Wellington Phoenix Men

R20 vs Sydney | Sat 23rd Feb | 7.35pm | SS4

284 replies · 29,729 views
about 7 years ago

Like to see Cillian start the next game, maybe Burgess too.

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about 7 years ago

Not really sure why some of you seem to think any lessons were learned by taking the game away. As has been shown in the past they dont seem to give a toss and dont be surprised at all if the approach is made they dont do it again.


GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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about 7 years ago

number8 wrote:

I don’t think we should play a different formation, the current team should play faster, with less touches and forward. The decision making is to slow.

You need better players to do all that. The only thing there that can be improved in the short to medium-term is looking to take the ball on your front foot and look forward first. The decision-making is a very long-term thing.

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about 7 years ago

ballane wrote:

Not really sure why some of you seem to think any lessons were learned by taking the game away. As has been shown in the past they dont seem to give a toss and dont be surprised at all if the approach is made they dont do it again.

Of course they give a toss.

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about 7 years ago

I think we need to target 4 wins in our remaining games to ensure we comfortably make playoffs.

- Need to beat 2 out of CCM, Roar and WSW.

- Can't lose game against Jets at home

- games against Adelaide and city will provide opportunities to climb ladder

- any point against glory will be a bonus

Remaining fixtures

- CCM (away)

- WSW (home)

- Jets (home)

- Adelaide (away)

- Roar (away)

- City (home)

- Glory (away)

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about 7 years ago

JC wrote:

I guess the one positive thing to come out of this Campbelltown experiment is that the crowd size supports the Club's regular contention that the A-League has problems, but the Nix ain't one of them.

"Wellington choosing our stadium for this match is proof our venue has what it takes to be a permanent home for an A-League team. The level of support and strong football fan base that is evident in our city is one of the key reasons the venue was selected."- Campbelltown mayor George Brticevic speaking to the local rag a few weeks ago. Ouch!

NB Adult tickets were on sale at $15, children $7.50

"At the end of the drive the lawmen arrive...

I'll take my chance because luck is on my side or something...

Her name is Rio, she don't need to understand...

Oh Rio, Rio, hear them shout across the land..."

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about 7 years ago

That's quite a tough run in I think..I think maybe 2 wins in there so some draws would help.  Im picking beat CCM away and Jets at home with draws against WSW, Roar and City.  Hopefully enough..Jets the classic 6 pointer

A small town in Europe........looking to bounce straight back up....well that aint going to happen

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about 7 years ago

james dean wrote:

Blew.2 wrote:

why did Phoenix give a home game to the opposition

Was the penalty controversial as indicated in above?

I thought it was one of the moat obvious penalties you'll ever see? 

Yeah, look, it was a clear penalty. But, Brosque absolutely made the most of the contact too, as you would expect him to. 

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about 7 years ago

JC wrote:

james dean wrote:

Blew.2 wrote:

why did Phoenix give a home game to the opposition

Was the penalty controversial as indicated in above?

I thought it was one of the moat obvious penalties you'll ever see? 

Yeah, look, it was a clear penalty. But, Brosque absolutely made the most of the contact too, as you would expect him to. 

he was going no where tho..hard to pull out of challenge tho.

A small town in Europe........looking to bounce straight back up....well that aint going to happen

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about 7 years ago

maynardf wrote:

I think we need to target 4 wins in our remaining games to ensure we comfortably make playoffs.

- Need to beat 2 out of CCM, Roar and WSW.

- Can't lose game against Jets at home

- games against Adelaide and city will provide opportunities to climb ladder

- any point against glory will be a bonus

Remaining fixtures

- CCM (away)

- WSW (home)

- Jets (home)

- Adelaide (away)

- Roar (away)

- City (home)

- Glory (away)

agree  totally! we have our future in our own hands, thankfully we are not relying on other teams to help us out at this stage of the season.

Remaining fixtures

- CCM (away) - must win, they have two players out due to suspensions, Simon being one. (3 points)

- WSW (home) - winnable, and at home so I back us as faves for this. (3 points)

- Jets (home) - must win, the jets are improving but hopefully we can get past them (3 points)

- Adelaide (away) - will be tough, we struggle at Adelaide (1 point)

- Roar (away) - must win, roar are sharkhouse, they can score goals but their defence is awful (3 points)

- City (home) - expecting to lose this one, but a draw would be nice for the last home game of the regular season. (0 points)

- Glory (away) - can't see us getting anything from this one. (0 points)

I make that a realistic 13 points from the next 7 games. Putting us on 41. That should see us 4th hopefully.

