R2 vs Sydney FC | Sun 20th Oct | 8:00pm | SS7

fudge me that what a phoenix yellow if i ever saw one. welcome to the dark side of the moon reno

And then a replay comes on in the ground, people see it, start booing and then it becomes a VAR check...

Not debating the red card, but if we're living in a VAR influenced world. Surely replays in grounds shouldn't come up on the big screens to influence decisions before they're made by the guy with all the camera angles at his disposal...

Come on var worked exactly as its supposed to. Bad on field decision over turned after a clear mistake on a major decision 

Yep, I hate the VAR with a passion, but that was a crystal clear argument for why it should be a thing.

Tough result to stomach but so many positives from that.

Very proud of the team today. They dominated the game and were very unlucky to come home with nothing.
If anything we need to br less naive and sto giving away such soft goals but going forward we definitely have the goods and with Hooper on board I expect us to do well next week v Perth

You're missing the point. Read again, and then try again.

At the end of the day, we went to Sydney and for large parts of the game looked the better team and deserved to get something out of it.  

Looking forward to seeing Hooper add a bit more of a cutting edge to our team up top.

But 2 goals from set-pieces is not good enough and we looked shaky last week against them. Considering our height, we should be dominating the balls coming in.

Ball proved his quality tonight... good looking player.

A few millimetres difference on Ball's shot and the game would've been so different. Still, more than a few positive things to think about for next week, especially when you factor in Hooper.

COYN!

fudge this fudgeing sky coverage

where's the post game?

I mean I never expected that when this game finished I'd think we were unlucky not to win it.

That was a bloody good performance, disappointing result but bloody promising.

Really exciting stuff.

Gutted but that was an excellent game of footy. Second half especially we were very good.

so the season is guna be exciting after all?

We have zero luck. All our open chances take hilarious deflections and miss and their not a striker just takes a punt and scores. 

sweet as - I think you went a bit OTT for a players first game, but that's your right.

With that performance and the addition of Hooper things are looking pretty good.

On the strength of the second half, there are signs of a decent team coming together.  Still a lot of wrinkles to be ironed out. Despite a very shaky first half, this was in the second half a better performance than what we managed against WU last weekend. 

Never happy with a loss but think we walk away from that game with alot more positives. Has been plenty of questions asked so far about how we are going to score goals. Maybe time to be asking how are we going to stop other teams scoring because we have given away some soft goals so far.Its been as issue for a number of seasons and at this early stage looks like we may have similar issues.

Whether there are boos or a replay at the ground first doesn't really matter does it? The VAR was used correctly and the correct call was made. Would have and should have been the same call regardless so what does it matter? What's the difference? 

I don't think either the player staying on the ground or the crowds reactions were factors in that VAR decision.

R E S P E C T. Not easy to go to Sydney and dominate. Sucks to lose but I've come away feeling more optimistic after this game.

That was an entertaining game. Despite being 0/2 I feel more optimistic for the season than I did a week ago.

the bagging of sotirio and davila shown to be quite pitiful. Both did well today. Some of you need to be a bit more circumspect before you make these great pronouncements about players. 

Sotirio doesn't have the talent to be a consistent starter at A-League level (think everybody knows that) but had some flashes of knowing what he was doing. Would be okay with him on the bench when Hooper comes, let's not forget his physical ability.

Didn't quite understand the Davila hate last game out - his performance had all the hallmarks of a player being asked to perform in an uncomfortable role. He was a bit more free this game and showed improvements, though he's not quite where we want him to be yet. Happy with him in the squad

If we play every week like that, we are in the finals. We where super unlucky today but statistically that will even out.

Draw maybe even win would be deserved, but boy, I’m looking forward for next game, that was exciting.

I thought the amount of players without aleague experience meant it would take a few games for them to get up to speed but they're all quick learners.

I'll be the first to put my hand up and say that I was bagging Sotirio after last weeks performance but for me today he played like a player who had a point to prove and was MOTM for me. With Hooper coming in, having him on the bench as an impact player is exciting... 

So fudgeing gutted a tinny goal is what took 1 point from us.

Both teams made great chances and nearly scored a lot.  Exciting game, gutted about Cacaces bad tackle as losing the game and a player for two games is a bad finish to a great game 

We actually look better defensively than last season when we relied heavily on luck and a brilliant keeper. So to see us ship these soft goals when for the most part we've defended in a well structured way is incredibly frustrating.

next week hooper and scott in for sautiro and cacace.  Sauterio to make the impact off the bench.  play davilla behind hooper and ball and mcowatt on the wings

A very promising all round performance, with some great signs of things to come. 
My biggest criticism would be aimed at Rufer. Constantly gave the ball away, never looked comfortable on the ball, seemed out of his depth!

Right, OK, you don't think replays should be shown at the grounds.  I disagree completely.  Spectators pay for the experience, and it's hard enough for teams to get crowds off the cash and into the grounds without treating them like mushrooms.  It's part of officials jobs to make objective decisions and I don't think diminishing the crowds experience to coddle them is the way to go.

Well that performance was good. Next match should be a classic.

I've calmed down a bit now so fair point's. I've been anti-VAR all the way so just venting some frustrations, mostly from the heart but without using my head. Apologies to the other joker in this thread that I was baiting a few pages back too.

Back to the game itself - we were mere centimetres from taking 3 points away from home against the reigning champions. Football being the heartbreaker that it can be, and unfortunately we walk away 0-2 to start the season.

Usually for a Nix side that loses away from home, we're scrappy, we keep it tight and we usually don't get too much flair and drive going forward, there's a lot of longballs and it's a bit of a hard watch at the best of time. For a long time we've been feeding off scraps and living in a perpetual state of counter attacking type football. Tonight that notion was blown out of the water! Creating pressure, pressing/harassing and challenging Sydney to the point we dominated the game, this was the most pleasing aspect of it all. Sure we didn't get a result, but we will play a lot worse at some point this season and we'll end up winning games, which is just the way it goes.

Despite the result, there is a lot to be encouraged about from that performance. Ball was fantastic and Uli was solid, it'll do him a world of good in terms of confidence getting that goal as well. Bodes well for the season ahead. Looking forward to seeing Hooper bringing a real cutting edge up front from next week too.

COYN!

Ball ran his socks off today and looked fantastic. Although many slated him, myself included, sotirio really turned it around after the first 20 minutes or so too, and he put in a pretty solid shift for the rest of the game. The whole team grew into it to be honest, McCowatt and Davila definitely got better as the game progresssed. Disappointing but positive. My only real gripe was with Steinmann and Rufer, thought both weren't great today

What have you done with the real Royz?

Interested to hear from the people who were complaining when Ball was signed.

Not disagreeing with you at all but can't help thinking we wouldn't have even got a VAR review if Caceres was still in a Nix shirt.

I'm 3 mins into watching the replay and Sydney are playing some of the best football I've seen for months. How can you have a mullet like that and play the beautiful game?

Fixed