Sydney FC 0 Western Sydney Wanderers 2
City divided: (left) Wanderers marquee man Shinji Ono leaps to boot the ball downfield against Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium. Photo: Getty Images
Sydney FC missed their trump card, leaving Western Sydney marquee Shinji Ono to make jokers of the Sky Blues defence with a masterful goal to give the Wanderers a convincing 2-0 win in front of an Allianz Stadium record A-League crowd of 40,388 on Saturday night.
The Wanderers had leapt to the lead after just 13 minutes through a firm Iacopo La Rocca header into the far netting of Vedran Janjetovic's goal. And, despite having conceded 55 per cent of possession, they made it two when Ono produced some magic. It was a rabbit-out-of-a-hat job by the Japanese superstar, who chipped the ball over defender Seb Ryall, spun around Ryall's accomplice Tiago Calvano, swivelled once again for good measure and took a final swing as he fell to the ground to slide it delicately past Janjetovic on 26 minutes.
It raised the question of how much the Sky Blues missed the influence of Alessandro Del Piero, not to mention Brett Emerton, both of whom were sidelined with injury. However, such was the dominance of the Wanderers throughout large stretches of the match, there was little doubt Tony Popovic's team was hell-bent on grabbing its first three-point outcome for the season.
But for the early stages of the first half and periods in the second, the Sky Blues lacked cohesion and spark up front, with Mitch Mallia's pace not utilised well enough, nor the trickiness of his replacement in the second half, Yairo Yau.
The Sky Blues needed a sharp response to their 4-0 thumping by Brisbane Roar, but there was little for them to celebrate by full-time. Amid a bright start to the match both sides created chances, the Wanderers showing their intention particularly to attack through Youssouf Hersi down the right wing, while the Sky Blues passing in their attacking third was encouraging. However, the atmosphere of the match was jolted with La Rocca's opener, which, sadly for some in the Red and Black Bloc Wanderers' supporters group, was obscured by a flare, which had been let off near the pickets.
The smoke had barely cleared when, in the 15th minute, Hersi put the ball past Janjetovic, but lines-person Sarah Ho had correctly ruled him offside. Sydney pressed for an equaliser, but their promising start in the front third began to dissipate.
Tempers rose through the middle half when Jerome Polenz was verballed by the referee as Richard Garcia showed the whistleblower scrape marks down his shin. Nicky Carle, too, was lucky to escape a formal caution when he brought down Tomi Juric while, from the resulting free kick, Sydney FC were lucky to escape falling two behind, as the ensuing cross glided just over the heads of three Wanderers attackers on the far post.
However, the visitors were clearly on top and on their next foray downfield, Ono did his great balancing act to score the second goal.
But for a stinging Nikola Petkovic free kick from distance, which smashed into Ante Covic's crossbar on 31 minutes, there was little evidence of how Sydney FC might fashion a comeback. In fact, things degenerated that little bit more, when Joel Chianese was cautioned for dissent and defender Rhyan Grant was forced off with a knee injury.
Garcia drew a yellow card foul from Polenz in the 54th minute and Yau drew a foul from the Wanderers' defence, though Petkovic could do no better from the resulting free kick than put it over the bar.
Sydney FC kept inching their way back into the game, as two more Wanderers players, Juric and Mark Bridge, went into Strebre Delovski's book. A swath of yellow cards came towards the end of the match. Sky Blues defender Marc Warren was cautioned for a challenge on Brendon Santalab, who, in turn was cautioned for a bad challenge a minute later, prompting Delovski to warn the captains to tell their players to calm down, though it didn't stop Abbas from being cautioned moments later.
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