Syd FC away

[MrCelery]

Credit to Sydney, they rode their luck, showed some balls, and deserved the points.

We were OK for 80%, then the wheels fell off in a major way.

Ryan - 6 - Still has great distribution, but looked suspect on high balls early on.
Sainsbury - 7.5 - Rock solid as usual apart from one risky backpass. Saved us a few times again.
Anderson - 6.5 - Nothing spectacular, but a solid effort. Saved Trent's blushes by clearing his back pass
Morton - 6 - Pretty good debute in a massive pressure game for him. Some nice runs.
Hutchinson - 5 - Not a Captain's knock tonight. Never really dominated the midfield. Stupid fouls added no value.
Montgomery - Tried hard, but did not own the midfield. Low key game tonight.
McGlinchey - 5.5 - Not much impact tonight. Tried hard. Dodgy free kick summed up his night.
Rojic - 7.5 - Best player by far, but it's no good looking pretty without the finish. Marked down for his 2nd half miss and the horror tackle. Showed his frustration at being hacked all night.
Rose - 3 - General play average at best. Beaten in the air for and gifted a goal for the second week in a row. We know he can be very good, but have not liked his effort at all this year. Don't know whether it is the role he has been asked to play in the new formation, but seems lost without Bozanic.
McBreen - 5 - Tried hard. Hardly had a sniff in the 2nd half. Closely marked all night.
Ibini - 5 - Some nice work. But frustratingly clumsy in the front third. Faded as the game went on.

Subs:

Sterjovski - 5 - Nothing wrong, but not a super-sub either.
Duke - 5 - Has yet to convince me he has the goods at this level. Should get a chance to do that next week.

It will be interesting to see what Arnie does with the wreckage of his squad. Huge test for our depth.

Santa has been very miserly this year.

Let's finish the year on a high.

 

[midfielder]

A thin line between a great win and a disaster of a night... Rogic gets the tap in we win... no sent off's...

SFC controlled the game we created the better chances ...

Hutch what can you say ...

Rogic was hacked all night ... and SFC played with determination I have not seem them play with for years...

I guess we will get to see how good Cacares is ....

Trent to be a Socceroo he just gets better each week...

 

[universalmind]

Well that sucked. I guess I need to go by my word and say we won't win the championship this year. We failed to kick a dog when it's down. We will get the same intensity but more quality from the other team in the grand final.
Poor from hutch. He should be stripped from the captaincy. Doesn't set a good example from a leader.
Real chance for Perth to tarnish our home record with the players missing. If so I expect an implosion in the dressing room.
I hate to be negative, but we really didn't have any answers against a team that showed a lot of heart. It seems as though our position on the table has got to a lot of players heads in the last couple of weeks.
I'll be there on monday nonetheless hoping to see the boys finish the year on top. COYY.

 

[pjennings]

I'm not going to bag Hutch. For the first yellow he went in to protect Tommy when 3 Sydney players were taking turns to kick him right in front of Green. The second he was trying to belt the ball into Abbas for a throw on but Abbas touched the ball across to another player half a second earlier. The result loooked bad - and probably deserved a yellow but was essentially mis-timed not malicious.

The NYE game will be hard without Macca, Tommy and Hutch - especially if Patrick is to miss more games - but maybe it's time to see what Caceres can do.

 

[scottmac]

Excited to see what we come up with in terms of personnel for the Perth game.

As for this game, we look really flat both this game & last. They dont look like they are enjoying it like they did at the start of the year. Seems awfully familiar to this time of year when we sold Mile. Late to games, injuries, delayed flights, things just dont seem to be going our way ATM. McBreen's early form has really papered over the lack of a full season striker

If i was Rojic i would be out of Aus as fast as i could. The amount of hacking the boy cops is just ridiculous. He is punished for trying to stay on his feet & the refs just dont seem to want to protect him. Bloody Andy Harper carried on about how many times Del Piero was fouled but most of them were ADP falling over under minimal contact whereas Rojic rides many challenges untill he is hacked off his feet & even then they were not called. No wonder he lashed out like he did. I think the spell on the sidelines might do him the world of good.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

I agree with Pat. Even though I don't seem able to recall what game he is talking about.

