Sydney FC won their fourth A-League title after penalty shootout win in the away Grand Final vs. Glory. The Sky Blues also reached the FFA Cup final in December, but it was lost 1:2.
Under new management, Steve Corica was taking charge at this level for first team and, with pre-season hot shot Buhagiar sustaining season-ending injury even before the first round arrived, many worried that this campaign will be more about rebuilding than anything else.
Mixed results in the first 7 rounds certainly made that impression even stronger, but then around mid-December and right after losing the FFA Cup final the team’s attitude and desire changed.
Run of 7 wins in 8 rounds between mid-December and late January saw Sydney moving up from 6th to 3rd in the table.
The consistency to challenge Glory for first place was still not there, in 2019 Sydney were held to draws by strugglers Wanderers and Mariners + suffered defeats against Roar and Jets, but with Victory also stumbling the battle for second place was hot.
Crucial in that battle was the 2:1 home win exactly vs. Victory in round 24. Then Sydney went on to hammer Victory 6:1 in the semi-final too.
Le Fondre’s goals made the season-long absence of Buhagiar go unnoticed, while when fit De Jong also had positive impact on almost every game he took part of.
Corica will have to show flexibility in order to keep the same level of success next season, with some of the key players leaving this summer. This means that close monitoring of the team’s transfer activity will give hint as to how successful they could be in defence of their title.
