Phoenix v Manawatu

Phoenix v Manawatu

 I see the fringe players are heading up to play Youngheart Manawatu - does anyone know the time & venue?!  As I'll home visiting family & friends I'm keen to go watch.

I'll see what I can find out up here. I'm guessing it would be at Memorial Park as FMG Stadium is still being used for rugby.

i am thinking of going over from wanganui to have a look,will adrian caceres be playing i need his autograph to complete my shirt.

Tony P2009-10-06 15:26:44

This Palmy game, by the way, is at 3pm at Memorial Park.

Is there an entry fee?

Almost certainly not.

cheers

would love it if someone could get some video of it haha. Will be good to hear how Chen and Costa do. Also interesting to see who gets a go at RB? That right back position really is a big puzzle at the moment.

Is it on Saturday? Live in Palmerston North and support Manawatu Turbos and went to all of the YoungHeart games last season.

Saturday, 3pm, Memorial Park Palmerston North.

Yes, well, even if we had our reserve team in the NZFC, there has been 9 rounds of A-League gone, the NZFC hasn't kicked off. It starts in November 1st. So don't expect strong match intensity coming from Youngheart Manawatu.

The idea of having our reserve team in the NZFC is good but unless NZFC has more games or more teams, it won't coincide with the A-league season and the Phoenix is still on the back foot.

I guess that is where NZF has to make amends for the next NZFC licences.

But frankly, having the reserve Nix side would increase the NZFC crowds. To be honest, if there is no decent gate fees into the second season of the next licence, NZFC on the whole, would struggle unnecessary especially with the reduction of gaming trust funds for sports clubs.

Perversely if the AWs did qualify for the WC, that might spark sufficient interest so that gate fees could be sustainable/warranted. AND there will be a bit of spare FIFA cash that might trickle down to the club level.

that's what I was just thinking too!!!!

Anyone planning to go? We could share the trip expenses.

Im Going

Any thoughts on who will be in the phoenix squad?  Will they be using this game to play other players from around the region as a trial?

Can somebody report on the team after the game, would like to know the starting line up and bench.  Cheers

Hmmm... not a particularly memorable game. From what I could tell, formation was something like

                 Crowther
Hearield   Ringin   Dura    Ringin
             Diego    Lia
Marco                       Caceres
                 Daniel
                 Costa

First half, mostly Nix going forward. Daniel very busy accross the park, put in some good crosses, with some good work on the wings by Caceres in particular, Marco struggled a little. Costa looked to be finding it a bit difficult, in all Youngheart were crowding us up front, and it was hard to get much going. Caceres (I think) got brought down by the keeper after about 25 mins, and Daniel scored from spot. Dura was head and shoulders above anyone else on the park, controlled the back well.

Second half, Chen replaced Costa up front. Scored a nice finish when he robbed one of the Younheart backs who dwelled on the ball slightly too long and placed it nicely past the keeper. Youngheart only really threatened on the break, but were caught offside frequently. A few nervous moments at the back, especially when Dura went off, leaving us with Hearfield and three unknowns. A fw times, Crowther came out a bit too far and we were luky to get away with two long pot-shots which missed the target.

Impressions on certain players:
Chen -  nice finish, but I feel he can get a bit moody, and could be liability if things don't go his way ont he pitch... we could find ourselves a man down easily.
Dura - immense
Marco - had a few nice runs in the second half, and was unlucky not to have a goal (one-on-one, chipped the keeper, ball hit the underside of the upright, bounced on the goal line and back into play). But, muscled off the ball too easily, especially when Youngheart started putting five men on whoever had the ball.
Hearfield - sound, if unspectacular at R back.
Ringin playing left back looked reasonable, linked well with Caceres and Daniel going forward, could be a good short-term replacement if required through injury
Diego - not at his best, missed a few tackles
Daniel -  worked hard all afternoon, put some dangerous looking balls in, if only we had the height to meet them
Ifill spent all match on the sidelines, he would have been kicked off the park had he come on :(

Score 1-0?

2-0 Daniel Penalty and Chen.

yes most of the remainder played Phoenix won 2-0

Anyone know who was the "tall timber" in the middle with Durante? Pretty good i thought apart from one poor back pass that almost let them in.

Possibly Trent Watson ?

He was there against TeeDubs the other week.

Ferrante started in Lia's spot (in above line up), Lia was subbed on later, as was Greenacre.

Completely forgot about Ferrante... oops. Didn't notice him much tbh.

Youngheart had a few players on trial.

