Nix v Heart, Thursday 27th Dec 7:30pm

Also, night games at the Stadium are so much more fun than the Sunday afternoon games. The crowd is a lot more rowdy, and a lot louder. It's looking like the families that the Sunday afternoon games are aimed at are just not turning up. We should try having more night games and market them to the students and young professionals next season.

One more point - everyone's bagging Paston not bothering to dive for the first goal, but Bolton didn't bother to try to stop the last goal. Once Brockie had rounded him, you can see Bolton turning and just going "OFFS". I would have dived and tried to ankle-tap the guy.

Replay on Sky sports 2 now.  2nd half underway.

Also, night games at the Stadium are so much more fun than the Sunday afternoon games. The crowd is a lot more rowdy, and a lot louder. It's looking like the families that the Sunday afternoon games are aimed at are just not turning up. We should try having more night games and market them to the students and young professionals next season.

I don't want to judge you, your dad, nufc, bbs or any of the other pessimists on this forum, but what sort of football should we play that will actually make you happy?? We're not a top european side, we don't have unlimited resources, we have a quota of local players we have to play and I can't think of anyone better than the team we currently field.

it doesnt take a special effort to make a list of negatives about anything to be honest. try harder next time. how about of list of positive aspects:

How many times did we succesfully pass out from the back rather than resort to the long ball of games past?
how often did we pass it out from the back through to options in the midfield without 10 or so passes needed between the back 4?
leo, fenton and boyd were successful in beating their marker with almost every run
when those three looked to cross (quality of the cross aside) they looked to get past the first man rather than kick it straight into them as normal
were there significantly more passes attempted than any previous nix game?
60% possession!
passes along the ground!
good covering defense when heart were on the counter, david williams isn't slow and he was ineffectual to the point of being subbed
how many players were running forward when lia picked up the ball off the defense - this positivity continued all night
the nix were 2 - 0 down, and continued to play with their heads up and always looked good too pull a goal or two back (the win being a bonus)

What I can't accept is the masses saying what a great game it was when it was not. Of the 4 A League games I saw over the last 24 hours, the Phoenix one was by far the worst. We may as well be at an over 35 aftermatch speeches saying 'it was a great game today'. No it was not. Considering they are professional footballers I do have an expectation that for all the set piece and crossing work that we were told was done, the standard of that would have been much better than what we saw. Look at the replay. Don't take my word for it.

Must say Leo Bertos has to be our most underrated player this season. He's fit in perfectly at right back and gives us plenty of go forward. Thought he was excellent last night and it's about time we can settle on a RB. I'd be tempted to use him there for the All Whites too.

[/quote] Saw that after my post above. I don't think splitting them is a good idea - you're effectively splitting the fan base in 2. You want people to get in the habit of going week in week out. The club should market to one demographic and build a brand around that idea. You can't be a team for rowdy drunks on Friday and Saturday nights and then swap to being a family funpark on Sunday afternoons halfway through the season. It'll just confuse the public about what the experience of going to a Phoenix game is.

As I see it the point of difference for the Phoenix compared to other sporting and entertainment options is the atmosphere - basically the Fever singing and chanting and the general "buzz" of the crowd that you get more at football, than say rugby. Branding the club so that they seem family-friendly is just competing with too many other things and ignoring the main thing that makes a Phoenix game a different experience for the average kiwi - the atmosphere!

The Phoenix brand/matchday experience should be built around the idea of partying and having a good time - look at how well the 7s does out of that idea. It should be tied into Wellington tourism and marketed as a unique aspect of the city. Families can go to all sorts of places for a fun Sunday afternoon time but there's no equivalent experience to a boisterous crowd under lights on a weekend evening in Wellington anywhere in New Zealand. 

I watched this game with my Dad and he opened my eyes to so many things that I was missing.

For me, this was a poor Phoenix performance against an awful Heart performance. Rather than trash it, I'm going to put my thoughts in the form of questions so anyone watching the replay can see it for themselves

How poor was the crossing from Boyd, Lochhead, Sanchez and Bertos. How often did it go too long, too high too short or at the keeper?
How many corners from Sanchez failed to make it into the box.
How many times could the players have taken a shot but wanted to walk it into the goal. (fundamentally, take more shots, even if from distance)
The box was stacked with players. How many of them were static or lined up on the edge of the with no movement.
How often did our players arrive too early in the box on a cutback or a cross and were unable to put any power into what shots we did have.
How often did we give away dumb freekicks in stupid places?
When is a defense going to learn that Tyler Boyd will never go left and his left foot is just for standing on?
How often did our players received the ball but with a lack of awareness for the next pass (read this as opening the body up 90º for receiving the pass to make the next pass seamless, less touches, or see the next pass) In reference to this, how often did our players then have to turn and play back because they did not open their body.
How often does Fenton take the 'other option' than the obvious one that he should do.

I'm not normally one to put a post like this criticising a win but sitting with someone else who had a different perspective and listening to them as the game went on and see it for myself was interesting.
I do not think one person stepped up last night with the exceptions of Jeremy Brockie and Ben Sigmund and I've never given him kudos. Paston had zero chance of saving that even with a dive however I think had he positioned himself in the middle of the goal (he was off centre to his right), that combined with a dive may have got him there... food for thought? I'm amused at the praise for Lia. Wow.... We were poor across the park and its only through the ineptitude of a poor Heart team that we won. The reason why people still had hope of a win at 2-1 down was because the Heart were obviously that shit for all to see that had we not won....

If you think I'm talking rubbish, watch the replay and answer those questions above for yourself. The flip side to this is that if you missed the above, it looks like a good game cause we came back, scored 3 goals and dominated possession. Don't confuse 'entertainment and drama' with good football.

I can see why we are quite Leopold Method says we are a hard watch - its because we are.

So, while I make comments about bouncy castles - we really shouldn't begrudge the use of them (but don't get me started on novelty dress up a la 7s).

You then tell me if I am imagining it all.

I hope that some of the YF found those tools in Pikachu costumes and gave them a beatdown.

Great match - one of the times when you can say 'football as theatre'... well I can.

Greek tragedy?

what is a pikachus?

No , this is not EPL but these are fulltime , professional players who I would expect to be able to deliver a cross accurately or shoot a  bit more on target such that the ball doesn't end up going for a throw in ( Lia).