RHYAN Grant's ambition to make an impact in the Asian Champions League will go unfulfilled for another year after he and his Sydney FC team-mates suffered a 1-0 loss to Jeonbuk Hyundai on Tuesday.
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The defeat at the hands of the K League champions in Qatar effectively ended the hopes Grant held of advancing beyond the group stage.
Bathurst District Football graduate Grant, who has now played 20 games in the Champions League, had hoped Sydney FC could "move forward and really make a step and do well in Asia".
He did his best to try and help Sydney advance beyond the group stage for just the second time with a typically strong performance against Jeonbuk.
In the 40th minute Grant, making one of his trademark runs out of defence, picked out an unmarked Trent Buhagiar on the penalty spot, but the striker dragged his shot wide.
Jeonbuk scored the winner four minutes later.
While Sydney FC continued to pressure in the second half and created more in attack than their rivals, they were unable to find the mark.
It leaves them winless after four games and sitting on the bottom of the Group H ladder. While Sydney FC coach Steve Corica was disappointed his side could not capitalise on their chances against Jeonbuk, he was still pleased with their performance.
"I'm very proud of my team's performance. I thought we were the better team, we created more of the chances and played some very good football," Sydney FC coach Steve Corica said.
"We just switched off one minute before half-time but other than that we did everything right and stuck to the game plan. We're disappointed not to get the three points out of that game.
"I think what's lacking at the moment is just goals, we're creating lots of chances but not scoring as many as we should have. I'm very happy with the way we're playing but it's just the results at the moment are not coming for us."
Sydney FC has two games left - against Shanghai SIPG and Yokohama F. Marinos - in the Asian Champions League and no doubt Grant will give is all to making those games victories.
He'll be in action again in Doha next Tuesday night against Chinese giants Shanghai.
