Round 10 vs. Sydney

[skilbeck]

not a great result, too many passes given away they need to work on that and we need to take it to melbourne next week.

[mustapha_beer]

Yet another average performance. I really think our league standing is flattering us. Can't honestly remember - apart from the Wellington game - any game where we've gone out, dominated and really deserved to win.

Sydney were better than us - at least in the first half. We showed some fight in the 2nd, but even at 3-2 I just didn't get the feeling they could take anything out of the game. All it would have taken was 1 goal and I doubt Sydney would have got their noses back in front.

Thought Hutch was immense AGAIN, Aloisi showed some promise, and Danny got pass marks for making a few decent stops. Have serious misgivings about Vidmar still being in that defence, though....the number of times I saw Bling carve us up down the middle with simple through balls....

P.S Great effort from Tommy P at the end - pity he'd just stuffed up yet another delivery a few moments before, mind you....

[skilbeck]

well it looks like wilko is back. Was happy with Aloisi and Hutchinson, Our defense is losing the ball in our own half which we must urgently stop. We need Kwasnik back for next week as I get the feeling he could solve our attacking problems.

[thesandman]

Sydney deserved to win. Bridges-Juninho-Brosque-Corica looked very dangerous.

Ok, I'm now going to don my super-heavy-duty flame suit

As per usual, our defence was our biggest problem. Hopeless. I reckon most of our conceded goals in the last 2 seasons have come from critical players being unmarked in and around the box. It's that freaking simple. Vidmar should be taking control of the back line, and either marking these players himself or making damn well somebody is.

On that note, I'm going to stir the pot and say that Vidmar causes us too many problems. As a centre, he's too slow, not tall enough, and he tends to wander over to the sides leaving the centre completely exposed. Our defence has major organisational issues. I believe our players are looking to him, for his seniority, his experience, to provide guidance. He isn't providing us with that during the match, and as such what we expect isn't being fulfilled - hence we get disorganised. Honestly, I believe somebody with less of a name would serve us better in the backs. When you have high expectations, which are unfilfilled, it's only going to cause problems. Yes, he does have experience, which does help on those 1on1 tackles. Put him out on the left hand side and keep him there.

And on the note of defence - the term 'far post' comes to mind...

And WHAT THE HELL is with his tackles? I'm REALLY starting to get sick of his stupid brain explosions. The last red card, the 2nd yellow was a stupid, stupid tackle. Today's caution was a stupid, stupid tackles. It's almost like he's trying to get himself sent off. If he doesn't want to play, he should put his hand up, quit, and free up our funds (and Marquee player position). Next season I believe we should (if contractual agreements permit) to replace him with Aloisi as our Marquee, and if Vidmar leaves completely, so be it.

Although Vidmar's brain explosions aren't as bad as Heffernan's - that was a stupid, stupid, STUPID penalty. What is it with him, and brain explosiions in the box against Sydney? Debate the merits of the 'bump' from round 1 as much as you like - but even if you say it wasn't a foul, you can agree it wasn't a smart thing to do. I'd like to see his defensive duties reduced, and give him more responsibility to attack. His best play is when he starts to get frustrated with nobody scoring and starts to make repeated runs up that left hand flank. Let's get him doing that all day long.

Today sydney also appeared to discover that central coast players tend to have a peculiar genetic defect which prevents them from being able to see players running at angles...

Aloisi? Umm...............well I'm sure he'll get better ;-) It seems his lack of match fitness is holding him back, but he still made a couple of very dangerous looking runs. I'm confident we'll get our money's worth from him, but it'll take a couple of weeks. Aloisi and Tommy P appeared to be linking up quite well - it seems that the type of ball that Aloisi likes to receive are the exact same ones that Tommy P likes to distribute. I think those 2 are going to be a key pair, and they'll only get stronger.

Matt Simon. Ok, I've seen enough. Every match he does the exact same thing - jack squat. He's got a lot of heart, and he runs and throws himself around a lot (good commitment when he got injured in that clash with Bolton), but nothing comes from it. The biggest contribution he offers the team is when he gets foulled and we get a free kick. He's quite tall but he can't head the ball. He's fast and agile but doesn't seem to beat many people - he hasn't figured out how to use his pace in the HAL. He should be able to outrun players even when he's got the ball, but he can't. I don't think he's stepped up mentally, I don't think he's convinced himself he belongs in the HAL, and until he does he's never going to accomplish anything. By all means, keep him on the bench - but we should get rid of him the moment another prospect comes along, unless his game changes dramatcially.

Hutcho - we've finally seen a return to Season 1 form. Brilliant strikes. 1 left foot, 1 right foot. Both first touch, on the edge of the D.

