Phoenix v Adelaide - match thread

Phoenix v Adelaide - match thread

Adelaide United is set to become the third team to attract an aggregate Hyundai A-League audience of 1 million spectators this weekend. If Adelaide United attracts 7,052 or more fans to Hindmarsh Stadium this Saturday, they will reach the magic million milestone.

 

Currently, only Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC have attracted an aggregate Hyundai A-League crowd of more than one million.

(cough*, quite,  spanish voice) interesting, very very interesting...

Lucky to get a draw out of this the way weve been playing.

Leo and Gao back for this one? Think Dodd will make a return? Hmm.

My team: simon_hampton2008-08-25 19:58:44

No kwasnic? Bertos on the bench?

After Daniels performances he deserves bench city.

Do we expect to see any of Costa on the pitch this year? Why do we keep getting old warhorse on the bench instead of him? Why was he not played in the pre-season at all?

Thoughts?

Moss has one bad game and you're dropping him?

Coveny is the kind of player tha gives you a good 10-15, dont start him tho.

Unless they have spare respirators on field.

I just made a post in the Adelaide game thread on this, Coveny was quality yesterday i thought. Showed some enthusiasm others lacked, however on Costa, if in 6 weeks (unless we go on a 6 week winning streak with no injuries and no suspenstion) we still haven't seen him i will begin to question what is going on. Obviously Ricki sees him at training every day (does he train every day, or is he at school some of the time?) so is in the best position but i wonder if he maybe didn't perform that well in OZ over the off season or his attitude since he has coem back has not been up to scratch.

Or there just isnt enough space on the bench for him?

Yep I just noticed this is being discussed in the ADL thread - perhaps a mod can merge this thread into the other one, or something.

I forgot he was even at the Rams to be honest - does anyone have any idea how well he did there?

I was suggesting we pull covs off the bench to give Costa some time, to be blunt about it. On the bench against Melb we had Covs, Christie and Dodd - the latter two are fairly similar players, so perhaps room could've been made for Costa anyway.

christie has to be on the bench because of versatility. Dodd in case we needed a bit of extra defensive grunt.

Possibly school is getting in the way. It may sound crazy but just an idea. Exams coming up and Costa's in his last year I think.

Costa finished year 13 (form 7) last year.

Id like to see him on the pitch. Others are playing youngsters - why shoudlnt we?

simon_hampton2008-08-25 21:19:57

I'd have to say that Ricki needs to give Smeltz more support in the form of a modified 4-4-2, enough with this fancy 4-2-3-1 stuff. I'd have:

Hmm coveny for 90 minutes though? I see him as a bench/impact player.

Perhaps it's because we have a stack of attacking options who are older, more experienced and tested at this level ?  We have the leagues leading goal scorer and we've created plenty of chances.  Costa wouldn't have stopped us shipping 4 goals last night and at home two goals from Smeltz with our much vaunted defence should be easily enough to win a match...
Hard News2008-08-25 21:58:02

Coveny is an absolutely quality striker who yes, is getting on in the years but still provides a better striking option and a lot more expierience than Costa. Costa's time will come but at the moment I think it would be silly for Ricki to replace Coveny with him.

Would have thought after the last game last year we may have at least seen him on the bench.They may be older and more experienced but apart from Smeltz we still arnt seeing goals from any others.As for experience there is only one way to get it and would he really be any worse.

I don't agree with the talk in changing formation, before the season started our top formation was the 4-2-3-1 with Dodd and Ferrante sitting behind the holy trinity with Smeltz in front. We still haven't seen that team go out yet in a competition game. We played that formation against Qld but i think Kwasnik changes that dynamic a little bit. Id like to see the holy trinity back together, or at least hearfield run in the spot of gao (presuming he is still injured) with daniel and bertos before i would like to see a change in formation.bopman2008-08-25 22:26:13

Bopman makes a good point.

The formation preseason did seem to suit us quite well, the midfielding taking up free roles somewhat allowing for a lot of versaility.

Just think our run at the back at late has been a bit dodgy, dont what the complatency is there.

I agree, we spent all preseason deciding on this formation so I think we should go for this, with the only change being Hearfield for Gao

I couldnt work out why in all the warm up/pre-season games we played that formation and than changed it for the pre season final. Now Ricki seems to be changing the formation each week, I hate to say this but does he know what he's doing?

They have played a 4-2-3-1 in the last couple of games, Kwasnik being just about a straight swap for Gao , Hearfield for Bertos and Johnson for Dodd when those players were injured or dropped. Only changes in formation came when Covs came on and pushed up to a second striker role

They played 4-1-4-1 on Sunday, and 4-4-2 in the pre seaon final.

In the time we are in (despearation for points after only 2 matches) why would you not try Barbarouses on the wing or up front?  I mean if it fails, its not as big a deal, but if it pays off could be worth a lot.

Because 1 man up front is clearly not working, and how many succesful balls in have we seen from the left so far? Bugger all!

Give the lad a start, he is class...


caseym2008-08-26 13:50:08

We should have done that earlier... Melbourne took one look at the conditions and Merick said 'we're going long' and they won.

Beautiful football is all well and good when it's dry but in a swimming pool you go long.

Every time we went across the pitch we lost the flow - how many times did the ball hold up or even stop, but we kept playing through it  - Why THE COACH never change this is a problem.  Right from the kick-off Melbourne had their plan sorted - play it long. ChopperHarris2008-08-26 16:51:14

I thought both Ferrante and Johnson were playing from deep positions, Johnson being a straight swap for Dodd and I was only talking about the last two games, as in a couple which means 2, where Gao was unavailable for both games.

Just want to say that a lot of criticism has been shown against Phoenix recently after only the second game.  Certain players have been targeted and managers tactics have been questioned.  I think we need to step back and remember that it is only the second season and Wellington wasn't built in a day (it also took a catastrophic event). 

So we need to ignore all the hype the media and Australian coaches have shown in pre-season  regarding the Phoenix and realise that Herbert is still building a team.  I think we have started to believe the hype and after only a draw and a loss we begin to get too downhearted.

Our defence is quite different from last season with two new central defenders and same goes for our midfield - only Daniel and Ferrante were in the starting 11 last year.  I think that perhaps we need to start looking at our 3rd or 4th season before we think we are world beaters.

Anyway peace be with you.

P.S I have also been guilty of criticism.
lozenge2008-08-26 16:30:41

it's a short season, we need to make the most of every game. Looking back now it's clear that we should have used the long ball, and sadly, this didn't happen.