Comparing Sydney FC's 2010 championship winning side with the 2015 version

Comparing Sydney FC's 2010 championship winning side with the 2015 version

0
SHARE

Sydney FC’s five-year championship drought could come to an end this Sunday, should it defeat the Melbourne Victory in the 2015 A-League grand final.

Their last premiership, won back in 2010, featured the names of John Aloisi, Steve Corica and Simon Colosimo, plus current captain and prodigal son Alex Bosque. But how does the current crop of Sky Blues compare to the 2010 winning team?

Firstly, only four players have survived from the 2010 championship winning team: Alex Brosque and Sebastian Ryall, who both played an integral role in the grand final win. Rhyan Grant and Matthew Jurman were also part of the squad in 2010, making various cameos during the season.

The two teams could not be at more opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to defence and attack. The 2010 winning side, coached by Czech Vitezslav Lavicka, was the best defensive unit in the competition, conceding only 23 goals on its way to winning the championship. However, even with a frontline that boasted the names of Aloisi, Corica and Brosque, it struggled to find the back of the net scoring only 35 goals, three more then ninth-placed Brisbane Roar that season.

Compare that statistic to this season, where the Sky Blues have had no trouble finding the back of the net, scoring an incredible 52 times, becoming only the third team in the A-League’s current format to crack the 50 goal mark. Marquee man Marc Janko was the A-Leagues Golden Boot winner, scoring 16 times, a tally that saw him eclipse the combined total of 12 goals set in 2010 by the “killer Bs” (Alex Brosque and Mark Bridge). This proves how lethal the Austrian captain has been for the Sky Blues.

However, Sydney’s at times suspect defence has been its Achilles heel. The current Sky Blues, unlike their 2010 compatriots, have had to rely heavily on the outstanding work of number one gloveman Vedran Janjetovic with Sydney’s transition from attack to defence proving a weakness that opposition teams have exploited. The 2010 Sky Blues were defensively flawless, united as one and almost impossible to defeat.

Tactically, the two teams differ from one another. In 2010, not only Sydney FC but also the A-League as a whole was played in a different style. Players who were big, strong and had engines like  V8s were a perfect fit for the league. The Sydney midfield that consisted of Stuart Musialik, Terry McFlynn and Karol Kisel, were technically not the best players but they could do a job, run hard and produce results. That compared to the likes of Mickael Tavares and Milos Dimitrijevic, who are technically two of the best ever to play an A-League game.

[interaction id=”5553d692e091946473b1dd2d”]

The Sydney team of 2010 grinded out results, sometimes in not the most visually pleasing way if you are a football fan, but that style got the job done. Fast forward only five short years, and we have a Sydney team which at times has been labelled the entertainers of the league for its high-scoring games and attacking flair.

However, through all the differences there is one similarity; the two coaches. Perhaps not so much personality-wise, with Lavicka the quiet and most often reserved character, shying away from the media and letting his coaching prowess do the talking. Current coach Graham Arnold, meanwhile, is always outspoken and never afraid to speak his mind. However, both coaches’ recruitment was impeccable and key to their respective successes. Lavicka only brought in four players; Sebastian Ryall, Stephen Keller, Karol Kisel and Byun Sung-Hwan, with all four playing a combined 103 games in the 2009-10 season and a long the way being an integral element in the side’s success.

Meanwhile, Arnold’s recruitments have been just as effective as Lavicka’s. Arnold’s ability to be proactive under pressure when four key players went down with season-ending injuries was the tipping point in Sydney’s successful run to the Grand Final. Bringing in the experienced duo of Senegalese internationals Jacques Faty and Mickael Tavares has been vitally important for the Sky Blues since the turn of the year.

Nevertheless, should the current Sky Blues go on and win this season’s A-League grand final, they will create their own legacy, much like the 2010 winning side created. However, a loss to one of their biggest rivals and the current Sydney team will be nothing more than a footnote in the history books.

What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.

LEAVE A REPLY