Mariners v Gold Coast United

[Roy Law]

This was a thoroughly entertaining and exciting game; big ups to Gold Coast, supposed to be dead in the water, who took the game to the Mariners and tore them a big one. Any of our opposing coaches with half a brain know that they way to rattle the Mariners is to press high up the park with a 4-3-3 – it helps when GCU have pace to burn in the front third. After the opening ten minutes when it looked as if we could comfortably dine-out on the pickings from the inexperienced opposition they took over the game and dominated for almost an hour. Zipping past our defenders like Sydney’s bicycle couriers in the City GCU’s young guns left the Mariners vaunted defence utterly bewildered. Our big defenders – Griffiths, Wilkinson and Zwaanswijk - were made to look as slow as Friday arvo traffic on the F3 and Bojic and Rose were gasping for air. They were fast, very fast, skilful with a confidence and touch that can only come from the exuberance of youth, and direct and intelligent in their movement. One crude late Patrick tackle on Halloran set the tone. The Mariners were rocked back on their heels, left chasing shadows and were every bit deserving of being 1-3 down after an hour. After Kwasnik’s casually confident opener Wilkinson was left floundering by the pace of Mehbratu and Griffiths clumsily conceded the penalty. Pasfield went the wrong way for Harold’s equalizer. Then Halloran turned on the afterburners and despite a desperate attempt by Wilkinson he slotted the ball home; Pasfield may have thought he could have done better as he got a hand to the ball but it was a brilliant piece of football by the young striker. Kwasnik was a lone voice in the carnage, full of his trade mark tricks and guile he deserved better with a half-volley on the turn from Sutton’s knock down and, late on, Rogic brought a comfortable save from Tyson when the far bottom corner beckoned. After half time GCU poured it on and relentlessly ran the Mariners ragged and were well worth Cooper’s third after excellent approach play. All looked lost for the Mariners. But for two thrilling saves by Pasfield we would have been sunk without trace; on such things though games can turn.
Arnie brought on Bernie Ibini-Isei for Sutton who after a bright start had faded into anonymity and Bernie lit the spark of revival. His consummate finish after Kwasnik capitalised on Thwaites’ mistake was all class and the Mariners began to dominate possession. Griffiths was back in control and Michael McGlinchey began to run and run at the GCU defence; well supported by Rose and Bojic the Mariners began to create the chances they needed. They always looked like scoring and Kwasnik’s thoroughly professional finish put them back on level terms. We could have won it, we had several might-have-beens, and Patrick missed a great chance but a winner for us would have been rough justice on a marvellous display by GCU. Praise though too to the spirit of the Mariners: the fight back was an outstanding come back from the dead. Our hoped for strength in depth has been found wanting – just one win in four games – the Olyroos trio will be welcomed back with open arms. Our rivals still have it all to do, still six points adrift with only five games to go. However, if any of our ACL opponents were watching this they would have left with smug smiles on their faces.

 

[Roy Law]

How I saw the players-
Pasfield: outstanding. John Crawley said recently that Pasfield’s problem was that he was rusty after only playing NYL and he needed time. He was right, Pasfield saved our bacon tonight.
Bojic: we all know about Pedj – full on action, full on commitment. Was left hopelessly adrift in the first half but came on strong in the second.
Rose: had to use every ounce of his pace in the first half and sometimes it wasn’t enough. Was always an outlet for us on the left and on another day could have had better reward
Wilkinson: there were some who thought Wilko unlucky not to figure in Holger’s squad; not on this performance! Pedestrian and slow but still gutsy. And much better than Jade North!
Patrick: age shall not weary them or so it is said but Patrick looked weary tonight. The bright young upstarts of GCU really tested him
Griffiths: could not get a handle on GCU’s lively midfield in the first half but dragged himself back into in the second.
McGlinchey: this kid never quits, never stops trying even when it is all going wrong. Put in a mighty shift to lift us back into the contest
Pellegrino: struggled on the left, struggled on the right but tried hard enough in the second half.
Rogic: Holger Osiek got it so right when he talked about young players and how they lack consistency. Helped make the opener but struggled for traction all game.
Sutton: showed some excellent touches early on: good on the ball, nice lay-offs and strong in the air but Bernie showed what can be done if you are mobile enough
Kwasnik: there is only one. When he is in the mood he is a delight to watch and he was in the mood today. Two nice goals and wasn’t far away on a couple of occasions from a third. Made Kristian Reece look like the Shire horse he is.
Bernie: welcome back! Excellent finish for his goal. This kid gets criticism but he almost never gives the ball away despite heavy pressure and rarely runs offside. His running at GCU caused them plenty of problems and he was a key figure in our comeback
Hearfield: not much impact but lively enough and nearly opened them up late on
MoM: Kwasaldinho – back to his dangerous inventive productive Grand Final best
With support from McGlinchey, Pasfield and Bernie

 

[bikinigirl]

Several times tonight our CBs stayed narrow, taking the DM out of the game and forcing the FBs to choose either to go to their proper position in a fast moving transition that creates an attacking threat or head toward the corner flags and sacrifice the bounce from the backline. How much of this is about the back 4 trusting the keepers I'm not sure, but it should be a very basic part of our play, and it's clearly not. Maybe Matt Ryan deals better with it, not sure, but it makes the keeper look bad when it's the back 4 cocking up.

