FFA Cup - R1 vs Adelaide | 5 Aug | Marden Sports Complex | 10pm

A great game ends 1-0 after the Nix couldn't finish their chances and United took theirs. Frantic final few minutes! #ADLvWEL

— Football Central (@FootballCentAU) August 5, 2014

Seems 'home' advantage didn't count for much on the night.

If I do choose to come out I hope it won't be with you Steve-O.

Annnd we need a striker

This bodes poorly.

not overly bothered, played a poor midfield and brockie showed his class finishing by the sounds of it again. He's like torres but without the price tag, well actually torres is quite skillful. 

Mickey Mouse Cup anyway. Until the FFA try and promote it properly and give it proper coverage it will stay a Mickey Mouse Cup lasting three seasons like that preseason competition they ran a few seasons back.

Why do the FFA appear to be trying to trip us up at any opportunity anyway? (Thinks back to Bluemagics' thread.)

Oh cry me a river you big sook!, Fact is we were not that good anyway. The FFA Cup is worthwhile and will only get better.

Whoever wins it will be pretty happy

The point I am making is that the FFA don't really seem to want to promote it much. If they did, there'd be a few more games on TV, or Radio or Internet. When you create something are you not meant to promote the hell out of it? So Sook on that!

Every game is important, I would have liked to win and it would have made the preseason more interesting and maybe sold some more tickets to the regular season if we had gone far. However I knew it was going to be tough with the number of players out.

What was the team? Something like

Moss

Fenton Siggy Durante Doyle

Ridenton Boxall Cunningham

Boyd Brockie Burns

I wish people could leave the scapegoating to games which they have actually watched.

jeez...i hope thats not going to be the theme for this season..."Nix couldn't finish their chances"

Maybe we have too many B's in the striker's line?

Not a striker

Not a striker - Not a striker - Not a striker - Not a striker

Not a striker - Not a striker - Not a striker

Not a striker - Not a striker - Not a striker

Exactly what I was thinking.

Our midfield seems to have done very well, particularly since it was missing Riera, Rodriguez & potentially Roly, and then Muscat at the back. We don't have anything more to add up front though.

Part of me is starting to wonder whether it will be such a bad thing if we miss out on WeeMac (much as I want to see him at the Nix, and that would be tragic for him personally), so that we free up a space and some cap for a decent striker.

And nothing of value was lost.

I wasn't really disappointed about the loss tbh. No home games, pre-season and midweek matches, it doesn't seem like there's really much in it for us (does the winner even get any $$$ anyway?).

I'm not overly concerned with this result having just watched us play West Ham and Newcastle (context anyone). No Riera, no Muscat, no Roly no McGlinchey.... The thing I take out of it is that Adelaide did not see our full strength team although I accept that would have watched the Football United tour.

A title. Competitive matches.

Thoughts from someone actually at the game.

http://footballcentral.com.au/what-we-learnt-adelaide-united-1-0-wellington-phoenix/#.U-FPZNrVAqJ

good game summary here (link from the twitter feed someone else posted)

http://footballcentral.com.au/what-we-learnt-adela...

"Adelaide United hosted Wellington Phoenix on Tuesday night in their Round of 32 FFA Cup clash. The match was played at Marden Sports Complex due to ongoing renovation works at United’s home ground, Coopers Stadium. A crowd of 2,804 was on hand to see United win 1-0, and ensuring their progression to the Round of 16.

United scored, what turned out to be the winner, in the 31st minute when Sergio Cirio tucked home after good build up work in the left channel, but the goal came against the run of play. The Phoenix dominated the first half but afforded the Spanish winger-cum-number ten space to take advantage to give United the lead.

Earlier Jeremy Brockie had gone close for the Phoenix with a dipping half volley that would have been one of the goals of the season had it been on target, and a header just over the bar from defender Michael Boxall giving the Reds trouble before the goal arrived.

The Phoenix began the second half as they did the first, dominating play but unable to take their chances. The Reds grew into each half and enjoyed spells of superiority in both stanzas, earning a goal in the first half and calming the game down during the second as they controlled the tempo.

But the Phoenix rallied late on to create several chances, only to be denied by a combination of committed defending, the woodwork, and a fantastic display from United goalkeeper Paul Izzo. The Reds survived injury time by the skin of their teeth, but that’s what knockout football is all about."

More at the link, incl some love for Doyle

ooops, sorry 2B - we crossed in the mail

*Wall  of Text*

Nothing to worry about after this result. As people have said previously we were without some pretty big names going in to the match (Gorrin warmed up for a while, but obviously missed out through this groin niggle),and we pushed Adelaide for 90% of the game. Cunningham, Boyd, Boxall all looked improved on last year, Boxall was really impressive playing in the sheilding role in front of the back 4.

