01-07-2007, 06:49 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2007 My Local Time: 11:50 PM Location: Australia
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Knights stun Sydney
Sunday, 7 January, 2007 - 8:08PM
Ben Collins, Sportal
Che Bunce celebrates his goal with John Tambouras
Che Bunce celebrates his goal with John Tambouras
The New Zealand Knights have stunned Sydney FC by putting an end to the defending champions' nine-game unbeaten run with a shock 1-0 win at Aussie Stadium on Sunday.
A 16th-minute goal from Che Bunce was enough to give the Hyundai A-League's bottom club a second successive victory, despite Sydney twice hitting the woodwork in a pulsating second half.
The defeat is just Sydney's fourth of the season and sets up a mouth-watering clash with third-placed Adelaide United in round 20, with Sydney leading Adelaide by just one point in the battle for second place.
The Knights made Sydney pay for a subdued start, in which John Tambouras gifted Sydney its first chance before managing to get back and prevent Dave Carney getting a shot away.
Boosted by last week's impressive win over Queensland Roar, the visitors then served notice of their intent with Leilei Gao moving in from the left before firing straight at Sydney goalkeeper Clint Bolton.
Steve Corica and Alex Brosque then combined to release Carney but Knights keeper Mark Paston was out quickly to make a block, and three minutes later the Knights took a surprise lead.
Sydney centre-half Jacob Timpano struggled to get into the game in his first appearance of the season and although he did well to block Alen Marcina's run inside from the right, Timpano gave Bunce enough room to turn home the resultant corner, which was taken by Gao.
That was the first goal Sydney had conceded in 547 minutes and sparked a sustained response from the home side.
In the 22nd minute, Carney played the ball into Brosque before accepting a return pass, but Carney's 20-metre drive was too close to Paston.
Carney was pulling the strings again a minute later, picking out the run of Corica on Sydney's right, but his pull-back eluded Brosque in the centre.
The in-form Brosque then had his first shot on goal, Paston tipping his left-footed strike wide, and Paston was again at his best on the half-hour mark, pulling off a fine point-blank save after Mark Milligan headed Ufuk Talay's left-wing free-kick goalwards.
Milligan missed a great chance three minutes before the break when he sent a free header over from Talay's corner, and six minutes after the restart, Carney played a one-two with Corica before seeing his 20-metre shot come back off the inside of Paston's left post.
Sasho Petrovksi, a half-time substitute for Timpano, then had a shot blocked, and Carney shot into the side-netting after a surging diagonal run from the right.
Sydney had a huge let-off in the 65th minute as Jonas Salley crossed from the right and Marcina headed straight at Bolton when completely unmarked in the six-yard box, but Terry Butcher's men pushed forward again in the 75th minute with Ruben Zadkovich exchanging passes with Brosque before Gao cleared his cross from just a metre out.
Butcher then introduced a third striker, with David Zdrilic replacing Milligan nine minutes from time, and almost immediately Carney curled a left-footed effort over from the edge of the box.
Sydney finally thought it had rescued a point in the 87th minute after Carney fed Petrovski, but he too hit the inside of a post.
Sydney FC 0
New Zealand Knights 1 (Bunce 16)
Crowd: 16,040 @ Aussie Stadium
| Credit - A-League.com.au |
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