Auckland City FC - Thanks a Trillion

Not sure why ACFC persist with Alfie Rogers. Was highly underwhelming playing with Central in the NRFL and made a few mistakes today. 

A few defensive mixups in the first half, evened out by some fantastic work up front

Nah. If there's one thing that's a given, Rudan won't be losing any sleep over any NZ players who declined the opportunity to trial. As allegedly was case with Howieson and some others.

He's long moved on to Burgess, Mandi etc who were prepared to trial. He's made that beyond crystal clear.

Howieson could tear up the 2019/20 shamateur Handy Prem, and Rudan won't give a toss.

I thought Howieson was solid, but not great... for a large part of the first half he was missing bar for his goal.

Two points.

1, It was Howieson's decision, not Rudan's.

2, Looking okay in a level well below Aus state league in a game that even for the Handy Prem was a pretty shark one doesn't make you a walk in for an A-League side.

Try life without blinkers.

Iwata's injured I believe. Rogers was pretty iffy today and I honestly don't see too much potential to grow but in a pinch he can fill in. Would have personally liked to see Vale or Morgan there instead

Vale was playing right back and having a great game there too tbh. Morgans playing left mid, with Browne ahead of him.

Agree on Alfie though, there were times he'd give the ball to Browne and you'd watch him run out of ideas about how and where to move - difference in class between the two.

not massively relevant to this current convo but I think Morgan was playing left wing and Browne was playing more centrally.  Was hard to tell from the TV coverage but the commentators made the same comment.

if that's accurate that speaks volumes about how much Ramon trusts Brown to be his central attacking free role guy.

It was an interesting formation from Ramon. Not wholly convinced at Bilen as a centre back tbh. I think Browne might have been playing centrally, but it seemed he drifted out to the left an awful lot. 

Was very impressed with the new signings, all of them looked a class above the players that left. 

Really glad I made it yesterday - 7 goal thriller between two good teams.

Strange the difference in opinions of players. I thought Cam was a shell of himself yesterday. Was lucky he didn't clip their guy when he went studs up in the second half. 

Mica's got excellent pace and feet, but his decision making is questionable and he showed that yesterday. 

Alfie was bang average as usual. 

I must say, that ref was POOR.

He aspired to poor. Some horrible inconsistencies.

For me most of the game Andy Bevin was better than Howieson

Also shout out to Sky for the all Auckland City commentary team, way to make enjoyable content for all fans.

Browne definitely free role in first half, with Morgan on wing.

Agree about the interesting player observations... to me, City's squad has regressed completely. The only improvement from last year is Browne.

Howieson did bugger all.

Riera will walk back into the team (if he wants) once back from injury.

Vale was a little better than Darren White as a playmaker, but that’s not the most useful thing at RB obviously. Browne an excellent player, and i feel Lopez was a whole lot better and offered so much more than Tade, but that’s just me and my mate’s opinion

I thought for the most part GGW and Spoonley were fine - Darren White was a little less impartial. 

agree with that - if I didn't know GGW was ACFC's media officer I'd never have guessed it from that commentary - very professional again, Sky should really get him on to the Phoenix games.

Very much agree with this. Vale, Lopez and Browne were absolute class. 

Lopez had excellent hold up play, movement and wasn't afraid to take a shot. 

Browne moved to the LW second half when Morgan went off. From memory his natural position is LW - which could be why he drifted towards the left. 

What a load of shark. Either of these teams would have destroyed last year's Phoenix

100% bang on

Competed yes, snuck a win maybe... but destroyed no.

Bevin is great. He has a decent job away from football though so would need big $$$ to be lured away. Always thought he'd make a good squady though

Is Andy playing for ACFC now???

No... We wish.

Why's McCowatt gone back to Western Suburbs?

Isn't he still trialling at Sparta Rotterdam? Until mid Nov.

nasty scenes today. Tasman Keeper and David Browne had a head clash and were comatose on the pitch for 45 minutes, ambulance took them away.

Tasman looked weak and a bit unfit.

Was bloody frightening never want to see anything like that ever again. Hope David Browne and Corey Wilson are okay. 

Any updates on the injured players? Sounds like it was horrible. Hope they will be ok.

Tasman FB Update says Corey Wilson should be cleared to return to Nelson today concussion and small cut to the head ACFC Website reporting David Browne is concussed, has a fractured eye socket and forehead and has had 8 stitches in a head wound.

Sounds very painful but could have been a lot worse. Glad they will be ok!

Was at the game, referee stopped game instantly and bellowed at the physios to come on. Never seen a referee react like that... definitely indicative of how bad the contact was.

David Browne was screaming on the ground for about 5 minutes after the contact. Not a nice sight to see at all.

Both physios held their respective player's heads in place for 30 minutes without budging an inch. 

Hope both players are okay and neither are out for too long.

Highlights from yesterday's game.

That's interesting because we heard nothing sitting up in the stand. I hate to say it but we all thought it looked pretty innocuous but you could tell from the ACFC medical team it was much more serious.

My kids are surf lifeguards and they were wondering why there where no neck braces or spinal boards available.

Credit to the physios though, especially the Tasman one who, as you say, held the keeper's neck and head for an unbelievable period of time in a position which was clearly uncomfortable for her.

I agree - watching the highlights it didn't look like a terrible challenge, although looking at the referee's and players' reaction you get the feeling things were not well down there.

Ha ha, check out the dog at 1:55

weird that last game there was an ambo parked up all game.

Screams were heart wrenching from the side of the pitch. 

I was in the clubrooms when the incident happened it looked bad front on. 

Not really, fractured eye socket could potentially be a career ender, especially at this kind of level.

I played in a game once where the opposition CB ended up with a fractured cheek bone and eye socket. The whole side of his face collapsed and he was babbling incoherently until the ambulance arrived, it was pretty horrifying. That was pretty much the end of his footballing career.

Probably a silly question, but is there anyway to watch the game tomorrow (aside from going there)?

So an abandonment down in Dunedin today from what I've seen it appears the officials made the right call. Just a bit annoying having to travel all that way again later down the line. 

What was the reason behind the abandonment? Weather?