R1 vs Adelaide United | Sun 8 Oct | 5:00pm | RoF

Today's tactics were, play the long ball to Krishna till he got subbed. Great to he back at the football again. Fritz sausages. Even the season ticket bar code worked this year. Was a crap game but hey it is our 11th year. so happy.

Am I right in only one game out of Westpac this season? Brilliant if true.

That's no different to any other season.

I'm pretty sure I recall Matt Ryan being particularly dodgy when he first started too. 

not saying he is or was sharke - i'd need to see more of him - but he didn't look very adept with the ball off the foot (which someone said is the reason he is being chosen above the other two)? He could do with bulking up too.

Hopefully the lad kicks on but I'm guessing they will drop him when he has his first clanger.

Was Vuco 17?

Is Smith ready for A-League level right now? Maybe not.

Is Smith better than Italiano right now? Probably.

Na Vuko was 20.

I think Italiano is better than smith right now but that's only because he's had 6 A-League games.

I remember his first couple of A-League games he looked really shaky as well.

I need more evidence to say either way.

Or Alban Lafont, starting keeper for Toulouse since he was 16 and approaching 100 appearances at 18.

Trouble is, talent wise Keegan's certainly no Donnarumma or Lafont

Long goal kicks looked dodgy and he was rather green at moments throughout, but the good part was his distribution via throws and short passes (off both feet I noticed too). Very basic skills but it was obviously the game plan, he always looked to quickly distribute to a defender along the deck, or even direct to Paracki/Ridenton whenever it was on. I liked that. 

Bit of work on defence, with Durante and Doyle probably back in, and a change in the midfield structure to have a better link between Paracki and the attackers, and we're off and running I reckon. 

Definitely a lot of good signs to take from that in my opinion.

Yeah but this is the A-league...

He doesn’t need to be, he just needs to be an A league quality keeper or better. 

Why is all the post match talk about an 18 year old goalkeeper who barely put a foot wrong on the rare occasion he had something to do? I find this odd. 

17 in the NSL for Parramatta Power

Ah yeah forgot about that.

Team A: 52% possession; total shots 18; corner kicks 7

Team B: 48% possession; total shots 14; corner kicks 5

- Team A is Brazil, Team B is Germany. Score was 7-1 Germany

Example 2:

Team A: 64% possession; total shots 20; corner kicks 13

Team B: 36% possession; total shots 11; corner kicks 0

Team A is CCM, Team B is Newcastle. Score was 5-1 Newcastle.

Most have

I thought Smith showed moments in the second half which indicated his potential but far too often he was indecisive coming out for the ball, and when he did punch they were weak and towards the ground rather than up and away. I also suspect that without Dura there no one was really commanding our backline and Smith definitely wasn't. Italiano may not be heaps better but he would have more easily slotted in without the nerves and being a bit older and having been around the squad for a couple of years might have felt more empowered to boss his defenders around. Overall we lacked leadership at the back.

Ridenton has copped a bit of stick but I think he did a good job defensively covering RB when Galloway was going walkabout. This meant it was harder for him to be involved in transition though. Vidosic and Krishna both stayed too high and wide when it was obvious that our midfield were struggling to find people to pass to. We pressed high early and that helped connect our mids to our attackers but when it looked like we were vulnerable to through balls our backline started dropping deeper but our forward line stayed pressed high so there was heaps of space in midfield.  All of these issues could well be teething problems we work through over the next few weeks. A few more games in preseason against A League level opponents would have helped but here we are anyway so we have to learn these things in games that matter.

Very curious to see how we line up and play next week with our AWs and hopefully Finkler back.

Despite quite a bit of negativity on this forum(surprise, surprise) I liked what I saw.

When I saw the team lineup and so many newbys I thought we would get done. We are traditionally poor early season, plus we had our AW's away and then lost an experianced player prematch (Finkler) THe Nix in past seasons would have lost that game to a late goal.

What I liked was it looked like we are well coached. We were disciplined.....less dumb arsed fouls, we kept our shape most of the time, It looked liked the players knew what they were meant to be doing, what the game plan was. For a season opener it was OK....we got a point. We will get a lot better, especially when we get Weemac and co back. Rufer, Ridenton etc will be good value off the bench as squadies.

What let us down was the lack of cohesion.....passes were not sticking, the defenders lacked communication. But all that will get better as the players get more match time. I don't think we will the league.....but we will do OK

As for the players....we look like we have finally found a decent RB, no9 and DM.  The big K up front had a quiet game. But to me he looks like a classic no9. He got off a few powerful shots despite having no service. He is not the sort of guy who is going to dribble from halfway and score but if we can get him into scoring positions he will bang in goals for us this season. Krishna has bulked up and now looks a complete player. 

