How can a stadium in a beach side town have zero seagulls and yet. that shit heap down south is full of the bastards!!??
Disappointing draw.
How can a stadium in a beach side town have zero seagulls and yet. that shit heap down south is full of the bastards!!??
Disappointing draw.
A game of 2 halves and a huge armwrestle. I felt we lost when Retre went off. He wasnt flashy and didnt offer much going forward, but we missed his work rate and industrious mentality. Jets really controlled the midfield once he went off.
Big chance for Charles. A shame he didnt take it. Far too early to judge DDS. The guy is just coming back from injury. Very hard to come off the bench and influence a game in just 15 minutes. Unless your name is David Carney or Bernie Ibini.
Thinking back on it, I think the game demonstrates that we can still be pretty reliant on Zullo to provide width a lot of the time and when he has an off game (or in his case a quiet game) we suffer as a result. Almost all our promising attacks came from a central position which tended to make us pretty narrow. The goal was the main exception to that.
We’re really seeing how important our bench was the past two seasons. Both Carney and Simon in different ways were able to occupy the opposition and stop the kind of all-out assault we got last night. Our current bench just relieves the pressure on the opponent and invites them onto us.
If we had Brosque coming off the bench as was planned, we’d be a very different side.
On the plus side, we played some gorgeous football at times. On another night we’d have got a second goal and it wold have been game over.
Charles…f***!
In Summary
Sydney started strong against Newcastle in yesterday’s game, however Newcastle’s goal from a corner rescued a point for last season’s runners-up.
Adam Le Fondre started well for the Sky Blues, heading a ball onwards and putting himself in a great position to beat the keeper. His placed effort went just wide, however. It didn’t take long for Sydney to open the scoring though, as Brandon O’Neill sprayed a fabulous ball out to Rhyan Grant on the wing, who put in a great near-post cross in for Alex Brosque . Brosque headed it low and at the keeper. A poor attempted save saw it go into the back of the net and Sydney were up 1-0.
The rest of the first half didn’t see too many clear opportunities for either side as the game descended into an arm-wrestle through the middle of the park. Sydney were playing some lovely football however, keeping possession well and winning back the ball regularly in midfield. Topor-Stanley was having a good game at the back for the Jets, however, and he blunted many Sydney attacks.
The second half started fairly slowly, but there was one opportunity as Jop van der Linden put through a ball for Milos Ninkovic , who put in a low cross for Le Fondre. Moss was able to smother it, however. Ninkovic also had a dipping strike from range which Moss had to tip around the bar.
As the game wore on, however, Sydney gradually ceded more and more possession and started sitting deeper. Whether it was fatigue or the Jets actually turning up, it did result in more chances for the home side. A corner taken by Petratos was turned in by Cowburn at the near post. Joshua Brillante , who had otherwise played well, probably could have done more to keep the shot out and Brandon O’Neill , who was also playing well, could have done more to challenge Cowburn, but with the way the game was going it is hard to say we deserved the win too much.
With the game nearing an end, substitute Charles Lokoli-Ngoy had a fantastic one-on-one opportunity with the keeper which he could have taken on his left boot. He slowed the ball and took it on his right however, and Moss was able to smother it. It is easy to see that this may be one of those moments that people will remember when judging his performance at the club.
You can view the match highlights here:
https://www.sydneyfc.com/video/full-time-highlights-newcastle-jets-v-sydney-fc-1
Post-match Statistics
Player Ratings
Those ratings are harsh. Ninkovic still has some fine moments but an average game from him. At least a 6/6.5
Retre was solid in defence and didn’t waste much in attack he just tweet got the ball in good attaxking positions which speaks to what a midfield battle the game was.
Redders I thought had an off game. Not for the goal but his distribution was very poor.
TBH was an off night for most of the team. Feel for Charles missing the goal but he had fresh legs and didn’t do any pressing from the front whatsoever when he came on. Done for me.
Yeah you’re probably right on Ninkovic, I guess I have just come to expect more from him.
In the warm up they use imaginary flags. Maybe he was still using it?
I noticed this as well. More pressing from a knackered Brosque.
Crap result but there is one positive. The debate about Charles is now pretty much settled. He’s not good enough.
Hilarious that people whinge about us not producing youth, but are clamouring to write off a player that’s played less than 120 minutes in the a league. Never change sfcu
Not really. We’ve seen the difference in many youth players coming up and taking their chances and impressing with the limited time they get to play. Off the top of my head, Grant, Ryall and Antonis are three youth players that played their arses off and impressed. They would have had similar starts to what Charles is getting yet the difference is that they took all the chances that were given to them, while Charles is failing.
Edit: Throw in Petratos and Gersbach
Ryall was signed from another a league club, Grant was raw as fuck and ran around a lot, petratos was rubbish until he’d been at Brisbane for a year. So realistically that’s antonis (who’s already had a move to Everton denied by fifa) and gersbach? 2 players in 14 years
Grant was pretty terrible for ages. He put in some absolute stinkers in the Farina era. I remember many, myself included, writing him off as NPL level.
If you wanted to clutch at straws you could say Chianese has done well for Perth and Calvers a squaddie for us.
Devlin looked great and impressed more and has played way less than Charles. That’s the type of performance I would expect from a youngster off the bench.
Charles continues to look uninterested. I don’t hold him accountable for the loss on the weekend, it was one chance of which he’s had precious few and we should have scored more earlier. But he just doesn’t have the energy and drive for a youngster coming off the bench wanting to impress.
People still claim Sainsbury isnt interested or driven enough. I think Charles just has a very laid back demeanour. I still would have loved Charles to get a start in an FFA cup game to properly get into a game. Hes here for the season and Ill still hope he changes our minds and puts them away once he gets off the mark
Jurman played NYL for us right? I know he also took a while to get to his recent levels but it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to be brilliant day one.
Jurman was routinely labelled as pathetic and many were surprised he got a contract with Roar.