Isuzu UTE A-League Round 14 Talking Points: Two young guns tipped for Roos

Six games, four draws and 25 goals scored.

Round 14 was action-packed from start to finish, as two young stars showed their credentials as future Socceroos, Joe Lolley provided a Lionel Messi-esque assist to guide Sydney FC to a Big Blue win, Reno Piscopo came of age at the Jets and Perth Glory showed they are ready to compete on the road.

With a lot to dissect, here are the talking points from Round 14 of the Isuzu UTE A-League.

‘There’s top young talent about’

Sacha Pisani

Sammy Silvera was on the scoresheet as Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers played out a thrilling 2-2 draw in Gosford on Saturday night.

Silvera has thrust himself firmly in the spotlight following Garang Kuol’s departure and he opened the scoring for the second-placed Mariners with his fourth goal of the season.

The 22-year-old has been thriving under Nick Montgomery and Silvera wasn’t the only player touted for the Socceroos by the Mariners boss.

“Sammy’s a top player. A massive talent,” Montgomery said on Network 10 post-match.

“Again, you look at future Socceroos in the next couple of years… I think there’s plenty out there tonight.

“I think young Calem Niewenhof for the Wanderers has been superb as well. So not just my players. I think there’s top young talent about.

“But Sammy’s needed a bit of belief and a bit of love. To be honest, I told him at half-time it was probably the worst he’s played. Slipping over in the pockets and stuff.

“But, he has so much quality. Right foot, left foot and you saw it again tonight. He is just lethal. In and around the box, he can score from anywhere.”

Lolley’s moment of brilliance helps settle Big Blue

Nick D’Urbano

Football fans would be excused for ripping out their best impersonation of Leonardo Di Caprio pointing at the screen in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ during Thursday night’s Big Blue.

With the scores level and Sydney FC starting to gain the ascendancy over Melbourne Victory, Sky Blues attacker Joe Lolley took it upon himself to make something out of nothing.

The English winger received the ball in space inside his attacking half and seemingly had his eyes set on looking to play through Robert Mak to his left or Diego Caballo further afield.

With the Victory defence all anticipating where Lolley would be heading next, the former Nottingham Forest winger spotted Adam Le Fondre out the corner of his eye – playing a no-look, inch-perfect pass to his fellow countryman – who burned past Victory defender Kadete and placed the ball perfectly past keeper Matt Acton to give Sydney the lead.

It was a moment that fans have seen before, with his assist striking a resemblance to that of Lionel Messi’s incredible pass to Nahuel Molina for Argentina’s opening goal in their 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup quarter-final against the Netherlands.

“I just cut inside, didn’t see a great deal on,” Lolley told Paramount+ post-game.

“That’s the importance of talking on the pitch, he (Le Fondre) was shouting for the reverse ball and I just saw (him) out the corner of my eye. Thankfully, it went through and it was a great run and a great finish.”

The moment of brilliance from the duo proved to be the difference as Sydney recorded a much-needed win over their old rivals after a stuttering start to the season.

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And Le Fondre is confident that more service coming his way from the flanks will yield more goals for himself this season – having only scored four thus far.

“For me particularly, I don’t think the chances have not really come to me,” Le Fondre told Paramount+.

“I think they’ve more fell to the wingers, cutting on the inside and shooting rather than getting the ball across the box to me and I think you see whenever I do get the ball across the box – I tend to score.

“Hopefully, that’s a good blueprint for us now and we take the positives out of this game and build and get better next week.”

Could piscopo be the ‘catalyst’ for Jets finals push?

Nick D’Urbano

Is it time to say the Box Office Jets are back?

Newcastle Jets found their groove and swagger again on Friday night, dispatching Brisbane Roar 4-0 on their home deck – thus, catapulting themselves right back into the finals mix.

Arthur Papas’ Jets had struggled for goals this season heading into the contest at McDonald Jones Stadium, but you wouldn’t have known it if you watched the second-half as they carved through the Roar’s defence with ease.

A big part of their win was the performance of Reno Piscopo, who put in by far his showing in a Newcastle jersey since making the move from Wellington Phoenix in the off-season.