And if there was such a game played, I would like to comment on the absolutely atrociously biased commentary of the worlds greatest twat, Andy Harper. The guys a disgrace. It was all constant bias and nasal dribble, but highlighted by such moments as the Body check on Monty - hard to see without a replay but on first look, looked a lot like a pen. Harper, biggest talking point of the game so far, not a word. Just a noteable silence. Emerton through teh back of McBreen. Should have been a yellow at least. Not a word. Del piero was fouled a lot, Del Piero also fell over a lot, which equals constant fapping and always a free kick. Rogic absolute hack fest... SFC's gameplan clear from the start... not a word. No great surprise it led to Tommy lashing out.

We had to turn the commentary off.

Positives, really looking forward to seeing some hungry new blood step into the lineup on NYE.

Chin up. Always going to be some losses. But a pretty weird experience though after months of not losing.

EDIT: Just read Wombats post made while I was typing. Ditto... obviously.

 

[LFCMariners]

#Edit# Watched a replay and both red cards were unjust. Rogic was going for the ball, unbelievable that he and Hutch were sent considering what had been dished up by Sydney all night...

Disgraceful that Sydney were allowed to get away with their style of play all game. It pisses me off when a team like Sydney figures that the only way they can hope to compete against a much better side (like the Mariners) is to hack away at them all match and use golden boy Del Piero to dive for penalties constantly. Last night it paid off for them because the officials were incompetant, but had they been (correctly) picking Sydney up on it from the start the Mariners win, for mine. Biggest problem for the Coast was finising in front of goal. They either touched it once or twice too many times instead of going for a shot, or clumsily chipped it high.

I disagree about UM's comment that last night shows the Mariners won't win the GF (or maybe even the Premiership) this season. The biggest obstacles standing between the Mariners and success on Grand Final day are a) Themselves and b) the officials. There still has not been a game this season where you could say they were out-played, last night could very well have finished with a win. It should be noted that so far, the only two times where the Mariners have lost there has been much controversy about the officials handling of the match. Sydney will not be able to get away with playing like that anymore than 2 times for the rest of this season. The spoon is theirs. And after last night, I can't think of a more deserving bunch to get it....

Shout out as well to our travelling support- great effort all game. Outnumbered by the Cove but not out-sung!

 

[hasbeen]

Another aspect of Del Piero's game I found abhorrent last night (apart from his going to ground far too easily), was his getting onto the ref to book or send off every player that allegedly fouled him. Dog act (sorry Muttley).

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

God, Hutcho's gotta change his bloody attitude. He was in the referee's face whinging about god-knows-what in the first minute. Early this season he's shown a lot of maturity with the captain's armband, but lately that's just gone right out the window. The amount of whinging he does is just embarrassing - I'm only surprised he doesn't get sent off more often.

Though his first card did come off the back of 2 worse fould by 2 separate sydney players in the space of about 3 seconds which were let go, so no surprises there. His 2nd card was just stupid. I always find it really appalling when a captain gets himself sent off, particularly over something stupid. We can argue about whether or not the 2nd card was harsh, but he was making no attempt for the ball whatsoever so soon after getting booked (and probably copping a few warnings during the match), so he's only got himself to blame.

As captain, controlling our team's attitude and tempo fell into his lap, and he was too busy following the referee around all match (as he usually seems to be) to stop and exercise enough leadership to pull us forward.

Rogic...well, nothing more than bad timing. Red card's a fair call - he jumped in late with studs up and got the player, but the HAL is so inconsistent with cards that it could've easily been a yellow. Heck, the tackle on Franjic on Friday night was worse; Rogic's wasn't malicious. He was going for the ball but just got it wrong. Had he been a tenth of a second earlier they both would've gotten the ball and we wouldn't be talking about it. A quarter of a second earlier and the SFC player would've been sent - he went in the exact same way after all.

But when so many dangerous tackles are let go, these things are going to happen.

That was the first chance I've had to watch ADP, and I don't see what the fuss is all about. He's a natural HAL attacking midfielder, in that the only thing he ever does is hoof it forwards/sideways! Oh, but he does it into space....so I guess he's being creative. Well, that and charging Hutcho from behind.

I can't believe that we lost this match, but SFC came out from the first whistle with a game plan to hack us to bits and throw us off our game. It worked - but that's no excuse for us. If we want to have a chance in hell of winning the GF we need to be able to control the game, not get dragged down to the other team's level.

At least the ref made some initial efforts by pulling out a few cards in the first few minutes - most refs in the a-league probably wouldn't have done that, but then he probably got scared of being called card-happy by his assessors (they seem to prefer referees who stand back and do absolutely nothing, a-la Mark Shield and his lovechild Jared Gillett), pity that wasn't maintained though.

