Brendan Gan, You Rock Dec 8 2008

FOOTBALL is strange; it can leave you empty and deflated, it can have you cursing players, coaches and their mothers.

But within a second all that dark stuff gets moved to the side with a beautiful controlled finish by Brendan Gan to give Sydney a precious 2-1 away win over Newcastle, the love is back and we can still dream.

So what’s been the fuss? Sydney is only four points from the lead and firmly entrenched in the top four. The knives that were in Kossie’s back have been removed and sent back to the store for sharpening.

Don’t be fooled by appearances though, in the A-League ladder, positions can be deceiving. Only in the A-League can a team have one win in eight games, then with their next victory climb back into the top four and only be four points from top position.

Let’s leave the nit picking aside and concentrate on the good stuff.

What can you say about Brendan Gan except: I told you so!

I hate to do the “I wrote about this in my earlier blog thing”, but I have been and so have many others, imploring Kossie to pick more youth players for the first team.

And so he did, finally.

It was midway through the second half when he came on, but before that Newcastle scored early in the first half after a nice move resulted in Jobe Wheelhouse scoring.

It appeared the youthful Newcastle side where going to go on with it, after it looked like the ageing Bobby Petta gave the keys to the right hand flank to the Newcastle side to do with as they wished.

Sydney FC then equalised through an Ian Fyfe Fyfe Fyfe header after a nice cross by Shannon Cole and good work by John Aloisi to head the ball into the path of Fyfe.

Midway through the second half now, the score is 1-1 and the away Cove are window licking rather than singing or chanting. Once Brendan Gan came on Sydney started playing better, Brosque who was running around in central midfield all confused, moved up higher to join John Aloisi, Steve Corica, Mark Bridge in a four pronged attack, leaving the others to track back.

Once Gan Gan Gan Gan (surely the cove lyricists can come up with something better) scored I jumped like a grasshopper, I forgot what a winning goal felt like. It had been five games since my last hit, and I was shivering from the withdrawal symptoms.

The goal involved good work by Corica, Aloisi, Bridge and Gan.

The move ended with Steve Corica giving a beautiful no look pass to Brendan Gan who ran into a great position and slotted the ball past Ante Covic’s left hand.

A nervous 10 minutes followed, with Clint Bolton having to make a save right at the end; luckily they hit ball in the Bolton zone, straight at him.

So, that is all, that is all, that is all!!! There is still work to do but I’ll leave that for the others to dissect. No need to ruin the buzz, or piss on your parade, let’s just enjoy the win.