Matchday: Discussion and Highlights

2 0 up now, Central Coast. Surely they can't lose it from here again.

And Central Coast win, huge congrats to them!

WSW never at the races.

game over

Where the hell was Ono? No where. He didn't get into space to link up with Mooy and create/finish chances. Too many times I saw Mooy who looked up to try and find Ono but he wasn't there and had the big job to create something out of nothing in such deep areas.
Mooy's game throughout the game improved and it was because of him that we retained alot of possession throughout that second half and seeing half chances.
The fullbacks weren't impressive at all. Polenz was unusually terrible going forward. His crosses were not accurate compared to previous games. He also didn't have the legs to get back and defend leaving a massive gap that McGlinchey and Ibini to work in giving the centrebacks and the holding mids alot of work to do. Shannon Cole was terrible. Tried to be too tricky against his markers and it lost us possession and for the Mariners to have a free run down the left hand side. He is slow as well and didn't recover in enough time. He also got beaten far too many times by his marker which led to alot of half chances.
Poljiak was uncharacteristically off game. His passes didn't go to his man meaning possession being lost as well as not marking McGlinchey properly. Should have been taken off instead of Appiah-Kubi
Bridge didn't see enough of the ball for my liking. Needed to really step up.

Saying that I am really proud of what this team has done in their first season and I know next season will be even better!

I think WSW really suffered from inexperience in the final, CCM have a lot of experience and knew how to get the result.

WSW are going to be a force going forward and I won't be surprised to see them in the finals next year.

I also don't think any WSW fan can be disappointed with the result, getting there was well beyond the expectations of anyone at the start of the season.

Tbh I tipped CCM. They were the best football team of the season. Great for Wanderers to get there but thought Arnie would learn from a few weeks ago.

They controlled the game. Rose and Bojic were all over the wings, best fullbacks in the comp and their defence was superb. Nice linkup play and had the majority of the chances.

A great atmosphere. A-League is motoring ahead!

Kick wrote:I think WSW really suffered from inexperience in the final, CCM have a lot of experience and knew how to get the result.

WSW are going to be a force going forward and I won't be surprised to see them in the finals next year.

I also don't think any WSW fan can be disappointed with the result, getting there was well beyond the expectations of anyone at the start of the season.

Very true.
Its a disappointing result considering how much we have achieved throughout the season but getting where we are, qualifying through to finals playoff is just mind blowing for a team in their first season let alone winning the Minor Premiership and being Runners up.

We are going to be a stronger force next season and Popovic is looking for greater depth in our squad with ACL in our paths next season. Matthew Jurman centre back from Brisbane Roar who is now a free agent is on our radars which is good news because we need an extra centre back in case of injury to Topor or Beachamp.
Corey Gramiero and Josh Kennedy are also options up front as the number 9 with Josh possibly our Australian marquee. Dino will have to go soon enough and hasn't yet been offered a new contract and probably won't and we need someone who can press the defensive line, can hold the ball up and finish off and those two players fit the category nicely. Better options than probably Dino.

BarcaKizz wrote:Tbh I tipped CCM. They were the best football team of the season. Great for Wanderers to get there but thought Arnie would learn from a few weeks ago.

They controlled the game. Rose and Bojic were all over the wings, best fullbacks in the comp and their defence was superb. Nice linkup play and had the majority of the chances.

A great atmosphere. A-League is motoring ahead!

I agree with the fullbacks, They were one of the main reasons CCM were so dominant, they just couldn't be stopped, especially Rose.

@Sanchez, I feel with a proper CF you would have done much better today, Dino was horrible overall. If you can get someone like Kennedy, that would really push the club on for next season.

BarcaKizz wrote:Tbh I tipped CCM. They were the best football team of the season. Great for Wanderers to get there but thought Arnie would learn from a few weeks ago.

They controlled the game. Rose and Bojic were all over the wings, best fullbacks in the comp and their defence was superb. Nice linkup play and had the majority of the chances.