. how much of it was simply down to the fact that they were knackered, having been run ragged by the young up-starts ... i see that roy is now retrospectively supporting my theory of resting patrick for this game

. unfotuntaley he was made to look very old tonight ... but he was definitely not alone there. the first goal was a prime example halloran strolled past pelle and griffiths without either seeming to make any real effort; patrick stepped up, shouldn't have, and was shown up; which left wilko to turn and chase as halloran showed he wasn't in top gear yet

. our distribution was so bad in the ensuing period i figured we couldn't tell the difference between the shirts

. we only came good again when things started to get a bit desparate and the gc kiddies started to tire

. the kwas was at his enigmatic best ... two goals and an assist - i would have liked to see him with a hatrick (and he had the opportunity). bernie was great when he came on and the goal (taken with authority) will hopefully reignite his fire

. pasfield made a couple of great saves which would have made things really embarrassing for us (could have easily conceded 5! ... and 3 was our worst for the season). the wee-man putting in a good effort after seeming to be a little confused starting over on the left. but nobody else really rates a mention

. we actually had a few chances to win it in the end ... but that would have been a complete affront to the 'other' coast and the way they played ... but also the way they made us play

 

[elevated position]

Slater summed it up at half time, CCM's midfield is very static and do not allow outlets for the backs and while they stand still they get their pockets picked leaving the backs to struggle for formation.

This lack of movement is why we have to recycle the ball back to the keeper and now every team pushes that point and we are making mistakes.

We got from Gold coast what we gave Wellington.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I think playing midweek was too much for some of our players who looked tired and slow. If this is the case it does not bode well for the ACL.

However I hope it was just mid week lethargy that will be fixed.

It has been clear to me for a while that any team that plays high and pressures our defence causes us problems. Brisbane does it all the time and Gold Coast did it last night. If I can see that so can any other A League coach. I can only hope that when future opposing teams that try it we can counter.

The good points from that game to balance the disappointment.
1) The heart shown by the team to come back.
2) Bernie showing he is the goods.
3) Kwassie showing that he has the talent and ability to be one of the best strikers in the league. One of the best games I have seen him play, up there with last years GF.

For the future I would probably start with the same front three and bring on Bernie and Musti early in the second half to carve up tiring defences, they both seem more dangerous off the bench.

Hopefully Musialik will be good enough to replace Griffiths next game, we need Hutch on the left.

 

[scottmac]

Hopefully Musialik will be good enough to replace Griffiths next game, we need Hutch on the left.

Bozanic is back as well so Hutch to DM and Bozanic on the left.

 

[LFCMariners]

As a side note, the Yellow Army were as big as (if not bigger) than The Beach last night. As I said earlier, the Tour of Duty is usually a fairly joyless experience, but last night was quite enjoyable, thanks to the funny blokes standing in front of me, the chants we came up with, the nature of the game, and a mention has to go to the cute 18 y/o sitting on my lap for nearly the whole first half

It was another example of the 'Never say die' mentality that is entrenched in the team at the moment. Arguably Ange is a better coach in terms of technical ability, but I can't think of anybody in the league who can trump Graham when it comes to getting a side mentally prepared before a game or knocking some sense into them when they are chasing a loss.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Some great posts. You really are a thoughtful insightful bunch sometimes
Much better read than most other forums.

Roy thoroughly agree on the Wilko comment. I was one arguing his case. Last night they all just looked flat.

Roy, while I'm here. I love your posts, but could you please consider some paragraphs? Makes it so hard to read in a large block like that and I only bother TBH because I think your posts are always quality.

Best

FP

 

[Roy Law]

Some great posts. You really are a thoughtful insightful bunch sometimes
Much better read than most other forums.

Roy thoroughly agree on the Wilko comment. I was one arguing his case. Last night they all just looked flat.

Roy, while I'm here. I love your posts, but could you please consider some paragraphs? Makes it so hard to read in a large block like that and I only bother TBH because I think your posts are always quality.

Best

FP

FP, thankyou for your kind words; I will do my best to remember your paragraph request (because I think you have asked me before...).