Strikes from Alessandro del Piero and Joel Chianese have secured Sydney FC victory over Newcastle Jets in their opening clash of the A-League season.
The first attack of the match started with Del Piero, who tried to thread the ball through to Ali Abbas in the box, but his poor touch drifted just behind his teammate, who was unable to latch on to it and launch a shot at goal.
At the other end of the pitch, the away side had a good chance to break the deadlock, but James Virgili could not get into the box quick enough to latch on to a cross from Sam Gallaway. On the counter-attack, Joel Chianese found himself just yards away from goal, but before being able to take a shot, the keeper closed him down.
A few minutes later Matt Thompson was left with his head in his hands when a long-range strike hit the crossbar and bounced off the back of the keeper, but instead of falling into the back of the net, it bounced wide.
The home side eventually managed to open the scoring when Del Piero moved out wide and went one on one with Connor Chapman, who made a blunder while trying to clear the ball, which allowed the Italian to latch on to it.
While turning, Del Piero fell to the ground and stretched to almost pass the ball into the far corner of the net, 10 minutes before half time.
The Jets, who were without injured Emile Heskey, came out in the second half slightly anxious in a bid to draw level, but their approach resulted in a number of wayward passes and failure to trouble the Sydney keeper.
The home side displayed some impressive movement trying to break down the Jets' defence, and a long-range effort from Predrag Bojic was close to giving Sydney a two-goal lead, but his effort bounced just wide of the post.
As the half progressed, Sydney began to take control of play, and they were eventually rewarded with a second goal. Del Piero was involved once again as he stormed into the box and changed the angle of his run to open up a pass to Chianese, who hammered the ball into the back of the net.
Richard Garcia thought that he had made it three following a double save from Mark Birighitti, but the player was flagged offside when he received the ball to slide it into the back of the net.
Newcastle were unable to cause any trouble for Sydney, who comfortably saw out their victory at the Allianz Stadium.
Danielle Joynson
