Queensland Roar's tilt at the Hyundai A-League title gained further legitimacy with an emphatic 3-1 win over traditional rivals Sydney FC at Suncorp Stadium tonight.
In front of their biggest home crowd of the season (almost 20,000), the Roar found a new top scorer, hat-trick hero Sergio Van Dyk. On the night that super-Scot Charlie Miller returned from injury, Van Dyk led the line superbly and sealed the win with a 90th minute celebratory strike.
Early in the game things were not nearly so certain. Queensland were missing Tahj Minniecon through injury, so Frank Farina chose a lop-sided formation, with Danny Tiatto the holding midfielder replacing Minniecon the right winger. With the rest of the formation unchanged, this meant Queensland had a left winger (Michael Zullo), three central midfielders, and a wide expanse of emptiness on the right flank.
Sydney FC, on the other hand, started the game with a balanced formation full of Bright Young Things. Kofi Danning started on the left for Sydney, Brendan Gan at the point of the midfield, Rhyan Grant at right fullback and Zach Cairncross partnering old hand Iain Fyfe in central defence.
Kofi Danning and Robbie Middleby were revelling in the space that the Roar's lop-sidedness gave them, and Danning's speed and close control were too much for Hyuk-su Seo, who had an unhappy night. Sydney, with Terry McFlynn and Stuart Musialik in the passing roles in midfield, were zipping the ball around the pitch and looking very threatening. Danning was linking up well with Alex Brosque and Mark Bridge. Brosque was doing his patented manoeuvre of starting on the right flank and cutting inside. This often left space for Grant to pour forward into.
When Queensland did get the ball in early exchanges, Tiatto seemed to be in charge of getting it forward to the right people. It wasn't working. There were no runners on the right, which meant that the only place to go was left. Three times in a row Tiatto's pass to Zullo got cut off by Rhyan Grant ... and only one of those was a well-timed interception, the other two Tiatto just passed it straight to the Sydney player.
Against the run of play, Queensland took the lead in the 16th minute.
The ball finally made its way out to Zullo on the left wing, who picked out the run of Matt McKay. McKay got to the byline and cut the ball back to the point of the six-yard box. Mitch Nichols met the ball with a left-foot snapshot, which Ivan Necevski did well to parry. Van Dyk was quickest to react and gobbled up the crumbs. 1-0 to the home team.
This was a very open game all night, and Sydney were still on top in terms of possession and chances made, despite being behind on the scoreboard. In the 19th Kofi Danning went close when he evaded his marker Seo and got his shot away. It squeezed under Griffin McMaster, but was still dribbling towards goal when Andy Packer got back to clear it off the line, despite the close attentions of Grant.
Then in the 22nd minute, Sydney won a free kick about five metres outside the penalty box. Iain Fyfe stepped up to take it, and sent in a shot that McMaster could only tip over the bar.
When the equaliser came in the 26th minute it was only what Sydney deserved. Rhyan Grant cut inside Packer, and measured a cross to the far post. Danning easily had the jump on Seo, who never actually got off the ground, and the header looped over the advancing McMaster.
Queensland Roar are rarely outplayed at home, even for five or 10 minutes at a time. But Sydney were bossing this game, and seemed to be a good chance of causing an upset.
And then, remarkably, for a second time, Queensland scored against the run of play. Craig Moore, on the halfway line, looked up to see Sergio Van Dyk peeling away from his marker, Zach Cairncross. Moore's ball forward was a good one, but Cairncross seemed rooted to the spot as the ball floated over him to Van Dyk, leaving the Dutchman one-on-one with Necevski. The big striker converted the chance with quite some assurance. 2-1.
With the Roar back in the lead, they began to play better football, and Sydney's pretty passing became a bit more harried and ragged. As always when the Roar are going well, Massimo Murdocca and Matt McKay were at the core of it, winning the ball, and exchanging short passes with each other, Mitch Nichols and Van Dyk.
The lop-sidedness of the formation seemed to matter less and less, as Zullo was tormenting Rhyan Grant, with his stutter step and his burst of speed. It seemed inevitable that the Roar would grab a third before the break.
But the score was unchanged at the change of ends.
Three minutes into the second half, Mitch Nichols was on a surging run when he was brought down, about five metres outside the box. Sergio Van Dyk lined up the free kick and got it over the wall and dipping towards the corner. Necevski made a fine save, and Murdocca could not profit from the rebound.
Nichols went oh-so-close himself in the 56th minute, receiving a corner from Murdocca, taking one touch and then blasting a shot just millimetres over the bar.
If Farina had made a dubious choice in his formation, Kosmina made an even bigger blunder at the start of the second half. With Danning giving Seo an absolute bath in the first half, Kosmina had him switch wings for the second half. The result was that Andy Packer got into the back pocket of Kofi Danning and did not let him move for the entire second half. Brosque tended to drift infield, leaving Seo a free ride.
It was the opposite of a master-stroke from the Sydney coach. Take the one area of the field where you are dominating, and change it for the worse.
Most of my notes from the second half concerned the string of substitutions. Robbie Kruse and Charlie Miller both got a chance to join the attack for Queensland. Kosmina brought on veterans Colosimo and Corica, but neither had an impact, other than Colosimo picking up a yellow card.
Sydney were getting less and less effective as the game wore on. Moore and McCloughan had the centre all sewn up, and the Bridge-Brosque combination never threatened.
In the 86th minute, Zach Cairncross went into a tackle on Andy Packer which saw the Roar man writhing in pain on the ground and referee Craig Zetter reaching into his pocket for a red card.
With a bit more space on the field, and the visitors still only a goal down and looking for a second equaliser, the denouement was not surprising. The first time after Cairncross's dismissal that Queensland caught Sydney on the break, Van Dyk did a couple of step overs, drew the defence and then shot instead of passing to the unmarked Miller.
The second time, the roles were reversed, and fortunately for big Serge, Miller didn't hold a grudge. The Scot calmly drew the defence to him before squaring it up for the Dutchman to take the glory.
So the final margin had an air of a comfortable win. This was just a bit misleading, as Sydney were certainly in the game right up to the 90th minute. Their problem in the first half was that they didn't score more than once in their period of domination, and worse still that they let Queensland score twice in that same period. Bridge, and to a lesser extent Brosque, lacked a cutting edge upfront for Sydney.
The difference between Roar's Van Dyk and Zullo and Sydney's Bridge and Brosque in terms of work-rate was noticeable. Bridge, up against a quality centre back in Moore, really failed to make himself into a nuisance, let alone a menace.
Queensland Roar, despite their slow start, showed in this game why they are a real threat for the title. With McKay, Murdocca and Tiatto winning the ball, Van Dyk in top form, Zullo creating havoc out wide, and now Kruse and Miller to provide the extra spark, Queensland have the firepower to beat any side in the A-League.