Sat 20th Jan 2007

Alex Brosque may not have scored the winning goal against his old club, but his 13th minute goal in Sydney’s 1-1 draw with Queensland sent Sydney into the finals series as defending Champions.

“We’ve had our dramas on and off the park, but the boys dug deep when we went down to 10 men.” said Brosque.

‘’Last year I scored two against Sydney. It’s good now to have repaid the club (Sydney) with the goal.”

After the Newcastle Jets convincing win against the league leaders Melbourne Victory on Friday night, Queensland needed an outright win to be in the finals and Sydney needed at least a draw with its superior goal difference.

Playing in front of their third, record away crowd of the season with 32,371 at Suncorp Stadium, Sydney battled out 94 agonising minutes (90 plus four minutes injury time), the last 10 minutes with only 10 men.

“Last week we were accused of giving up.” said coach Terry Butcher.

“This week we showed the champions we are by digging in when the going got tough.

“It was a champion performance and we’ll be champions again at the end.”

‘I’m so proud of all my boys tonight.”

Due to injuries and suspensions, Butcher chose to play three across the back instead of the usual four and two up front with Alex Brosque and David Zdrilic.

Dzrilic’s selection was repaid by his pass to Alex Brosque in the 13 minute that set Sydney on the way to the finals series. Again Brosque scored with his right foot, after the Roar defender Remo Buess slipped on the newly relaid turf in the 18 yard box .

Two minutes earlier Reinaldo, with Robbie Middleby hot on his heels, forced Clint Bolton to make the first save of the night.

Sydney’s elation was short lived when, in the 20th minute, Reinhaldo headed the ball down into the path of the best striker in the league Damian Mori who put the ball away in front of the deafening roar of the Suncorp crowd.

At 1-1 Sydney and Queenland were back to where they started, except Queenland could only go in one direction now to make the finals and that was goal-wards.
In an uncharacteristic error from Sydney keeper Clint Bolton, the ball hit his knee as he slid toward the edge of the 18 yard box and Queensland looked like they were about to get the break they badly needed. But for Sydney, luck for a change, was on their side.

Apart from a shot by Reinaldo in the 37th which went well wide of the goals, it was Sydney who had the better chances before the break through Steve Corica, Ruben Zadkovich and an Ufuk Talay free kick. The powerful free-kick was partially saved by Roar keeper Liam Reddy and pounced on by David Zdrilic, forcing Reddy into a reflex save.

You could be forgiven for thinking you were watching the last 10 minutes of a 1-1 cup final with the pace and end to end football on display during the first half.

Reinaldo, Dilevski, Griffin and Mori threw everything they had at Sydney in the opening 15 minutes of the second half.

The best shot and save of the second half came in the 62nd minutes from a powerful Damian Mori shot which was goal-bound had it not been for an equally first class save from Bolton.

Two minutes later Butcher brought on a fresh pair of legs in Sasho Petrovski to replace David Zdrilic.

With six minutes of normal play remaining Ufuk Talay was red-carded after receiving his second yellow card following a foul as the last man in defense.

Sydney were forced into yet another character building performance with their already depleted backline.

A series of yellow cards followed as both sides got frustrated in their efforts to secure a birth in the finals.

Clint Bolton received his yellow card in the 84th minute for time wasting.

Queensland Roar substitute Simon Lynch, who replaced Remo Buess, was only on the park for two minutes before he received a yellow card .

Ante Milici who came off the bench at half-time also received a yellow for a challenge on Clint Bolton.

Sasho Petrovski got the last yellow card in the pack in the dying seconds of the game.

Details of Sydney's first game in the finals series will be announced shortly. But Sydney is finally there and aiming to go all the way having made it over this last big hurdle.

Queensland Roar 1
Sydney FC 1
Saturday January 20, 2007
Suncorp Stadium
Referee: Mark Shield
Crowd: 32,371

Queensland Roar FC Squad:
20.Liam REDDY (gk)
2.Andrew PACKER
3.Remo BUESS ( 9 Simon Lynch 87’)
8.Massimo MURDOCCA (10 Ante Milicic half time)
11.REINALDO
13.Spase DILEVSKI
14.Ben GRIFFIN
16.Hyuk-Su SEO
17.Damian MORI
18.Dario VIDOSIC
19.Sasa Ognenovski

Substitutes not used: 6.Stuart Mclaren 24.Griffin McMaster (gk).
Yellow Cards: Simon Lynch 89’, Ante Milicic 91’

Sydney FC squad:
1.Clint BOLTON (gk)
2.Iain FYFE
4.Mark Rudan
6.Ufuk TALAY
7.Robbie MIDDLEBY
8.Ruben ZADKOVICH
9.David ZDRILIC ( Sasho Petrovski 64’)
10.Steve CORICA
12.David CARNEY
14.Alex BROSQUE
21.Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY

Substitutes not used: Tallan Martin, Justin Pasfield (gk)

28.Tallan MARTIN
20.Justin PASFIELD

Yellow Cards: Ufuk Talay 82 /84’, Clint Bolton 84’ and Sasho Petrovski 95’