In a blockbuster round one clash, Sydney FC and Melbourne City shared the points, drawing 1-1 in their Saturday night match. Pre-match discussion had centred on whether David Villa would start for City – he didn’t – but his 63rd minute equaliser, after coming on as a substitute, stole the headlines. While Villa’s contribution was promising, it was Damien Duff, one of City’s other big name signings, who shone the brightest.
In his second competitive game for his new side – the first was also against Sydney FC in the FFA Cup – Duff benefited from clever player rotation from his team-mates, which allowed him to exploit space in behind left-back Matthew Jurman. Sydney played a flat 4-4-2, whereas City played in their usual 4-3-3. Despite having a logical 3 v 2 numerical advantage in the centre of midfield, City instead looked to create overloads out wide, by having their mobile midfielders move into different zones of the pitch.
“We tried to be patient and then to get through [down] the sides and I think that worked very well especially on the right side with Damien Duff – creating 2 v 1 situations and 3 v 2 situations,” said the Melbourne City coach, John van ’t Schip, after the match. “We first played out from the back and then tried to get in behind them with our full-backs and our wingers and we created some good, dangerous moments by doing that.”
Sydney FC, meanwhile, defended in a compact 4-4-2, setting up around the halfway line. Due to Sydney’s compactness, with only 20-25 metres between their first and last line of defence, City looked to exploit the spaces in behind and made good use of off-the-ball movement to pull a disciplined Sydney side momentarily out of shape.
New midfield signings Aaron Mooy and Erik Paartalu both played important, albeit under the radar, roles helping City to create these overloads in wide areas. This in turn allowed Duff to threaten, with his intelligent movement and acceleration making him his side’s most potent attacking threat.
The first aspect of Melbourne City’s player rotation came during the first phase of build-up. When City’s goalkeeper, Andrew Redmayne, or the centre-backs, Rob Wielaert and Patrick Kisnorbo, had possession of the ball the deepest midfielder Paartalu would drop between the two centre-backs to receive the ball. This allowed City a numerical advantage in the back third and made maintaining possession easier. It also allowed both full-backs, Iain Ramsay on the left and young Ross Archibald on the right, to push high up the pitch and beyond Sydney’s midfield line.
As the ball move to towards the right side of the pitch, Mooy would then drift wide towards the space vacated by Archibald in the right-back zone.
With Paartalu, Wielaert and Kisnorbo able to keep the ball at the back, and with Mooy, Archibald and Duff on the right side of the pitch, City were able to regularly create the 3 v 2 situations that Van’t Schip wanted. This meant there was always a free player, often Duff, to receive the ball in dangerous positions behind Sydney’s defence.
Because of the new starting positions, left midfielder Alex Brosque would slide across the pitch and close down Mooy in the right-back zone. Jurman would then leave Duff to close down Archibald who had pushed extremely high up the park.
When this occurred, Duff momentarily found himself free in the space between Jurman and centre back Nikola Petkovic. A quick dummy to come short and a change of pace, Duff would then dart in behind to receive straight balls up the line or over the top of Sydney’s compact defence.
After getting in behind Sydney’s defence on a number of occasions, Duff was involved in a bright early attack when he cut the ball back to James Brown, whose shot cannoned off the crossbar. City had other chances in the first-half to take the lead but were unable to make them pay.
Sydney FC took the lead in the 54th minute when Corey Gameiro curled his shot beyond Redmayne but Duff played a major part in City’s equaliser, picking out Villa on the edge of the box with a wonderfully weighted pass before the Spaniard finished into the bottom corner.