The ultra-talented attacking midfielder had struggled for form recently but looks to be a new player after being shifted centrally and playing as a ‘ten’ instead of out wide.

“This is my best game for the Jets and I can do better,” Piscopo told Paramount+.

“I spoke with the boss and we discussed my role. I was playing as a winger majority of the time. I came on last week as an eight and a ten and I felt very comfortable there so we decided to go with that again, get more on the ball and try and create more and help the team.”

A-Leagues legend Daniel McBreen also heaped praise on Piscopo’s performance after the game, believing he showed enough quality to lead this team towards a finals push in the second-half of the season.

“We just heard there that he’s playing the more familiar position in an eight or 10 role and himself and Angus Thurgate in that opening stanza we’re running riot,” McBreen said.

“Thurgate with the passes, him with the dribbling and at halftime, we saw a tactical change for Warren Moon to try and congest that midfield and Reno Piscopo said, ‘Well, you can have another midfielder in there, I don’t care’.

“We’ve spoken about him taking those shoes of Daniel Penha. Tonight, he showed what he can do and he can really be the catalyst for this team to step up to the next level.”

Williams’ show-stopping double continues Perth’s hot streak

Nick D’Urbano

When Perth Glory needed someone to stand up on Saturday afternoon, David Williams answered the call.

The veteran striker fired home a brace to help Perth to come from behind a 2-2 draw in the Distance Derby against 10-man Wellington Phoenix in Palmerston North.

Williams was sensational leading the line against the ‘Nix and he was rewarded for effort twice as he used his aerial prowess on two occasions to beat Wellington goalkeeper Oli Sail and help the Glory to a point on the road.

With all the focus being on new signing and Socceroo striker Adam Taggart, who was missing with injury on the weekend, Williams took it upon himself to help his team back into the game and his head coach Ruben Zadkovich couldn’t have been more pleased with his output.

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“Dave is an interesting character, first of all,” Zadkovich said post-game.

“He’s someone who I shared the dressing room with and he was my roommate in a few different camps for young national teams.

He plays with a smile, he plays with a bit of fire in his belly. He’s a natural goalscorer. I don’t think he realises how good of a goalscorer he is. He kind of just plays, but because he plays free and he’s got a big belief in himself, he’s always very dangerous.

“And for us, the nice thing in-house is we know how hard he’s worked to get fit and to put himself in the shape to be able to do this and I think for him to travel that far at his age and then lead the line like he did is exceptional, it’s exactly what this team needs.

I said it last week I thought Taggs (Taggart) obviously got the two goals and he goes down as a hero on paper and to the fans and what not but in house I actually thought Dave Williams laid the platform for him last week.

“We always speak about in house reward for effort and making sure effort is a big focus of this rebuild for us because we have such a long way to go as a group and as a team and as a club.”

Young substitutes combine to good effect in Bulls vs Western clash

Nick D’Urbano

It’s fair to say the youngsters stood up to the plate on Saturday evening in Campbelltown.

In the dying moments of Macarthur and Western United’s 2-2 draw, two sets of youngsters from their respective sides made enormous impacts off the bench.

First, it was Bulls duo Jed Drew and Moudi Najjar who linked up brilliantly to score what looked to be the winner for the 10-man Bulls with only minutes remaining.

The former Melbourne City striker, Najjar, made the most of his opportunity not only back in the senior side, but in his natural position having played largely as a wing-back under Ante Milicic last season.

Najjar held the ball up superbly after getting on the end of Craig Noone’s cross, before playing through Drew for Macarthur’s second-goal of the game.

It was the perfect way for the duo to announce themselves in the first-game of the Mile Sterjovski era as the Bulls still look for an answer at the pointy-end of attack while Daniel Arzani suffered a hamstring injury – which could open up the door for the duo.

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But they were cancelled out by Western’s own young attacking duo Adisu Bayew and Nicolas Milanovic – who also linked up after coming off the bench for the equaliser shortly after.

Bayew had struggled with injuries for much of the season heading into the contest, but it was his cross that found its way through to Milanovic for the goal – firing home his fourth of the season and his first since November.

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