Sydney vs Wellington - Post Game + Extras

-------------Bolton
Zad---Rudan---Poppa---Fyfe
--------Talay--Milligan
----Casey--Corica---Brosque
-------------Patrick

Well, theres enough said right there to why things didn't work. For the last time, our squad was 'born' to play a back 3! Within that back 3 HAS to be Milligan. Rudan and Poppa are too slow and too shit! All season their distribution has been WOEFUL! Fyfe is not a right back... Zadkovich is not a left back... but hey lets not let little technicalities like that stop us from continueing with this system. For all of the praise I give Zad when he plays for the Olyroos, all I want to do is rip him when he plays for Sydney!

The passing from midfield was slow and 'built up' but didn't go anywhere. I usually love watching this sort of play but it was just lethargic and dare I say it, boring. Did we miss McFlynn? Probably not.... At least Casey was something different and scored Sydney's goal from a good piece of persistence in challenging for a bouncing ball, followed by a composed finish. Shocking wasn't it! Got nothing good to say about Corica or Brosque.... Patrick tried hard I suppose???

For all the negatives going on in Sydney, I am happy how far Wellington have come. I still don't agree with NZ being part of our competition and the crowd numbers wherever they travel across Australia show I am not alone but Ricky Herbert has done a top job in getting his team of 'so so' players and turning them into a competitive side. Also well done in finding Daniel and especially Felipe! Yes it was poor defending for his goal by both Milligan and then Poppa but god did he take his opportunity well!

Now for something that Hamish said to me after my last post:

There seems to be something deeply philosophical in Sydney's problems. In the bowels of Sydney FC's culture, planning and administration, the assumption that Sydney is somehow a key, flagship club that is naturally good, needs to be permanently dropped. I suspect Culina is there actually, and is desperately assessing his options of re-engineering the whole team. The rules of the league make this very difficult for a coach.

I whole heartedly agree with the sentiment that Sydney as a club believes that they are better than everyone else and can just show up and do well needs to be dropped and I think after a few more bad performances at least the players will start to realise this. Since before V1, the media has talked Sydney up and up and now just cutting them down lower and lower. They certainly are good at writing their own headlines....

As for Culina re-engineering the whole team, his hands are tied until the end of the season. Before the WCC Qualifiers in year 1, Sydney signed their 'big name' players to 3 year deals on WAY too much money for what they are worth just to get it done with the aim to play in that tournament. We are talking $300 000 + deals for the likes of Zdrilic and to a slightly lesser extent, Talay. I suppose they acheived their goal by qualifiying for that tournament and winning V1 but we (and a different boardroom) are paying for it bigtime now with old, lethargic and non performing players. Next season I expect a squad clearout and to just start from scratch. I just pray that Culina doesn't get the chop before then....

DANE