A great atmosphere. A-League is motoring ahead!

Atmosphere was indeed brilliant! I was pleased to see alot of Mariners fans being a force with their loudness of the chants.

Mariners focus point is the defense and their build up from the defense. Fullbacks were excellent as was Sainsbury in the middle of the defense. Trent Sainsbury, 21 years of age, has been the best centre back this season and its no surprise that he is going to Southampton next season as well as getting a good hard look by Holger Osieck.

The atmosphere is unbelievable. Seriously, those fans are just amazing, I feel terrible that I live in Adelaide and am unable to watch WSW matches weekly because being at their ground week in week out must be an amazing feeling.

Adelaide united fans try, but there are not enough of them to generate the same atmosphere.

I don't know how i'll forgive hersi for the red last week, we really missed him today.

Dino needs to go let mcbreen get a free header, while he missed a chance to score.

Not going to bother to go in to the penalty and the penalty shout, as i didn't catch neither, but from what i heard wasn't great decisions. Anyone confirm?


Hopefully this gets rid of the bandwagoners that enter the RBB now, the issues we have with them i just want to kill myself. Mariners supporters were a joke out sung them after the whistle.

Best 11 man team won, well done CCM was about time you bogans, lol.

Just saw replay of both incidents, both were penalty's, this is why Australia and their need for a BS finals system is rubbish.

Either way. CCM were better. Can't blame the ref.

I agree, CCM were on top from the first to the last whistle, even if both penalties were given, I think CCM would have still won.

The exit lounge at A-League champion Central Coast Mariners is filling up with Mat Ryan and Bernie Ibini to trial with French Ligue 1 high-flyer Lille next month and Trent Sainsbury also poised to seal a switch to Europe.
With the Mariners needing to sell to survive as new owner Mike Charlesworth seeks to cut losses of $1 million a year, Sainsbury – who is being tracked by FC Basel, Southampton, Bolton Wanderers and JC Roda – could be the first to go.

Derby Day.  

Its good to see the crowds and television ratings going up! Been to two Wanderers home games and the derby and have been overwhelmed by the atmosphere's.
I have to admire what Gombau is trying to implement with Adeliade United. They are dominating possession and almost completing twice as many passes than their opposition but Gomabu may need to tweak the system as in reality creating a number of clear-cut scoring chances and taking their chances will ultimately win you games.

Tomi Juric at the Wanderers has been on fire. Unlike Dino, Juric has already grabbed three goals this season. He has the eye for goal but he needs to be able to keep his head down and learn to be patient with his pressing off the ball. If he can do that, expect greater things for the Wanderers this season.

Muscat's reigns start and I was not happy with the way Victory stepped off the gas in the second half against Wellington. Victory kept the ball well, pressed and won the ball back and created alot of chances in the first half and it was dumbfounding to see how quickly they chose to let Wellington dominate the ball and let them attack their own goal with very little ease.

Sydney FC simply look great on paper but play absolutely rubbish on the pitch. The fact that they are relying on a 40 year to do everything for them just shows the situation they are in. The midfield and defense are all over the place. They can't string passes together, win the ball back and start an attack. Rado Vidosic came in to drill these players to at least win the ball quicker and keep the ball for longer peroids of play but obviously this hasn't happened. Del Piero cannot be relied on every single game. The guy can only do so much...

Melbourne Heart on the weekend seemed to harass and bully the Roar in the opening stanza but after Roar altered their tactical structure and renewed vigour, Heart were chasing shadows and added another defeat on their ever-worsening away record.

Perth Glory seem to be building a project for the future with Edwards trying to bring through the youngsters. Haven't really watched them much tbh but with Gallas in defense he will help strengthen the one key weakness within the Glory.

