Sydney FC has consolidated its finals position with a one-all draw against league leaders Brisbane Roar at Allianz Stadium.
Sydney FC has consolidated its finals position with a one-all draw against league leaders Brisbane Roar at Allianz Stadium.
The Sky Blues showed character to come from behind after Besart Berisha had given the Roar a 22nd minute lead.
Sebastian Ryall restored parity 12 minutes later with his head from a corner, before the both goalscorers were involved in a challenge which saw Berisha receive a straight red card.
Sydney FC Head Coach Frank Farina made three changes to the team that defeated the Western Sydney Wanderers 3-1 in the Sydney Derby last week.
Ryall returned to start at right back after his injury lay off while 20-year old Alec Urosevski made his full debut for Sydney FC on the left flank in place of Alessandro Del Piero. Corey Gameiro returned to the line-up as a replacement for the injured Ranko Despotovic.
The Sky Blues signalled their attacking intent early with Matt Jurman flashing a ball across the Roar box within the first minute and from the resultant play Sydney FC were almost in front.
Brisbane-s attempted clearance was charged down by Seb Ryall and the ricochet forced Roar keeper Theo to pull off an acrobatic save and tipping the ball over the bar.
Boosted, the visitors took the lead in the 22nd minute. Luke Brattan found Broich in space on the left wing and the German whipped in a deep cross to find Berisha who neatly prodded a header over Janjetovic to open the scoring.
The lead didn-t last long and the Sky Blues were level before half time.
Nikola Petkovic curled a left footed corner deep to the far post and Sebastian Ryall moved clear of his marker to head the ball into an empty net on 34 minutes.
Drama ensued five minutes later when Besart Berisha was given his marching orders.
The Albanian made a studs up challenge for a loose ball with Ryall and that produced an angry response from the Sky Blues full back. After a small amount of push and shove the Roar striker was given an early shower with Ryall also receiving a yellow card and the sides went in level at the break.
The Sky Blues started the second half on the front foot as they looked to capitalise on their numerical advantage.
Seb Ryall drove a low ball into the box that just evaded Richard Garcia who was sliding in at the near post.
Chances were at a premium for both sides however, with Alec Urosevski-s rebound from a chased down clearance by Theo bouncing wide and Liam Miller blazing over the bar in the 76th minute.
In the final 10 minutes both sides had chances to win it.
Hagi Gligor made a fantastic late sliding tackle to deny Henrique as he wound up to shoot inside the box, then Brattan-s shot was momentarily fumbled by Janjetovic before the keeper recovered to smother the loose ball.
In the final chance of the match Sydney FC’s Serbian defender Nikola Petkovic drove a low and hard free-kick wide of the post leaving the match level at 1-1 and Sydney FC in fourth place in the Hyundai A-League.
The Sky Blues travel to Adelaide to face the Reds at Coopers Stadium on Friday night (kick of 7:30pm local time) with only four games remaining in the race for finals football.
Sydney FC 1 (Ryall 34-) drew w. Brisbane Roar 1 (Berisha 22-)
Allianz Stadium
Crowd: 13,073
Referee: Peter O-Leary
SYDNEY FC: 20. Vedran JANJETOVIC (gk), 2. Seb RYALL (60- Aaron CALVER), 5. Matthew JURMAN, 6. Nikola PETKOVIC, 9. Corey GAMEIRO (66- Joel CHIANESE), 11. Richard GARCIA (c) (80- Chris NAUMOFF), 13. Sasa OGNENOVSKI, 17. Terry ANTONIS, 22. Ali ABBAS, 24. Hagi GLIGOR, 29. Alec UROSEVSKI.
Unused Substitutes: 1. Ivan NECEVSKI (gk), 28. Matt THOMPSON.
Yellow cards:
BRISBANE ROAR: 1.Michael THEO (gk), 2.Matthew SMITH (c), 3.Shane STEFANUTTO, 7.Besart BERISHA, 11.Liam MILLER (77- Steven LUSTICA), 17.Matt McKAY, 18.Luke BRATTAN, 19.Jack HINGERT, 22.Thomas BROICH, 23.Dimitri PETRATOS (77- HENRIQUE), 26.Corey BROWN (81- Diogo FERRIERA)
Unused Substitutes: 20.Matthew ACTON (gk), 28.Brandon BORRELLO.
Yellow Cards: 68- C.Brown
Red Cards: 39- B.Berisha.