As Andy said in his article above Doyle did well to contain Kamua and made some postive movements going forward. I thought Burns played well, probably took the wrong option in front of goal once or twice, but those one or two black spots were largely out weighed by his workrate, He was denied the winner  acouple of times in goal mouth scrambles.

Apart from the openning five minutes, we played the ball around quite nicley. Good to see we have got a buy in to this from all the playing group. Conversely Adelaide tried to play out from the back early and were shut down by Brockie, Burns and Boyd. They then resorted to pumping the ball out to their (incredibly) fast wingers, who we didn't give enough respect before the goal.

Adelaide looked dangerous in the front third, but only really ever ventured this far up the feild after a rare Wellington mistake. They were very shaky at the back. Tarek Elrich must be the luckiest footballer in the A League, I know LBs are hard to come by, but Adelaide could feild a barrel that would make better decisions.  

Also feck it was cold

TL:DR - We played well but lost, Adelaide played shit but won, feck it was cold

P.S. From a mate

"errnie barred from the technical area... didnt sign the code of conduct - hahahahah what bs!"

Glad we're out, actually. We dont need the distraction this season and for me its a nothing comp when we're told we're not getting games at home, its not even being televised anywhere - and the whole things only in its fledgling year.

Now on to the season.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/wellington-boss-ernie-merrick-on-the-outer-as-adelaide-united-seals-ffa-cup-win/story-fndm8jzo-1227014722608

But any striker we sign would have to be Australian or a Kiwi. Everyone has already ruled out Killen/Fallon and what Australian strikers are going around?

I agree with the general sentiment about the cup. It is disappointing to lose but hard to take it very seriously when the games are played at community stadiums and the draw is stacked. It was really just another preseason game and will be until you make the quarter finals.

I think the Krishna signing is certainly the most questionable, but only because he is an import. It'd make sense to sign him for two years if he wasn't an import, but he's the weakest of our imports IMO. He needs to justify a starting position.

But I thought our line-up looked pretty average last night without Rodriguez and Riera, not super surprised we've lost 1-0. 

Brockie has bagged a truck load of goals in this league before so I still have faith, but this season is certainly his last chance to deliver and if he doesn't start scoring early in the season that may be it for him.

Yeah the option would be to use part of Mcglinchey's money to pay out Cunningham or Krishna and then sign someone else. You're not going to get quality on a one year deal who is a free agent this close to the start of the season I bet, unless Huysegems relents, but then he isn't that much of a step up in finishing ability.

I think that Cunningham, Krishna, and Burns all have the ability to step up and have a 10+ goal season, and of course Brockie could start smashing them in which apparently he's doing in training and has come close in the last couple of games.

Any money used to pay out a player is included in the salary cap, isn't it?

Yep but if McGlinchey is on big money and Krishna is on minimum A-League wage then it may still be possible to attract someone.

Not going to happen though.

Ernie in the papers still getting used to how NZ gets shat on by the FFA. Wouldn't have happened if he'd been Melbourne coach one thinks and if McG was an Aussie at Melbourne the FFA would be in to help with half of his wages.

More info from Nix write up on front page.

I thought Ernie explained this 2 year deal, didnt he? In 2 years Krishna would be naturalised and wont take up a cap. So instead of waiting 2 years to have him in the squad, get him in now so he can establish himself.

As I understand it Krishna is only a foreigner this season and will be local next season. This makes it a bit more understandable esepcially considering at some point in the future we will only be allowed 4 imports.

In an ideal world we would definitely have an out and out striker. I think we have the potential for guys like Cunningham and Boyd to score a lot more goals this season. Whether or not that happens is another matter.

I think that's a bit of an odd decision though. Krishna's not young enough to improve greatly in a season or 2, and if he's only considered good enough to be a fringe player now is it worth a year's salary AND an import slot used up this season to have him in the squad for the 2015/16 season? Especially considering he probably would have stayed in NZ playing ASBP for that year anyway.

Hudson out!

I have a feeling we'll be saying this a lot more often this season if Brockie and Krishna are our main strikers...

I still think that Krishna could score a few if he's given the chance, but he seems to be quite far down the pecking order currently. Ernie seems to prefer Brockie, Boyd, and Burns at the moment. Would rather see him start than Boyd if we need goals from somewhere. Maybe he needs to change his name to Roy Brishna to fit in with the theme of those other guys.