Newcastle Jets are slowly attaching the pieces together. They are missing Heskey's presence in front of goal. If this team starts functioning right it will be a good team to watch. Hoole and Virgil on the wings adds alot of speed and dimension in the Jets attack as well as Nathan Burns threading and creating goalscoring opportunities. They have quality youngsters such as Brilliante, Chapman, Brighitti, Galloway, Taggart, Goodwin all coming through and looking promising. Probably needs more time and we may see a super team!

Mariners are the Mariners! They have lost quality players overseas and they have filled the spots very easily... Too easily... Defensive structure as always strong and the midfield adds directness and extra creativity with Flores. Duke, Simon up front look impressive!

Yeah, I was disappointed with some periods of our play against WSW. We let you guys dominate the early exchanges before deciding to take control of the game ourselves. Our best periods were the second part of the 1st half and the first part of the 2nd half. We were able to pass it around with relative ease and maintain possession better. I was encouraged by our improved defence from the Mariners game.

The first WSW goal was definitely handball in the build-up, but our midfield didn't play the whistle and track back quickly. We lost off the pitch too, because Juric was class when he was at Adelaide last season and we should have signed him permanently. From there, we got shaky. Malik needs to move the ball forward much faster when we win the ball back. There is no use in passing back to our defence when we have a numerical advantage ahead of the ball - and I'm sure Gombau would agree with that.

The second goal was a combination of a very good tactical move by Popovic to move Polenz up the wing, forcing Zullo to stay in our half more, and also some poor defending by Elrich, who really needed to be stronger under pressure from Juric. Cassio will surely come back from injury either this week or next and take back his spot.

My last point is that I wasn't at all pleased with the refereeing in the game. I watched Gombau's press conference and he intelligently re-directed journalists to a discussion of the tactics, and did not criticise the referees. That was the right thing to do as coach. But as a fan, I was unhappy with the number of insane tackles that were given yellow cards or no card at all. The ones that stand out are the numerous tackles from behind from Polenz (notably one particularly nasty one on Mabil) and Juric's hacking of some of our players out of frustration. WSW supporters point to Elrich's foul which should've been a second yellow - and I agree. But let's think about the first yellow which was for dissent after only 4 minutes played! 4 minutes. Obviously I don't know what was said, but I have never seen a yellow card given for dissent so early in a game.

Overall, it was a very positive step for the club, even though we lost. It's much better than last season where in the same fixture we were thrashed and we were playing ugly football with no discernible style.

Also, one other thing Gombau is going to have to improve is playing the ball out from defence when pressed. Galekovic was with the ball at his feet far too many times. I think Gombau needs to devise a side-overload system for the defence where there is an easy pass from defence out to the opposite side of the field and up the wing. WSW can't press all 4 defenders without leaving gaps in midfield and we didn't exploit that at all.

Adelaide doing their best job trying to lose this game Vs Sydney

Typical Adelaide.

YES AUFC! 3-0

Yeah they turned it around once I posted that.

Also, Sydney are in trouble.

Solid performance from Adelaide, everything clicked for them and CCM looked lost. Mabil should have had a goal which was wrongfully disallowed.

They're now up to third in the table. Forza, were you at the game? (I was)

Kick wrote:Solid performance from Adelaide, everything clicked for them and CCM looked lost. Mabil should have had a goal which was wrongfully disallowed.

They're now up to third in the table. Forza, were you at the game? (I was)

Great game, I watched it on TV & we completely destroyed CCM. The Mabil goal was one of the worst offside calls I have ever seen, he was well, well in front of the defender before he made the run in behind and the call was very late too. This is particularly bad given that the linesman is going to be at the WC.

Isaias, Carrusca, Ferreira, Malik, & Galekovic were very good. Cirio performed well on return from injury too. Marrone will be a good signing, shame he didn't pull the trigger when he had the chance to score though.

Malik ffs, Brilliant player, and Isaias controlled the game, start to finish.

Galekovic is a GOAT, always has been, always will be.

Malik has been a very capable fill-in at RB. Crossing and overlapping like Alves ffs.