Asian Champions League 2011

'10 man Sydney draw with Pop-gun Suwon
by Chris Dunkerley

Group H - Round 1 - 1st Leg
8:00pm, Wednesday 02 March, 2011
at Sydney Football Stadium


Sydney FC 0
drew with
Suwon Samsung Bluewings FC 0



(Sydney defend a corner - Photo by Nick Guoth)

Sydney FC went down to 10 men with the sending off of Terry McFlynn in the 32nd minute but a rusty Suwon Bluewings could not put them away in Group H at the SFS tonight.

With Suwon being in pre-season and Sydney having finished 9th in the A-League it was with not high expectations that fans may have approached this game. Their expectations were fulfilled. Sydney brought ex Fury player David Williams into their starting 11 and played him initially out wide on the right, and left Phoenix loan defender Andrew Durante on the bench. They lacked something early on and of course once they were reduced to 10 it was hard to judge their success in revamping the side.

Suwon have been reported as making significant signings and fielded new signings in defender Jae-Won Hwang, midfielder Yong-Rae Lee, and goalkeeper Sung-Ryong Jung, so perhaps that explained their lack of cohesion, but not their profligacy in front of goal.

In the 8th minute Sang Ho Lee sent a well weighted and directed pass to Sung Kuk Choi and the striker should have done better with a Sydney defender not closing him he alas blasted his shot well over the crossbar. One minute later Hirofumi Moriyasu got into the box for the first chance for Sydney but Suwon forced a corner.

Sydney slowly got into the game but in the 32nd minute a strange decision by Terry McFlynn to step on rather than over Sang Ho Lee, as he had first shaped to do. Experienced Singapore referee Abdul Malik took the reasonable view of assigning intent to the contact despite McFlynn's protestations, and smiling as always he gave McFlynn a straight red card. The Sydney fans of course didn't see it that way and boo-ed him, and several of the Korean players who had reacted, for most of the game.

There was little to write about in the rest of the half - Moriyasu did get forward in the 45th minute with Sydney's best chance, shooting along the ground from 20m and forcing Suwon 'keeper Jung to go down to it and spill it, but it was cleared.

It wasn't promising when in the first minute of the second half Suwon's big Croatian defender Mato Neretljak took a complete air swing at a ball in the Sydney penalty area.

Sang Min Yang forced a fine save from Sydney 'keeper Liam Reddy, before Jang-Eun Oh went over the crossbar with a bicycle kick.

In the 85th minute Suwon defender Mato Neretljak curled a free-kick around the wall with five minutes remaining only for the ball to clear the near post of a diving Reddy.

As time ran down Sydney's defender Stephan Keller sent his header wide of the right post from a well hit free-kick, and in stoppage time substitute Mark Bridge hit a stinging shot that the Suwon 'keeper could hold but was cleared for a corner. Despite the 10-men Sydney finished the stronger, probably due to them playing in season, but time ran out.

In the other game Shanghai Shenhua of China held Kashima Antlers of Japan to a 0-0 draw. Sydney FC now play away in Japan against group favourites Kashima Antlers on Wednesday 16th March, 2011.

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