Melbourne vs Phoenix - Match thread

But I like smelly baits because they pong the water. . . .

To get off Marco - I'd like to say I was happy with all the team. No one played badly to the point where you'd think they need to dropped. Same team next week as long as McKain is ok. Didn't look flash
Royal2009-09-13 21:04:40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmxjll4CJKw&feature=sub

Goals.

Enjoyed watching that - fell off a bit in the second half (from dominance to more like parity and maybe a bit less than that) - not as badly as v Adelaide last week and were still were creating chances so not too bad.  But you have to be
a) pleased with a entertaining and attacking game from the Phoenix
b) nevertheless dissapointed we didn't take the three points when it was probably deserved. A bit of a soft free kick and goal given up against the run of play and plenty of chances not converted.

So mixed feelings on this one but overall very positive if we can continue dominating teams for significant periods of games and start converting that into wins.

Other positives:
-Manny looked really on top of things tonight, for the first time IMO, but melbourne not attacking a lot from the flanks, so maybe had an easier ride
- defense generally looking more solid and from the front of the park back
-Ifill and Leo both had somewhat less standout games but the rest of the team stepped up to make a lot of play
- Brown and Lia partnership settling in well and Brown going from 0/2+ to 1/2 and a well taken goal at that.

Nice to see marcos play (I haven't seen him at all before).  Thought he looked pretty useful but would agree Bertos and Daniel would take some shifting, with Daniel season 1+ out there starting at the moment.

The only downer of course (McKain injury aside?), is that despite all the positive stuff we are at the bottom of the league and now could do with wins against an improving Fury and a solid CCM over the next couple of weeks to get back into good position on the table.  Go the Phoenix. 

Great game, Fever was fantastic away from home and we kept singing for pretty much the whole thing. Great stuff.
Awesome to see Marco get his debut, he looked lively and keen to take on players, good signs.

Can we get an album for photos from today in the gallery?

 When you consider the build up to this game, when half the team was in the middleeast and europe playing a toughmid week game then flying back to melbourne, and the other half of the team back in  wellington without the head coach, meeting up on saturday,   then have 1 day together to get sorted to face the tards in front of 18000 crazy fans.

I watched the first half at the Kings before having to depart to watch elsewhere (i.e. at a house) and the second half seemed far more subdued than the first, but overall I was happy with their performance. Kinda hard to tell when your viewing environment changes so much though.

I was the one that said he was lead footed at times.  Never said anything about only getting a meter.  He moved quite late - perhaps he was unsited, but I definitely stand by my lead footed at times - see Jordan goal, and Adelaide game.  Was quick to come out for the very good one on save however.

Very good performance from the Phoenix on the whole, I was very happy.  Yes we drew, however I still think the last two weeks have been very good performances.  At this stage I actually prefer that to a streaky one goal win, as I think it augurs better for the season if we are performing well.

Rojas In the middle of our street

for Coops, we need your genius in the zone every week IMO.

Round three last year we lost 3-0 away to Adelaide (Smeltz didn't play because he had the Flu and apparent;y a number of starting players had it also), in round five we lost 1-0 to Perth. Both were absolutley shockng performances and in one or perhaps both of those games a unanimous decision was made on here not to cast MotM votes.
Dark days they were.

The Adelaide one I especially recall with horror. The most gutless and clueless performance ever. We have seen nothing even close to that since, especially not this season, and yet multiple pages of angst and despair last week. I think we are building as well as most of the other teams in the league.

Paston played below par.  He is becoming more and more of a worry and the thought of him representing NZ at the World Cup (provided we make it) is absolutely terrifying.

Most folks seem happy with the overall performance of the team today, if a little disappointed thet didn't get all 3 points.

Given the time difference as I write this, here's your Monday morning poser -

Does Ricki bring back Sigmund next week, or keep the same team? If he brings back Siggy, who misses out? (and don't say Paston )wolfman2009-09-14 03:11:32

Hard to see how he can unless McKain is out. Can't drop anyone on that game. It's a bit like last year when Durante was out and all of a sudden Dodd and Siggy clicked. Durante found himself watching from the bench for a couple of games.
I did hear that Siggy may have an injury to his hip from the Jordan game. That is a worry as it must be the one that was operated on. Hope he's ok
Royal2009-09-14 08:13:16

McKain was top. All round a good performance from just about everybody. Would have taken a draw before the game, but I feel kind of disappointed that we didn't get all three! It's good that we can go a goal down at these places and still keep our heads- in fact dominate the game. Big turn out from our lot too so well done for all who went! Next up is Fury? We defo need to get a win there. Keep God quiet and we should be alright!

Oh, and I thought Durante was excellent too. And Moss showed us what we were missing in our goal...

Great to see Archie Thompson kept scoreless.

I don't know if this has been posted anywhere else...

 

I thought It was a very good effort by the lads. However, not getting the three points does mean alot of pressure on the North Queensland game. I fear if they don't get the three points we may see heads drop....three points is a must really.

Agreed - and North Queensland have been playing very well as of late. We need to shut down Talay - everything goes through him. Pretty underated player imo. valeo2009-09-14 12:04:21

Replay currently on channel 32 at the mo, half time. seeing it again, I cant believe we left without three points. Ifill in the box was a penalty and Durante unlucky with the header. Lonegunmen2009-09-14 15:57:01

Just been watching Fox Sports news, and can you believe it Merrick and Vargas are blamming the pitch for Melbournes poor form and loss of confidence, wasn,t there 2 teams playing on the same pitch? at least they have had a couple of other games to get used to it.

The pitch excuse is nonsense - Melbourne have now played on it 4 times and the Age article says they train on it as well! Not to mention it's the same for both teams.

corrected

The pitch has not been watered since Fabiano stopped spitting!

TBF the pitch is pretty garbage, and Ernie did re-iterate that it wasn't an excuse.

Pretty sure he was just a bit cramped and sore. Tough for him because he is no left back and the rest of the back four played really well.

There's nobody to replace him with which makes it all the more mortifying.  He's probably one of the worst first-team goalkeepers in the league.  If we make the World Cup Nelsen will have to play damn well to keep the score respectable.

So will the other 3 defenders, Nelson isn't a one man team and he's been known to screw up just like every player.

Moss will keep at the World Cp if we make it, Won't he ?