I was a little disappointed as the Nix made no secret this year they wanted to have a good crack at this cup.
Strikers are a midtable Queensland team and I would say they shaded the game. I'm not saying its doom and gloom for the season, as someone mentioned all going well we have 4 imports and Sotirio coming in.
However, I'd like to think a team of fulltime footballers (less their imports) is still good enough to beat a mid-table semi-pro team. You would expect 90 % of the Brisbane team would jump at the chance to be on a full-time contract at the nix.
I must say I was super impressed with the Strikers 19-year-old Midfielder Cade McDermott. For me, he outplayed both Rufer and Payne. I couldn't believe his age when I googled him. Also Hiroki Omori the Fullback for the strikers impressed.
For the Nix Marinovic made some fantastic saves but for some reason didn't fill me with confidence.
Devere looked the goods.
THW and Payne looked as though they had some adjusting to do to the faster-paced game.
Rufer and Cacace were solid as to be expected.
I thought Ball was ok, pen's aside he hustled and bustled quite well I thought.
Bring on Western United
Yes the Nix are a professional football team, but I don't think it's as simple as a pro team should always beat a semi-pro team:
At least three of our starters (maybe more) were part-timers only a few weeks ago.
The Strikers are something like 80% of the way through their season. Most of the Nix players have played only a single (friendly) game in the last 3 months.
Being paid to play football doesn't make up for experience, the average age of all Nix players was something like 21 years old.
Strikers may be mid-table as they had a bit of a losing streak early on, but have recently won 12 of their last 14 games, scoring a ridiculous 61 goals during this time.