Title Or Not?
A pretty bad ending of the season, but in the end we managed to win the A-League! It was a great season, and I’ve been very pleased at times.
Fixtures And Results:
Our form had a drop, but we managed to win some big matches in the second half of the season, and this led to a decent second half of the season. I’ll get into the play-offs later.
League Table:
We’re the champions of Australia, after a great season. My first piece of silverware as a manager.
League Position Development:
As you can see, we had a bad start of the season, and I almost lost my job, but we managed to come back really strong and win the title.
Sydney FC– Melbourne Victory FC (1-2):
A hard match was predicted, due to our existing rivalry. But Melbourne were 5th this campaign, and we were top. We also had a massive advantage in form, as we were scoring for fun. And after a great counter attack, Charisteas scored, but the flag was already up: offside. In the 40th minute, Melbourne’s Berisha scored the 0-1, it wasn’t at all deserved. We set things straight after 3 minutes in the second half, when Despotovic scored a great goal after a long kick by Mickel. After 54 minutes, Petkovic once again made a stupid foul when he already had yellow: another red card for Petkovic. I really need to tell him to be more disciplined. And then in the 62th minute, Ognenovski made a foul in the penalty box: straight red card! We were 2-1 down with 9 men, and it was going to be very hard to score. But after 68 minutes, Griffiths scored, once again however, it was offside. All in all, this was a very frustrating match with 2 red cards and 2 offside-goals. Our lead on Perth is still 9 points, but slip-ups like this one should never be made again.
Ranko Despotovic
Wanderers FC–Sydney FC (3-2):
Everybody wanted to win this match after that disappointing loss against Melbourne, it would however be a hard match for us: 2 of our starting 11 players were banned, and 4 would get banned at one more yellow card due to the yellow-card ban rule. Our form was dropping at the end of the season, just like last year, and we had to win this match to avoid such a bad finish of the season. But it certainly looked like we were finishing the season on a bad run, when Juric scored the 1-0 for the Wanderers. Our boys didn’t give up, and Ryall scored the equaliser shortly after. In the 81st minute, Juric scored another goal from a corner, and we were trailing again. And 2 minutes after, Juric completed his hat-trick with the 3-1. We went down fighting, with a late goal by Charisteas, but it was too late, and we lost once again.
Sebastian Ryall
Sydney FC– Wellington Phoenix FC (0-0):
“Boys, this can’t happen again! Win this match for me, and for yourselves!” I really meant it, as we were kind of giving another championship away with this form, and I really didn’t want this to happen again. It was unacceptable, and terrible for our fans. Luckily, we still had an advantage of 9 points due to the losses of Perth and Newcastle. We also had Ognenovksi and Petkovic back from their bans. The first half was pretty even, with no real chances. But in the second half, after 75 minutes, Bruno Cazerine scored the 1-0 for Wellington. Luckily, the goal was offside. There weren’t any goals in the rest of the match, but a draw at home against Wellington was a very bad result. And it was really looking like we were going to give it away at the end of the season once again.
Pedj Bojic
Adelaide United FC–Sydney FC (1-2):
A hard away match, but we couldn’t afford losing here, as Adelaide were 3rd at the moment. A draw could also be bad if Perth won their match. This match could be vital in the title race, and I made that clear to the boys. In the first half, we were decent, but we missed the clinical finishing that we had before, and it led to a pretty boring first half with no real chances. After the break, we were much better, that led to a goal by Charisteas in the 57th minute, we were ecstatic! And when Carle scored the 2-0 shortly after, we knew we would get a good result. But when the 2-1 was scored, we were feeling the heat, and I switched to a more defensive set-up. Because of the change, we kept our lead until the end of the match, and we were the deserved winners in Adelaide, I was very happy that we finally won a match.
Angelos Charisteas
Sydney FC– Melbourne City FC (6-0):
After that great result against Adelaide, I wanted to carry that good form through to this match with a second consecutive win. It looked like we would get this win, when Charisteas scored the 1-0 after 8 minutes, and 20 minutes later he scored his second of the match. Just before half-time, he completed his hat-trick. Charisteas has been a great signing for us, with 10 goals so far. After the break, he scored his 11th of the season, his finishing was amazing that game. But sadly, after 75 minutes, he had to go off injured, and he had an injury of 6-7 weeks. His striking partner Despotovic also managed to grab a goal, our 5th of the match. It wasn’t over yet for Melbourne, as Antonis scored the 6-0. It was a great, morale boosting victory. This victory also ensured that we won the A-League! I’ve got my first piece of silverware, and the fans were absolutely ecstatic!
