SYDNEY—Wellington Phoenix captain Andrew Durante has labeled Sydney FC as the A-League's best side following a 3-1 thumping at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.
The home team turned on the style in an Alex Brosque-inspired victory to maintain top spot on the ladder, the striker having a hand in all of Sydney's goals in a stunning 20-minute, first-half blitz.
The man of the match was in superb form in the opening stanza and strike partner Mark Bridge shook off a bout of illness to produce a double before being substituted in the 53rd minute.
Steve Corica was Sydney FC's other goalscorer while Wellington's Costa Barbarouses found the back of the net late in the match after his teammate Daniel missed a re-taken penalty in the 60th minute.
It was a humbling result for the New Zealand side following their 6-0 home win over Gold Coast last weekend.
But Durante said the Sky Blues were the competition's benchmark.
"Sydney are a very good team, to be honest I think they are probably the best team in the competition," he said.
"They are very well organised and they knock the ball around well and they have got good understanding and we found that hard to deal with in the first half."
Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert admitted Brosque had created plenty of headaches.
"Look he is a good player, you have to give credit where it is due and he made some good runs and caused us some problems," he said. "It was Brosquey's night tonight."
The visitors battled in the opening minutes just to stay on the park after Daniel's left shoulder popped out in the first minute and goalkeeper Mark Paston needed to be replaced after colliding with teammate Paul Ifill going for the ball six minutes later.
The scoreboard pain came in the 15th minute when Brosque's clever little pass opened up enough space for Bridge to blast home.
The home side continued to open up the visitors and in the 31st minute, after a length of the field movement, replacement 'keeper Reece Crowther could only parry Brosque's left-foot strike and Corica tapped in from close range.
Brosque continued to torment defenders with his pace, burning off Ben Sigmund down the left side four minutes later before delivering a pinpoint pass for the simplest of goals to Bridge.
With a 3-0 halftime lead, Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka replaced the ill Bridge with John Aloisi only eight minutes after the break.
The visitors should have clawed their way back when referee Gerard Parsons awarded a penalty in the 60th minute after Sydney FC's Simon Colosimo tangled with big Phoenix striker Ifill in the area.
Daniel stepped up and slotted the first penalty opportunity only to be called back for Phoenix players encroaching on the area.
The Brazilian's second effort was a fairly limp one with goalkeeper Clint Bolton easily stopping the shot low to his left.
"It is probably a harsh ruling when it goes against you but you have to be good enough to put it in the back of the net. From there who knows what would have happened?" said Herbert.
A-League Results and Standings Round 13
NEWCASTLE JETS 1 (Labinot Haliti 32m) at Suncorp Stadium. Crowd: 7,509. Referee: Chris Beath.
CENTRAL COAST MARINERS 0 drew
ADELAIDE UNITED 0 at Canberra Stadium. Crowd: 5,437. Referee: Ben Williams.
NORTH QUEENSLAND FURY 2 (Robbie Fowler 64m, 76m pen) bt
GOLD COAST UNITED 0 at Skilled Park. Crowd: 2,616. Referee: Craig Zetter.
SYDNEY FC 3 (Mark Bridge 15m, 35m, Steve Corica 32m) bt
WELLINGTON PHOENIX 1 (Costa Barbarouses 81m) at Sydney Football Stadium. Crowd: 10,653. Referee: Gerard Parsons.
MELBOURNE VICTORY 2 (Chris Coyne 6m og, Carlos Hernandez 68m) bt
PERTH GLORY 1 (Mile Sterjovski 19m) at ME Bank Stadium. Crowd: 10,035. Referee: Strebre Delovski.
A-League Ladder P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Sydney FC 13 8 1 4 19 11 8 25
2 Melbourne Victory 13 7 3 3 22 18 4 24
3 Gold Coast United 13 6 2 5 19 20 -1 20
4 Central Coast Mariners 13 4 5 4 13 8 5 17
5 Perth Glory 13 5 2 6 18 17 1 17
6 Adelaide United 13 4 4 5 12 15 -3 16
7 North Queensland Fury 13 3 6 4 15 20 -5 15
8 *Wellington Phoenix 12 2 7 3 16 14 2 13
9 Brisbane Roar 13 3 4 6 16 21 -5 13
10 *Newcastle Jets 12 3 4 5 12 18 -6 13
*(denotes teams yet to play)
LEADING GOALSCORERS
10: Shane Smeltz (Gold Coast)
8: Robbie Fowler (North Queensland)
7: Serginho van Dijk (Brisbane)
6: Carlos Hernandez (Melbourne), Mark Bridge (Sydney)
5: Archie Thompson (Melbourne)
4: John Aloisi (Sydney), Branko Jelic (Perth), Victor Sikora (Perth), Labinot Haliti (Newcastle), Matt Simon (Mariners), Mile Sterjovski (Perth)
