Marked for Matthew Millar
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sydney FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Sydney FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Tisserand is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match20 Feb 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Adelaide United leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adam Bugarija, and the manager let it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Reece Watson after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Sydney FC lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Market22 Feb 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Harrison Devenish-Meares has his answer from Sydney FC; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A brace, and Al Hassan Touré takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Al Hassan Touré provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match8 Feb 2027
Sydney FC are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 25 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Rhys Youlley pops up at the right end — 7.92
7.92, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Sydney FC
Takahiro Sekine and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Sydney FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Tisserand is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match6 Feb 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Al Hassan Touré. 3‑1 against Macarthur FC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Takahiro Sekine was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Banele Mnguni and Sydney FC agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sydney FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Sydney FC
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcel Tisserand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Looking ahead28 Dec 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Melbourne City in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market28 Dec 2026
The name of Víctor Campuzano keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sydney FC say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mitchell Glasson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Dec 2026
15 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Takahiro Sekine was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Sydney FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Apostolos Stamatelopoulos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match19 Dec 2026
Newcastle Jets made Sydney FC work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Reece Watson on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Looking ahead21 Dec 2026
Auckland FC next, and one man in the Sydney FC dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sydney FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match28 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Sydney FC did not have in the autumn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Sydney FC
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcel Tisserand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Nov 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.64, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
The one goal a footballer does not get to celebrate and does not get to forget either. His name is in the wrong column and nothing about it was meant.
Match28 Nov 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Sydney FC now.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
Takahiro Sekine was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Rhyan Grant falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match21 Nov 2026
Sydney FC rescue it on 90 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Macarthur FC had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match21 Nov 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tiago Quintal, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Reece Watson on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Sydney FC will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Half an hour was enough for Abel Walatee
He came on with the match going nowhere and left it settled. Sydney FC had the right man on the bench, and for once the timing was right too.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olimpia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Takahiro Sekine and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sydney FC have gone to Melbourne City with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Sydney FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Tisserand is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sydney FC asked and Melbourne City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
Sotiri Phillis is 20, and Sydney FC have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.