Soccer: Knights lose to A-league favourites

SYDNEY - Dwight Yorke made a dream start his Australian soccer career but the combative New Zealand Knights showed enough grit to suggest their A-League campaign may not be the nightmare widely predicted.

However, they still lost 3-1 to Sydney FC at Aussie Stadium last night.

Already written off as also-rans ahead of the competition kick-off on August 28, the Knights toiled hard for scant reward in their first Pre-Season Cup match, just 18 days after the full squad assembled.

Though Sydney FC, hot favourites for the inaugural title, enjoyed the balance of play and looked more threatening they had to rely on a 24th minute penalty to break down a stubborn defensive effort marshalled by captain Danny Hay.

Yorke, the former Manchester United striker recruited as the A-League's star turn, coolly slotted the ball past goalkeeper Danny Milosevic, who conceded the spot kick after clattering into Sasho Petrovski.

Milosevic, Australia's custodian at the Sydney Olympics, had an otherwise impressive match, twice denying Yorke in open play inside the opening 10 minutes.

He had little chance with Sydney's other strikes netted by Petrovski either side of halftime.

The midfielder doubled the hosts' lead in the 44th minute when he pumped a free header past the stranded Milosevic and wrapped up the contest with 19 minutes remaining when he sprung the offside trap, chested down Terry McFlynn's through ball and whipped the ball inside the right hand post.

Although the defence was frequently exposed, the Knights managed to keep Yorke in check during his 72 minutes on the field.

In attack, the Knights generally relied on hoisting long balls towards strikers Simon Yeo and Sean Devine, a tactic comfortably dealth with by the Sydney defence.

However, the Knights were eventually rewarded with arguably the goal of the match with just six minutes remaining when Steve Fitzsimmons volleyed into the roof of the net after goalkeeper Clint Bolton punched substitute Noah Hickey's looping corner to the midfielder.

Earlier, industrious Irish striker Devine almost stunned the hosts inside the first 60 seconds when his speculative shot from the edge of the box forced Bolton to bat away the goal-bound effort.

Devine also went close in the 13th when his flick beat Bolton only to be cleared off the line by Alvin Ceccoli.

Knights coach John Adshead was satisfied with the outcome given his side's limited preparation in comparison to Sydney FC who have already collected trophies for winning both the Australian and Oceania qualifying tournaments for the FIFA World Club Championship.

Conversely, the Knights did not play their first game until last Sunday, when they lost 0-2 to the Central Coast Mariners.

Sydney FC 3 (Dwight Yorke pen 24 Sasho Petrovski 44, 71 ) New Zealand Knights 1 (Steve Fitzsimmons 84)

Halftime: 2-0.

- NZPA