Sydney coach Steve Corica is unhappy with the refereeing decisions that went against his side in their controversial 1-0 loss to nine-man Wellington Phoenix.
Though the Phoenix lost two players to questionable sending-offs, and had to survive two penalties in stoppage time, Corica tabled his complaints at the post-match media conference.
He complained that Sydney were trying to make a player change when the Phoenix scored their goal through Oskar Zawada after 10 minutes.
“We didn’t have a chance to get our sub on,” Corica said.
“He (Sydney’s Patrick Yazbek) has come off with a concussion and you’d think we would be allowed to replace him at that time. It’s disappointing to concede in that manner with 10 men.”
On the hour, Sydney’s Rhyan Grant thought he had equalised but the offside flag denied Sydney.
“For me he was onside, everyone saw it on the big screen,” Corica said.
“I don’t know what part of his body was offside but it looked like a goal for me.”
The match was full of incidents, with Phoenix pair Bozhidar Kraev and Nicholas Pennington sent off, and two penalties awarded to Sydney in stoppage time for handballs.
Sydney’s Adam Le Fondre took both penalties; the first was saved by Phoenix ‘keeper Oli Sail, the second was blasted wide.
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Match highlights
Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay’s media conference
Sydney coach Steve Corica’s media conference
Phoenix defender Scott Wootton: ‘I can’t believe what happened’
Phoenix defender Scott Wootton says he hopes the team’s first clean sheet of the season, and the circumstances in which their win was achieved, will lift their performance for the rest of the A-League season.
Wootton gave a 10-minute interview to Newstalk’s Jason Pine, recounting the drama of the match:
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