“Angoals” Charisteas
Brisbane Roar FC–Sydney FC (1-0):
We had already clinched the title, so I decided to play my second team: I changed up the whole team. I knew this would maybe lead to a loss, but I wanted to give some talents playing time. I played players like Bouzanis, a young goalkeeper, Corey Gameiro and Joel Chianese. The second team didn’t really play well, as expected, and Brisbane took the lead in the 22nd minute. Griffiths scored a minute later, but it was offside. The rest of the match, Brisbane dominated, and we went down to 10 men after 82 minutes: another second yellow card, this time for our captain Thompson.
Rhyan Grant
Perth Glory FC–Sydney FC (2-4):
The last match of this great season, against the team that was first for a long time, now they have dropped to 6th. I didn’t mind losing this game, but I still fielded a strong team for our last match of this season. Griffiths opened the score after one minute, and we had some more big chances to extend our lead, but we weren’t clinical enough. After 27 minutes, we did manage to score: it was a goal by Nick Carle. We still had this comfortable 2-0 lead at half-time, and I was very pleased with our performance. Shortly after half-time, the boys shut the crowd up with yet another goal, this time it was Bojic. The scoring spree continued on the other side of the pitch: Perth scored a consolation goal. And in the 64th minute, things got worse for Perth, as Gallas got sent off. But O’Brien scored Perth another goal, and the 3-1 didn’t turn out to be a consolation goal at all. We got very sluggish after we took the 3-0 lead, and that is how we allowed Perth back in to the game. Brillante managed to score the 4-2 just after Woodcock got sent off, Perth’s second sending off of the match.
Ryan Griffiths
General Stats Of This Season
It has been a very good season, and we finished first! I’m very happy with the performance of everybody in the team. I got sent an overview of some stats in the league this year, and I saw Sydney’s name a lot of times:
Team Of The Year:
Team Stats:
Player Stats:
Play-Offs
The last few matches of this season, and undoubtedly the most important ones as well. I’m not a fan of these play-offs, but we’ll have to put up with them. We drew Adelaide United in the semi-finals, because they won against the Wanderers in the previous round, a round we didn’t have to participate in due to our 1st place in the regular season.
Sydney FC– Adelaide United FC (1-1):
“Now, this time we should put in a good performance in the play-offs, last season’s play-offs were a disaster!” The boys were really motivated, I could see it. And after 31 minutes of good football, Brillante scored a beautiful half-volley, we were in the lead, and it was deserved. I thought we would go into half-time with a nice lead, but Richard Cardozo scored just before half-time. After 90 minutes, it was still 1-1, but we controlled the match in terms of possession and big chances. So we had to make a difference in extra time: we didn’t, and penalties were needed to decide the winner. After we scored all five of our penalties, and Adelaide only scored 3, we were in to the play-off final!
Josh Brillante
Sydney FC– Newcastle United Jets FC (0-3):
The most important match of my career to date: my first final. We played the Jets at home, which was a massive advantage. The stadium was almost sold-out, for the first time in my career. There was a great atmosphere in and around the stadium, the fans wanted to take pictures with me and they wanted my signature. Things didn’t start well for us though, as Capello scored a headed goal in the 13th minute. And after 60 minutes, we had an impossible task: Newcastle scored the 2-0. And in the 67th minute, Capello scored the 3-0: we collapsed under the immense pressure of a final. We worked all season long, and we lose the final because we play badly for 90 minutes. This is why I hate play-offs. We put up a fight, and we even hit the crossbar on 3 occasions, and it certainly wasn’t a deserved loss: we had 11 shots, and they had 6.
Nobody
End Of The Season:
We had a very successful season, and we won a piece of silverware. In the play-offs, we were a lot less dominant. And in the final, we lost to the Newcastle Jets, this was an unnecessary loss. But in general, I’m happy about this season. I have made the decision to start looking for a new club, as I think I can’t do a lot better at Sydney than I did this season. Also, they don’t really have enough financial possibilities, and the foreigner-rule makes it even harder, so does the salary cap. I haven’t seen the right club yet, but I’m sure I’ll find a good club sooner or later.
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Griffo: Thanks mate
pokarioboy: Thanks a bunch! Yeah, Brisbane lost some good players in my save, I think.