R14 vs Melbourne Victory | Sun 20 Jan | 7pm | SS3

Super impressed with both of them this season, Rudan's really got them playing at 100 per cent of their ability in the same way Merrick got some Newcastle boys to find a higher gear last season.

I am not sure it is fair to compare a bad half against CCM to a bad half against Victory. I think this is an emotional response (pretty understandable though) based on fears and hopes we felt in each game.

Consider this. Everybody was ecstatic how we came back against CCM to win that game; and there were pats on the back all around (except for Nichols).  In contrast, here we lead 1:3 against Victory at halftime, end up with 3:3, and people say we were poor / mediocre in the second half.    But I think that to put on a horror show at home, like we did against CCM, was very poor, inexcusable, and the second half was a bit lucky but in the end on par with our expectation to win.   In contrast, to go down to an early goal and then put on such a power play against Victory, was an example of what we are capable of when the conditions are right. And these conditions were created by Muscat who played a young defender unable to contain Krishna.   Muscat may be a prickly thug but he is not an idiot in a coaching sense, and he promptly put on an excellent Spanish fullback for Josh Hope at halftime. And fixing the defence was all that was needed, because Victory are a good team and could have easily torn us a new one today if Honda was playing.

This draw does not make us mediocre. It means we are able to match Victory away from home, a defending champion, and do it in style. 

It will be interesting to see if we lose just one game out of the next three games or more.  If we lose just one, but draw or win two, then we really are a top four material.  If we lose all three against Sydney, against City and against Perth, then we are a top six team this season, but either way we are not a mediocre team.  We are simply recovering from our losing streak early this season that cost us points.  Compare it to WSW or Brisbane this season, whose early hopes are simply evaporating.

We have had luck in some of our games- other nights we would have found a winner. 

But we were lucky they didn't score more also. Shots low, Rufer!

Fatigue I reckon. Yes I know it's a week since our last game and that should be enough recovery time but he's only 18 and doesn't have the engine of players 5 or 6 years older. The very physically demanding game and training time must take a toll. 

Yeah completely understandable, I always say the last thing to come for young players is consistency

Nix are the least of FFA’s problems at the moment. There’s a full on Sh#t storm going on in Aus re: Matildas. I doubt they even remember we exist.

Taking Hope off greatly improved the Victory. He had a first half shocker. Fenton tore him apart.

Watched game with a very knowledgeable Melbourne supporter, and he just doesn't understand why Muscat keeps preserving with the youngster.

Muscat made the obvious change at HT, and Victory were immediately a better team. However on another day Nix would have taken one of those 2nd half goal chances and killed things off.

Victory mark III at Eden Park should be a classic.Thankfully I see the Super rugby game (Blues v Crusaders) is the night after, so the surface should be top quality. No NH sandpit Kevin.

I'd be giving Singh a rest for next game if i was Rudan. He was absolutely knackered tonight and he ain't gonna be ready in three days. The question is who we would put in for him

Is it correct that Via Dolorosa is Latin for seeing things Doloras' way?

New Thread on Inside sport forum

"Just finished watching the Victory vs Phoenix game and just want to point out in particular the first half what an appalling level of game it was.

The Phoenix are an absolute disgrace; team plays like thugs is full of a bunch of thugs and are coached by a thug.

The sheer amount of slide tackles and turnovers in the first half was incredible. You can tell that skillful players like Toivonen are getting super frustrated at the tactics of teams such as Pheonix and the pox referees aren't helping.

I find it very humoures that everyone it calling for more NPL coached to be put in A-league positions when the one who has been conducts himself and has his team playing like a thuggish state league side."

Happy Holiday Campers

I can understand their confusion. I am still in a state of shock following Jarred Gillett's even-handed refereeing last night. 

Meanwhile, over at FOX Sports HQ, they called the game a "stone cold classic".   Good write up.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/liv...

Rudan made a comment in the post-game interview that I heard in the 8am RNZ news this morning.  He said that we failed to implement his half-time instructions (or that we failed to follow the game plan in the second half), and that he was unhappy with that.  