Tommy P - also finding the form he missed earlier this season.

Owens - what a game!!! Awesome player.

Boogard - keeps getting better and better

Gumprecht - still in a bit of a slump, unfortunately.

Overall - we give away too many balls through midfield. Our defence already has the problems that I mentioned. We're a heckuva lot better than we were last season - we're making good runs, especially in attack. Varying our attack - although still depending too much on a 'kick and pray' hich ball somewhere into the far side of the box. We don't do them well enough to depend on them.

I had the thought that we don't seem to be bringing the best out of our attack. We've got established players like Petrovski, and Aloisi (although let's not forget his lack of match fitness), but they really didn't show their danger. Compare this to Sydney's players - Brosque-Juninho-Corica-Bridges looked really dangerous, and they all linked up really well. They seemed to bring out the danger in each other. I had the thought that for whatever reason, we seem to be lacking that factor from our attack. Is it just our attacking strategy, that we expect different things? Or is it the way our players link up together that give it a completely different dynamic? Whatever it is, I don't think Petrovski is often as dangerous as he can be.

Sydney deserved to win. We fell apart, especially in the first half, and Sydney controlled it right through the centre of the park, right up to their attack which kept on testing our defence, finding weaknesses, then exploiting them. As a team, Sydney were a lot more clinical than us. I also had the thought that while their first goal in particular was a good one, it was still mostly our weaknesses in defence that led to this (and other) goals.

[midfielder]

When Wilko's back I cannot see Vidmar on park. Out paced, no distribution from the back mainly panic long balls, and lots of free kicks given away.

For me the side would be better balanced if Tommy moved to centre mid and Jedi to right back with Owens playing wide right mid.

Agree with Sandman regards defence, however the goal from the corner every side from under 6's up has a person on the post except us today.

On the bright side Aloisi showed signs of class if we can gethim good ball.

[omni]

It was hard for Aloisi to do well when someone had his shirt in their hands all game. Sydney deserved the win, if only for the woeful defence.

Sandman: I don't think stating that Vidmar isn't that great is controversial, everyone was saying that at the start of the season when Lawrie left him on the bench, will be interesting to see who he goes with now Wilko is fit.

[wombat]

bakery5 said:

wombat said:

Bit worried about Bridges. He was quality in his day...probably better than Aloisi. Hopefully he is now a has been.

3.1 win to mariners.

If he is any good, why come to Australia, when you can play in your home nation?

LOL...you ever been to Hull???!!!

[serious14]

Quite simply, that game was fixed by the FFA, loathe to see their precious Sydney lose another game. That "refereeing" performance by Shields was without integrity, without vision, and quite simply not befitting someone who is proclaimed to be the best referee in the country. What a sickening feeling to lose in such a way.......

That is all. *thousands of angry faces*

P.S. Defence practice this week lads!!!!

[jazasydneyfc]

serious14 said:

Quite simply, that game was fixed by the FFA, loathe to see their precious Sydney lose another game. That "refereeing" performance by Shields was without integrity, without vision, and quite simply not befitting someone who is proclaimed to be the best referee in the country. What a sickening feeling to lose in such a way.......

That is all. *thousands of angry faces*

P.S. Defence practice this week lads!!!!

I'm lucky enough to have a job that allows me to sit online and surf the internet all day - thus giving me a presence on every HAL online forum.

And the past few weeks have ensured that you win my award of "biggest idiot" on all of them.

Was this before or after Jedinak used every one of his studs and elbow to try and injure our players? Or after the numerous times Tony "Kickstart my heart" Vidmar got pwned for pace and should've been booked for late challenges?

Good game - had it all. 3-2 flattered your lot on the balance of play - it was more of a 3-1/4-1 kind of game, but both of those from Hutchinson were pearlers.

Who wants to compare Bridges and Aloisi now?

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

serious14 said:

Quite simply, that game was fixed by the FFA, loathe to see their precious Sydney lose another game.

we got hosed, get over it. it happens, and we need to be better next week.

[thesandman]

You're dreaming if you think Jedinak was the dirtiest play on there.

I think that award would go to Fyfe....although Brosque had his share of fouls too...

you guys were only all over us for about 20min in the first half - but that's not reflected in the possession stats. I think that if you think you deserved to win by more than 1 you're flattering yourselves.

[northernspirit]

sydney played their best game of the season, we played ordinary what more can be said
the result was fair, maybe even a little flattering as jaza said.

this week the boys need some defensive work and hopefully better support for aloisi and sasho up front... still, 10 rounds in we are equal top, i would have taken that before the season for sure

[serious14]

Aloisi - a dive or two all game.

Bridges - an embarassment, quite frankly. Dove more than a f*cking seal. How many goals did he get again?? Wow, what a stunning success blah blah blah.

