1. The pitch.
Clearly Bluetongue stadium maintenance program is under-funded. Tonight it was dangerous and led Josh Mc to be substituted before half time. Seo came on to play his best so far this year. Will the pitch be deemed playable for the Asian Champions League? If not where will they be played?
2. The Crowd
Where were they? Only 9,000 is small even for Central Coast. The fans seem to have deserted their team. Shame.
3. CCM
The Mariners played a strong, dominant first half. But their once great strike-force had nothing in the final third. A goal down at half time, the Mariners were pushed back on the defensive in the second half. They looked dangerous from set pieces, but their defence looks brittle.
4. Danny Tiatto
What the? Danny doesn't seem to be able to handle the pressure of big games. His strength is when the Roar go a goal down. Tonight he looked dangerous, to the Roar. On the edge all night it was no surprise to see him get his second yellow. His first was a two footer in the first half that could have been a red. But his second was a case of not being given the benefit of the doubt, he had the ball, MacAlister ran into him - anyone else, in fact a few times tonight, and it is play on. The Danny decides to have a go at the ref. He ($500) and the Roar ($1,000) have just been fined for that. So will he get to play again this season?
5. Charmed
While 3 Roar players were carded, I don't think any Mariners were. Not even Petrovski when he took out McKay's legs from behind. And Nic Mrjda's swinging arm went un-detected even through he split Andy Packers lip. Why wasn't O'Grady carded when he gave away the penalty?
6. The Promotion
The build up to these FFA funded finals has been deafeningly quite.
7. Craig Moore.
Terrific tonight. He is the only A-League player playing for the Socceroos next week in Japan. Pim said he didn't want other A-Leaguers exposed for their finals. So it is just Craig hopping off the play and onto round two against the Mariners.
8. Mitch Nichols
Dangerous and on fire. Warming to his play maker role and scoring and setting up goals. Amazingly left Matt Simon in the shade. (Header from a corner goal plus tripped by O'Grady for the penalty).
9. The ACL
How disappointed must the FFA be that it is Newcastle and CCM representing Australia in the Asian Champions League.
3 comments:
john,the ffa has no right to be disappointed or otherwise about newcs and ccm representing oz in the acl, they clearly earnt their spots, premiers and champions last season.
yeah, on current form they're struggling, but as ad and mv proved, you can build through the acl. Both those sides were a mess same tiume last year, and look at them now.
nex year, if they're good enough over this month, it could be the roar.
agree, the crowd was very disppointing, but there were a few factors I'm sure; ccms recent poor form, the extreme weather, the pitch, higher ticket prices in tight time for a working class region, reported poor promotion (havent been in gosford to gauge it myself).
tiatto should have been off for the first challenge, and clearly the 2nd was worthy of at least a second yellow. Shocking play on his behalf, and he deserves whatever he cops...
Re the pitch, though it might actually suit the mariners leading in, and on the the first half evidence it did.
Alex Wilkinson was so off the mark after the match when he said the Mariners had defended well, it was clumsy work from Ogrady for the second.
I asked Farina about the Nichols/Miller situation on Monday night as i really feel that van dijk has looked a different player having Nichols closer to him (Miller tends to drift deeper). Farina was typically non-committal at the time, but I wasnt surprised to see Nichols start last night.
pleasantly surprised that ccm didn`t have a goal in them ...
while the field didn`t help, neither roar goal came from open play. the job was done, but getting the trophy over an au or mv will need a step up from the roar methinks.
before the acl starts, ccm either has to 1) find a decent jedi fill in, or b) adapt their shape and tactics to take into account that they don`t have jedi anymore.
having the acl spot is a great recruiting point, can they use it effectively?
clayton
Thanks Tony I appreciate your comments. As you will know by now my viewpoint is not straight down the middle on this stuff. However, I have been surprised how far the paradice club (call it old boys network) has come round to my viewpoint. In my blog I am working up to some key points about sustainability. Doing consistently well at the ACL is one factor. I think Newcastle in particular are risking a failure. The Socceroo qualification is another.
You will recall Brisbane had a tropical thunderstorm before last year's semi - the kick off was delayed - and still 30,000 turned up. That was last year, agreed.
The pitch was dangerous.
Alex was saying things to keep his team going.
I like Frank a lot. But he doesn't give much away. He has learnt not to take anything for granted. Miller played 3 games he was too injured to play - the Roar were using him to get people to the ground. I think Mitch is fantastic. And he has a great football brain. I did my bit to convince him not to go to his home club - Gold Coast.
Clayton san - I think if they have to play and beat Adelaide in the prelim, they get an automatic Asian spot? Since Melbourne have one - win or lose.
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