Sydney FC’s foreign strikers on target in 5-0 win over St George
Sydney FC coach Ian Crook sent out a strong starting side containing new recruits Lovrek, Ali Abbas, Fabio, Trent McClenahan and Yau, sending the Sky Blues into action in a 4-3-3 formation.
Crook would have been impressed with what he saw in the early stages as the Sky Blues kept possession well and pressured St George into error with a high-pressing game.
The first reward came in the 19th minute when Lovrek opened his Sydney FC account with a beautifully taken goal after Nick Carle and Joel Chianese combined crisply on the edge of the penalty area.
The roles were reversed on 30 minutes when Lovrek played Chianese in behind the St George defence with a delicate through ball and the youngster lifted the ball over the advancing ?keeper to make it 2-0, a scoreline that remained until the half time break.
Yau was the next player to open his Sky Blues scoring account when he lashed home a cross from Ali Abbas in the 56th minute, capping off a lively performance from the Panamanian striker.
Mitch Mallia was the 4th Sydney FC striker to find the back of the net when he used his pace to glide past the St George defence, rounded the St George keeper and rolled the ball into the back of an unguarded net to make it 4-0 in the 65th minute.
Crook replaced almost the entire starting line up during the second half with the exception of Abbas, who was rewarded with Sydney FC?s 5th goal of the game, when his shot from 20m took a deflection in the 75th minute.
Sydney FC 5 (Kruno Lovrek 19, Joel Chianese 30, Yairo Yau 56, Mitch Mallia 65, Ali Abbas 75) d St George 0
WIN Jubilee Kogarah
Crowd: About 2,000
Referee: Strebre Delovski
Sydney FC: 1. Ivan Necevski (20. Vedran Janjetovic ?46), 3. Fabio (2. Christopher Naumoff ?65), 10. Nick Carle (24. Hagi Gligor ?65), 15. Terry McFlynn (17. Terry Antonis ?46), 16. Joel Chianese (11. Dimi Petratos ?35), 18. Trent McClenahan (5. Callum O?Donnell ?62), 19. Kruno Lovrek (6. Tom Slater ?62), 21. Yairo Yau (14. Mitch Mallia ?56), 22. Ali Abbas, 23. Rhyan Grant (4. Keifer Dotti ?70), 25. Daniel Petkovski (8. Adam Griffiths ?46).
