Pre Season Game - Canberra

[blackadder]

omni said:

Why on earth was Bolton having a sook after that one?

Just because he stuffed up again , from what I gather claimed there was interference in the Box, with the ball coming in from the corner and that had him out of position.

[Fish]

and will be reminded of it in late August when it may well happen again

[marinermum]

Bring It on
"20 good reasons" why I'm a marinator.

The lads played all over Sydney.

Kwassie looks much better in the midfield.

Hot to Trott played well and his confidence is growing in strength ready for the season.

Awesome Andre - what can I say.

Booooogs had a blinder

Capt Wilko is our leader hero of the coasters.

Jedi had the force with him all game

Brown e can still put the ball over his head.

Hutcho never healed he was relentless

Ossie was another owesome back

Sasho worked with vengence in his eye

Mrdja has maybe magic (needs to pull his socks up)

It was worth the trip today, we saw great football, guts and determination and 150% effort by all players.

Andre's awesome goal along with Ossie and Kwassie.

Always in pre season semis

Great to be around and worth following everywhere.

I want to see the trophy with yellow and navy ribbon in our cupboard again.

Bring it on.

[jazasydneyfc]

You'll win the league. I had CCM as my dark horse some months back but I mean it now.

We were shit, taking in to account the personnel on the pitch, injuries, players off to Europe so soon, etc, and in a sense 3-0 was harsh on us - but the Mariners played some great football.

Most impressive was the quartet through the middle of Wilko/Boogs/Jedinak and Gumprecht. Our pedestrian midfield of Talay (who's rubbish) and Severino (out of position I'm told) were totally inept and Gumprecht had a field day - whilst of course the other three would go close to being the most solid wall in front of goal the league has.

Mrdja also greatly impressed me - in the first half at least when I saw him closer up.

Heffernan will still come in to your first XI, and Osman will need to fight for that RB role, but it's all looking very rosey for your lot. If this formation is maintained the key to killing off CCM will be to nullify Gumprecht nice and early (and hope Pondeljak is not on the right). Let him go and you'll lose.

That said, don't expect such a poor performance from us in Rnd 1.

[DJ]

don't jinx us Jaza

Rd 1 will be very different I agree!

Glad you got to see Boogs, he's very strong and I'm so glad Lawrie has given another shot this year. I can honestly see him keeping Viddie out the team if he stays fit.

IMO our weakness is down the right, would have loved a RB specialist but we are lucky that we are quite versatile and people like Osman, Clark and Porter can play there. I understand when you say teams need to control Gumps but having Jedinak playing that holding role and then the choice of Gumps, Owens or Tommy in the centre attacking position we are gifted with some very experienced depth.

If we can stay reasonably injury free we are a definite chance this year.

[Pete]

Jaza, very sportsmanlike of you to make these comments. I tip my hat to your sir.
A point about Gumprecht. If he is having a bad game, Lawrie will shift Tommy into the centre or even Hutch and take Gumprecht off.
Also on the bench is Porter, who can handle the centre mid role too. There is a continuity and a degree of understanding amongst our younger players (Boogs, Porter, Simon, Trott) as they have all played in the same team for Central Coast Lightning. It could be likely that either Saso or Nik get injured, Lawrie will bring on Simon, Porter may replace Gumps in the centre, and Boogs already at the back with Trott in goals. And in that sort of combo, although our opposition may consider that a weaker selection, the understanding amongst those players may actually tighten up the centre playing roles. Well, good enough for a 20 minute spell late in the game anyways.

[alicia]

Sydney in trouble for A-League Coast secures home comfort
Merryn Sherwood

The Central Coast Mariners have secured a Pre-Season Cup home semi-final thanks to a 3-0 romp over Sydney FC at Canberra Stadium in a performance that revealed the A-League's glamour club might struggle to be ready for the season opener next month.

Sydney FC coach Branko Culina labelled his midfield's performance "awful", American import Michael Enfield's debut "rubbish" and said it was unlikely Socceroos stars Mark Milligan and David Carney would return to the club this year.

An injury-ravaged Sydney was missing six regular starting players yesterday, including late withdrawal Steve Corica, and had no answers for the Mariners' spirited attack.

