Sydney take the game to another level

Week by week, it feels like Sydney get better and better. That’s worrying for the rest of the league considering that the Sky Blues have already marked themselves as the best team and showing no signs of slowing down.

It also reflects the mentality of this team that even though they have been undefeated since round three, there is no room for complacency. Steve Corica has stressed this whenever he’s spoken about the team’s form but it’s still significant that these were clearly not empty words.

Although the score might not reflect it, this was Sydney at their best. Especially in the first half, it felt like every single touch from a sky blue shirt turned to gold. The forwards fluffed their chances a couple of times when one on one with Paul Izzo, but the play to create those opportunities was what really caught the eye.

Barbarouses consistently made the Adelaide defenders look like dummies with his feints and stepovers causing them to slip and slide across the pitch.

Luke Brattan’s each pass felt like it was weighted to perfection, especially when he was releasing the strikers on the counter-attack.

Alexander Baumjohann once again showed off his clear playmaking abilities as he made those cute little passes that look so simple but require so much skill.

Even Paulo Retre showed a poacher like instinct for his two goals.

It’s scary to think that this side was actually something far from the full side too. Rhyan Grant was suspended due to his dangerous tackle against Melbourne City last week, while Milos Ninkovic had an ankle injury.

At this point, it’s a matter of when Sydney the Premiership.

Adelaide falling into a dangerous slump

Adelaide’s loss tonight was their third consecutive defeat, the previous two against the much weaker opponents of Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers.

Although Sydney raised the bar, United rarely looked like they were every going to match them. The defence was opened with far too much ease and Michael Jakobsen, usually rock solid at the back, was far too eccentric and was lucky he didn’t cost his team more with some of his missed challenges.

To their credit, they did create opportunities from set pieces and the free-kick that led to Riley McGree’s goal, as well as a missed chance from Jordan Elsey from point blank range. Still, after the first twenty minutes where Adelaide did look threatening in attack, there was a significant drop in the performance.

The concern for Gertjan Verbeek will now be on how to arrest this slide just when Adelaide were starting to look like genuine contenders for the top four if not the Premiership.

The defeat to the best side in the league is an easy enough explanation, but the two prior raise a cause for concern.

Granted, this is a reactionary response and it does not feel like United are bad enough to miss out on the top six, but should Verbeek fail to steer them the right way in the coming weeks, heads will begin to drop and he could potentially even find himself in the firing line.

 

Can Sydney make an impact on the Asian stage?

As Sydney runaway with the league, Corica’s priority will begin to turn to the Asian Champions League where Australian sides have been particularly poor in recent years.

The side’s form will have fans hopeful for the first time in a while as they look to be arguably, one of the strongest Australian teams of the past few years.

Last week they showed the grit required by top sides as they fought back from not only one-nil down, but a man down. Tonight, they showed their class as they pierced open the Adelaide defence repeatedly.

Their strongest starting line-up features quality from back to front, and also contains the ability of genuine game changers in Ninkovic and Baumjohann.

What will be important now is to keep their players fit and fresh for those fixtures, which might be a difficult argument to make to Corica who has relied on a steady eleven whenever they are fully fit.

Although they have a tough group containing Ange Postecoglou’s Yokahama F Marinos, there is no reason that if they play like they have in the league that they cannot make the final 16.