What a week. The greatest player to ever grace the domestic stage in this country put pen to paper for another year while the Australian captain got on board, bringing the number of Golden Generation players who have donned the famous Sky Blue strip to five - a massive feather in the cap for the Sydney club and an A-League record.

Generation Next has not been forgotten either, with Joel Chianese now joining Seb Ryall, Rhyan Grant and Terry Antonis on long-term contracts. It is great to see the club show faith in the lightning-fast striker whose breakout season last year has been followed by one frustrated by injury and bad luck.

Joel Griffiths leads the line and with Chianese and Blake Powell now signed up for next season, is there still room for Yairo Yau? The Panamanian lit up the early stages of our season but he too has struggled with injury, especially following long flights across the Pacific to represent Los Canaleros.

To my mind Yau is still on his professional “P plates” and has much to learn. He has also much to give and his five goals this season have not come by chance. I would like to see us retain his services, with next season’s side playing a two striker system with a flat midfield three. This way we would be utilising the pace in our attack and Del Piero would have someone to pass to.

It was an encouraging weekend for members of the Young Socceroos, with the Under 20 World Cup just months away. Curtis Good lined up for an outclassed Bradford City in the League Cup Final while Corey Gameiro played a leading role in bringing Phoenix back from the dead against Adelaide. The boy can score goals. Meanwhile, his potential supplier of Young Socceroo scoring opportunities, winger Ryan Williams, has gone out on loan as he seeks much-needed competitive pre-World Cup game time. Good to see.

Australian Under 20 captain Terry Antonis helped spark a mini-revival in the second half of the contest at AAMI Stadium but all eyes were on a Tasmanian who has yet to pull on an Australian shirt. Heart’s Jeremy Walker was outstanding at rightback and on this performance, amongst others this season, undoubtedly deserves a spot in the next Young Socceroo squad. As does his fellow backline member David Vrankovic.

Walker may have stood out but all his teammates are due credit. Melbourne Heart played superb football throughout the ninety minutes and thoroughly deserved their win.

As for the Sky Blues, it made painful TV viewing and I sympathised with the travelling fans who paid their hard-earned for the privilege of watching their beloved Sydney put in a shameful performance. I agree with Farina – no player ever crosses the white line with the intention of playing badly. Everyone tries but at times execution just lets players down. I buy that.

What I don’t buy is this: why did we spend the first 45 minutes letting Heart play? Did it really require a halftime whistle for the boys to realise that standing off the opposition only encourages them to play football? And what was Farina doing about it the first 45 minutes of the match?

We pressured the home side more with 10 players in the final 20 than we did the entire first half, the half in which we lost the match. After the game Rhyan Grant said that the performance was not good enough. He was right. If anything, that was an understatement.

The new midfield combination of Paul Reid and Peter Triantis just could not gel while out wide Brett Emerton was tightly marked and was unable to get going. To the fans' frustration, possession was turned over with painful regularity, giving Heart the helping hand they gleefully snatched.

Del Piero had his first real shocker for the club, his inability or unwillingness to find a teammate reflective of the general malaise that seemed to sweep through the side. Time and again he had passing options, and time and again he chose to ignore them in favour of attempting to beat Heart on his own, a feat that is beyond even him. There were still moments of genius but his refusal to vary his game to pass the ball unless as a last resort did not help our cause.

Sydney’s charitable passing exposed our backline time and again and the defence eventually crumbled. While Richard Garcia was offside in the first goal, Eli Babalj’s flick to release Jonatan Germano was first class for the second. 

Heart’s third was controversial, replays pointing to a fair challenge by Seb Ryall on David Williams, who seems to have finally recaptured his best form. But without the benefit of a TV replay referee Alan Milliner would not have seen Ryall get goalside of Williams to win the ball fairly so the decision is understandable. And the red card is part and parcel of that decision. The real question Sydney must ask themselves is this - why was there so much space for Williams to run at?

Joel Griffiths’s goal was quality but, of course, too little too late. The Sky Blues threw all they could at a wilting Heart in the last 20 but on the day had neither the tools nor the imagination to unlock the locals’ defence for a second goal that would have set up a grandstand finish.

My player of the match was Fabio, who stood out with his positive runs and tight marking. Vedran Janjetovic was once again excellent and does not carry blame for any of the goals, unsighted for the first and beaten by Germano’s quality finish in the second. Triantis did well and should feel reasonably safe for next week while Chianese injected a spark into the team when he came on.

I felt Paul Reid was unlucky to be dragged at halftime as his distribution may have contributed to a passing revival in the second stanza. While a change needed to be made, in my humble opinion Antonis for Grant may have been the better option.

A question must be asked – did the dropping of Terry McFlynn have anything to do with the lacklustre performance? Captain Sky Blue may not be in the Michael Carrick class of ball distributors but the Irishman leaves little to the imagination and doubtless would not have allowed his side to sit back and cop a hammering without at least getting into the home side’s faces.

So on to Perth and a chastened Sydney that basked in something resembling adulation in the previous fortnight suddenly finds itself preparing for a do-or-die battle. While I feel McFlynn may be back, is it perhaps time for Emerton to be given a spell on the sidelines? Antonis to the right and Abbas back in on the left may be the better option. Or unleash Yau on the right to really take it to the Glory leftback, be it the ageing Dean Heffernan or former Sky Blue Scott Jamieson.

Perth Glory sit five points behind us in ninth spot so it will be a grand final for them in front of The Shed. It must be one for us too as we have now slipped out of the Top 6, though equal on points with Heart and the Newcastle Jets with five matches to play. Being equal on points is all well and good but goal difference isn’t our friend and we need extra points to stay in the hunt. Every game counts.

We’ve had the wood on the men from the west in recent times and this one will again go down to the wire. I don’t expect it to be pretty as Sydney-Perth matches rarely are, but hope that we settle into a passing rhythm and press the opposition. If we do, the Sky Blues may just be boarding the flight home with three points in the pocket.