Game 4 - Sydney FC 1 vs Central Coast Mariners 1 - 28/8/2010

Sydney FC is a club in trouble, but the boss has again sounded the right notes of calm and reflection. Whether he meant to describe his players as "frustrated" and not "frustrating" is another question.

It is too early to abandon talk of a title defence but far too soon for players to lose their heads. Saturday’s (frankly disappointing) home crowd had bought the right to boo referee Matthew Breeze, but the amount of dissent on the field was understandable and not excusable. We pay to sing, cheer good play and occasionally boo bad football. The Sky Blues are paid to play football and should have gotten on with it.

Last season Sydney FC collectively dominated their opponent. Now they bitch and moan, often to each other, and did so long before Breeze’s latest bungle spoiled Saturday night’s emotional derby against Central Coast.

But before examining Sydney FC, let’s bag the ref. I am grateful to every person who becomes a referee, but as Jesse Fink so rightly put it, for the FFA to honour Breeze’s 100^th game after the final whistle was high farce. How the referee and linesmen combined to miss the Mariners’ handball, award the penalty and send off Liam Reddy must be explained. Obviously any keeper in that situation risks giving away a spotkick but Reddy was far from the last man, Perez was not heading “towards goal”, and it was demonstrably not a “clear goalscoring opportunity” after Perez kicked the ball away from goal and towards onrushing defenders.

To add acid to the wound Sydney will rightfully argue Nicky Carle should have won a penalty for a push in the back just minutes earlier.

The tragic fact is that this game underlined the saddest and most cast-iron convention in football: if you are fouled in the box, you must fall over or you will never win a penalty.

Forget video replays, forget retrospective punishments: give teams a chance to get a spotkick honestly and they might just stop falling over in disgraceful fashion.

Breeze said of his milestone: “Like a player, these achievements are nice at the time and I’m sure I will look back on moments like this with fondness.”

“Like a player”? We can liken Breeze to Clayton Zane, another Australian whose game went downhill after his first sniff of Confederations Cup glory.

As for Sydney: they were soporific. Last season Sydney kept the ball while simultaneously teasing the opposition out of position. This season they seem out of sync with each other, and the old warning bells were ringing as Stephen Keller dispatched numerous long balls to the least likely target on the field, the subdued Kofi Danning. Seb Ryall put in a solid performance and after Keller’s wastefulness on the ball and timidity off it when the Mariners played long, Lavicka must consider putting in Hayden Foxe to improve the side’s direction from the back.

Scott Jamieson looks a promising player but a natural left back and he and Byun are not yet gelling. While Danning looks destined to return to the bench, it will be interesting to see who loses their place to Terry McFlynn and (hopefully) Alex Brosque after Rhyan Grant’s impressive performance.

Stuart Musialik again coughed up the odd cataclysmic error, particularly early on, and though Sydney were not defensively poor and dominated the first half, they are a long way from the imperious performances of last season.

Sydney’s problems really appear when they have the ball. The Sky Blues are being harried and denied the space and confidence to play to their plan. The opening game against Melbourne game now seems to reveal the depths to which both squads have fallen, and not the heights which they will regularly achieve.

Nicky Carle, so dominant in that game, was sorely underused and no other Sydney player was willing to turn on the ball despite the space that was often available. Mark Bridge now seems more likely to score five goals a season than 15 and Lavicka must hope his new Brazilian can supply a bigger threat. Kofi Danning looked like anything but a striker and the Sydney midfield was again full of enterprise and short of ideas.

No Sky Blue seemed to think about testing the Mariners’ 18-year-old debutant keeper from range. No cross seemed likely to find a target or test the nerves of young Matthew Ryan, until Rhyan Grant’s goal, which was celebrated like a 30-yard match winner and not a barely-earned gift. Few passes were delivered with pace or invention and the red card robbed Lavicka of his chance to switch things up in the second half.

Give Graham Arnold his due. He compressed the Mariners around the centre circle and dared Sydney to release Danning’s pace with an incisive pass. When Sydney could not produce it, they took to the air in the second half and the Mariners were more than their match. Perez is undoubtedly an exciting prospect and Central Coast can take their place as a definite finals threat.

Sydney dominated the stats until the sending off, but their only goal was a gift and they threatened through deflections and errors more than purpose and poise.

One of the compensating pleasures for A League fans shorn of world class talent is to watch the game evolve season by season. It appears that this vintage of the A League has moved on markedly and Sydney FC is swinging in the breeze.

Lavicka’s men have been worked out. Their next challenge is: don’t panic.

Game 1 - Sydney FC 3 vs Melbourne Victory 3 - 7/8/2010

Pity the fans that did not turn up. Sydney FC’s A League opener was a game rich with drama and ability, passion and promise. Sydney and Melbourne showed their best and worst and a genuine star enjoyed a second (or third) homecoming in a contest that stamped last season’s great rivals as this year’s strongest contenders.

