play.
Article written by Cosi Dichiera
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