Sydney FC season 2009-10
| 2009–2010 season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Chairman | Scott Barlow | ||
| Manager | Vítězslav Lavička | ||
| A-League |
1st (League) Champions (Finals) |
||
| Top goalscorer |
League: All: John Aloisi, Mark Bridge 9 |
||
| Highest home attendance | 25,407 (v. Melbourne Victory) |
||
| Lowest home attendance | 8,359 (v. Perth Glory) |
||
| Average home league attendance | 12,987 | ||
|
|||
The 2009–2010 season was Sydney FC's fifth consecutive season in the A-League since its inception. It was an historic year for the club taking out the domestic double by winning the premier's plate and the championship during the season.
After a disappointing 2008–09 season, Sydney FC went straight into action, sacking coach John Kosmina. A week later, Czech coach Vítězslav Lavička was signed as Sydney's fifth manager in as many seasons.
Sydney had a friendly match in China, with new sister club Shanghai Shenhua. Sydney FC lost the match 2–1, with their goal coming from striker Alex Brosque, who scored halfway through the second half to level the scores at 1–1. John Aloisi, who had a poor last season, showed he had hit form, but being very unlucky to have two goals disallowed during the first half. It was the first game for former Sydney and Socceroos Tony Popovic as caretaker coach.
On 3 April, it was confirmed that new coach Lavicka had signed his first player, former Slovakian International Karol Kisel, who had played under Viteslav when he coached AC Sparta Prague.
Sydney was thrown into scandal involving new signing Sebastian Ryall, who was charged with the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl, while he was playing with Melbourne Victory. He was stood down by the Football Federation Australia (FFA) from the Sydney FC, and national team until 3 September. These charges were later dropped.
When the FFA announced that the usual A-League pre-season cup wouldn't be held due to financial reasons, it meant that teams would have to organise their own friendlies in the months before the start of the season. This opened up many possibilities. Across the A-League, a few teams managed to bring over some well known sides. Sydney was linked with English Premier League side Everton for their Asian Tour, and recently relegated Middlesbrough FC, who both pulled out in the last minute, and stated that if they were to tour Australia, they would want to play more than one team. At one stage, Spanish team Barcelona FC were being rumoured to be coming out. Nevertheless, the new coach organised a dozen friendlies with strong New South Wales Premier League and New South Wales Super League teams. Despite the opposition being weaker than expected, Sydney had a fantastic start. Sydney also trialled several overseas players and on 25 June Lavicka signed South Korean Left Back Byun Sung-Hwan.
...
Wikipedia