page_title: History of Sydney FC
section_title: Season 3 – 2007–2008
hierarchical_section_title: History of Sydney FC / Pre-League / Season 3 – 2007–2008
caption_attribution_description: English: Author's own photo, taken in Sydney during the 2007/8 Hyundai A-League season.
context_section_description: For the third Hyundai A-league season, Sydney FC's playing squad retained a majority of players from the previous AFC Champion's League campaign, but was nonetheless altered through activity in the transfer market. On 5 August, David Carney was transferred for A$125,000 to English Championship side Sheffield United. The former Sydney player signed a three-year deal with the club which was reported to have been earning him around A$1.25 million a year.
  New players included former Socceroos regular Tony Popovic and former LA Galaxy attacking midfielder, Michael Enfield. On 3 August 2007 Brazilian international Juninho Paulista, formerly of Celtic and Middlesbrough, signed with Sydney FC as the team's marquee player. They also secured youth players Ben Vidaic and Adam Biddle. Tony Popovic and Mark Milligan were named as captain and vice-captain, respectively. On 15 October 2007 Michael Bridges was signed on a season-long loan deal from Hull City as a replacement for Michael Enfield, who had sustained a serious knee injury.
  After an early season run of disappointing results, on 22 October 2007, it was announced that manager Branko Culina would be sacked from the club. On 23 October, former Adelaide United coach John Kosmina was presented as the new head coach of the team. Kosmina got the side off to a flying start under his tenure, winning a clash with table-topping rivals Central Coast in a thrilling 3–2 victory before a crowd of nearly 18,000 at the SFS – a sign of bigger things to come for the Blues. This was followed by an impressive 1–0 away victory over the Newcastle Jets, as with former England junior Michael Bridges recorded his first goal in the A-League. An entertaining 0–0 draw at the Telstra Dome with rivals Melbourne Victory followed, as Sydney FC – still undefeated under Kosmina – began climbing the competition's ladder.
  During all of this, the Los Angeles Galaxy played a one-off exhibition match against Sydney FC at Sydney's Stadium Australia on 27 November 2007. Sydney FC won the match, which was broadcast nationally on free-to-air TV by Network Ten, 5–3. David Beckham scored the first goal for the LA Galaxy from a free kick right on half time, as a crowd of over 80,000 looked on.
  On 22 December, a crucial match against the Central Coast Mariners resulted in a 5–4 victory in favour of Sydney. The match, held at Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium, was described by critics as the best game ever to come from the A-League. The win was especially savoured after Sydney were down 2–0 after 15 minutes. The controversial sending-off of Mariners goalkeeper Danny Vukovic in the 16th minute turned the match in favour of Sydney. Ufuk Talay scored their 5th goal via a penalty in stoppage time.
  On Friday 28 December 2007, Sydney FC came from behind for the second time in two weeks to defeat Adelaide United 3–1 and keep its unbeaten away record intact in front of a record Adelaide crowd of 25,039. A win over Wellington Phoenix and draws with Queensland Roar in Brisbane and Melbourne Victory in Sydney in front of the highest crowd of the season (for all A-League teams) gave Sydney a final league position of 3rd.
  On Friday 26 January, Sydney played out a nil–all draw for the first leg of the semi-final against the Queensland Roar in front of 23,450 fans at the Sydney Football Stadium. The teams then met again two weeks later in Brisbane to face off for the second leg. Marquee player Juninho, who had been in and out of the team all season with various leg and back problems, had been ruled out with a knee injury that he picked up in training, and Ruben Zadkovich was announced as his replacement. The Roar scored in the 14th minute through their Brazilian import Reinaldo, and Sydney FC was subsequently defeated and knocked out of the running for the 2007/2008 A-league championship and AFC Champions League qualification. Instead, the team was placed into the 2008 Pan-Pacific Championship.
caption: Sydney FC fans before kickoff during the 2007–08 A-League finals series.
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