We did absolutely nothing of note in the first half though - but then again, even in the 7-2 thrashing, our defence was absolutely appalling and our midfield wasn't much better defensively.

 

[iEatHands]

The ref pulled a yellow initially for Rogics foul, it should have stayed yellow! When all the Sydney players rushed in you could see him throw up his arms with no intent to join in the ruckus Sydney started. It was no worse than the stud up tackle by emmo on Macca to the back of the knee which didn't earn him any card FFS!! And that was definitely a malicious tackle from behind!!

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

After seeing these images I now agree - I thought his studs were up; they weren't (but neither were the Sydney player's):

 

[midfielder]

Yesterdays game reminded me of the day at Bluetounge that Kossie Hackers kicks us off the park and that name that can never be mentioned was the ref...

Same team ... same method of play ... Rogic was given no protection whereas ADP & Emo are given a licence to dive and hack ....

 

[kevrenor]

A match report: http://back-of-the-net.com/2012-2013/R13/R13-SFvsCC.htm

 

[style_cafe]

Apart from the last 15mins all was going ok.
Although we missed a few chances ,as did Sydney I thought a draw would have been a good result.
I agree with most that DP hit the turf to easily but FFS he`s Italian what else would you expect. Apart from that he played fantastic.

McBreen did exceptionally well with his turn & shot & any other keeper would have been easily beaten so I don`t blame him.

Rogic`s miss was a shocker1 Simple football of using the far foot would have given us a goal(Maybe they don`t teach that in Futsal) as for his send off I don`t think his tackle was anything but mistimed. He`s not the sort of player to intentionally hack someone,unlike a lot of Sydney players that got away with such things.

Hutch: I go back to my previous post. If he shows some leadership we wouldn`t have had two players sent off. His first yellow was stupid,the second yellow diabolical.
A good captain should have steadied the ship & been last to leave Hutch did a Captain Schettino...

 

[gull]

After seeing these images I now agree - I thought his studs were up; they weren't (but neither were the Sydney player's):

Yes this is exactly what I saw on the replay and had no idea what the (biased all game) "commentators" were going on about. They were baying for blood despite the replay showing that the studs weren't up. And Rogic actually had the ball leading in to it as well.

Ref had a yellow out and seemed to change it on the report of the linesman. He won't care if it's incorrect as he is now covered.

Rogic was hacked 8 times by the same guy, four of which happened after he received a yellow. Disgraceful, but we've become so used to it now that it's just the norm....

Agree that we fell to their level and need to keep control of possesion again. NYE will be tough but we've all been saying what a great squad we have. Let's hope the hunger is back.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Hutch. What an example. Should never be captain. Or playing for that matter.

I thought Morton did fine, next one off the conveyor belt and ought to keep his place so Pedj can play DM on NYE.

 

[finally retired]

having now seen the photos from Capn Gus Bloodbeard I would hope the Mariners get a fair hearing at any MRP.
I doubt that any MRP will penalise Emerton for his vicious tackle......many of these returned 'stars' are very protected.

and with Hutch out, perhaps Patrick should be moved to DM.

 

[Roy Law]

Sorry this is late - something to do with family and Boxing Day

Mariners shipwrecked​

This was never going to be a seven goal heaven for the Mariners but even so it all seemed so easy: bottom team against the top; the worst Sydney team in history against the best Mariners ever. Sure, Bojic was missing but that was no drama – a seamless switch of Sainsbury and bring in the impressive Zac Anderson. But this is football, A-League football, where anything can happen.
Hayden who? Hayden Morton! What the? No Patrick! How would the Mariners react?

Not that well as it happens. Sydney had started brightly with Emerton almost through and then their game plan showed itself: target Tommy Rogic. The Sydney defenders treated the young star as a block of wood at the Easter Show; Tasmania’s world champion axeman David Foster would have admired the speed with which they cut him down. Yellow card followed yellow card as he tried to weave his way through.

Sydney’s del Pierro put Yao through with a delightful chip over the square Mariners defence but Ryan got the angle right and Yao put the ball over the bar. McBreen mugged the Neanderthal Adam Griffiths and took the return from Ibini but Janjetovic somehow got a finger to the ball. The ref gave a goal kick.

Del Pierro was quietly but emphatically putting his stamp on the game; I love watching the great veterans play and he didn’t disappoint. When he stood over a free kick some twenty five metres out the alarm bells were ringing, Ryan was sliding back and forth on the goal line like a table football goalkeeper; luckily the shot went over. Then he schooled Monty.

