Sydney FC get big fat football lesson

Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka conceded his A-League side had copped a big fat
Greek footballing lesson at the hands of AEK Athens as the Sydney Festival of
Football kicked off on Sunday
Sydney rode their luck for most of the opening match of the four-team pre-season
tournament but were ultimately outclassed as the 11-time Greek champions'
superiority shone through in an entertaining 5-3 win at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Scottish champions Rangers had a 2-1 win over Blackburn in Sunday's other match in
front of a crowd of 14,153.
A pair of goals to Alex Brosque, one a penalty and the other the result of a bizarre
goalkeeping howler, had Sydney level at 2-2 just after halftime but Athens were able
to slice open their defence late in the match and run up a score.
The performance left Lavicka knowing his side has plenty of work to do ahead of
their A-League title defence starting next month.
"For us it was a big but bitter lesson, especially in defence," Lavicka said.
"We made several mistakes and a good quality team as AEK are, punished each Sydney
FC mistake.
"We scored three goals, that's the positive, but we can't be satisfied with the
performance in general today."
Another slight source of encouragement for Lavicka came through an 88th minute goal
to 198cm Senegalese striker Ibrahima Thiam, who only arrived on Saturday for a trial
with the club.
The sluggish 28-year-old struggled at times after coming on in the second half but
Lavicka said he was likely to get more opportunities to impress in the matches
against Rangers on Blackburn this week.
Leonardo, Ismael Blanco, Nikos Liberopoulos, Ignacio Scocco and Pantelis Kafes all
got on the score sheet for Athens while Brosque's second goal was arguably the most
entertaining of the game.
The recently re-signed striker was gifted a simple tap-in when promising Greek
international Kostas Manolas squared a ball for goalkeeper Ioannis Arampatzis, who
took far too long with the ball before tripping over his own feet to surrender
possession.
In the later match, Socceroos stars Brett Emerton and Vince Grella both came on as
second half substitutes as Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce eases them back following
World Cup duties.
Goals to American midfielder Maurice Edu and veteran striker Kenny Miller put
Rangers up 2-0 at halftime before David Dunn pulled one back for Rovers with a
second-half penalty.
Rangers could have been 3-0 up just seconds prior to Dunn's goal, with Miller
blasting a penalty over the bar.
"I thought we were much better in the first half ... but we were forced to work very
hard and that is one of the main aspects of pre-season games," Rangers manager
Walter Smith said.
Allardyce put his side's lacklustre performance down to their hectic travel schedule
having only arrived in Sydney on Saturday.
"It was a good workout physically for us to get ready and be more about ourselves on
Wednesday night," he said.
Blackburn will meet AEK Athens in the second round of matches on Wednesday while
Sydney FC face Rangers.
Athens (Eight points) lead the tournament standings, in which teams earn a bonus
point for every goal scored, ahead of Rangers (five), Sydney FC (three) and
Blackburn (one).