I’m loving these dinner time kickoffs.
Back to reality
For what it’s worth they lost this weekend against perennial relegation battlers.
This is going to be a tough game, they’re top of the J League and most of the way through their season so should be in both strong form and fitter than us.
I predict a peach baguetteing and a 45 minute Horto rendition.
WTF? We’re supposed to play lesser Asian sides in this comp, but just our pot luck that we draw the J-League leaders FFS.
I would be okay with resting Costa for this game, or restricting to a late cameo. Get the feeling Costa is going to want to play every minute possible though!
I’m getting the feel Redders is losing his reaction times… Sure he has many good points, like being a leader at the back, but Devenish-Mears did well in the other ACL game. He could do with a run.
I would love to see Talay use this as a chance to rotate a little and give minutes to people like Sega, Devenish- Mears and Hollman
I can see him pushing the current lineup for this one and then making changes for the ALM. Maybe he’ll do some earlier subs based on results. Ultimately he’s going to want to win both comps and a win here would go a pretty long way.
The club has said in its pre-season blurbs that it wants to make success in Asia a priority. How Talay approaches that for this game remains to be seen. I imagine he’d be delighted with an away point.
I’d take a point for sure.
Does Maxi’s suspension count in the ACL2? Or can we bring him on Simon style to terrorise the defence?
He should be free to play
Not that you want to reward burgess for what he did but it might not be a bad thing him starting and giving someone in the front area a break considering he can’t play the next game
You’d be better off getting minutes into Quintal and Segacic before Maxy. Let them battle it out to take his bench spot
I’d he happy if Saturday was the last we see of Maxy in a SFC shirt. He’s 30 in 3 months time and his output last season was 2 goals and 2 assists. Both goals and one assist were in the same game.
He’s not going to get any better, it’s time for us to move on.
I don’t know much about Quintal so can’t comment. I know Segicic is young but I don’t think he is anywhere near the level of Burgess and I don’t rate him. I feel playing him is a waste of time
Yeah I can understand that but given that the top two go through, part of me wonders if the best balance we can strike is to play a second team here and save our first team for the weekend, then look to field A stronger team against the third and fourth place in the ACL2 group. It’s not exactly glamorous to aim for second place in the group, but it might help us to keep our squad fit as we enter the league season too.
This talk of resting regular starters is unrealistic. All the good players aren’t here to be rested in the headline fixtures like vs J League leaders. Your Costas &c would likely be pissed off at sitting on the bench for this. Giving that it appears they have all clearly travelled, they’re going to have the travel fatigue anyway.
I take it we’re going straight to Auckland after?