That was grim viewing, to say the least.
Perth Glory’s 4-1 loss to Sydney FC away from home has now made the task of achieving finals football very difficult from here, despite two home games on the horizon.
Heading into the game, I’m sure the players would’ve felt a sense of confidence and belief. Wellington Phoenix and Brisbane Roar had just played out a 2-2 draw. More importantly, there was a large contingent of travelling supporters marking the 20th anniversary of the Tour of Duty for Glory members and fans.
Unfortunately, the game got off to a really bad start.
Glory found themselves 1-0 down after eight minutes following a switch of play to Rhyan Grant. Max Burgess and Grant then exchanged a lovely passing sequence which caught out the defenders, and all Adam Le Fondre had to do was tap the ball home from close range.
In fairness to Ruben Zadkovich’s side, they did get back into the game around 20 minutes later, as they started moving the ball around a lot better.
Adam Zimarino opened his Glory account with a fantastic strike just before halftime, which is just a reward for effort really. He’s been very unlucky over the last few months with a few of his efforts smashing against the post or just going over the bar, but he took his goal very well against Sydney.
Following the break, Glory had a great opportunity with Adam Taggart, that perhaps on another day he would’ve scored.
Unfortunately from that moment on, it was essentially all Sydney.
Some really poor defending from both Jordan Elsey and Darryl Lachman saw the Sky Blues score from a simple long ball, as no one was marking Joe Lolley from the box, who like Le Fondre, had a very simple finish from close range.
About 10 minutes later, Glory’s backline was inexplicably split wide open, as Robert Mak made an intelligent run in the gap between Elsey and Lachman, who then sat Lachman down and then smashed the ball into the back of the net on his weak foot.
Rhyan Grant then sealed the deal for the hosts, as some very sleepy defending again from the Glory saw Grant tap the ball home from a few metres out following some very solid work from Anthony Caceres.
Sydney were well worth their goals yesterday, as indicated by the 3.98 xG they accumulated. They were far more efficient with their wide deliveries and shots on goal than their opponents, and ultimately deserved what was a comfortable win.
This rather embarrassing capitulation from the Glory will leave Head Coach Ruben Zadkovich some food for thought.
Why we looked so uncompetitive and second-best against a side that had the worst home form in the competition, I don’t know. Why we were so abhorrent defensively, I don’t know.
Overall, it was a really bad day at the office for the Glory. Understandably, fans will be frustrated and disappointed with the efforts put out by the players.
The Glory will be back at HBF Park against Adelaide United on Sunday, where hopefully, the players will put in a much better performance and potentially end the season giving the fans some sort of hope for next season.
About the Author
