Sydney FC coach Ufuk Talay has praised the impact of his marquee man Douglas Costa, who sparked a stunning comeback in Saturday night’s thrilling derby with his 30-minute cameo off the bench - and nearly helped them steal all three points.
The Sky Blues had to settle for a 3-3 draw with the Western Sydney Wanderers in front of 32,741 fans at Allianz Stadium - the biggest crowd in this fixture since the first one played at the Moore Park venue since its reopening.
Those fans were treated to a thrilling contest and though the Wanderers were the better team for most of it, they let victory slip from their grasp as Socceroo Anthony Caceres - playing in his 200th game - scored the equaliser in the 97th minute after a series of pinpoint corner kicks delivered by Costa.
Douglas Costa claps the fans post-match.Credit: Getty Images
Caceres also had a sublime assist for Sydney’s seventh-minute opening goal through Patryk Klimala, but it was their Brazilian star Costa who helped swing the momentum off the bench, along with fellow substitute Adrian Segecic, who scored their other goal just before the end of regulation time.
“That’s why you make substitutions - so players make an impact,” Talay said.
Costa, 34, is being managed carefully in his return from a six-week hamstring injury; this was just his second appearance since the end of December, and Talay is hopeful he will play a more substantive role in next week’s crucial AFC Champions League 2 clash at home against Bangkok United.
Being able to use him off the bench in the derby was a luxury, Talay acknowledged.
“I’d like to try to use that luxury from the start, to be honest - not coming on,” he said.
“Where he’s at at the moment, the most important thing was he got through the game. He gave us some good minutes. We’ve got a very important game on Wednesday night that we hopefully can utilise him again. He’ll probably be capped with minutes again.
“But he’s a great player. He’s achieved what he’s achieved in the game because of the player that he is. It’s definitely great to have a player of that calibre within the squad.”
Nicolas Milanovic was impressive for the Wanderers.Credit: Getty Images
The Wanderers were missing their own marquee man, Juan Mata, due to a hamstring injury, but were led brilliantly in attack by two-goal forward Zac Sapsford, Socceroo Brandon Borrello and Nicolas Milanovic, who continued to push his case for national team selection with another eye-catching display.
Coach Alen Stajcic conceded that they lost control of the match when Borrello and defender Gabriel Cleur had to be brought off in the second half to manage their fitness since, like Costa, both are also just coming back from injuries.
”I thought we lost a little bit of momentum when they came off,” he said.
“They put on a couple of good subs as well obviously who are quality players and can impact the game and the momentum started to shift ... ultimately if you give a quality team like that with that many quality attackers chances, they’re going to punish you. We got punished again and we have to learn that lesson very quickly.”
Stajcic described the lack of consistency from A-League referees as “abhorrent”, complaining about a handball penalty that wasn’t given and an overzealous yellow card shown to goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas for time-wasting.
He also had praise for the spectacle of the derby overall, but his big picture view was understandably clouded by the here and now.
“We were good for 85 minutes ... we really nullified a lot of their attacks and their threat,” he said.
“They probably had three or four half chances in the first half and a couple in the second half until we really sat back too far and invited all the trouble, which was never the plan. We’ve really got to ensure that we stay positive throughout a game and not play the scoreboard and the timeline. I don’t like that. It’s certainly part of the maturity of this team moving forward that we have to develop.”
