Phoenix vs Sydney

that chris beath is too officious. he's just sent matthew kemp off for a 2nd yellow, that didnt deserve a card at all. looks like he didnt realise he had already booked kemp, but was reminded by other players. blows his whistle too much.

Yep just saw that and agree completely.

Maybe it's just cause I was watching it live but he was pretty annoying in the Melbourne game last week

Beath is only 24. No real experience. Read the ages on the A League website

Did any one see the Perth game? Muscat didn't even get penalised for pushed Dadi over twice from behind and Troy got the softest red card ever!

Dadi dived

Edit: went down far far too easily
Agent 472009-01-12 00:37:48

Muscats a dirty player

The same Muscat who had Zullo in his pocket a game or two ago?

Agent- the father thing was a star wars gag. it was all I had.

err...there was something else...but I might have to read back ten pages to find it...ohh yeh- I don't think we lost it in the first twenty, but we should have won it then. we could have won it right up until they scored IMO...

ach weel.

dam it. i'm super gutted about that loss. really should have been 3 points in the bag.

O sh*t. I just  realised again that we lst. How f**king silly. SHould have been up b4 halftime. f**k

Ah well, I might as well join the angst-fest: Jag2009-01-12 07:33:52

That performance last night was dire!
Should have capitalised in first half against an inexperienced line up.
I am tired of these needless fouls and constant giving away of free kicks at a distance where penetration is possible. McKain and Dura do this way too often, likewise with Muscat.

I am also pissed off about the constant sh*t delivery we have at set pieces. These guys are f**king professionals and everytime a dead ball should be hit well. Corners which dont even get over the head of guy on near post are just not good enough. If they cant do it during the game then they (Leo esp) should be hitting atleast 100balls a day in a set piece scenario.

Leo is not a striker, attacking mid fielder maybe, but this season we will fall short because we have no striking talent bar smeltzy of course. We have so many midfielders its ridiculous. Ferrante is weak.

Daniel is often slow on the ball as well, he needs more pace and flair. The entire midfield needs to play with more pace. Last night we should have been busting our arses going for the win as everything was at stake. Yet we again found ourselves at times with smeltz isolated up front with no support (the oz commentators picked up on this). And ryan grant is about 4ft 2 and looks like 12years old.

Hearfield was hard done by but could have easily just walked away. I classify a headbut as what Zidane served up in the WC.

Ok we were down to 10 men but we still shouldnt leave smeltz to try pull a miracle out of nowhere. It is a team sport.

Our team has been too defensively minded all season.

I was so furious when went to sleep last night.
I really hope Ricki gets this team psyched for adelaide and we put on a respectable performance.

Bring back Costa 433 and daniel in for ferrante. We need goals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure where to start. Hearfield's sending off was very soft- I used to quite like Brosque, but not anymore, the way he went crying to the ref. However, Hearfield really didnt need to get involved in the tussle, so he can really only blame himself. However, as Jag said, there was no passion to win the game. That, for me, was so disappointing. As a fan, all you ask of the players is to give it their all to win the game- this becomes even more important in the position we are in at the moment. The way we played was like, as has been stated earlier, a team who had nothing to play for.

Smeltz was a passenger the entire game! ok he's allowed to havge an off game but not when he is our only attacking player, agree with the above comments - we played far too conservatively in a game we had to win!

Yeah, Smeltz was average. He's been so good recently and he is allowed an off game, for sure. But gah! It made for a frustrating viewing

scribbler2009-01-12 10:42:47

One thing that is becoming predicatable and not just from the Phoenix but a lot of A League teams - get the ball wide and send in the cross when you hit the 18 yard or goal line.  Whatever happened to going up the middle? (not the long ball version either.) It's like who can get there the fastest, defenders go straight to the corners waiting for the wingers now. A bit of variety might help. Lonegunmen2009-01-12 10:56:33

No fluke this week...used up all the luck last week and had none left in the tank!!!

A pathetic display with so much riding on it and playing against half a youth team!!!

Season over.

In my summation the Phoenix were a far more attractive team to watch last season than this season!!! The midfield this year was the worst midfield in the A-league by a country mile....rubbish.

I hate my life.

One of the Aussies on the 442 forum nailed it.  We look like we play in slow motion all the time.  It's all too slow and deliberate and therefore easy to play against.  Sure we dominated the game last night but how many saves did their keeper make?  Last weeks first by Smeltzy was all too rare - a defence splitting ball for him to run onto.  Sure we've done better than last year but it's been dreadful to watch.  There is NEVER any urgency in this team which is what disappoints me the most. 

Was at the game last night - result was of course disappointing but I want to give big wraps to Mossy, Leo and Durante who stayed on after the final whistle to chat with the travelling supporters.

Whitby boy2009-01-12 13:52:28

Got up today, and realised that no, I was not angry, just... Disappointed. bigtobz2009-01-12 14:03:12

Yeah, I think I'm angry about it.

I liked it how Bertos would kick the ball to the side of a defender and then run onto it.  He should do it more often as he usually always outpaces them.

I'm still f**kin spewing!!!

It was as though they felt they'd already made the finals and were just cruising and making sure they didn't injure themselves...

• No passion
• No hunger
• No leadership
  
• No fight
• No inspiration
• No pace
• No brains
  
• No pride
  
• No opposition
  
• No responsilibility
• No bottle
  
• No balls (take that however you like)
• No f**king idea!!!

News, have you done a mass bansticking?  The angst seems to (in general) died down a bit today.

I think the angst merchants have become more immune to it... after ten years (come August) I am now well over it.

No the School Holiday programmes are on so all the 12 year olds who were angst worthy are busy

i think a lot of people are also a lot more angry straight after now its the day after it died.

The joys of being a Nix fan

If we look back to before the season started, most people thought 5th, with a crack at the top 4 would be about right. We are there now. The disappointment is only because the top 4 was/is within sight. Season 2 was always going to be better than season 1 and by all accounts it has been. One more home game to go nuts then the thing I'll be more pissed off about is the months and months of no A-League - that sucks more than any loss to an average Sydney side.

I have to say Williams must be the most incomptent referee in a professional football league I have ever seen. Hearfield's red card was the right decision, but Williams ballsed up so many calls that had me cringing in my (very comfortable) seat.

As for the game, I felt fairly confident in the first half - despite Manny and especially Lochy, getting shown up a bit down the flanks - that we'd take care of business. Durante injury screwed us over big time - not just beacuse he'd defended OK in the first half, but because McKain had to drop back and we lost any midfield shape we'd had. Sydney were getting well into the game before the red card, and the sending off just gave them more confidence.

The goal we conceded left me speechless. Smeltzy gets the ball in their half, holds on to it against four defenders looking for support, doesn't get any, and loses possession. I'm thinking, not great, but OK, there's 5 to go and we're a man down, let's keep it tight at the back and get a point. And then the Bling immediately get the ball into our defensive third, and they find the space and time to put together a very nice move and score. I mean, what the f**k? If you're not going to support on attack, and aren't helping the defenders to close down spaces and passing lanes, what the f**k are you doing? Having a cup of tea with some scones? FFS.

And a word on Hearfield - easy to attack him now and scapegoat him, but he was having the crap kicked out of him for most of the game with little or no protection from Williams. Very easy to get frustrated in that situation and do dumb things. el grapadura2009-01-12 15:35:39

How many times did Smeltz get the ball and had to charge around, holding it up looking for support, and no-one appeared.

No, what I meant was that that kind of frustration builds up and you need a little trigger to go do something dumb. Not saying it wasn't dumb, just saying that I can understand it, without justifying it.