MoM - Doggies

MoM - Doggies

That's the lot.

For me, it was Costa. He took his man on (and won) and wasn't afraid to shoot. His inexperience showed at times, but the future is looking good for him.

Seconded.

same here also. 

Costa really did us proud tonight - even the  Aussie commentators were singing his virtues. Glad to see a local boy play his heart out and make such an impact. I hope he gets more game time next season, within reason (no need to rush his development).

The people have spoken. Costa was great.

IMO Moss he pulled off a couple of great saves and his positioning in defense was excellent

Costa is the new George






But he's actually good.chocnut2008-01-20 01:55:39

I thought moss was much improved in the air tonight so he got my vote. Was very impressed by costa, took on his amn well, made good runst to draw out defenders and tracked back to help.

Yep 17 year olds are always going to have trouble strength-wise. It doesn't matter if you out pace the defender though!

Kristian Rees for getting away with Murder!!!

yeh, one of the moments of the season for me, good on Rees for doing what had to be done and great that the ref missed it (always good to get something go our way)

priceless

i voted costa. finally some real pace and a guy willing to run at defenders. hopefully he can put on some bulk in the off season cos he was out muscled a bit easily. what side was he playing on? if hes on the left and cant play on the right it creates an issue if we have him daniel and lochy plus bertos (if he comes) who correct if im wrong but plays on the left. bopman2008-01-20 16:22:32

I thought Costa played well, Smeltz had an uncharacteristically quiet game for him although that might have to do with the appalling service from midfield.

Moss was excellent as always.

Costa plays on the right from what i recall, so it all good. Although when I played against him, he was always an out and out striker.

Don't really want him too put on too much bulk because his greatest asset = pace. If you have the skill being bulky or not doesn't really matter.

Costa had a brilliant game and I can't wait to see him play more next season.

the gentle art of defending

Costa Forsure

Kristian Rees for that one stellar moment!! One pen???? The ref could have given three pens for that! 

may as well get the padlock out now...

Costa by a landslide and rightly so

Even stevie wonder would of chose Costa here...

good to see Rees get a few votes, if only for his superb attempt to borrow that shirt

(he said that it looks worse in slow motion than it really was )

We've had a few calls go against us this season, so I for one didn't mind that we got that one in our favour!

Costa played on the right wing in the second half after Christie got subbed and did just as well as he had all game.

Bertos can play on both flanks though he might be just that bit better on the left, the fact he's so versatile makes him such an attractive proposition.

To the people saying Costa should put on bulk, that could actually take away from his pace and skill. Just let him develop naturally, Maradona was the slightest fella in world football for most of his career but he had skill and pace. We just need to look at Daniel to see that being small can work in your favour.
Critical_Lemon2008-01-21 10:18:46

Costa by far - showed Mr Elrich what a man with real pace can do out wide, just a pity he missed that shot!

Voted for Costa, he was very impressive for someone so young.

imo the most pleasing thing was the way he handled missing that shot. Never let his head go down.

Elrich..

Definately Costa.  We've been singing his praises all season even though he's seen barely any gametime, and given this one opportunity to prove himself he had a blinder.  The conditions really didn't help especially for the more inexperienced players, but then again it was the conditions that gave Costa that acute chance to score early on.

Can't wait to see how he fits into the team going into future seasons.

Its quite ironic that Costa is getting the plaudits but many of us will know that this is his natural game e.g. to take players on, attack and he has a great sense for goal (even down to his arsenal of shots) all of which comes natural to the lad.

But it is these very skills that I think coaches, coach out of these boys. From my limited experience, when you get to certain levels in the game e.g. national level etc coaches tend to coach the NZ way (DEFENSIVE) and really dont promote the natural attacking skills that lads like Costa have. When I say NZ way, we are all about defending our mana and ensuring we do not look silly to the rest of the FIFA family but when your team is 4-5 nil down, why dont we change the game and introduce some of these boys who attack the goal, rather than consildate the defence. I also think Costa was unfairly criticised for his performance over the U17s but yet he was played out of position and the team went all defensive when the team went 3-4 goals down ....and what do we do...go more DEFENSIVE instead of attacking...why, why, why, when we have natural attacking lads like Costa do we always resort to DEFENCE.

Sure the Nix may have lost 2 nil over the weekend and maybe our defenders were not up to it but at least Costa, Smeltz and Draper kept them honest and we at least played positively.

I wish Costa all the best for his future, he has immense talent and while he looked good over the weekend for the Nix, as mentioned above it was something I already knew he had - pace, attack, flair and the unexpected and lets hope the coaches of the youngsters coming through encourage these skills instead of being too defensive and structured....there are not enough Costas in New Zealand.

Good Luck Costachareimos2008-01-22 13:03:51