My question is, did he not see that Doyle was unable to contain Kosta in the first half already?  Doyle is a good player, but Kosta was on another level last night, and simply thrived in the second half when their defence leaks were plugged.

See, I wouldn't say Kosta was "good" - more Doyle was poor and his communication with Cacace was non-existent.

Just read the comments on here from last night and, frankly, some of the negativity stuns me. 

We just played the best team in the competition (ignore the table for the sake of my argument for a second, folks) and matched them. They had a former player of our's giving the performance of his life and have one of the best strikers ever to play in the league in Toivonen. And Roy Krishna matched them. They have one of the best coaches the A League has ever had, with multiple honours won, and we have a 13 game rookie. And our's matched their's. And we have a formerly lamented central midfielder in Alex Rufer up against one the true quality A League midfielders in Valeri. And guess what? Rufer matched him.

I haven't mentioned Louis Fenton, I haven't mentioned Kurto, I haven't mentioned Mandi, I haven't mentioned Durante. They all matched their counterparts.

A proper football coach should be able to take average players and make them good, and take good players and make them great. They should be able to look at an opposition, and put out a team to do a job on them. Mark Rudan has done all of this and much more. I'm enjoying this season more than any other in the Nix history. And why? Because a 3-3 draw at Melbourne Victory feels like a defeat.

Believe people, believe.

The problem is this, when we do so well like we are, the inhabitants of the West Island aka Australia do not like it. Their misconception that the Nix should not be in the A league, appears to have no logical foundation.

As for being thugs all of a sudden, Mark has instilled a belief and the mongrel that has long been missing from the Nix.

Reading the comments from another forum just shows the jealous nature when we do well, as we are not the whipping boys anymore.

One thing I have to comment on - The referee. Usually I can't pick up on bad and or biased refereeing quick enough but considering the two teams last night were both prepared to put in the challenges, I thought Gillet probably had the best game of his career. He might have let a few things go, but I thought he kept a lid on a reql pot boiler. Credit where it is due. Well refereed.

An example of why I get pissed at the Aussie referees......In comparrison to that game earlier in the season where we lost someone to a sliding intercept because they felt the player was taken out after the ball, In the game after ours Matt McKay (Brisbane Roar) clearly took a CCM player with his foot/studs above ankle height and only got a yellow when it should have been a straight red.

Now back to our game, MV changed their tactics in the second half and will be glad they got one point and like us, disappointed that they dropped two. And yes, Kosta really was having a great game and Doyle was not poor but just not able to lift his game to match.

Victory played with a bit of niggle throughout the game, The referee was onto most of it. It was just two evenly matched teams playing a hard fought game.

Alex Rufer. Wow. Great performance.

This backs up my suspicion that the real issue with our team is still a psychological one. One of getting sloppy under pressure.

The Jam's comment: 

'Because a 3-3 draw at Melbourne Victory feels like a defeat'.....is right on the money.  Expectations have been raised all round. The manner of the draw should help add a few numbers to the crowd on wednesday.   

Or just not being able to follow instructions properly.

I thought we lost our head early in the 2nd half, though, and it was no surprise when we conceded.

Was a good game, but felt really deflated leaving the stadium - this was our chance to really make a statement to the rest of the league and we screwed it up. We won't get a better chance against Victory with Baena only playing a half and Honda + Neidermeier out.

ok a win would’ve been nice but give these guys a break. Of course they fell away a bit in the second half but the intensity of the first half was like nothing before. For very long periods they looked like a class outfit. Some of the short passing in confined spaces was superb. Anyone who watches Victory on a regular basis will know that they are a class side; walking away 3-3 is a top effort.

The Mandi/Rufer combination is getting better week by week.

Perfectly valid points Doloras but the form showed in the 2nd half of last week's game coupled with the 1st half of last night's represents, to me, a glass half full rather than a glass half empty.  I can't recall Rudan ever saying that the team was the finished article and is constantly referring it to ,"A work in progress."   So far it's been a huge improvement on the past 2 seasons and I'm enjoying turning up to the games with a sense of anticipation and excitement as opposed to a vague sense of foreboding.

