Now two weeks back from the A-League Christmas break and I’m sorry for the length between posts but I’m updating to the “New Blogger” and haven’t been arsed to work out how it works until now.
I was going to do a bit of a double up post, combining what I thought would be a straightforward win over
New Zealand after the excellent result away at
Newcastle on New Years Day.
How far off could I be?
Newcastle, the whole day was awesome. The crowd, the occasion and for me the result and way that we came out in the 2nd half all guns blazing with purpose in the final 3rd! New Zealand last night is the opposite. The club screwed thousands of fans by bringing the kick off time forward an hour. I went for a walk at half time then came back and was so shocked at the amount of people that weren’t there before! Dead set close to 5000+ of the 16 000 people I would say had come late. The only reason I knew of the change was because I read the fans forum. If I was a part timer and were screwed around like that then I sure wouldn’t be keen on coming back!
New Zealand nabbed an early goal off a set piece, with Bunce beating Bolton at the near post. They continued to push forward in the first half and played some alright football. I am interested to see where Marcina will go in the next few seasons. The second half was however a different story with the same old Kiwis coming back into the picture. Throw everyone behind the ball and hope for the best. Sydney dominated possession and yes had about double the shots of their opposition but severely lacked that killer edge and final ball. I have said for the last few weeks that Brosque is definitely not Sydney’s answer to the lone striker’s role in this system that Butcher will not budge from. He got lucky with two scrappy goals in his two previous games playing in this position which is not where his strengths lie. I just hope for Asia that the loss of Petrovski to Japan encourages us to sign a marquee striker! Again at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Butcher if you want to play attacking wingbacks then buy ones who can cross!!!!
The post game function was another eye opener. When accepting the man of the match award Bolton said: “It’s hard when only half of your team is giving it their all while the other half is taking it easy and bludging.” With the most dejected look on his face. He would not name names to the request of the crowd and I don’t want to speculate *Cough Zadkovich* but meh…. This isn’t just a negative comment because we lost but I genuinely believe the club has deep problems. Give the squad an overhaul and employ players that will suit the system you want to play!
Best part of the night in my opinion was having the Barmy Army there in support of “Whoever’s playing Australia.” Some good banter with the Cove and it was nice having away supporters singing back…. Even if they weren’t really fans J The award for best traveling support 2006/2007 goes to New Zealand Knights. Get that into ya’ Melbourne! It was good that the Kiwis went and clapped “their” fans after the win, as a thank you. Well, made me laugh anyway! J
DANE
2 Comments:
hey Dane, though we'd lost you for a while there...read the Cove column in the Telegraph today (tues) and Muir was saying the same thing re effort. i remember the FFA i think getting pissed with some of the Sydney boys for taking the piss out of their post match rating tasks (rate the round's players or something like that) and how they kept nominating Bazeley..there's that attitude again, eh! Still unlucky not get anything though. We play NZ on thursday, and it aint a gimme any more. That moving the game time sucks, who ordered that? A complete joke, i read on the forum some fans travel from the blue mountains to get to the game,. spending a good hundred bucks for the privilige of 3 hour's public transport, increased ticket charge and a couple of overpriced drinks - i would not be happy to turn up and see the team one nil down and it being half time or worse. Hope you win this week, as it helps us -Machevelli is well and can be calculated at this address -
http://marinators.net/index.php?option=com_finalcalc
Yay! Dane's back!
Re: the Kiwis clapping their support, I think they appreciate any support they get. At OP we gave a bit of a cheer when they came out to warm up, simply for turning up and putting a team on the field given what had happened during the week to them. And they gave us a clap back at the start of their warm-up.
Anyway, with the Kiwis back in it, things are looking interesting all over the table, with the top 4 to be decided and we still don't know who's going to get the wooden spoon! :)
Even as a Melbournite, it's nice to see that you're back. I get a little disappointed when people don't post every week, and as far as I know you're the only Sydney blog. Sure, there's the Football Tragic, but Mike tends to post on all footballing matters rather than just Sydney.
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