Alessandro Del Piero scores in Sydney’s comeback win

SYDNEY - Agence France-Presse

Del Piero REUTERS photo

Alessandro Del Piero converted a penalty and Socceroo Brett Emerton grabbed the winner in Sydney FC’s 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Perth Glory in Australia’s A-League yesterday.

The Italian World Cup winner scored his third goal in four starts to equalise for Sydney before former Blackburn Rovers man Emerton nabbed the winning goal in the 70th minute.

Before 22,000 fans at Sydney’s Olympic stadium, Sydney fell behind to an 18th-minute goal from Travis Dodd before Glory went a man down in the second half as Steve Pantelidis was red carded for a foul on Emerton.

The Perth defender tossed Emerton to the ground in the box as he looked poised to shoot, with Del Piero stepping up to convert the penalty in the 58th minute to score for the third successive game.
The Italian superstar had been fairly quiet by his lofty standards up to that point and even appeared to miskick his penalty before it trickled in off the left post.

Man-of-the match Emerton put Sydney ahead 20 minutes from the end with a delightful chip kick over goalkeeper Danny Vukovic.

After losing their first two games, the Sky Blues have now climbed into the top six and sit alongside Perth on six points.

Adelaide United and Emile Heskey’s Newcastle Jets are competition leaders after four rounds.
Former England international Heskey scored both goals in the Jets’ 2-1 win over Melbourne Victory at home.

The former Liverpool forward is the competition’s leading scorer with four goals in as many games as the Jets won their third straight game in their best start to an A-League season.

Adelaide’s South American stars Jeronimo Neumann and Cassio scored the goals as the Reds downed Wellington Phoenix 3-1 at home.

Argentine attacker Neumann scored twice and Cassio celebrated his 100th A-League game with the other.

Central Coast Mariners downed Melbourne Heart 1-0 and new club Western Sydney Wanderers won their first A-League game in a 1-0 upset of defending champions Brisbane in Brisbane.

Striker Mark Bridge nodded in a cross from Dutch import Youssouf Hersi off a short corner kick from star Japanese import Shinji Ono in the 18th minute.