Round 16 - Sheep-shaggers v Mariners

[marinermick]

Time to start a thread on this.

After two weeks of picking the exact scoreline and FIFA09 only missing out on the result once from eight games the news for this one is bad:

Wellington 3 (Smeltz, Ferrante, Daniel)
Mariners 2 (D-Mac, Simon)

Curse you FIFA09!!!!

 

[ponno]

Noooooo! This cant be right.... but i know how accurate fifa 09 has been for us this season....

 

[serious14]

Bear beat me on FIFA 09 yesterday (West Ham vs. Juventus) with a glitched goal in the 120th minute....... it's not always right. 

 

[brett]

Wellington and Melbourne are the only teams we haven't beaten this season, so perhaps FIFA is onto something.

On the other hand, after that Sydney game, you get the feeling we've worked out the right balance between attack and defence. It's no great mystery that Wilko, Hutch and Jedi played much better with an extra central midfielder in the place of a third striker in weeks past. OK, we didn't score 3 or 4 goals, but we didn't concede three either.

I predicted two weeks ago that Boogs being out would be a blessing in disguise in allowing Wilko and Pedj to team up in the centre, with Heff to come back and provide nice shape on the left side. Porter also launched forward against Sydney as much as he should. With those guys providing options and movement, Jedi prowling, Hutch steadying things and sitting in for the advancing fullbacks, the shape is a lot more stable than the 4-2-4 crazies.

We should have too much for Wellington.

 

[serious14]

We should have too much for Wellington.

I'd like to agree with you chief, but they're a mystery at home...... we havn't had the best of luck over there before (excepting Sasho's tap in from last season).  I'm a bit tentative about this one - I'd take a scrappy 1-0 win to be honest.  Get the points and get home.

 

[Bear]

Bear beat me on FIFA 09 yesterday (West Ham vs. Juventus) with a glitched goal in the 120th minute....... it's not always right.  

HA

What will be the excuse the next 100 times I beat you?

You fail ay FIFA, all versions, against me. Deal with it

 

[David Votoupal]

I think the side should have momentum from the win over Sydney to kick on with a win in Wellington- ought to go for it, points are at a premium from now on.

 

[serious14]

Bear beat me on FIFA 09 yesterday (West Ham vs. Juventus) with a glitched goal in the 120th minute....... it's not always right.  

HA

What will be the excuse the next 100 times I beat you?

You fail ay FIFA, all versions, against me. Deal with it

Rematch, tonight. 

On topic prediction, either 1-1 (Smeltz and Sasho), or 1-0 to us (Sasho, or Macca from a long ball bringdown, smashes it in).

 

[Bear]

Just so Mick's FIFA prediction dose not get anybody down, ill play serious with me as Mariners, him as Welli, so we can have a positive FIFA result to look forward to, hopefully

 

[midfielder]

9 point game for the Sheep Shaggers they are well behind on goal difference so if they loose they become effectively 3 games behind with 5 rounds to play so end of season you should imagine.

Games like this are always difficult ... away match season defining match for the other team.. Bear why did you not play serious and allow Marinermick to loose the FIFA2009 ... not good

 

[Rowdy]

the shape is a lot more stable than the 4-2-4 crazies.

Excellent descriptor, as effectively that's what was happening when Caceres made runs into the front line and one of the 3 strikers failed to drop in for him. 'cough sash cough'

Lawrie showed that he's not afraid to change from his 4-3-3 when it was starting to wane in the results dept back to the 4-4-2, it also gave the players back that 'confidence' that comes from controlling the midfield more effectively.

With Fred not playing last weekend due to the unfortunate passing of his father it's uncertain if he'll play this week.(3 games left on his contract). If Fred does play, then playing '4' again in the mid would be a must to close down his space and time on the ball.

He hasn't quite hit the heights of flair and creativity that he exhibited at Melb. but this is not the weekend to allow him the chance to put on a show when another 3 points is what we really need for the race into the finals, the Nix are only a win away from equaling us on 22points for 4th.

 

[FFC Mariner]

The next 3 games make or break our season. All winnable on paper and our final run in is pretty tough.

I'll take a terrible 1-0 win TBH.

