Worrying signs for Sydney FC after back-to-back defeats

Shell-shocked Sydney FC players walked off the field to an unfamiliar chorus of boos after slumping to a second consecutive defeat that was alarming to supporters.

Sydney FC’s Rhyan Grant gets a header in front of Steven Taylor. Picture: Getty Images

On a perfect summer’s evening, storm clouds gathered over Jubilee Stadium and on the faces of Sydney FC’s shell-shocked players.

A 3-1 home defeat to Wellington sounds as comprehensive as it was, the visitors having scored their trio of goals well before halftime, and the Sky Blues left the Jubilee Stadium arena to an unfamiliar chorus of boos.

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Though this was only Sydney’s second defeat of the season, the manner of it was what so alarmed the supporters.

A similarly dishevelled display in the derby next week could have serious repercussions.

“The first half wasn’t good enough, we got caught out way too often,” said coach Steve Corica, promising changes in personnel next weekend.

“It’s the second week in a row that we’ve had a bad start, and you can’t afford to do that.

“It’s very hard to come back from three goals down. The second half was better, but we want to play good football and win.”

Milos Ninkovic attempts a shot as he slips to the turf. Picture: Getty Images

Sydney conceded three goals for the first time in a regular season game for nearly 33 months, their famously durable defensive spine splintering in the face of an inventive but hardly devastating Wellington attack.

In recent weeks Sydney has struggled for creativity, but here their basic structure was horribly awry.

Time and again its back four was turned by the movement and quick passing of Roy Krishna, Nathan Burns and Sarpreet Singh, and a halftime lead of 3-0 was not remotely undeserved.

“It’s never easy,” said Wellington coach Mark Rudan.

“A lot of planning and preparation went into this. We wanted to press them high and you could see how tired the players were at the end.”

From Sydney’s point of view, the most concerning element was how easy Wellington scored — the goals all nicely constructed but coming through the heart of Sydney’s rearguard without any opposition.

The first came courtesy of Singh’s vision — providing a perfect angled pass just beyond Sydney’s back four to meet the run of Krishna, who sidefooted home with ease.

Roy Krishna celebrates with teammate Sarpreet Singh after scoring Wellington’s second goal. Picture: AAP

Singh was everywhere, creating a chance for Burns that Rhyan Grant’s desperate lunge neutered, then feeding Krishna in the box for a shot that Andrew Redmayne turned away one-handed.

On the half-hour, though, Phoenix got a second, again in simple fashion — a simple ball over the top by Armando Sosa Pena, a simple run from Krishna and a simple finish.

It beggared belief that a defence which has been so watertight should crumble.

In the 57 A-League games of the past two seasons Sydney conceded only 38 goals — now they have let in more than a quarter of that figure in just seven games.

The biggest change for this campaign was the exit of Jordy Buijs, to be replaced by Jop Van Der Linden — also Dutch, but that’s about where any similarity ends.

The third goal came on 38 minutes, and the fact Steven Taylor had decided to venture forward said a lot about how comfortable Wellington were.

Found by Liberato Cacere’s cross, the English defender fairly thumped a header past Redmayne.

The really galling thing for the home fans was the chance Adam Le Fondre had missed with the game still goalless, lifting his shot over the bar close in from Grant’s cross.

In the final seconds, after Le Fondre had again fluffed a golden chance, Michael Zullo scrambled home what was the most minor of consolatory goals.

Originally published as Worrying signs for Sydney FC after back-to-back defeats