Pointy end of the season & the future

[style_cafe]

I did a goalkeeper coaching course with Steve Darby a few years ago en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Darby.
1998? f**k where did those years go?

Talk got around to penalties & his advice to the takers was that the hardest penalty kick to defend against was where the kicker placed the ball ,went back about 10m then screamed in & hit it as hard possible.All the goalkeepers present agreed. They also said they shit themselves when it happens to them.

 

[scottmac]

I don't buy this we're the best team. We have the best goals for and gd but fewer points than Wanderers. They just won eight in a row, we just threw away 3 of our last 4 games. We're choking, as is blindingly obvious from our penalties. Wanderers are the best team in the league. It's theirs to lose now. If we take 10 or 12 points from the remaining games we have a chance, as 12 wins in a row for Wanderers is unlikely, although possible.
What we can do as supporters is get to the games and sing our hearts out.
COYY.

Yeah its theirs to loose. Are we a better team than them, you bet we are. We played a mid week game against a strong opposition which we dominated in atrocious conditions, then backed up to dominate the "next best team" (Victory are a much better side than they are) in the same woefull conditions & you say we are choking?
Penalties have long been considered a lottery by anyone who has followed football for longer than a micro second. McBreen should have been taking them & odds are he would have scored at least 1 of those 4. Its the captians & the managers fault that he wasn't taking them. This bullshit about whoever is confident will take them is crap & shows a lack of confidence from leadership in McBreen as our penalty taker. Confidence should be instilled by the manager & captian first not the other way around. Penalty awarded...."who's confident boys, you wanna take it???????" Bullshit, the manager should be saying "McBreen you're our man, you're the best we have & you'll nail it, get up there son"

We have had 3 recent games where we have not taken the points we should have seperated by the demolition of Victory. Perth, Suwong & WSW. We dominated 2 of those games & should have won where there was 2 penalties missed, hit woodwork, amazing saves.

We are in the best position I can remember going into the finals. There is no team in the comp that can beat us when we are on. We have never been able to say that before.
Wanderers are great at not loosing. Their defensive structure is amazing & they catch teams out with the odd goal. Remember when we were like that? What did everyone have to say about us then? Lucky? Anti-football? Terrible to watch? Boring? Now I'm not suggesting that Wanderers are any of these things, just that we get reamed or overlooked by the press/supporters when we are anything but brilliant. We are an easy target. I wouldn't have thought that it would also apply to our own supporters.

We are not choking. We are ramping up & luck has not been on our side for 2 games. Thats football. I will not be surprised if we come out & score 10+ goals in our last 4 matches because our form says thats what we can expect.

As for the sing our hearts out bit, I'm all in.

 

[Gratis]

agreed

and WSW don't need to be beaten for CCM to win the league they just need to be held goalless or to a draw. c'mon Welly!

 

[scoober]

I think Wellington is the best team for WSW to face after the high of beating us, they are expected to win easy and I would suggest the team themselves will "think" its an easy game. Plus Gameiro looks a nippy little player.

Fingers crossed anyway!! we just gotta beat the bling

 

[scoober]

I think Wellington is the best team for WSW to face after the high of beating us, they are expected to win easy and I would suggest the team themselves will "think" its an easy game. Plus Gameiro looks a nippy little player.

Fingers crossed anyway!! we just gotta beat the bling

Wow I shouldn't have put "nippy" in there, the isolated WSW fans may think I'm racist.......

 

[ballantyne]

I think Wellington is the best team for WSW to face after the high of beating us, they are expected to win easy and I would suggest the team themselves will "think" its an easy game. Plus Gameiro looks a nippy little player.

Fingers crossed anyway!! we just gotta beat the bling

Good point. Often the spooners pull off amazing smash and grabs against the leaders.
We ARE in a good position compared to previous seasons but we were in a better one a month ago. To win the league you need to take at least 4 points from each home/away pair. Wanderers are recently taking 6, but can they sustain it? We simply must take 10 points now. Sydney have seesawed this season and are coming off 2 losses, but with the extra leadersip provided by Lucash they are poised to self-destruct completely. 2-4 (2-0 ht)

 

[Dutch Wives]

Great views and points everyone. I am banking on WSW to sink under the pressure of the new team blues. Surely Poppa can't keep their skins that thick?

 

[yellowcake]

So - trying to be an optimist - we should still end up 2nd. 4 points from the last 9 would guarantee that given our GD.
That still gives us one game, at home, to qualify for our 4th GF.
That still gives us the week off to contend with 2 ACL matches in that fortnight, against quality opposition to keep us sharp.
2nd means we play that semi-final on the Sunday, rather than the Friday night after the away game at Guizhou on the Tuesday (and would the FFA have altered the draw to accommodate us?)

And as a proud Mariners supporter I'd add...
Top 2 in 3 consecutive years has not been achieved before
No other club can claim top 3 in more than half the A-league seasons played. (And in fact 4th in one of the other 3).

I'm certainly in the 'premiership is more important' camp but I'm not giving up for this season on the one prize we are mocked for not holding.