He held Montgomery with his back, Monty sucked in, moved forward left and del Pierro in a flash had turned right and was away. It was pure class: Monty has been great this year but he was easily embarrassed by the little Italian. Five minutes later del Piero did it again, exactly the same move: Monty was sucked in to the left and beaten to the right. Monty seemed awestruck and never had his usual impact on the game. And Hutch was doing his best to keep Sydney in it constantly giving the ball away, fortunately that man Trent Sainsbury seemed to be revelling in the responsibility and had the answers to everything Sydney could throw at the Mariners. Sainsbury must have a League background producing a 50 metre run out of defence, tip toeing along the side line like a winger before cutting inside, and, finding no support having a dig himself. And then fired a prodigious 40-20 out to the right wing which Morton couldn’t control (or was it McGlinchey?)

The Mariners were thrown out of their stride by the spirited Sydney but, in front of a noisy crowd, I was enjoying the end to end nature of the game. Not so Arnie and his coaches who looked stunned by what they were seeing.

Sydney lifted even more in the second half; McBreen almost scored a beauty with a sharp turn in the box but Janjetovic again denied him. Despite Sydney’s improvement Ryan had little work to do except when del Pierro fashioned a chance out of nothing and hit a strong left foot from distance but it went straight to him and he caught it comfortably. There was nothing comfortable though when he missed completely a del Pierro (who else?) corner and Sainsbury (who else?) hacked the ball away; Ryan then was beaten to the punch by Sydney’s header but Sainsbury again calmly dealt with it.

McBreen cut through but his cross was behind Bernie; the Mariners were threatening to fashion the winner but Sydney wouldn’t lie down. Duke, on for McBreen, set up Rogic but somehow he missed the chance. Sydney finally exploiting the young defence on the right began to make inroads down the left. A deep cross at the far post, a nudge in the back from Emerton on Rose, and the header beat Ryan’s flying fingers and ended up in the billowing net along with the desperate Zac Anderson.

If Sydney were collecting yellows now the Mariners were collecting reds: Rogic, tired and frustrated, over ran the ball and dived in studs up, a typical challenge from a non-tackling no 10. It all went off as Ryall went looking for a get square but Anderson was the burly bouncer who calmed it down – a pity really because Ryall could easily have been sent off if he had been allowed to have his way. But it was the humiliated Rogic who got the red card and trudged disconsolately off. There was nothing disconsolate however about John Hutchinson who angrily walked off, glaring at everyone in sight, after he got his red for a truly awful high foot swing.

I thought this was a great game: what it lacked in quality it made up for in drama; two great individual players – the master del Pierro and the apprentice Rogic shining through the maelstrom of a game that was more English FA Cup tie than an exhibition of pure football. What was lacking in technique was made up by edge of the seat tension; misplaced passes were matched by mistimed tackles. The pace was unrelenting, the commitment unflinching. The Mariners could have won this but Sydney deserve credit for the way they lifted their game. A draw might have been a fairer result but as Tommy Rogic found out today fair doesn’t always happen.

Arnie now has to rebuild the side from this shipwreck to face Perth on New Year’s Eve. Bojic will be back but not Rogic, Hutchinson and McBreen, and Zwaanswijk must be in doubt; Ollie Bozanic and Adam Kwasnik will come into the reckoning and possibly young Anthony Caceres too. It is a challenge for Arnie but the team has to rebound, has to get back to winning ways: and they can!



MoM (actually it was del Pierro): Trent Sainsbury – as the Kiwis said kept saying last week – Trent Sainsbury again – he seemed to revel in the contest.
2 points McBreen – led the line superbly. Twice almost scored through his own endeavours. He didn’t deserve to lose today.
1 point – Rogic – is finding the attention hard to deal with but just keeps on beating people; a danger when he gets the ball

And a special mention to Hayden Morton who didn’t let anyone down today.

 

[Mumbles]

I think cranky Frankie had his Bonnyrigg play book out last night.
If you can't beat em kick the shit out of them. Syd FC fans loved it of course!

Mariners missed their oportunities and paid the price.

Think Arnie needs to park the bus nice and early Monday night and wait till the Glory tires out.
Is Krazy eyes Kwassie available? Hope so.

 

[Roy Law]

This game was pure Kranky Frankie - kick everything that moves; his tactics not only got to Rogic but for the first time this season Monty and Hutch lost control of the middle of the park. With those two key cogs mis firing the machine never got into gear.