Sydney eye lessons, quick rebound after Australia Cup elimination
Sydney FC boss Ufuk Talay says his young group will take an important learning experience from his side's Australia Cup elimination, with his eye turning to further recruitment and Asian competition.
Sydney FC boss Ufuk Talay says that his side’s Australia Cup elimination at the hands of NPL Victoria side Oakleigh will provide a young playing group with an important learning experience as he looks ahead to Asian football and more signings ahead of the A-League Men season.
Entering as defending champions, Sydney became the first A-League Men side in this year’s iteration to fall to a ‘Cupset’ on Tuesday evening, downed 3-1 by the Cannons at The Home of the Matildas in Melbourne.
Staging the game in Bundoora rather than their traditional home at Jack Edwards Reserve – where they eliminated Sydney in the quarterfinals of this tournament back in 2022 – due to renovations, Oakleigh took the lead in the 14th minute through former New Zealand youth international Kingsley Sinclair.
After Nicholas Feely was called from encroachment on his initial save, the Harboursiders’ new German signing Anas Ouahim restored parity from the penalty spot in the 25th minute but the hosts retook a deserved lead just before halftime when Asad Kasumovic beat Andrew Redmayne at his near post following a high turnover.
With one eye on Saturday’s Dockerty Cup final against South Melbourne and thus desperate to avoid extra-time, the Cannons then sealed the result with 15 minutes to go via another former Kiwi youth international in Emlyn Wellsmore.
Absent the likes of Joe Lolley and Max Burgess in his first side’s competitive hitout of a new campaign, Talay fielded a starting XI with an average age of 23.5 for the clash – 35-year-old Redmayne and 33-year-old Rhyan Grant doing their bit to bring that number higher – with an average age of 20.4 to call upon from the bench.
“It will be a fantastic learning experience for a very young squad that we had out there tonight,” said Talay. “Obviously disappointed not to be continuing through.
“The moments that we conceded… the first one okay, I give that: it was poor defending from us in the box. The second one, we were just about to break and we slipped over and then they broke the other way and scored the second. And in the second half, where we have all the momentum, they create something from nothing where [with] one shot, they score another goal.
“But there are a lot of good learning moments for our younger players who played tonight and we will look back at it and review it again and go from there.”
Appointed midway through the 2023-24 A-League Men season after Steve Corica was dismissed, Talay is experiencing his first full preseason with his Sky Blue outfit, boosting his hopes of attaining the requisite fitness levels and understanding from players to implement his high-pressing style straight from round one.
The side has added Ouahim, welcomed attacker Adrian Segecic back from a loan stint at Dordrecht, and added goalkeeper Harrison Devenish-Meares to push Redmayne but the likes of Luke Brattan, Fábio Gomes, Jack Rodwell, Jake Girdwood-Reich, Róbert Mak have all headed for the exit lounge.
Adding squad depth will take on an extra imperative for Sydney this season due to their Asian Champions League Two commitments (the former AFC Cup), which they qualified for after winning last year’s Australia Cup. The draw for this year's ACL2 will take place on August 16, with group play from mid-September to early December and the knockouts commencing in mid-February.
“Definitely. It's different. We can implement certain things. We can train in a certain way to get them to a certain level.
“At the moment, we're looking for a central defender, a nine and a six.
“We've got a couple of domestic [players] that we're looking at but also internationals.
“We'll get through the month of August. We'll get a few games under the player’s belts and then we've got our Champions League game around the 17th or 18th of September.
“So once we have a clearer idea [of that game’s details], we'll be working towards it.”
Compounding challenges in recruitment, however, are the new, leaner budgets that A-League sides are contending with this season, exemplified by the approx $530k distribution – down around $1.5m from last season – from league bosses.
“It's never easy in that sense,” said Talay. “We're trying to find players that fit into what we want to do with the funding that you have. It's never easy.
“It's very important for us and I especially believe that in our competition, the players we bring in [need to] make a difference.
“So we're quite diligent and we're taking our time to make sure we get the right players.”