The win and three goals placed the Mariners top of the Pre-Season Cup group B and it will play Perth Glory in Gosford next week.

Sydney FC started the match strongly and midfielder Brenton Santalab had the team's best chance 19 minutes in. But he stabbed a kick straight to Mariners keeper Matthew Trott, who had a brilliant match.

Central Coast then cemented its win in the period 20 minutes either side of half-time.

German import Andre Gumprecht set up the first goal for birthday boy Matthew Osman in the 36th minute. He passed back to the midfielder who kicked from 25m out to the top right corner to score.

Adam Kwasnik slotted the next one before half-time, gently chipping the ball over keeper Clint Bolton's head.

Sydney FC's star signing Tony Popovic made his debut at the start of the second-half but the Socceroo's World Cup defender could only watch as Gumprecht broke through the congestion to slot a brilliant right-foot volley past a helpless Bolton for the Mariners' third.

The rest of the second half turned into a scramble for possession, leading to six yellow cards for the day.

Culina said Sydney was still struggling to re-group after its Asian Champions League campaign, and a late pre-season start coupled with an extensive injury list. Steve Corica, Iain Fyfe, Jacob Timpano and Ruben Zadkovich didn't take part yesterday and Canberra product Adam Casey suffered a hamstring strain in the first half.

That Milligan and Carney might not return after their successful Asian Cup campaigns was an extra blow.

"The news is not good about Carney and Milligan and it's not that they just have to come back and slot back into the team - they might not come back at all, which is more than likely," Culina said.

"So you have got to find replacements for them. Where do you find the type of quality players to replace them? It's a difficult situation and we have to stick it out and be a bit patient, and hopefully that those injured players will come good."

Culina also said new signing Enfield needed to up his game.

"[His performance was] rubbish, our midfield was completely outplayed today and we were awful, absolutely awful, and they destroyed us in the midfield and we are depleted and we did have to shuffle players around, but I expect more from Michael Enfield and Ufuk Talay."

The defensive efforts of Terry McFlynn, Mark Rudan and Popovic had been positives from the day.

Culina said he was still hopeful of signing a marquee player before the club's season-opening match against the Mariners on August 24.

canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=sport&subclass=soccer&story_id=1028917&category=soccer

[jazasydneyfc]

djgrounsell said:

Glad you got to see Boogs, he's very strong and I'm so glad Lawrie has given another shot this year. I can honestly see him keeping Viddie out the team if he stays fit.

You'd want to hope that Vidmar can coach well - that's the only way he'll earn his marquee wage with Boogard playing like that. One thing that impressed me the most was his willingness to get stuck-in. It will undboubtedly cost him at 1 or 2 points throughout the season, but I stood on the sideline for 10mins in the second half and watched him slide tackle (very hard but quite fair) NikTheGreek three times in the space of about 90 seconds. Not afraid to go to ground and go in for it - a trait I quite like.

Game would've been different had Santalab scored (as he prolly shoukld've done) early on - but the two teams are at vastly different states in terms of fitness, prep and personnel. Still no excuse to ever get spanked 3-0 - but CCM played well.

[Ursus]

Thanks for the kind comments Jaza. I think we are a chance.
What you are seeing is the result of a couple of years of building.
It takes three years to build a team and we are now entering the final phase.
Unfortunately I think Sydney is now starting from scratch. You now have a manager who should be allowed to select the players he wants and to be given the time it takes.
You bought V1 but may pay the price this year.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

SFC might have been well advised to simply buy zdrilic out of his contract. it'd have cost you, but the freedom to actually assemble a squad with the extra moula would have more than made up for it. he's not a drawcard, he's not a goalscorer, he's not worth over 100k let alone the rumoured amounts.

we're definitely good this year, and if we remember where the net is we'll go alright. not all that much has changed though from last year though, so it goes to show that a) some sensible tweaking beats wholesale changes 9/10 times and b) we weren't that bad last year after all!

[Melsy]

Dad and i had a great time in canberra it was great to see a good result and the boys played well.

It was not a bad trip at all.

[Rowdy]

Had a great weekend on the piss with the boys down in Canberra. Drove down with Grunta, Saffron & Big Mick, Yellow Beard and Rodent came up from the snow.

