Sydney FC

Sydney FC are an Australian Soccer Team that compete in the A-League, the top level competition in Australia. Sydney FC were a newly formed club started in 2004 and were founding members of the A-League in 2005.

Football NSW announced in April 2004 that they would bid for the A-League franchise for Sydney and their only competition came from a "Sydney Blues' consortium headed by Nick Politis. This consortium later pulled out leaving the FNSW bid as the only one for Sydney in the 'one team per city' competition

Sydney FC were officially formed in November 2004 and after winning the 2004-05 Oceania Club Championship, Sydney FC competed in and finished fifth (of six teams) in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship in December 2005.

Sydney FC won the inaugural A-League Championship in 2005-06 by defeating the Central Coast Mariners 1-0 in the Grand Final. As inaugural A-League Champions, Sydney FC also competed in the 2007 AFC Champions League but did not make it past the Qualification stages.

In Season 2 (2006-07) Sydney finished 4th, just scraping into the Finals Series but bowing out in their first Finals match losing 3-2 on aggregate to the Newcastle Jets. Season 3 (2007-08) followed much the same pattern with a 3rd place finish to qualify for the finals but with a similarly early exit this time losing 1-0 on aggregate to Queensland Roar.

Season 4 (2008-09) was Sydney FC's worse season yet in the A-League. They finished a disappointing 5th and missed out on the Finals Series for the first time.

Sydney FC started Season 5 off in great fashion. Round 1 saw Sydney FC beat newcomers North Queensland Fury away 3-2 and they then followed this up in Round 2 with a 1-0 home win against Adelaide United. In Round 3 they were held to a hard fought 0-0 draw away to local rivals Central Coast Mariners and then they re-found their winning ways in Round 4 with a 2-0 home win against Wellington Phoenix.

Sydney FC maintained their form throughout the season being at or near the top the whole season. The final game of the regular season against Melbourne Victory saw first and second placed teams playing a title decider with Sydney needing a win whilst Melbourne only needed a draw. As it was Sydney won the game 2-0 to win the Premiers Plate.

The Semi Finals saw the two teams battle out a 2-leg match with Melbourne eventually coming out winners meaning they progressed to the Grand Final and forcing Sydney to take on Wellingotn Phoenix in the sudden death Preliminary Final which Sydney won easily.

So the Grand Final was another rematch between the two teams who had dominated the season and had faced each other already 3 times in the last few weeks. This time nothing could separate the teams with the scores 1-1 after full time and extra time and so the Final went to penalties. After a nailbiting series of penalties Sydney FC came out eventual winners in one of the best A-League finals on record.