 

[Gratis]

^ this is how I'm seeing it now also. I think that 2nd is going to happen and that without having to throw everything at the premiership race the odds just improved in the ACL and finals.

 

[Gratis]

wsw may take the plate but then they have to live in western sydney...so swings and roundabouts

 

[Gratis]

so 4 points from the remaining 3 games guarantees 2nd spot

 

[dibo]

had we taken 6 from the last two, we'd be needing only a point from 9 to be premiers.

 

[bikinigirl]

. this article discusses my view on things:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-leagu...e-mariners-on-a-knifeedge-20130311-2fw7v.html

. it is the combination of physical and mental demands the boys are having to contend with and/or juggle. excluding the youth (who now haven't played for a couple of weeks) we don't even have the full squad of 23

. we always knew things were going to get tough at this time of year ... my only real 'criticism' was that continued success throughout the season 'prevented' a better player rotation necessary for readying those 'on the fringes' for when they were/are needed (obviously there have been some exceptions)

 

[Wombat]

Good article but we have overachieved with our current squad after not really covering the loses of some excellent players.
Rogic was a flawed but very good replacement for Musti....we played a weird defensive set up hoping his individual brilliance might paper over the cracks and give us some go forward.
Simon was never replaced and we are paying the price now.
Monty was an excellent replacement for Griffo but Arnie decided to pair him with Hutcho rather than let him do the job on his own. This made us hard to break down but rather toothless in attack.
Tesco has been probably the only player to be superior to the player he replaced.

We have smashed a few teams this season but also been quite lucky on a few occasions. We have also been made to look like mugs on a few occasions when teams have put us under pressure. We have been the Graham Hick of the HAL.

On the positives we have looked well drilled and confident at all times...even when being taken to school like the first half v Victory in Tassie.

The bottom line is selling our best players has probably cost us a Premiership and a GF.

This season their have been no dominant teams in HAL and we have been the most consistent but as FFC stated it could all turn to shite very easily.

GA needs to earn his corn now. Amazingly we have appear to have thrown away the Premiership but we still have the talent to get to and win the GF if we put out our best side and formation.

Its time to show your metal GA and the hardy warriors in Yellow.

COYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[nebakke]

Hmm, how long are we going to claim that selling Simon, Griff and Wilko cost us the premiership? It happened last season and we have more than coped for most of this season... I think it's way too easy to go looking for answers there. On top of that, I don't think the sale of Rogic hurt us that badly either... At least not in the way that most people seem to think. It hurt our depth, but we've actually had some decent performances without him. We had a relatively deep squad from the start of the season... Unfortunately not quite deep enough it seems. I'd take a tired version of our defense over pretty much any other defense in the league - but they'll eventually leak, understandably. So for that to still work, we need to be able to score... Which is why I think the lack of Rogic (and actually Kwazza too) is hurting us more through the lack of manpower, than through the lack of them, if you know what I mean. Rogic is great and did well for us, but I think that less could do it. It looks clear that Macca could do with some relief etc...

I think you're wrong though, Wombat, when you say that there have been no dominant teams this season. I think it's fairly clear that, until now, we and WSW have been the two most dominant teams. People forget how relatively few games we have lost at this point. It's funny actually, last year everyone were all excited about unbeaten sprees, this year it's all about wins... Goes to show that the league is indeed improving. But sofar, my impression is that these two teams strike fear into the hearts of the A-league opponents... Not so much the team that played Sydney last week though

Let's hope it picks up again now... COYY Take that away win to show them all that they're underestimating us... !!!

 

[Gratis]

just saw today Brockie has caught up with 15 goals. c'mon Breeny!!!!

 

[bikinigirl]

just saw today Brockie has caught up with 15 goals. c'mon Breeny!!!!

. can someone please tell me when 'macca' became 'breeny'?

. sounds far too effeminate for my liking ... i don't think it is conincidental that his scoring seems to have dropped off around the time i started noticing the 'change'

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Ok, so now Haliti, who scores braces about as often as Haileys Comet comes around, has ensured the plate for
IVEGOTSOMANYLETTERSICANTEVENREMEBERWHATTHEYAREWSW - we'll just have to content ourselves with winning the toilet seat and the ACL.

Bikini, great point.

For a girl that is.

I'm not sure effeminate names and goal scoring prowess are mutually exclusive. But willing to fly this up the flag ploe if it means big ol dazza you f**kin beaut macca boy, can start banging them in again.

Now off to watch SFC fall apart a week too late. You know it's going to happen.

 

[Gratis]

hmm I just started entertaining the possibility of first again, guess not

other results now mean only need 2 points out of the remaining 3 games to secure 2nd place

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Yep, MH was my hope where they might slip up, and looked like a decent chance for the first 60 odd too.

Victory also looked very good tonight as did SFC to be honest. Definitely time to trade in my crystal ball. I honestly think MV are a much more dangerous team than WSW, and harder to contain. But the pairing of Beauchamp and NTS is a much stronger CB pairing and Popovic has them far better drilled. All in all, i still see us as the best team in the comp, but that's not worth anything at all. Maybe we can take the title of champions at last. Which though I sit in the premiers is the more important prize camp, I confess it would mean the world to me.