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Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Australia News Kosmina Blames 'Long Season'

SYDNEY coach John Kosmina defended his side's dismal effort in the PanPacs and blamed tiredness for the poor performance.

Kosmina said his side were battling fatigue after a tough domestic season, all 23 games of it...

"They moved the ball around, and scored a couple of good goals," Kosmina said. "We had a long season, we weren't rusty in the first half, but we were just a bit off the pace."

Sydney were beaten 3-0 by Houston Dynamo who will now face Gamba Osaka in Sunday's final.

Houston took control with a powerful 27th-minute Dwayne De Rosario shot from 30 yards, assisted by local favourite Brian Ching, before Stuart Holden took a pass from De Rosario to shoot past Sydney goalkeeper Clint Bolton for a 2-0 lead.

Chris Wondolowski took advantage of some lacklustre defending from Sydney, firing a loose ball from just outside the area in the 42nd minute to complete the win.

"I think we kept them away pretty well until late in the game, and some of the goals we scored tonight were excellent," said Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear.

"You never know how the other team's going to play, but I think we benefited from more than a handful of guys in international camps, so those guys came in pretty fit.

"The other guys were pretty smart and in pretty decent shape."

Sydney will now play LA Galaxy in the third-place play-off on Sunday afternoon, just before the A-League Grand Final, after Galaxy were beaten 1-0 by Gamba Osaka.

A third-minute goal by Brazilian forward Bare was enough for the J-League side to advance to Saturday's final, where they will face MLS Cup-holders Houston Dynamo.

"Obviously it's always disappointing when you lose the game, when you don't start off the game well," said Galaxy legend David Beckham.

"They capitalised on that first breakthrough, but we got back towards the end of the first half and we had a few chances.

"But the second half was a lot better, we started playing football, we started playing with confidence.

"We created chances, but you don't get anything unless you put them away."

The former England captain played the full 90 minutes, but he faced-off with Osaka's Brazilian defender Lucas in the 64th minute after a late tackle.

Beckham got some measure of revenge in the 84th minute with a hard tackle that knocked Lucas to the ground, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Bare's goal came after he surged between two Galaxy defenders before firing past goalkeeper Steve Cronin from 12 yards, and said perseverance was key to his team's win.

"We were all very worried by the Galaxy, they have very good players, and we have a lot of respect for them," he said.

"We knew we had to play with a lot of strength going into the game. The way we stayed up to play the match, that's why we won.

"It was very difficult, we had a lot of chances to score, but weren't able [to convert more of them]."

Copyright (c) 2009 Press Association

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