Our scoring streak in the A-league is over. 33 games I think it was. Scoring at home was also a pretty long streak but Im not sure how many games.
On the game itself, surely Retre and Caceres should swap positions, Retre was in great form playing out wide and Ceceres looks less bad in the centre.
If you want a silver lining, it’s one less streak for the commentators to waffle on about continuously through the match. The fewer streaks the better.
MOTM voting is open
I know it’s a passe thing to say but I genuinely struggled to give out 6 points.
Goo.
May as well copy and paste this for every game now. Been saying for ages I think he could give our midfield a better balance next to Branners, but if he’s named at RM next game I might just stay home in order to prevent going nuclear on SC.
We did miss 3* sitters before they scored, take one of those and it’s the usual gift 3 points from City.
But that’s been happening a lot lately, we’re just nowhere near as clinical.
*Milos airswing, ALF free header and Reza’s facejob for those playing at home.
3 games scoreless, with each game seeing us less likely to score.
Starting with Australia Day, our WDL record is 3-2-4 in all competitions.
Starting to feel the pinch I feel, AFC travel, on-going injuries to De Silva & De Jong, the uncertainty of Brillante’s transfer, Jop’s disappearance from the team altogether, Calver jumping ship, now Warland injured. Zero shots on target isn’t good enough. Although it’s only our 4th home loss in 41 games - it’s bye bye to the minor premiership now.
No. The answer was no.
SC has the option of rotating more players, both to rest weary legs and to ask different questions of the opposition. He chose tonight to start with 10 of the 11 who started in Japan.
That really does put it in perspective mind you. We were trash but damn we’ve had it good.
If Ninkovic buried that chance early in the second half, the momentum would’ve been with us and I think we could’ve escaped with a 1-0, but he didn’t. Either way, it was a mostly awful performance. The team might be jaded but I don’t know what more the FFA can do to have made those first couple of ACL games easier for us (and Victory) to prepare for, such as no games in between the first two ACL games. So while being jaded may be inevitable after a long trip, it certainly could be worse. Ultimately, its unacceptable at any time to be losing to a Warren Joyce-led team, who give bland a whole new meaning. We didn’t even get a single shot on target the whole game, which tells how ineffective our final product was tonight despite several efforts.
For once, I agree with rightdirection. Our injury toll this year has really been tough, especially in that RAM/RM role, and its amazing we’re still second on the table. Its a reflection of how awful the league has been this season. Perth are the obvious exception, and Welly deserve an honourable mention for the breath of fresh air they’ve provided. Victory have had injury problems to some degree, too. Losing Honda and Toivonen for decent chunks of time have really hurt them. The rest are average to absolutely awful.
You have to ask how many players he could afford to rotate out for this game, though. We still have a decent injury toll. All you have to do is look at the bench tonight. Brosque was never likely to start this game after starting in midweek at his age. Ivanovic for Caceres, possibly? Tratt for … who? Certainly not Grant, and I felt he showed tonight why he’s favoured at RB instead of CB. Shayon Harrison absolutely destroyed him. As for Austin, I’m not sure where you fit him in this formation. He’s a winger, and usually on the left. Are you going to trade Ninko’s creativity for Austin’s speed? HIGHLY doubtful.
As for the others, despite a few glimpses here and there, Devlin is absolutely not ready for a start yet. I thought Heward-Belle had a few decent appearances for the Mariners a few years ago but it seems he hasn’t kicked on at all in NPL. I have no idea about the back-up LB (Joel King??) but he must be far from ready to challenge Zullo at LB if he’s not even getting a bench spot. Obviously Brillante is leaving so its probably best to keep him under ice to ensure the transfer goes through. And we know Van Der Linden is too slow and makes poor errors that have cost us goals and points, so he’s probably not an option either, not even as a rotation option.
I just hope we don’t completely freeze Calver out just because he’s already agreed to switch to the new team. We may well need him next week.
Long story short, our squad needs a reboot in the off-season to challenge for silverware, but we’ve had it pretty good these last few years.
And as a final note, is anyone else getting really worried about Gucci? He’s had one good game for us and the rest have been average to rubbish. Hugely disappointing, as I was quite excited when he was announced as a January signing.
Yes, 3 of our 4 visa signings this year haven’t really worked out
Thought we were brilliant first half, some of SFC’s most creative and inventive attacking football ever. And our defenders blotted MC’s attack out of the game until half time. All Bratten could do was foul. Zullo, Grant, and Wilko just bossed them and so did Warland and later, Tratt. Our whole team was very good to excellent apart from Caceres who went from terrible to mediocre. Retre did brilliantly in the first half working well with an outstanding Brandon. I had been VERY skeptical of Retre’s defending but I admit I was wrong; he has the goods. Retre, Tratt and Warland having all stepped up makes me very confident .
Problem is, as we all know, our attackers have been caught in a vicious circle of missing heaps of sitters over many weeks and, seemingly as a consequence, don’t trust themselves to shoot or take on a man and then shoot. They just seem to want to offload it to someone else (wider, to the side, back etc) MC’s second goal was a deflection that might have missed but if you don’t shoot, you don’t win those deflections.
Seasons past we scored heaps of headed goals. These are no longer available from our strikers, particularly against a very tall, strong defence like MC’s. And we are not quite quick enough for the through balls. Reza especially is not as quick as I had hoped. Alf, who does so much build up work and covering back is often a way away from the poacher’s pocket when the ball comes. Again, if we had a proper RM, Alf would not need to come back so much.
WE should have been 2 up at least at half time but we know that if you don’t score under these conditions, you are likely to suffer grief. And clearly our boys’ legs just gave out mid-second half after playing in Japan midweek, and then unforced errors started to appear. But I can’t believe people think our boys did not try. They ran themselves into the ground, tackled like demons and muscled up against a bigger and often niggly/dirty opposition.
The Cove made so much good and positive noise all match. You guys are one of the best things happening in our sport here. 
Not so much the windbag whingers sitting all around me in Bay C in the stands. If anything would make me not want to come to matches, it is them.
Once again, I humbly suggest SC move Grant to RM and put Tratt behind him. If Warland is out, I would bring Jop or Calver back in. People are way too critical of Jop’s work.
The boggy ground saps energy faster,city didnt play or travel midweek.Difficult to overcome that situation.
Ivanovic needed to start.
With Warland out ( I’m assuming) Jop has to come back in. Let’s see what he can do now he has been around the team for a while
Agreed. I was on the hill side around half way and they were loud and clear all game, even after going down by 2.
Reza has been bog average, but arguably gets more leeway because he hadn’t been playing much, is playing in different country, on harder surfaces (save for last nite) , in a team that is struggling, stuttering and slow in transition , and for a coach who doesn’t know how to select a balanced line up from the players he DOES have available.