Good to see local players like Fenton and Rufer doing so well but, as others have pointed out, Singh needs careful management and possibly needs a spell.  

Anyone know anything about the injury to Williams?    Roll on Wednesday. 

If this team is a work in progress, and we're doing way better than everyone expected us too, then I am excited for what the finished product of this team will be.

It's just a matter of getting used to being in those situations.

Tbf, a 3-3 draw with the Victory would've felt like a win if we were the ones to bring it back. Losing those two goals hurt. If we can patch it up before Wednesday then Sydney are going to be in trouble

Yep, see Krishna's full time body language 

No surprise that the league is sponsored by 'metric con'.

I don't want to get ahead of myself here because riding this wave of euphoria is great. At the moment the team is really pumping, Rudan is getting some amazing productivity out of the team. especially from some of those players that many of us have rubbished in previous seasons. Fair dues to the players too, they have really stepped up to the mark with several playing the best football of their careers. Inevitably sides will start to work us out and play accordingly and our impact is not likely to be as great as it is now. On paper we don't have those high profile players like some of the other clubs have and that could be telling next season.

We have got some real challenges in front of us, keeping Rudan, Singh, Krishna etc and that's just on the playing/coaching side. Great to be a Nix fan at the moment, wouldn't it be great if this carried on forever?

They made both a sub to remove their weakest player, and changed formation going to a 4-3-3.  While it was 3-1 and we had Williams on the park we looked like a real threat on the break.  

Once he went off I thought we lost our way and weren't really threatening on the break, or retaining possession.  They played some pretty good stuff in that second half and the change in formation was pretty effective.  Our two wing backs were forced back defending against their high forwards meaning the switches of play, which were very effective in the first half, just weren't there.  We also didn't get Roy on the ball enough, and Singh gave the ball away a lot, too much to be honest.  

I'm a huge fan of Roy, but he's not that effective on the break.  He doesn't always make great decisions and he seems to be better in a slow build up.  I'd love to know whether Rudan's instructions were to play on the break, or to try and play the same way as the first - we were very deep early on which looked deliberate but may not have been.

We did have chances to kill the game off but Melbourne scoring early in the second half meant we were always going to come under pressure.  I think it's too simplistic to say it was mentality that let us down.  There were changes in formation which definitely had an impact.  

On reflection, the high press, high tempo game we played in the first half was always going to take its toll and was unsustainable for the full 90 minutes. It was always likely that we were going to have to sustain periods of Victory possession and pressure in the second half.

You could see as the 2nd half wore on that some players were really exhausted. It's not surprising we ended up playing compact in shade and trying counter attack. It almost paid off with Sheridan and Krishna having good chances late in the game that could have turned the result for us. 

But you also have to give some credit to Victory for there second half performance. the first goal was excellent, and that certainly gave them the momentum. They put us under huge pressure.

It could have gone either way in the end with Krishna's chance and Antonis hitting the post. But football is an entertainment industry, and that was hugely gripping and entertaining stuff. 

Sounds like Rudan wanted them to continue the high press in the second half too.

Didnt Dura have another top game.

Yes i think he wanted us to take it to them at the start of the 2nd half to try and get another goal and take the sting out of there game before we went compact. But we sat back very early and the momentum shifted there way earlier than he would have liked. 

Funny thing is, I think Victory already had us worked out from the beginning of the game - there were about 7 or 8 pretty perfect balls over the top, splitting between Doyle and Cacace. Worked every single time and it is why Kosta looked like he had such a good game.

Cacace and Doyle's positioning is not good enough to cover for it. I would prefer Kopa there for this reason.

This is possibly harsh because he's had limited game time, but Fox is for me one of a small group of previous years' players that doesn't appear to have pushed on since Rudan's arrival. When he has been called on to provide cover or do a job this year, it doesn't seem to me that he's stepped up. While still clearly imperfect, Doyle is one of those who has improved immensely. 

What a step up. Looked like a seasoned professional out there, matching and even surpassing Mandi at points. MOTM contender for sure.

Mandi, Krishna and coach Rudan make it into A-League Team of the Week