Sorry Jaza, I just call it as I see it. Can't help that, can I?? The FFA is Lowy's bitch, and if he wants a team to win a game, they win a game, simple. Conflict of interest?? Noooooooooooooo, of course not.

[bakery5]

jazasydneyfc said:

serious14 said:

Quite simply, that game was fixed by the FFA, loathe to see their precious Sydney lose another game. That "refereeing" performance by Shields was without integrity, without vision, and quite simply not befitting someone who is proclaimed to be the best referee in the country. What a sickening feeling to lose in such a way.......

That is all. *thousands of angry faces*

P.S. Defence practice this week lads!!!!

I'm lucky enough to have a job that allows me to sit online and surf the internet all day - thus giving me a presence on every HAL online forum.

And the past few weeks have ensured that you win my award of "biggest idiot" on all of them.

Was this before or after Jedinak used every one of his studs and elbow to try and injure our players? Or after the numerous times Tony "Kickstart my heart" Vidmar got pwned for pace and should've been booked for late challenges?

Good game - had it all. 3-2 flattered your lot on the balance of play - it was more of a 3-1/4-1 kind of game, but both of those from Hutchinson were pearlers.

Who wants to compare Bridges and Aloisi now?

If serious 14 is a dickhead, you are a f***ing wanker then. cant wait to see you in gosford ;D

[serious14]

P.S. Kosmina - "Hutcho, that was one in a million, both of them".

Learn some f*cking maths idiot.

P.P.S I can freely admit we were shit for most of it, but playing against 12 men never makes things easy.

[serious14]

P.S. Owens at right back........................ NO!!!!!! NEVER!!!!!!

[DJ]

Sydney deserved to win, they were the better side......simple.

First 30-35 mins we were dreadful, we came back into it and tbh Sydney didn't offer too much in the second half but neither did we?

Ref was pretty good I think, got the penalty right, got the bookings right, maybe a couple of dodgy decisions but what game of football doesn't have them?

Losing Heff, Mile and Viddy next week is massive, Heffs card was stupid.

Jaza - you can't really compare Bridges and Aloisi yet IMO, he needs game time as does Bridges......compare them in a week or 2, personally I know I'd prefer Aloisi.

Owens was good, but over commits himself when going forward, he's attacking, play him there. Gumps was woeful, how some people can still defend him is beyond me?

Still, we are joint top, if someone told me that at the beginning of the year I would have said thank you very much, we can improve, this game will hoepfully be a lesson learnt, HUGE game next week, let's hope the likes of Brown, Kwas and Wilko are ready to go as we need them to be!

[jazasydneyfc]

Gumprecht is just not a wide player. Kwasnik should really have that wide-right role - or Owens.

Mikey (writer of teh The Football Tragic blog), remarked to me at ht that CCM weren't really playing that badly - they jsut got us on a very good day. I'd agree with that - bar parts of teh second half where all the posession in the world conjured bugger all chances (sounds like us all eyar actually...)

Losing Vidmar is a good thing for you. The others will be a blow.

[midfielder]

serious14 said:

P.S. Kosmina - "Hutcho, that was one in a million, both of them".

Learn some f*cking maths idiot.

P.P.S I can freely admit we were shit for most of it, but playing against 12 men never makes things easy.

Serious I was near half way and the ref had and OK game. No excuse for not having a body on far post from a corner.

Our defense was torn apart in the first 25 Min's. Better now than in a final.

We were exposed and Lawie I am sure would change the formation for next game.

My changes would be Tommy P to CM much better player than Jedi for creating goals.

Owens to RM, his speed and passing game is better suited to RM than RF.

Jedi to RF, best suited in team to fill this roll.

Wilko if fit on as CM and TV to bench.

Kwas if fit back an LM with Grump as bench mid replacement.

[roylaw]

The referee didn't cost us the game, we were not playing aginst 12 men...Sydney were too quick, too mobile, too skilful in the first 30 minutes and that is where they won the game. If I blame anyone (which would be a tad unfair on Sydney) it is McKinna. We should have been much tighter early on, should have defended deep until Sydney's old legs ran out of puff - which they did later but by then, too late. Bridges looked about as good as Simon Lynch (make of that what you will); Aloisi needs more time. Vukovic was ok, Owens looks better by the week, Heffernan wasan idiot with the penalty but otherwise was pretty good; Vidmar too slow; Boogard pulled all over the park but still battled gamely. Pondeljak good, Gumprecht's best game in a long time. Jedinak caught out in the early onslaught but recovered well.Petrovski too well known by Sydney to have any chance. and Hutch? just BEAUTIFUL! oh, I forgot Matty Simon, just as well...