Sydney FC stripped bare but still too good for Wanderers

No Graham Arnold, no Adrian Mierzejewski, no Bobo — and seemingly no problem for a new-look Sydney FC.

Siem de Jong of Sydney (right) celebrates his second-half strike with Jop van der Linden on Saturday. Picture: AAP

No Graham Arnold. No Adrian Mierzejewski. No Bobo.

And seemingly no problem for a new-look Sydney FC, who advanced to their third successive FFA Cup final after beating Western Sydney Wanderers in the first Sydney derby of the season at Panthers Stadium on Saturday night.

The 3-0 scoreline probably flattered the Sky Blues but there can be no doubt they deserved to win in the end after producing a classy second-half display against a Wanderers side that had them on the back foot and were unlucky not to be a goal or two up at half time.

Defending Cup champions Sydney will now play Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium on October 30 in a replay of last season’s final.

It will be a huge opportunity for Sydney coach Steve Corica to take some pressure off and add some silverware very early in his tenure after taking the reins from Arnold this season.

Arnold, now the Socceroos coach, steered the club to a championship, FFA Cup title and successive Premier’s Plates and there have been suggestions Corica could find it difficult to follow in his steps.

But while it might be early days, the former Socceroo and Sydney legend is already showing positive signs of making a good fist of the job, even allowing for the fact the Sky Blues lost record-breaking goalscorer Bobo, brilliant attacker Mierzejewski and defender Jordy Buijs at the end of last season. Still, the club’s outstanding scouting system appears to have come up trumps with new import Siem de Jong stamping himself on the game in the second half with an assist for Trent Buhagiar’s opening goal and a superb free-kick to make it 2-0 to all but put the game out of the Wanderers’ reach.

Throw in Englishman Adam le Fondre, who scored the third goal via the penalty spot, defender Jop van der Linden and former Central Coast duo Buhagiar and Danny De Silva and it is clear Sydney have done very well in the off-season recruitment department.

Dutchman de Jong was quiet in the first half and struggled to get into the game as the Wanderers forced Sydney FC into far too many turnovers. But as the second half wore on he became far more influential as his passing game slipped into action.

He said he was getting better with more games under his belt in Australia.

“I am settling in now and for me it’s about playing more games,” de Jong said. “Tonight was really, really nice ... good atmosphere, nice game.

“It is always good to play these types of games, that’s why you play football. To play in finals is always nice.”

For Western Sydney coach Markus Babbel, there is plenty of food for thought ahead of the season kick-off in two weeks.

The German would have been happy with the efforts of his side in the first 45 minutes. Had it not been for Sydney goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne, the Wanderers could easily have led into the break. But they had no answer in the second half as Sydney came into their own.

To be fair, the Wanderers were missing two key players in goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic and German defender Patrick Ziegler.

Ziegler’s absence meant Babbel was forced to use Tarek Elrich, normally a fullback, as a central defender.

But they also seem to lack depth in the squad, especially in the defensive midfield role and maybe up front — someone to help ease the pressure on Oriol Riera. The issue for the Wanderers, however, is that they have already filled their allowable quota of five foreigners. Any new signing will have to be a local, and that market is threadbare.

The one hope is that the club can secure Australian citizenship for Ziegler, who has Australian heritage, which would free up a foreign spot.