R24 vs Jets | Thurs 13th Aug | 9:30pm | SS7

Am I crazy, or has Cacace just been hit from behind and taken to the ground there?  No penalty?

pisspoor performance they're jizzing about the goalie the kids technique is terrible against a good hitting team he wouldve copped 3 easy 

Nah, not that one. Libby's actually quite good at crumpling in the box under minimal contact. Not sure if that's a laudable skill but hey Sydney players do it all the time and get applauded for it.

He reminds me a bit of Keegan Smith 

Davilla was poor again. Sotorio has no touch and is only good when we are getting in behind teams.

Other than that, we have dominated

How can anyone blame the ref after all the chances we've had, all the shots. All the passes in behind. 

Instead of relying on penalties, score goals in open play.

Well that sucked. 

Based on our current form the boys will be home by next Sunday night. ?

Look at our stats. Dominated; yet like all season we have failed to convert it all to goals.

I think he's been poor as everyone keeps fouling him and he's not getting anything from the officials.

Cacace post match interview about how much better we were than Jets makes me cringe, we lost 3-0 you muppet.

We only can blame ourself. If you can’t score you can’t win.

Can't believe all the sore losers on here blaming the ref about not giving us penalties. The ref was great, I'd have him every game!

If you dominate for 90 minutes but can't score you don't deserve to win, simple as that.

So I'm going to complain about the penalties (well at least these two I think should have been given) but first, Noah James in goal for the Jets had a great game on debut, we should have been finishing our chances while the Jets finished theirs. But it is really frustrating to not have these pens awarded. The second one wasn't given and the Jets went up the other end for their 3rd.

https://streamable.com/tayobm

https://streamable.com/ml9afo

It feels like a lot of the players heads are there already.

Feel like we are following the coaches lead and becoming a bunch of whingers. Hope we toughen up in the playoffs. Ref was good tonight and we deserved to lose 3-0.

We lacked the cutting edge up front! No need to blame referee. Yes there were 1 or 2 decisions but looking at how many chances we created, should've gotten back into the game. Hooper was sorely missed today.

Sometimes, I wonder if some of you actually watch the games. We're not stuck in the fudgeing Kalezic days, or with Pavlovic and Totori up front - we're one of the best teams in the league. We made the look like Year 7s in that first half, and a deserved goal (which we were denied due to a string of extraordinary circumstances and some piss poor penalty calls) would have well and truly put us on the way to a thrashing. Our issue is mentality, we lost all fight in that second half, falling into the "ah, not this again" mindset. It's cost us a few points this season and that's what we need to root out; it's absolutely nothing to do with our performance or talent.

Speaking on Faghani and Ams' performances - how the fudge is this forum so passive? We were toothless up front, but the referee was absolutely atrocious and cost us the game. VAR would have given us at the very least three penalties, and two should have been given by any trainee ref - not sure how Faghani missed them. That early Elliot one would have opened the floodgates with Jets forced to throw men forward. Genuinely unbelievable, how long do we have to put up with this

For me Faghani is the best ref in the league but I don't think he was good tonight. The early yellow card to Devere for diving (harsh imo) seemed to stick in his mind as indicating we were going to try to win a penalty by any means necessary, to the point that he ignored two clear cut fouls in the penalty area which on any other day with any other ref would instantly have been blown up. 

Of course we may not have scored from the spot but both shouts came at a vital time in the game, so I think you could say that Faghani had a definite impact on our chances, even allowing for the fact that we were so awful in front of goal.

FFS the ref did not cost us the game and don't get how that can be even suggested. Yes he missed a couple of penalty shouts. But if we are going to have to rely on refs giving us penalties to win games then we arnt going to win many. Open the floodgates really don't think we were going to get that many penalties. Even though not many in this squad have been involved in previous seasons you have to wonder what is that we can get into a seemingly strong position then for some reason just meekly fall away. At least the 3rd time.

Missing the point mate. He absolutely cost us the game missing that Elliot pen at 0-0. It's how momentum works - case in point, us giving up after the Jets scored. Besides, we absolutely dominated them and it was a mixture of extreme bad luck mixed with those pen shouts that meant we didn't come out of this with a 4-1 win or the like.

As for the mentality bit though - exactly mate. that's what I'm asking

We're playing amazingly well, but Newcastle brought on Roy ODonovan and Bernie Ibini. That was a thunderous strike from Ibini.

The good news- we've had our best ever season and we're in the finals.

Steinman v Rufer is interesting. Libby is a beast and Elliot is impressing.  Can Louis lift? There'll a left back position next season. 

