I hope you enjoyed the game on Saturday night, Glory fans.
Given the circumstances of the season and in the lead up to the game, that was one of our most impressive wins under Richard Garcia.
Days after finding out their away trip would continue for longer than expected and not knowing when they’ll be able to come home, and against a side who has had the better of us over the last six years, causing multiple heartbreaks and painful defeats.
My only hope for the game against Sydney was to be more competitive; take the game to Steve Corica’s side, have more control of it and not concede 28 shots on goal like we did against the Roar. Safe to say I got more than what I hoped for.
In the first half, we were able to maintain possession better and advance the ball into our front third with a lot more efficiency. Defensively, we were able to win back the ball quickly after losing it on a couple of occasions and didn’t allow Sydney to move the ball forward easily.
Our structure at both ends of the ground was better playing with a third midfielder. Mitch Oxborrow joined Callum Timmins and Brandon O’Neill in the centre of the park and all had pretty strong performances.
O’Neill led by example this game with his hustle and determination when we were out of possession. He gives me N’Golo Kante vibes, with his unbelievable stamina and impressive work rate. Very humble like Kante too, as we saw in his post-match interview.
His goal was equally as impressive as his defensive performance. The composure in a crowded area to avoid Patrick Yazbek’s sliding challenge and slot the ball past Andrew Redmayne was exceptional.
The one blemish on his game was a bit of carelessness late on when he conceded the penalty in second half stoppage time. It made the last few minutes more tense than it needed to be and it denied Cameron Cook a second clean sheet of the season.
Once again, I cannot fault the back four and goalkeeper too much. After two games in a row of conceding 20+ shots on goal, we kept Sydney to just 10 attempts in the 90 minutes. Aaron Calver paired with Darryl Lachman and both were solid, dominant in the air and dealt well with the pace of Elvis Kamsoba and Trent Buhagier.
Cameron Cook kept his spot in goal and didn’t disappoint. He made some clean saves and guessed the right way for the penalty but couldn’t do much about it. He continues to impress me given his age and inexperience at A-League level.
Up front, the combination between our attackers is improving. Adrian Sardinero was more involved this game, getting the assist for the opening goal and coming close to scoring his first goal for the club in the second half.
I was so glad to see Antonee Burke-Gilroy back in the starting XI. His versatility has made him a valuable asset for Richard Garcia. He’s played in attack and defence this season and has been very good in both roles. We’ve seen he’s capable of scoring goals but he’ll look to create chances for others more often, which is what we need.
It’s exactly what he did for the second goal – found Bruno Fornaroli open in the box, who took a sublime first touch away from a Sydney defender and drilled the second into the bottom corner. Another good performance from Bruno, now with three goals to his name this campaign.
Daniel Sturridge got nearly half an hour of game time and showed more glimpses of what he can bring to our side. The pick of the bunch were two lobbed passes through to Sardinero and Andy Keogh, both on the money and nearly creating goals.
He clutched his hamstring toward the end of the game, a potentially worrying sign we won’t see as much of him against Macarthur. What we’ve seen has been very promising, we just have to hope he is okay and he can continue building towards playing a full 90 minutes sooner rather than later.
While the attack was better, the first half was void of clear-cut chances. We did well to prevent Sydney from having them, but we need to create more often. If we can do that, I have no doubts we will continue scoring multiple goals in games more often than not.
On a tough night for Sydney, there were some shining lights. Patrick Yazbek looks a handy young midfielder in an ageing team, and Anthony Caceres had a decent game playing out wide. Maybe his late penalty will give him a bit more confidence.
It was a great win from Glory to get us off the bottom of the ladder and within touching distance of the top six. The tests keep coming, and it doesn’t get any easier with Macarthur coming up on Wednesday. They’ve been strong this season, so we’ll have to bring our A-game if we want to build momentum with games coming thick and fast.
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