By Aaron Timms
A WIN yesterday would have all but secured Sydney FC's place in the finals and installed them as firm favourites for second place overall once the regular season comes to an end in two weeks. As it is, they will now play their final two matches in a state of extreme unease, after a resurgent New Zealand outfit brought the champions' nine-match unbeaten run to an end and left a gap of just five points between second and fifth place.
For the Knights, who had been so impressive in beating Queensland 3-1 last week, victory here was another impressive achievement. But in the end, it was as much luck as the visitors' own brilliance in open play that laid the champions low.
Sydney hit the woodwork twice in the second half and watched Knights keeper Mark Paston produce a string of brilliant saves to keep them empty-handed. They now travel to Adelaide knowing they must win to secure their finals spot.
"We had some great opportunities and we hit the post I don't know how many times, but it was just one of those days, I think," Sydney coach Terry Butcher said. "I have to give credit to New Zealand - they played really well in terms of defending, attacking, causing us problems. It's one of those games where everybody expects us to win, but you've got to work hard to make sure you do enough to get the win. And we just weren't ruthless enough in the right areas."
Defensive records are rarely the stuff of poetry, but with Sydney having put four unanswered goals past the Knights the last time they played at Aussie Stadium, there was a real sense before the game began that if the champions could again succeed in holding out their guests here, thereby extending their run of clean sheets to six, beautiful words would need to be penned in honour of the Sydney back four.
It did not take long for that expectation to dissolve. On the quarter-hour mark, Leilei Gao, the Chinese striker trucked into the club in the dying days of the old administration, whipped a quick, low corner into the area. Che Bunce evaded his marker before rising to sweep the ball past Clint Bolton from an awkward height. As a goal, it was by no means ugly, but the words the Sydney keeper mouthed after it was scored certainly were. It had been 547 minutes since Sydney last conceded.
Sydney, however, were far from content to play the footman to the jubilant Knights. The champions responded to the goal in magnificent fashion, producing some of their best football of the season. When Steve Corica helped the ball on to Alex Brosque, and the Sydney striker chipped the ball into the area for David Carney to run on to, only to see Paston come off his line to clear, it seemed a goal would not be long in coming for Sydney. When Brosque again laid the ball off for Carney and the winger again came close with his long-range effort, this time shooting too close to Paston, the goal seemed even closer.
And when Ufuk Talay fired in two almost identical free-kicks in quick succession, only to see Mark Milligan just fail to beat the superb Paston with the first, and Jacob Timpano glance the second just wide of the far post, Sydney's equaliser seemed so imminent it was as good as scored.
But it never came. Carney came close after the break, hitting the woodwork with one long-range shot after a superb, slaloming run through the heart of the Knights defence, and Petrovski again hit the woodwork on 86 minutes after he had looked certain to score. But there was no love on the scoresheet. As the game wore on, the Knights, sensing an upset, sat back in numbers and suffocated their opponents. It stayed that way until the final whistle, at which point the crowd let out the kind of low, untroubled, cooing noise that has long represented the priority of Sydney's sporting public in the aftermath of a loss, leaving the ground early so as to beat the traffic.
What was Sydney's problem? Was it a lack of attacking invention? A lack of passion? Was their work ethic found wanting? None of the above. The attacking ability was certainly there, with Brosque and Carney enjoying their best games for some time and Butcher belying his status as long-ball chophouse president-elect by playing three strikers for the game's final quarter-hour. After weathering accusations of utilitarianism and ugliness for much of the season, Sydney were, if anything, guilty of being overly intricate in attack, of tripping themselves up on the detail of their passing movements, of baulking before the temptation of the direct ball. The work ethic was there, the commitment was there: Milligan's heated confrontation with Alen Marcina midway through the second half said as much.
"I don't think there was complacency, but, having played so well last week, I think people expect it to happen again very quickly very easily," Butcher said. "We need to work hard to get into positions where we can score, and we did that, we just didn't finish the moves off."
But in the end, there was one crucial element missing for the champions: luck.
"[Next week's game against Adelaide] was always going to be important, even if we'd won today," Butcher said. "That would have made us four points ahead. We still would have had to go get a result there, and we still have to do the same now. So it doesn't really alter [things] that much … [But] it's thrown [the final four] wide open in that respect."
■ Perth Glory held minor premiers Melbourne Victory to a 2-2 draw last night at Members Equity Stadium.