Sydney FC went into week four of the A-League’s fixtures with just a point to their name, but a much bigger one to prove. With the Central Coast Mariners coming to visit this was the chance for the champions to show their class and their temperament, to show why they were the champions and to show why their current points tally was unjustified with the players they had at their disposal.
Having shipped goals with some ease, Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka had dropped Hayden Foxe, bought in Sebastian Ryall at the back and without Alex Brosque it was for Kofi Danning and Mark Bridge to test the novice 18-year-old Mariners keeper Matthew Ryan, who had come in for Jess Vanstrattan after the latter had twisted a knee.
Before kick-off there was a murmur about Patricio Perez. The long awaited debut of the Argentine attacking midfielder for the Mariners had drawn some speculation about quite what was taking so long and his appearance on the bench was greeted with speculation as to whether this was purely a fitness issue or perhaps something more fundamental.
This was a hard game to call and as the first half stretched out it remained that way. Neither team seemed to have the nous to break the other down. Shannon Cole for Sydney was diligently stuck to his touchline to try and stretch the play, but not quick enough to get forward. Nick Carle was failing to find space in the middle. This was a stalemate, absolute, with a lack of anything of note.
Then came half time and it was as if two different teams came out for the second period with the play racing down from end to end. Three minutes into the half, Sydney full back Sung-Hwan Byun took the ball in the inside left, turned and swung in a cross that the novice keeper should have caught or parried. Instead he fumbled and Rhyan Grant was there to poke it home. The tide had turned, but Mariners’ coach Graham Arnold decided the time to strike was now and threw on Perez for his debut.
Capturing the imagination, finding space, moving efficiently with the ball and dragging the defence before him, Perez sparkled over the pitch and seemed to be declaring himself a player to keep an eye on. And then, in the 70th minute, he confirmed the fact, dribbling across the box and going down under the minimum of contact, if any, from keeper Liam Reddy. Referee Matthew Breeze had no hesitation in handing out the red card and the penalty and Perez stood firm among the boos and jeers to thrash it home.
For the first time in memory the stadium screens were showing controversial decisions and this did not help an already hostile crowd who began to scream in fury at every call that went against them. Seemingly this rubbed off on the players too, with a flurry of yellow cards dished out to Sydney players for dissent. 1-1 it finished.
After the match Graham Arnold stood firm that it was clear penalty, given that the trailing leg was caught, whilst Lavicka refused to comment, except to say he was very disappointed and would be following the league’s procedures to get the red overturned.
And the league, for their part, obliged. For if there was any contact it was absolutely minimal and the message is being sent out loud and clear that diving is not to be tolerated. They rescinded the red against Reddy and dished out a two-game ban to Perez for simulation. What’s more they followed this up with another two-game ban for Perth Glory’s Michael Bird who went down late in the game to salvage a draw for his team against Melbourne Heart. These are the first bans of their sort, based on post-match analysis, and should hopefully stop diving before it becomes a problem.
It’s a shame however, that retrospective punishment is needed, for these were certainly two ‘dives’ that had a real effect. The goal scored by Perth kept them top of the table, whilst the goal against Sydney sent them right down to the bottom of the league in joint tenth place. Retrospective punishments may gain a certain moral superiority, but the crimes did pay this round.
Elsewhere, Adelaide managed to hold off a rampaging North Queensland to win 3-2 and go second in the table, finally showing something like their true form with a stable, for once uninjured squad, although special mention should go to a great performance from David Williams who smashed the Fury’s late second to set up a grandstand finish.
Melbourne Victory picked up the win their performances have been deserving thanks to a Robbie Kruse goal against Gold Coast United. A worrying fact about this game was that the 3,624 fans who showed up made it the lowest A-league crowd in some years, a concern that’s plaguing the league this season; although at the Suncorp Stadium, where Brisbane Roar took down high-flying Wellington Phoenix 1-0, over double that managed to attend.
Newcastle Jets, out of action this week, have been forced to go to the FFA (Football Federation Australia) hat in hand, in need of some financial assistance. The Jets and Melbourne Heart are currently the only A-League teams not to have received FFA assistance in the past, but there’s some curiosity as to how the FFA will react given Jets’ owner Con Constanine’s often fiery attitude towards the game’s governing body, including a threat to sue them last year when they made advances to Jets’ coach Gary Van Egmond to take up a national coaching position.
The often outspoken Constantine was at least clear with what he wanted. ”I have never before asked the FFA for a cent, and I have not missed a payment in 10 years,” he said. ”The short-term solution is for them to pay the wages for the boys, for a short period of time, and then we take over and everything will be as sweet as pie.” How could the FFA resist?