Queenslander 3x a year.

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about 7 years ago

Boro4eva wrote:

That's quite a tough run in I think..I think maybe 2 wins in there so some draws would help.  Im picking beat CCM away and Jets at home with draws against WSW, Roar and City.  Hopefully enough..Jets the classic 6 pointer

The only thing tough about that run in is Glory away from home. Every other game we should be looking at chalking up wins if the team is serious about making the playoffs. WSW and Roar are below us and deserve to be, I can sort of understand the negativity given recent results but we are better than the teams below us. No reason to think we couldn't beat city either.

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about 7 years ago

Boro4eva wrote:

JC wrote:

james dean wrote:

Blew.2 wrote:

why did Phoenix give a home game to the opposition

Was the penalty controversial as indicated in above?

I thought it was one of the moat obvious penalties you'll ever see? 

Yeah, look, it was a clear penalty. But, Brosque absolutely made the most of the contact too, as you would expect him to. 

he was going no where tho..hard to pull out of challenge tho.

Clear pen. Stuffed up by Mandi before, slow defense and Kurto doesn’t looked very good, to slow off the line and then nowhere near the ball.

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about 7 years ago

Just seen Rudan's presser, and he is 100% right, and he has every right to be angry. Really, really poor from the club. What's more, the more I hear from Rudan lately, the more I think he won't be around next year. Clearly he knows what he wants, but I feel this shambles and his outburst afterwards, could possibly strain the relationship with the owners.

Why on earth would we effectively give Sydney 'home' ground advantage? I mean Campbelltown, really? How many grounds were available to take this home game in NZ? - Eden Park, QBE, Waikato Stadium, Palmerston North, McLean Park, even Forsyth Barr with a quick turnaround would have been an option. Auckland was probably not the city to host another game due to a lot going on, but surely they were all viable options? What pisses me off most was that Corica (and I'm sure a few other Australians...) basically laughed at us hosting a 'home' game in their own backyard. What's more, if you're looking at these bloody metrics, what was the crowd? A tick over 5k...

You'd think the first rule for a New Zealand team playing in any Australian league/sport, would be to make the most of having a home ground advantage.

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about 7 years ago

I wonder if the Rudan's blow up at the club is a smokescreen for his own failings over the last few weeks. He hasn't been able to motivate the team or get them to play anywhere near what they have been. I would have rather seen him acknowledge that it wasn't a great idea to have a game in sydney, then spend that energy working on his game plans. rather than see him let rip in a presser like that. 

I have an amazing ability to find my way out of mazes. I'm pathological. 
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about 7 years ago

kwlap wrote:

I wonder if the Rudan's blow up at the club is a smokescreen for his own failings over the last few weeks. He hasn't been able to motivate the team or get them to play anywhere near what they have been. I would have rather seen him acknowledge that it wasn't a great idea to have a game in sydney, then spend that energy working on his game plans. rather than see him let rip in a presser like that. 

Yeah, exactly my thoughts. All good, Mark, you have my support and you've done an ok job so far. But, you haven't achieved anything yet. 

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about 7 years ago

Mainland FC wrote:

Brown Bear wrote:

Wow. 5115? Why wasn't this game played in NZ? Hamilton, Napier, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Whangarei, Dunedin, Christchurch or Nelson? Lower Hutt?

Super Rugby season has  started and all you could see on the news last night was the Crusaders game here in CHCh . While I would like to have a game in Christchurch it would not have worked out last night.

Does anyone in Australia seriously care about union? 

Denmark: OB Odense  |  England: Charlton Athletic  |  A-League: Wellington Phoenix  |  VPL: Richmond SC  |  AFL: St Kilda  |  NRL: NZ Warriors

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about 7 years ago

danepak wrote:

Mainland FC wrote:

Brown Bear wrote:

Wow. 5115? Why wasn't this game played in NZ? Hamilton, Napier, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Whangarei, Dunedin, Christchurch or Nelson? Lower Hutt?

Super Rugby season has  started and all you could see on the news last night was the Crusaders game here in CHCh . While I would like to have a game in Christchurch it would not have worked out last night.

Does anyone in Australia seriously care about union? 