Caught up with 'PornoPete" and BlackAdder before the game and Ursus & Pieman at the ground.

About 5,000 turned up to watch the game and everyone of them froze their proverbial's off. 50/60 or so Cove'rs

Yes Syd FC were so shit, BUT it wasn't un-believable. That's because we played some of the best football I've ever witnessed the boy's play to date.......knocking the ball around well and and most importantly 'CREATING'. I honestly believe they will get better with ALL players truly fighting for their positions throughout the year.

Man of the match IMO would of and should have gone to Emperor Matty Trott, as we have now named him, he was a 'wall' in goals keeping the 'rabbit's' out all day.

However if Gump's hadn't smashed the volley in from 5 yards outside the 18 directly in front, MOM would have gone to Trotty. Andre was as equally outstanding from the middle of the park and in IMO tied with Matty. Ossie definitely realising that positions have to be earned lifted his game today and took the 1 point.

Couldn't agree more with Jaza on Boog's performance, those slide tackles were filled with venom and he's got the skill and confidence to carry the ball through into midfield, link-up and loop forward and help create which is what he's been doing regularly for Lightning.

TommyP also got my attention with his late run on. Always 'sniffing' out on the edges, but was great to see him back himself and go it alone after a few failed link-ups. carrying the ball forward, skinned the FC defender sharply one on one, small link-up with Porter who 1-2's it back and TommyP was unlucky to not put one in the back of the net.

Lawrie mentioned before the game that:
'Same Old Sydney....Alway's Cheat-ING!", in that they were fielding 3 'trialist's', player's on trial who aren't contracted. FFA rules state that this was only allowed for the first x2 pre-Season Cup round's. Lawrie said they'd been given 'special dispensation'

And here I was thinking that "MORI-GATE" was the last time this sort of shit would happen. Lowy stillhas to meddle to get that return on his investment Should have followed Pete Turnball ya tosser.

All in all I think we will have something special to look forward to this year, (I'm knocking on Mr Lowy's head as I type).

[skilbeck]

just as a matter or interest is there any highlights cos those goals sound like some of the best at this level so it would be a shame for there not to be highlights?

[dru]

skilbeck said:

just as a matter or interest is there any highlights cos those goals sound like some of the best at this level so it would be a shame for there not to be highlights?

www.marinators.net had a you tube clip yesterday

edit: story 3-0 over Budget FC

[alicia]

dru said:

skilbeck said:

just as a matter or interest is there any highlights cos those goals sound like some of the best at this level so it would be a shame for there not to be highlights?

www.marinators.net had a you tube clip yesterday

edit: story 3-0 over Budget FC

Thanks for the tip dru. It was almost like being there.

[jazasydneyfc]

rowdyroddy said:

Man of the match IMO would of and should have gone to Emperor Matty Trott, as we have now named him, he was a 'wall' in goals keeping the 'rabbit's' out all day.

Eh? He had f*ck all to do. Your MotM was Gumprecht by some considerable distance - not just for the goal but for all the link-up play. Trott made one good save and had his palms stung three times in the second half but nothing terribly great.

rowdyroddy said:

Lawrie mentioned before the game that:
'Same Old Sydney....Alway's Cheat-ING!", in that they were fielding 3 'trialist's', player's on trial who aren't contracted. FFA rules state that this was only allowed for the first x2 pre-Season Cup round's. Lawrie said they'd been given 'special dispensation'

Eh? We had one trialist - Severino. Nash is on an injury cover contract for Necevski (and will be with us for a few months) and Vidaic is an U20 signing who's not been announced yet.

[dru]

alicia said:

dru said:

www.marinators.net had a you tube clip yesterday

edit: story 3-0 over Budget FC

Thanks for the tip dru. It was almost like being there.

Just with out all the driving and the drinking! ;D so really a lot less fun.

[Andy]

It was interesting to see how many Sydney supporters picked us for a top 2 finish (on their forum) after the game on sunday.

[marinermick]

andyj said:

It was interesting to see how many Sydney supporters picked us for a top 2 finish (on their forum) after the game on sunday.

even more interesting was how many picked themselves for a top two finish