Their overseas player were as follows:

The Vanuatu trial player who was the forward, was isolated, was not linking well but at the same time he didn't have many balls to feet and so had to chase aerial ball. Was offside a number of times. Really, he need to trust the other trial players, link and pass the ball sometimes. Very young player who probably don't realise that the coaches do look for players that can play as a team player. passing and linking up with other trial players does get notice by the coach. It is possible that he does not want to have the other trialist to look good. The problem is that both players can lose out when that happens, so such strategy is pointless. At the end of the game, he started to lose a bit of confidence when he didn't shoot first time and try to take a extra touch when it was all no for a solid shot.

Both the Japanese players were hard working and had very good touches. But were smaller and was physically pushed off, however that was when they were hound dogging the ball carrier in defence rather than when they were with the ball. So it was really positive and had quick runs from them. They were positioned quite well despite more than half the YoungHeart team was very young and new. So the issue was the YH players linking up with each other.

In the first half, the YH players were not confidence enough to double switch the ball to have the numbers in the right area, nor were they confident enough to advance a player or two up into the next team block to take the initiative in attack and so yes the Vanuatu forward was very isolated and need someone to run off him. This only came about very late in the first half and there was a better effort in the second half in this area, but it was still a bit sporadic. Another thing that was lacking but improved in the second half or the Yh team was the fact that the ball carrier was occasionally outnumbered in his area and need closer support players for the shorter pass. YH lost a lot of ball to the Nix that way. So confidence and support running to the ball carrier rather than away from the ball carrier.

For the nix, yes Leeds Chris covered most things. Generally Nix was dominating with the ball possession and territory (afterall that was what they were doing against A-League Teams so not shame for YH). There wasn't exposure of any of the players lack of skill, the YH player had very little threat really. The nix players captialise on intercepting passes that the YH had done by pressuring them in numbers across the field. there was a number of shots at goal but only a few of them were on target and a couple hit the crossbar.

On the new boys on the block:

Chen- he was frustrated with himself at times, probably not that familiar with the different types of ball delivery in the team. It was noticeable that he was not match fit although in most of the attack he was in position to be brought into the attack but was not the chosen option. Communication is a bit lacking, but they say football is an international language. If he is to get a starting line-up, he has to start to get busy tracking a couple of times and coming to the ball a few times just to have a couple of passing exchanges and create a relationship link with the teammates. I was half surprise in how large he is. I had read other in the forum say is he a bit chubby, but he is just a bit barrel shaped for a young chinese guy. BTW it was a good clinical drive shot for his goal, when he was one on one about 8-10 yards out. The other goal chance, he tried to chip Crowther but didn't realise how tall Crowther actually was and so that was easy pucked in the air.

Marco - yes a few muscled out moments but really he was trying to do different things and had he pull a few off with a bit of start up speed, he would be called the second coming, but alas, he was still trying out what works and whether he could pull it off at a higher level. Quite acceptable in a training match. The chip to the under cross bar may have not being a goal but it showed the level headed approach and the willingness of the player for accurate shots rather than power shots.

Costa was up against an well organised YH defence but had a couple of decent running on to the ball moments. Yes he was frustrated just as Chen was in the second half who replaced him.

Ferrante- a couple of passes as a late sub and he didn't lose it.

Caceres- runs down the left side and crossed a couple times. Link ok with Costa.

Daniel worked hard with dangerous crosses as well as being at the end of a few when Caceres crossed

Durante was solid and was an important person in defence, the defence would have looked weak without him.

Hearfield was fine with a couple of go forward as support. He keep the YH Japanese players that was threatienng, in check.

Diego did ok, might have lost a ball and a tackle but was solid mainly.

Generally the Nix midfield had the better ball retaining skills that YH couldn't really bother them. The Nix's anticipation of the YH passing options and the outnumbering in the area around the YH ball carrier shows the in-season fitness of the Nix compared to the young and new preseason fitness of the YH. YH lifted their game for passing options and increase numbers in the ball carrier area, but Nix was still in the main control.

The Nix defence was solid and was not threaten until YH increase the player numbers for the attack in the second half. The ball retaining skills had save them a couple of times when the YH players try to poach a few times.
AllWhitebelievr2009-10-11 00:01:17

Cheers Leeds_Chris and AllWhitebelievr , nice reports.

I think the ringin at left back was a guy called Matt Hastings, Can anyone please confirm - i think he might be playing for Hawkes Bay over the summer.

So.... Chen tried to chip his own keeper???

yay goals and a win!!!!!

I knew he gets moody but trying to intentionally score an own goal??

Honestly, the best thing to come out of this week is that Ifill gets a rest
valeo2009-10-11 14:13:13

interesting

That is so terrible if we can only win a game like this 2-0. Even if we are without are outstanding NZers, we are a professional team and should be winning by at least 4 goals.

Errr. . . no I mean that he try to chip Ross not Crowther. Was nervously thinking about the AWs game while I was typing and got a few names in the wrong place.

I'm still brain dead from last night.