It appears that Vitezslav Lavicka flirted with a flat 4-4-2 during the preseason to find a back up plan for a Sydney FC shorn of Nicky Carle. With a fully fit marquee man the Sydney diamond was restored and after a stifled opening, Carle slotted comfortably in behind the gifted Alex Brosque and Mark Bridge. The results were more than encouraging.

Sydney’s first choice B-B-C frontline is technically adroit, reasonably hard-working and comfortable working without the ball to find space. Each player can take on a man, hit the flanks, run a good line in behind the defence or hold up the ball in their own way.

Karol Kisel will remain a Sydney FC hero but Carle surpassed Kisel's erratic contributions by providing some welcome composure and true creativity. And while the Cove’s fantastic banners at the start of the match hailed the contribution of Steve Corica, by fulltime the boys in blue were praising their eternal skipper’s true successor. Carle is a genuine playmaker, a genuine marquee and a number 10 to match Carlos Hernandez and Jason Culina. His flicks and tricks won him the space and time to pick a pass and the growing admiration of a responsive crowd. Melbourne eventually stood off him after he defied any attempt to put him off the ball and his game.

Frankly, if Carle plays that well throughout the season, Sydney will tear at least one team apart at the seams and it was a shame that his match-controlling performance did not produce more goals.

Bridge and Brosque did well without breaking the game open and one senses that if Lavicka had signed a third striker Bridge would have been substituted halfway through the second half. Sydney FC has never really enjoyed the services of a Smeltz-like predator and the club is now blessed with creativity. What Sydney need is someone to smash the ball into the back of the net and hopefully Bridge will become that man. After all, it would surprise if Sydney can generate that many good chances against Melbourne again this season.

Sadly for Sydney, an A League match is rarely won by the front men. Two of Melbourne’s three goals (and, to be fair, two of Sydney’s) were mostly the result of poor positioning and decision-making in possession and then defence. Only two Victory players hit the box for the cross that led to their first goal, but both outfoxed five Sydney defenders. Mate Dugandzic’s equalising strike was well-taken but he did not have a foot, hand or body near him when he first received the ball. And the third goal resembled a FIFA 2006 play as Melbourne passed their way through the Sydney midfield and defence with consummate ease.

The rot started at the front as Sydney forgot to close down collectively after their second goal. With Carle drawn forward and Brosque and Bridge wide, Scott Jamieson got unsurprisingly lost as part of a three-man holding midfield. Sydney’s flanks were exposed and the central defenders seemed unsure of whether to tag and follow or pass on their man. Jamieson had an unhappy match crowned by an air swing at a beckoning strike on goal, but his preseason form was encouraging and he will find his feet.

At least Sydney were assured when they could put their foot on the ball. The Victory missed a number of first-team players but apart from Melbourne’s seven minutes of madness, Sydney almost totally dominated the match and enforced their will from back to front.

Skipper Terry McFlynn played a strong game and took his goal well, while Stuart Musialik put in his usual performance: an excellent, controlling game apart from one or two dreadful errors that put his team under pressure. Musialik is a vital player for Sydney and when he returned to the side last season the Sky Blues rocketed towards glory. If he can continue to reduce his errors in possession he should again find himself in the frame for the Socceroos.

Another man who delivered welcome composure was Hayden Foxe. Foxe slipped straight into Simon Colosimo’s quarterback role and looks to be a marvellous acquisition. But with a Keller/Foxe partnership Sydney clearly lack pace in central defence. If Lavicka sticks with this combination he will be stretching his tactical blanket like mad. It will be fascinating to see how Lavicka can sit his team high and play a short passing game with overlapping fullbacks and simultaneously cover runs from fast strikers with a fairly plodding central defensive combination.

Presumably Foxe will miss games due to injury and recovery and the burden will fall heavily on Seb Ryall, who is yet to convince. Ryall put in a good shift at right back and offered a surprising threat in attack, but was caught out of position during several of Melbourne’s lethal moments. Shannon Cole will rightfully push him all the way this season and will probably start games against lesser teams than Melbourne.

On the other side, it is perhaps best to simply say that Jamieson and Byun worked hard on the pitch but have work to do off it.

Much more has been said elsewhere about the "disappointing" crowd. I was stunned when the figure of 12,000 came up – it felt that at least 16,000 were in the stadium. The crowd enjoyed a fantastic atmosphere, thrilling goals, some brilliant skill – mostly from Carle – and a passionate match that was laudably contested through ball-on-the-ground, short passing football. I was disappointed by the people who didn't turn up, including the other 12,000 Sydney fans who made it to the Valentine's Day fixture, or some of the 40,000 who went to the Everton match, but couldn't be bothered watching Sydney's opener. Those who were there were fantastic and deserved the spectacle they received.

So if you know a Sydney football fan, buy them a ticket for August 28. Because Carle and company are well worth the meagre price of admission.