Not particularly, given they're sharke at it.  Like most sports actually :D

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about 7 years ago · edited about 7 years ago · History

Blew.2 wrote:

why did Phoenix give a home game to the opposition

Was the penalty controversial as indicated in above?

In particular, Wellington's emphatic crowd of nearly 20,000 at their last match in Auckland's North Harbour Stadium, made the decision to retain the fixture perplexing for many observers. 

Great, let's write a story and not bother checking all the details. 

Amataur.

Denmark: OB Odense  |  England: Charlton Athletic  |  A-League: Wellington Phoenix  |  VPL: Richmond SC  |  AFL: St Kilda  |  NRL: NZ Warriors

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about 7 years ago

danepak wrote:

Mainland FC wrote:

Brown Bear wrote:

Wow. 5115? Why wasn't this game played in NZ? Hamilton, Napier, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Whangarei, Dunedin, Christchurch or Nelson? Lower Hutt?

Super Rugby season has  started and all you could see on the news last night was the Crusaders game here in CHCh . While I would like to have a game in Christchurch it would not have worked out last night.

Does anyone in Australia seriously care about union? 

Not particularly, given they're sharke at it.  Like most sports actually :D

Although I wasn't born in this country, I love NZ to bits (and supporting you), but to state that Australia is shyte at most sports, is wrong. Especially as Australia beat NZ in most sports apart from union. And yes, I know they've got a bigger population etc. 

Denmark: OB Odense  |  England: Charlton Athletic  |  A-League: Wellington Phoenix  |  VPL: Richmond SC  |  AFL: St Kilda  |  NRL: NZ Warriors

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about 7 years ago

james dean wrote:

4th is season has been seriously over hyped. We've only won seven out of twenty matches

We've got results in 14/20.

Grumpy old bastard alert

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about 7 years ago

JC wrote:

kwlap wrote:

I wonder if the Rudan's blow up at the club is a smokescreen for his own failings over the last few weeks. He hasn't been able to motivate the team or get them to play anywhere near what they have been. I would have rather seen him acknowledge that it wasn't a great idea to have a game in sydney, then spend that energy working on his game plans. rather than see him let rip in a presser like that. 

Yeah, exactly my thoughts. All good, Mark, you have my support and you've done an ok job so far. But, you haven't achieved anything yet. 

I'm entirely with Rudan on this.  How the heck is a coach supposed to make any improvements when his squad is spending more time travelling than on the training pitch?

What sense did it ever make to traipse a football side unneccesarily around Australasia, giving top opposition sides the advantage of not having to travel - when we should be forcing that travel and lost training days on them, not us, and keeping our own players in their home beds and not away from the training pitch while travelling ourselves?  And we do that to them week after week after week.  

It's simply crazy stuff imho. If football results are your priority you wouldn't even dream of doing this. 

I can't see that you save anything financially by wearing out and disadvantaging your own team, and putting them in unfamiliar circumstances, so that they underperform and you loose momentum and fan support.  And you impact their recovery and mental freshness.

Just fudging nuts, and 100% with Rudan saying so.  This club has their priorities backwards.  Maybe unless they want to be a bank instead.

---

But ...

So we get a two week break?  Couldn't be at a better time.  A chance for the guys to freshen up a bit.  For all we are making it hard for coach and players, we're in the hunt for 4th.  

Spend a bit of time at home resting up and working over the problem areas on the training pitch.  And then hopefully come out fired up and fizzing again v CCM.  And make a great run home.

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about 7 years ago

If we can't get at least 7 points from the next three matches CCM (away), WSW (home) and Jets (away) we actually do not deserve to be in the top 6.

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about 7 years ago

17 March is the next (actual) home game. The previous time we played at home was 26 January. That will be 50 days between matches at our (actual) home. Some Leagues off seasons are shorter than that.

If nothing else, the timing of the two home/away games is nothing short of brain damaged  

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about 7 years ago

The club couldn't control that. The stadium was booked.

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about 7 years ago

The Stadium was booked all of last weekend when we played in Auckland??

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about 7 years ago

Stadium was booked last week and weekend due to Kapa Haka thing, this weekend (2nd March is the Marshall Mathers concert). Can't remember what was at the stadium the weekend we went to Auckland though.

Queenslander 3x a year.

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about 7 years ago

theprof wrote:

Stadium was booked last week and weekend due to Kapa Haka thing, this weekend (2nd March is the Marshall Mathers concert). Can't remember what was at the stadium the weekend we went to Auckland though.

