Triple treat as Sydney FC roar back to form

Sydney FC midfielder Steve Corica scored two magnificent goals in a completely dominant display that sent Sydney FC to a stirring 3-1 victory over a cocky Queensland Roar at Suncorp Stadium.

Corica returned to the starting line up after a one match suspension and was the catalyst behind Sydney FC’s return to form.

Corica opened the scoring in the fifth minute with a delicate chip over Queensland goalkeeper Tom Willis after a slick ball from Dwight Yorke and a defensive mistake from Hyuk-Su Seo put him in behind the defence.

He then continued to pull the strings in midfield before scoring what could be another contender for “goal of the season” to put Sydney FC back in front in the 67th minute after Queensland had earlier equalized through a Jacob Timpano own goal.

Fellow midfielder Terry McFlynn then put the issue beyond doubt with another world class strike in the 72nd minute. McFlynn picked up the scraps 25m from goal, beat a defender and with Willis ever-so-slightly off his line, the Northern Ireland youth international chipped the ball into the top corner.

It was due reward for McFlynn as he has been close to Sydney’s best player all season.

Sydney FC Coach Pierre Littbarski made three changes to the team that went down last weekend against the Central Coast Mariners with Sasho Petrovski and Corica replacing David Zdrilic and Matthew Bingley while Young Socceroo Timpano made his starting A-League debut in place of injured captain Mark Rudan.

Corica wasted little time signaling his return following a week off due to suspension when he scored a delightful goal in the 5th minute, his first in the Hyundai A-League.

Sydney FC continued to press hard with McFlynn, David Carney and Ufuk Talay all having shots on goal inside the opening 10 minutes.

Queensland made sweeping changes to its side and they took some time to settle into the match with midfielder Spase Dilevski the only productive outlet early as Alex Brosque and Jonathan Richter were strangely left on the bench.

Roar coach Miron Bleiberg admitted the error of his ways in the 37th minute when he injected in-form Jonathan Richter into the match for Royce Brownlie but persisted with the 3-5-2 formation he switched to for the match.

The match did live up to its pre-game hype with both sides throwing everything into an entertaining and hectic opening 45 minutes with Queensland’s Michael Baird and Sydney FC’s McFlynn both entered into referee Matthew Breeze’s notebook.

Queensland came out firing in the second half and equalized through a Timpano own goal in the 50th minute as the home team were buoyed by the support of a massive Suncorp crowd.

To be fair to Timpano it was the only blight on what was a tremendous starting debut in the A-League for the former Wollongong junior.

But Sydney FC steadied and Corica’s second goal was an absolute belter. A Sydney FC corner was cleared to Cprica and he hit a sweet 20m volley that was still rising when it flew into the back of the net.

At that stage the tempo lifted and the momentum swung.

Five minutes later the match was over when McFlynn scored a wonderful goal when he chipped Willis from 25m to send all three points back to Sydney.

Sydney FC then showed further glimpses of class to once again change the tempo and slow the game down as the clock ran down on the final 15 minutes to give the visitors a well earned and much needed win.