Bertos and Bridge grab late winners
Late goals by Leo Bertos and Mark Bridge have secured valuable wins for Wellington Phoenix and Sydney FC respectively in Sunday action of Round 2 of the Hyundai A-League.
A superb free-kick from Bertos earned Wellington a 2-1 win over Perth Glory in atrocious conditions at Westpac Stadium, while Bridge came off the bench for Sydney to snatch the only goal at Sydney Football Stadium against Adelaide United.
In Wellington, the match was seemingly heading for a draw, when Bertos was brought down by Adriano Pellegrino, who was shown a yellow card, about 35 metres out. With rain lashing down and just five minutes remaining of normal time, Bertos rifled the ball at goal, the ball taking a deflection off a Perth defender and eluding the desperate dive of Glory keeper Tando Velaphi.
In front of a crowd of 10,024 the two sides created plenty of chances with Perth denied twice by the woodwork in the second half and both goalkeepers Mark Paston and Velaphi kept busy throughout the match.
There was plenty of free-flowing football on show, particularly in the second stanza as each team pressed forward in search of the winner after the first half ended 1-1.
The Glory got off to the perfect start with a goal inside the first four minutes. Michael Ferrante, who had been booked just two minutes earlier for a foul on Victor Sikora, was dispossessed by Sikora, who slotted home past a diving Paston.
New Phoenix striker Paul Ifill came close to leveling the score just a few minutes later when he collected a cross from the right in space but his powerful shot was parried away by Velaphi and the visitors cleared the danger.
Bertos was a constant danger and it was determined run from Bertos that brought about the Phoenix's equaliser in the 24th minute, with the midfielder firing the ball into the box and Ifill heading home from six yards out.
Perth-s cohesion was tested early in the match, forced to make two substitutions inside the first half hour, with Chris Coyne (illness) and Sikora (quad injury) coming off the park.
Perth though had the better of the second half and were unlucky not to go ahead when Qantas Socceroo Mile Sterjovski headed against the crossbar.
Sterjovski the saw two well-struck shots go wide then Todd Howarth rattled Paston's crossbar and they were made to pay for these misses when Bertos-s settled the match with his powerful shot.
Meanwhile in Sydney, the home side made it two from two with Bridge-s 77th minute winner. It was a result Sydney probably deserved after dominating the first half and were unlucky not to score.
It took a moment of brilliance from Sydney substitute Mark Bridge to break the deadlock, when he played a delightful one-two with Alex Brosque and lashed home his volley from 10 yards out.
After a tense opening from both teams the hosts fired the first shot on goal 11 minutes in when Eugene Galekovic was forced to defuse a John Aloisi header.
Galekovic produced an even better save seven minutes later when Aloisi delivered a clever back-heel flick to Steve Corica to unleash a powerful strike which was brilliantly saved by Galekovic with his legs.
Adelaide-s Alameo forced a save from Clint Bolton in the 28th minute and Lucas Pantelis- follow up was narrowly wide, while Robert Cornthwaite hit the side-netting with a diving header shortly after.
Kofi Danning though was starting to get some joy down the right for Sydney and the half chances continued to mount for Sydney, but with no reward.
The Reds fired the first shot at the resumption when Alemao and Cristiano combined forcing Bolton to produce a diving save.
The arm-wrestle continued but it was the hosts who continued to create more chances with both Brosque and Simon Colosimo denied by Galekovic before Karol Kisel narrowly missed the target with a dangerous free-kick on 70 minutes.
Momentum stayed with the hosts who claimed a well-deserved win with Bridge's 77th minute strike in front of almost 15,000 fans.
The result saw Sydney join Gold Coast United at the top of the table.