Round 21 - Sydney FC vs Adelaide - 1/3/19

The highlights video has been uploaded:
https://www.a-league.com.au/video/full-time-highlights-sydney-fc-v-adelaide-united-2

That first goal was so well worked. Reza had an amazing first half all up.

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Fuck Leichardt.

Gotta be happy with that. Everything appeared to click into gear. Caceras aside , you’d have to settle with that as your first choice team despite all the players that are out.

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The previous game I had no trouble getting out, but this time the light rail service was crammed like sardines. Plenty of people couldn’t get the first major service to Dulwich Hill.

We really need to cut back on those free Big Macs on Monday’s after a home win

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Thanks for clarifying. My comment is just betraying the amount of times I’ve stood in the Cove :confused:

Our first half was one of our best halves all season, even after knowing that Adelaide had a lot of changes. Ninko seemed to be finding positions in the middle much more often last night and it made a huge difference. Hopefully that continues in the games ahead as he’s much less effective on the left.

Agree that Caceres didn’t have a bad game. I just think he’s not up to the standard of the other three attacking players starting. That’s not a criticism, its just how it is. I just hope he can learn how they work so he can be more up with their combinations leading into the finals. That would be super handy if he can manage that.

I’m never really comfortable with how we sit back on a narrow lead but I have to say its worked well in most of our games so far. Bringing on the likes of Ivanovic and Devlin to accompany Le Fondre means we can then counter with pace and we’ve wrapped up a few games on the back of counters. Its something we will have to get used to. Its proven to work most of the time this season.

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Buzzing for Devlin and the return of the fence crash. Like Ivanovic more with each game, really confident. There was one play where he took a shot and hit side netting while he had support coming into the box, but I rate that level of self confidence in a young forward.

Best performance in a while IMO; first goal was silk.

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Corica is bringing back Arnie’s percentages:

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Readers needs more love for running the length of the field to celebrate Devlins goal

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I like how Devlin scored, started running away then suddenly realised the cove was there.

That lineup would have looked great with a certain dutchman on the right hand side. so much “if only”

43% is just Brillante’s completed pass percentage?

Kidding, thought he was much improved last night which was great to see. Milos back to being a delight to watch, and that goal for Gucci has been coming, he and ALF have had some lovely interplay from the start so it was bound to happen. Branners was in beast mode last night too.

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I know stats aren’t everything but I thought it was interesting that Brilliante has the most completed passes and O’Neil has the most possessions in the league.

Cynical thinking just makes me assume that most of that is josh passing to brandon.

Brillante likes to drop deep and ends up getting a lot of passes to CBs.

I was perhaps being a little tongue in cheek with my comment.

Fantastic performance last night despite the second half dip. Main and only weakness for mine was RM. Caceres did little wrong but there is just too little coming from there, in attack and defence compared to Ninko on the left, Adrian, Holosko or Milos1 in years past or Kisel further back. It means that Grant has to do extra work and that the DMs get pulled out wide too often in defence.
Brillante was superb last night. In the first half, he dominated ball winning and the play linking from back to front and switching sides; in the second half, O’Neill who was also wonderful in the first half just went up about three notches and was clear MOM for mine.

I think those bagging Brillante’s first half efforts may need to think differently about how they watch the game in order to make fairer comments. As they say about Sergio Busquets at Barca: ‘if you watch the game, you don’t see Busquets; but if you watch Busquets, you see the game.’ The same is true of Brillante often and then the only thing we notice then is a couple of errors and those then become, we think, the sum of his contribution. He plays such an important role for us and his gradual recovery of form goes a long way to explaining 3 clean sheets in a row.

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Great post Pietro.

Really watched Caceres. Part of the problem is he is in the midst of Ninko, Reza jan and Alfie. When they are so obviously a class above and he is standard HAL quality its hard. SC can’t really break up Brannerz and Josh so he is a bit hamstrung when trying to play him into form. As a narrow right sided midfielder it could work with Grant (amazing game) providing width but its not atm.

With Retre and Caceres play a lot of that right position it seems like bit of a balancing move. Haven someone who can tuck central and provide another number in the middle whilst letting Grant overlap and overall provide a bit of stability for the rest of the attackers to do their thing.

That said Caceres will get some minutes probably in the middle with ACL commitments

Someone asked him about injuries and SC def didnt mention Retre. Not conclusive but starting to really wonder.

Thought he was soft as shit, to be honest. Did he even make a tackle in the second half?

Overall pretty good performance. One of those ones where you see glimpses of what we’re trying to do - but not quite putting it together for more than 20 mins.

Considering we’re still missing Brosque, DeJong and Danny, you have to be pretty happy.

Being so close to Perth really makes those dropped points against CCM and Roar hurt though.

That first 20 minutes shows how well we can play. The movement in the final third was superb.

Here’s a question, when was the last time someone from the academy caused such backing from the fans as Ivanovic has this season? I love how he takes chances and runs at defenders. It might not always come off but it’s entertaining and gives you a thrill. Also so happy for Devlin, he’ll remember that one for a while.

Football passion :facepunch:


(great photo but I’m thankful no one got badly injured)

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