Ideally, I would like to see:

Danny
Porter Pedj Wilko Heff
Gumps Jedi Hutcho
Caceres
Dylan Matty

Saso, Disco Nik, Osman & Redders on the bench

We looked much better balanced on Saturday, more so when Heff came on.

Porter and Gumps are going to be a great combo IMHO

 

[marinersman]

I think it's as simple as this, if we are serious title contenders (which I think we are) we have to put teams like Wellington away, whether home or away. They are an ordinary side with poor defence and only one goal scorer.

We have a golden opportunity for nine points in our next three matches which will set us up nicely for the last three games and the run home. Draw or lose and our top four position is very much under threat.

A win by three goals would be beautiful for our goal difference as well as the points. I do feel sooner or later, one of our opponents will be on the end of a bit of a hiding from us and I'd love it if it is the sheep shaggers.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Watching the replay of Saturday night, some of our short passing game was great. On another night, that last pass works and a slender 1-0 at HT is 3 or 4.

We might be close to giving someone an absolute hiding.

(ps - can it be boxing day)

 

[Rowdy]

Porter and Gumps are going to be a great combo IMHO

For sure, I've been hanging since July 2007  to see these 2 mariners play together after witnessing some amazing passing between the pair in a pre-season cup game against SydFC in a freezing Canberra.

Chicken came on for Kwasnik , RHS of midfield with about 15 to go, and they were pulling off some beautiful 1-2's. Lots of movement off the ball & totally using the space by switching play constantly. Gumps was on fire that day, he scored a cracker of a goal, 25 yards out - full volley straight into the back of the net. 3-0 to the Mariners, well worth the frostbite  .

Chick was putting in the same quality crosses from the corner areas back then that he's puttting in now.

Listening to Harp/Slat/Cockerill?? comment in the replay of the recent Syd game that 'Porter has been a good find for McKinna' was met with a bemused chuckle from moi', newsflash guys - 'he's been there all along' just hasn't been given a chance to show his wares and i believe still hasn't, in that midfield IS his better position.

Another option when Clarky is back to full fitness is to play him at the RB and push Chick into the RM and run the shit out of him (he's got a great motor) and then sub at 55-60 mins, Gumps to come on, replicate the same work rate for the remaining 30/35 mins.

Our performaance against Syd has bouyed my confidence going into the finals, with Gumps/Heff coming back-steady as she goes, Owens scoring 2 weeks in a row for the NYL (at least he's finding the net regardless of the standard) give him 10 or 15 off the bench in the coming month to test the waters and we'll have a crack squad come ACL

 

[dru]

We should have too much for Wellington.

I'd like to agree with you chief, but they're a mystery at home...... we havn't had the best of luck over there before (excepting Sasho's tap in from last season).  I'm a bit tentative about this one - I'd take a scrappy 1-0 win to be honest.  Get the points and get home.

After missing the penalty 

will take a late penalty win again tbh.

although a comfortable win would be nice for a change at least after all these late draws and win last week I know the heart is in good working order 

 

[bulldogmariner]

Time to start a thread on this.

After two weeks of picking the exact scoreline and FIFA09 only missing out on the result once from eight games the news for this one is bad:

Wellington 3 (Smeltz, Ferrante, Daniel)
Mariners 2 (D-Mac, Simon)

Curse you FIFA09!!!!

You are still not going on with that are you?
For the sake of this week i just hope you were off your game on the night and the boys prove you wrong.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Gumps/Chicken on the right and Heff/Hutcho on the left.

Despite my misgivings about Hutcho, he is a better player with Heff behind him.

Get wide, whip in those crosses for Matty and Dylan

 

[dru]

Gumps/Chicken on the right and Heff/Hutcho on the left.

Despite my misgivings about Hutcho, he is a better player with Heff behind him.

Get wide, whip in those crosses for Matty and Dylan

;D now that would be good. To attacking for an away trip for the gaffer I think but maybe for NYE 

 

[Rowdy]

To attacking? Not necessarily, all 4 players are more considered for ther defensive attributes than out&out attack, it's their motors/mobillity coupled with precision passing and crosses (gumps/chick & errr hutch) I think that provides the 'attacking' abillity.

These 4 still provide defense through a) the speed and b) the number of times they can get back, espec chick & heff. That's what i think GP's salivating for.