Worries: what's the injury news? Do we have a striker if Hooper is corked? Feel we could still win the league- we're playing so well we just need to find a strike and maybe a bit of luck.

Gotta say the ref let the game flow- didn't allow players a bail out or soft foul, but gave cards for thuggery. I thought it was some of the best reffing I've seen of late. The penalties were unlucky, but not dead set. 

That and bringing on Waine and Sotirio, instead of Bernie Ibini or another goal scorer. In all fairness, I thought Sotirio showed desire and desparation and he might have got one. 

But a fit Hooper and crumbs- even Hamish Watson might have slotted one tonight.

I watch the Phoenix because I see this team as very relevant to my life.  Little to no goals.

Sorry its just BS how some fans look to blame the ref when we lose yes he may have contributed  but he wasnt the reason we lost. Our inability to put the friggen ball in the net and then leak some goals was the reason its BS to continually blame the refs.

We have been very ordinary since the resumption and it seems other teams have worked us out and we havnt been able to counter them,

my 2 cents worth:

1] The penalties. 2 of the 4 should have been given, the other two not - yet I have seen them given in the A League this season. I think the ref let a bit too much niggle going, in the interests of playing advantage when there wasn't any. Am's on the sideline - nuff said, when Tara said, he was giving Ufuk the word and had him cautioned. Of course the coach would be upset. Pretty much every decision went the jets way. What did Ams expect? all smiles??

Possession, especially in that first half, we had so much it wasn't funny and should have been 4-0 up at the break. Someone - anyone, just pull the fudgeing trigger. Except Libby whom almost scored 2 goals from great runs.

I don't think we were worth a 3-0 defeat but then we were always up against it. When the ball hits a goalie in the head and bounces away unbeknownst to the said goalkeeper, you just know your luck is fudgeed. Having said that, I thought the kid had a great debut, even stayed calm when Topoooooooor-Stanley tried desperately to score an own goal.

Bring on the finals.

Think there will some teams heading into finals glad its us there and not the Jets. Somebody in Hawkes Bay better go and check on C-Diddy

What a depressing way to end the week. Hard to think about how we dominated the game when the final outcome seems to tell the opposite.

we've not been great since the restart tbh, build up play dont mean shark if you cant finish.

I thought that game showed the limits of Sotirio as a bench option.  Chasing a game against a team sitting deep he wasn't much use, needs to space to run into.  I only watched the last half hour where we dominated the ball but looked very vulnerable on the counter with both our fullbacks playing very high - they hit the post and scored from a breakaway and could have had one more.  Maybe the balance isn't quite right there without Payne.

I didn't think Davila looked like a goal threat which made us look a bit blunt in attack.  The refs decisions didn't help but I don't think that was the reason we lost

I don't want to say it, but I think the week is still to get worse...

Did anyone else notice that we made four separate subs?

Rufer on for Steinmann at the beginning of the second half.

Sotirio on for Davila at around 70 minutes.

Scott on for Elliot at around 80.

Waine on for Ball at around 85. 

Do halftime subs not count towards the three windows?

It's three opportunities + HT – the idea is that it is designed to ensure there aren't more breaks during a game than there would have been before the five-sub rule came in.

Ok, lack of var, lack of luck and poor ref decisions have had major impacts on our games but I also wonder if the the extra subs and games in winter have had an impact on the games that don't benefit us as much. Teams with wingbacks, those players may not tire as much or teams can sub on more players (who changes rules midseason?) so there is less space in wider areas and we aren't able to break forward into those spaces as quickly as we were prior to lockdown. We were a pretty good team at transitioning quickly and that has not been the case so much since the break. 

Though, a lot of is contextual - against SFC if Grant handball is correctly given, pen against Elliott last night (maybe even Ball 'goal' against WSW)  then teams have to attack us and more prone to leaving space for us to attack in to.

its the usual story, so much has not gone in our favour - we can't blame it cos we should be doing enough to win games regardless of the poor reffing, and taking the need for VAR out of the equation.

eitherway we should be content with finals footy and hope for a better showing next season.

[quote=Bullion]

 and games in winter have had an impact on the games that don't benefit us as much. Teams with wingbacks, those players may not tire as much or teams can sub on more players (who changes rules midseason?) so there is less space in wider areas and we aren't able to break forward into those spaces as quickly as we were prior to lockdown. We were a pretty good team at transitioning quickly and that has not been the case so much since the break. 

[quote=Bullion]Had wondered myself if playing when we are was one of the reasons we are seeing so many under hit passes.The grounds are heavier and more dew on them. Not the reason but just another factor.

do they not train at that time then?

Surely winter in NSW can't be all that different to summer in Wellington. The boys should be used to it! ?