Sydney FC v Wrexham AFC LIVE updates: North-east Wales meets New South Wales in pre-season friendly

The Age

16 hours ago

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G'day, g'day
Hello football fans and welcome to our live coverage of tonight's friendly between Sydney FC and Wrexham AFC - a showdown that absolutely nobody would have thought up five years ago. I mean, why would they?
Why on earth is the third-best team in Wales doing a pre-season tour of Australia? And why would around 35,000 people in Sydney be interested in braving a cold Tuesday night to see them play a team that was probably the A-League's biggest disappointment last season?
The answer: celebrity, folks. A force so powerful that it works when the celebrities in question aren't even here. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (now, legally, Rob Mac) are not at Allianz Stadium tonight - their schedules, we presume, are too busy - but it is only because of them that you even remotely care about Wrexham, or at least enough to click on this blog and read this post.
Their takeover of Wrexham AFC is truly one of sport's most fascinating stories, and their rise from England's fifth tier to the Championship - three consecutive promotions, an unprecedented feat at this level - has been nothing short of a remarkable. The hit Disney+ series Welcome to Wrexham has documented it all, helping them build a global fanbase that stretches all the way … here.
This coming season, the Red Dragons are just one division below the Premier League. Can they get there? Who knows. But this match forms an important part of their preparations. So let's see what happens.
For Sydney FC, the job is simple: be a good opponent and fly the flag for the Australian game, unlike Melbourne Victory, who shamed the A-League with a 3-0 defeat on Friday night. (I'm joking.)
I'm Vince Rugari, by the way. Pleasure to have your company.
6.58pm
Where would A-League teams fit in the English pyramid? This might be our best chance to find out
Trying to draw meaning from pre-season friendlies is a fool's errand. But this is the A-League's silly season, after all - so in that spirit, let's have a crack.
If you've thought about club soccer in Australia for longer than a few moments, the following unanswerable question may have crossed your mind: how would our teams fare in Europe? Specifically, England.
In an alternate universe in which A-League sides have the opportunity to compete in the English pyramid system … how would they go?
Would our best survive in the Premier League? Almost certainly not. So what's the level? Could champions Melbourne City hold their own in the Championship? Could the Wanderers climb out of League One? Would the likes of last season's cellar-dwellers Perth Glory and Brisbane Roar sink to the bottom of the League Two table … or lower?
6.52pm
Here are the starting XIs
For your perusual, the team sheet.
The Sky Blues, still four months out from the start of the A-League season, are missing marquee man Douglas Costa, midfielder Leo Sena and defender Alex Grant - plus club great Anthony Caceres, who has departed for Macarthur FC, and some others like Patryk Klimala who have also moved on. Their squad is about six players short of what it will be when October comes, and two of those players will be imports. So don't judge them on this, tonight.
Meanwhile, there's the Wrexham team. I know you don't know too much about these players individually, and you should probably know I don't either - but it's not about that, is it? It's about how they make you feel.
6.47pm
G'day, g'day
Hello football fans and welcome to our live coverage of tonight's friendly between Sydney FC and Wrexham AFC - a showdown that absolutely nobody would have thought up five years ago. I mean, why would they?
Why on earth is the third-best team in Wales doing a pre-season tour of Australia? And why would around 35,000 people in Sydney be interested in braving a cold Tuesday night to see them play a team that was probably the A-League's biggest disappointment last season?
The answer: celebrity, folks. A force so powerful that it works when the celebrities in question aren't even here. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (now, legally, Rob Mac) are not at Allianz Stadium tonight - their schedules, we presume, are too busy - but it is only because of them that you even remotely care about Wrexham, or at least enough to click on this blog and read this post.
Their takeover of Wrexham AFC is truly one of sport's most fascinating stories, and their rise from England's fifth tier to the Championship - three consecutive promotions, an unprecedented feat at this level - has been nothing short of a remarkable. The hit Disney+ series Welcome to Wrexham has documented it all, helping them build a global fanbase that stretches all the way … here.
This coming season, the Red Dragons are just one division below the Premier League. Can they get there? Who knows. But this match forms an important part of their preparations. So let's see what happens.
For Sydney FC, the job is simple: be a good opponent and fly the flag for the Australian game, unlike Melbourne Victory, who shamed the A-League with a 3-0 defeat on Friday night. (I'm joking.)