Sydney FC marquee Siem de Jong insists his stunning free-kick in Saturday night's derby was no fluke, revealing his extra sessions to become a dead-ball specialist.
The Dutch international nailed a stunning long-range effort to make it 2-0 in Sydney's 3-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers in the FFA Cup semi-final at Penrith and says he regularly stays back after practice sessions to work on his set pieces.
Dead-ball specialist: Siem de Jong prepares to take the free kick that he curled into the Wanderers’ goal.Credit:AAP
The former Ajax and Newcastle United star is still working his way back to full fitness after an injury-plagued few years but while conditioning and on-field chemistry has been his focus at Sydney FC, he's ensured his danger from dead balls hasn't waned.
"I think or once or twice every week after training. I do train on it and today it worked in the game. It’s important," de Jong said.
Despite being some distance from goal, the 29-year-old fancied his chances of scoring as he stepped up for the set-piece before striking a curling effort into the corner of the net, past the outstretched fingertips of Wanderers' goalkeeper Danijel Nizic.
After scoring, de Jong aimed a jibe at his former Ajax teammate, Roly Bonevacia, who is now at the Wanderers. “When I scored the goal I said it was a nice one. He was laughing a little bit but he wasn’t really happy," de Jong said.
His goal put Sydney on course for their third straight FFA Cup final appearance, against Adelaide United on October 31. In doing so, Sydney FC beat the Wanderers for the ninth time in 14 games, having lost just once to their rivals in a stretch of dominance that's lasted more than four-and-a-half years.
"We’ve really got the wood on them I guess," Sydney FC goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne said. "It’s fantastic. As footballers you want to win every game. Tonight there’s a bit more on the line, we understand what it means for the fans and we thoroughly enjoy moments like this and as footballers, playing in this atmosphere is second to none."
Redmayne formerly played for the Wanderers before moving to Sydney in 2017 and believes the Sky Blues have a mental edge over Western Sydney that stems from Sydney's strength of character and team unity.
"It’s just a fantastic group of boys, fantastic belief in the change room. We just go into every game believing that we’re going to win it," Redmayne said. "It’s as simple as that, we work for each other, we know we’ve got our mates’ back no matter what happens. If [Sydney defender Michael] Zullo slips over, then there’s somewhere there to back him up."
Despite winning 3-0, Redmayne was perhaps Sydney FC's best performer on Saturday night, making four crucial saves and several other important intervention to keep a luckless Wanderers' side scoreless at home. His best – a one-on-one save against Wanderers' Josh Risdon a minute before de Jong's free-kick proved decisive.
"Zullo slipped over and it looked like he had his ice skates on today. I closed the angle, held my shape, react on the ball and don’t guess," he said. "It’s just a process. There’s processes for everything and you just run through that process. As a goalkeeper you’ve seen those situations many times. It’s just another one of them."
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