A big pat on the back for young Smith in goal. He looked super nervous but did OK IMO. Its hard to know if his shakey moments came from nerves or poor technique/inexperiance. Having an old head like Dura back will help him and improve the communication at the back. He deserves another shot. One thing that would worry me is at 18 he is far from physically developed. He needs to bulk up.....which will give him better strength for kicking and also challenges. The other A-League teams will have studied his game and he will be under the pump from now on...they will pressure him for sure. We need to have a top keeper.....if we don't then kiss good bye to the season. Time will tell if the coaching staff have made the right call.

The few A league games Italiano has played he has been solid enough. But at ASBP level he has had some real shockers. I think this is what causes such differing opinions on him. 

Interesting that Smith is now being given a grudging passmark when people were yelling about how diabolical he was during the game.

If this was Moss saving a penalty after a shaky game what would the forum be saying.  Watch Here

Hero, MOM etc rings a bell

Then the contrast view from facebook  

The one thing I thought is that we just looked calm.  At no point did it seem like anything was out of control and there was panic, it was people doing their jobs and if it went wrong they dusted off and went back to it.  It felt less frantic and I didn't spend the game waiting for it all to go pear-shaped despite Chris Beath's best efforts

Personally I'd have started Singh ahead of Rufer once Finkler went down.  That was my thought pre-game and hasn't changed since.  Not sure how Singh didn't make the bench unless he is also broken.

Seeing how we have played most of pre-season without WeeMac, Dura and Doyle I do wonder if they will just walk straight back in, particularly knowing we lose them again for a period next month.

I must admit that I haven't had a lot of time to read this thread since the game, so I only picked up on a couple of main points.

I just wanted to say how poorly I thought Abbas played and how out of shape he looked. Aside from being at fault for the first goal and almost scoring a wonderful oggie, I was lucky enough to see him sprint on the right side of the pitch when he had that clean break soon after Vidosic's goal - he looked very bukly (not to say downright chubby) and also ran at the speed of snail.

I never rated him overly much, but I remembered him as being quite nimble, tricky and fairly fast. Hopefully he gets into shape soon.

Other than than, I thought we missed our starters too much and that we didn't execute the game plan at all and instead reverted on hopeful long balls towards the wingbacks.  The new striker also failed to get involved which was a shame.

Still, a point is a point, especially given our poor record in the opening round of the league.

To my mind Smith is not what we want at this point in the A League side. He needs to develop a little more at a lower level where the inevitable elementary errors will be punished and quite damaging to the side. What summed it up for me was the Adelaide striker lurking behind him when he was about to distribute the ball, the canny old striker knew he was new and inexperienced and was ready to pounce if Smith had dropped the ball to his feet. That would not even have been considered if Smith didn't appear so green. He is likely to turn into a reasonable player but FFS this is the A League and he didn't show enough to me to retain his spot at this level. And I'm talking as a guy that played in goal in the Central League at 16.

Hi Doloras.

I assume from your previous posts that you are a keeper. I know SFA about keeping...I never played there.

How would you assess Smiths game? Does he have a future as our first keeper? What are his plus's and minus's as you see them?

There are plenty of keepers who started at a very young age. People have mentioned the Italian Dunoumuna??? and the young kid at Toulouse. I have sen both of them play and what struck me is physically they look well developed. Smith looks like a teenager rather than a muscular young man. And it seems to me that power is quite important as a keeper.

Would be interested in your comments

Settle down everyone. Sarcastic responses and name calling aren’t very constructive, or enjoyable for others to read.

I know what you’re getting at NP, but he didn’t get caught out like the striker thought he would - that’s not to say he won’t in the future though. Until then I think it’s a bit harsh to use it as a stone to throw at him, I’m not sure it’s much different to the opposition looking to take advantage of rookie mistakes by an outfield player. 

Goalkeeper is a riskier position to throw an 18 year old into than it is for an 18 year old outfielder. Mistakes are magnified. But I think he handled himself ok for his debut game. He can only improve, and not convinced Italiano would’ve been that much better. 

For physique I was trying to remember the name of the only other lighter weight goalkeeper I can remember in the League - Tando Velaphi.  First game for Perth SC at 19.

Seen here filled out a bit in his mid twenties, training with Carlos.  

It was like watching someone playing FIFA against their drunk mate