Two beautifully taken goals by Bruno Cazarine and an equally impressive stoppage time winner from strike partner Mark Bridge gave Sydney a vital 3-2 away win over Shanghai Shenhua in their Asian Champions League clash in China on Tuesday night.
Cazarine and Bridge both showed the killer instinct demanded by coach Vitezslav Lavicka, to keep alive their team's prospects of making the knockout stages of the tournament.
Sydney twice came from behind and survived some sloppy defending to secure its first win in four group games.
The precious victory moved them within a point of group pacesetters Suwon Bluewings of South Korea and Japan's Kashima Antlers, who drew 1-1 in Tokyo on Tuesday.
"'We are happy we are still in with a chance and we will now focus on the following games, we need to refresh a bit," Lavicka said from Shanghai.
"We still have plenty of room to improve. They showed great character and unity."
Sydney still faces an uphill task to finish in the top two, as it has to play both Suwon and Kashima away from home in its two remaining matches.
The Sky Blues can at least approach those games with some confidence after an improved attacking effort in Shanghai.
Sydney managed only one goal in its three home games, leaving Lavicka to bemoan the lack of opportunism shown by his side.
Before last week's 3-0 loss to Kashima, Lavicka called for Sydney to be "true killers in the attacking third".
He moved Bridge further forward to partner Cazarine against Shanghai and both men displayed a sharper edge.
Their goals were like assassins bullets to Shanghai, which now has little prospect of advancing to the next stage after falling four points off the pace.
"In the earlier games we created chances, but after the first game against Shanghai Shenhua and last week's game against Kashima we expected more activity from our strikers," Lavicka said.
"Both Bruno and Bridgey showed very good performances and effectiveness."
Cazarine was Sydney's top goalscorer with nine in their recently completed A-League campaign.
For Bridge, his winner helped ease the frustration of an injury-plagued domestic campaign which gleaned just one goal in 18 games.
'I'm finally injury free after a long frustrating season," Bridge said.
Lavicka reported no new injuries, but said it was hard to assess whether striker David Williams (calf) and Stephan Keller (ankle) would recover in time from their existing problems to be fit for Sydney's next game against Suwon on May 3.
Sydney FC 3 (Cazarine 45+1', 59', Bridge 90+3')
Shanghai Shenhua: 2 (Jiang J J 8', Jamieson 52' og)
-AAP
First posted April 20, 2011 05:41:00
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