It was booked this weekend and obviously last week for set up. Would have been free last Friday
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about 7 years ago · edited about 7 years ago · History

Or they could schedule an away game on the weekends the stadium has been pre booked. That requires somone to do some work finding things out so guess thats just to much to ask.Much easier to just take the team away for 7 weeks.


GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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about 7 years ago

I don't care how you choose justify it - taking a home game to Aussie was, and is, absolutely fudgeing mental.

E + R + O

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about 7 years ago

ballane wrote:

Or they could schedule an away game on the weekends the stadium has been pre booked. That requires somone to do some work finding things out so guess thats just to much to ask.Much easier to just take the team away for 7 weeks.

Considering the FFA handle the scheduling - yes it probably is too much to ask.

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about 7 years ago

Surge wrote:

I don't care how you choose justify it - taking a home game to Aussie was, and is, absolutely fudgeing mental.

agreed and I think the club could have done more to keep the game in NZ, for me though it was never going to be at Westpac. Any expectation that we have any influence over the FFA re scheduling is pure fantasy.

Queenslander 3x a year.

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about 7 years ago

There was a lot of angst on here when the game was first announced, I think most stemmed from the fact that the game wasn't easily accessible to the at home NZ fans. I don't think any of us thought we would be going so well and looking so good that quite obvious things as giving away home advantage to a top part of the table rival would be an issue. The other factors such as team cohesion, number of games away in succession etc are things that a club run by people with a good football background - would have recognised immediately and never let happen. The fact that Westpac was booked etc is all spin and there is likely some sort of deal between Nix owners and the new franchise and/or venue that would be more lucrative to taking a punt on getting a good crowd somewhere else in NZ.  The 20,000+ at Eden Park really threw the cat amongst the pigeons, who knows, if that was expected, WelNix might have kept the Sydney game here and made a bigger profit.

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about 7 years ago

I feel these next three games are going to shape our season. Away to CCM then two tough home games. If we can get at least two wins that will give us confidence and momentum going into the pointy end of the season. If we want to do well in the playoffs we need momentum going in. The two week break has come at a good time for us to regroup and recharge. 

I think we have been very competitive, playing well in long patches but failing to take our chances. I really hope that Welnix put in a good campaign to drum up a good crowd for WSW game at Westpac on 17 March, to spur the team on.

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about 7 years ago

I was hoping that Sheridan would be the guy who would pick up the slack when Krishna started to struggle to put them away; maybe I'm being harsh on him, but he hasn't actually looked like scoring yet except for one decent shot when he first came on. He's very good in the build up play and has had a few great assists though.

a.haak

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about 7 years ago · edited about 7 years ago · History

yeh- Kurto and Taylor are top drawer.

Kopa, Mandi, Sheridan so far are a step down. They're still really good players, but haven't produced as consistently and universally excellent results.

Rudan is going to be judged on plan mark 3- because just plopping Sheridan up top hasn't worked and won't bring us home with a wet sail. Fatigue also a factor. 

We've had players put their hands up all season. We need a couple more to really hit form and finish the season well. 



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about 7 years ago

Just back last night from the match on the Qantas jet.  Domey plus one staffer on board. Did the team stay in Australia for the next fixture? If they did it's a very long stay.  Or am I just jet lagged?

Typhoon Tim
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about 7 years ago

valeo wrote:

I was hoping that Sheridan would be the guy who would pick up the slack when Krishna started to struggle to put them away; maybe I'm being harsh on him, but he hasn't actually looked like scoring yet except for one decent shot when he first came on. He's very good in the build up play and has had a few great assists though.

When Sheridan came on we had reverted  to the  5 at the back and 2 defensive midfielders which failed us earlier in the season. It was hard for the remaining 3 attacking  players to be effective. 

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about 7 years ago

whatever wrote:

valeo wrote:

I was hoping that Sheridan would be the guy who would pick up the slack when Krishna started to struggle to put them away; maybe I'm being harsh on him, but he hasn't actually looked like scoring yet except for one decent shot when he first came on. He's very good in the build up play and has had a few great assists though.

When Sheridan came on we had reverted  to the  5 at the back and 2 defensive midfielders which failed us earlier in the season. It was hard for the remaining 3 attacking  players to be effective. 

Agreed, it didn't seem like there was much available in terms of service for him. 

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