Tauranga Pre Season

Fever singing we will win 3_2. 2 min xtra time

they are getting in behind with diaginal balls.

Ccm corner

Game over. Ccm 2 nix nil. Sorry big fingers smal phone

Sack Morgan

How did the trialist(s) look?

It's freezing

gutted! need a good striker to bring it all together. sounds like we were still a bit rusty on the finishing. im not worried about our chances to make top six just yet hopefully it comes together,

Oh well I suppose it's too much to ask for an all blacks/warriors/phoenix trifecta

We put 2 ccm through, durantte saves day

Point blank save off iifill volley

all who? whats that sport? haha

Downey all over the place. Corner ccm

Gk.

Back four out at lunch

OMG in victoria it's 20 pages of ridiculoball (AFL) and maybe 2 pages for all other sports. Its driving me insane.

Oooh, what are they having?

Are they learning to play 'the arsenal way'. Geez, i dont need to support two teams like that...

Are you suggesting that Ricki Herbert is a paedo?

TB ta ckle, load crack heard in stand,ccm defenddr down

Free kick nix 30 out off side

Wilkinson off injured. Porter on

Not enough wind and rain, need to pick up our game

oh god, anyone else a tad nervous about the upcoming season

Need lots of work on out of possetionn play. Caught out to many times with players in wrong place. Giving them time to run at us..

back to S1

Sorry if this has been outlined earlier

What was the crowd size?

Went to the game from Auckland with 4 other mates. Took some notes because from what I saw....it's going to be a long season.

Crowd size was closer to 3k than 5k for those reporting that first off.

On attack, we got good traction down the right hand side from Downey, They pushed Durante and Siggy wide and then Lochhead and Downey further up. We seemed to get a few crosses in from the right. Lochhead - he kinda looked like he had forgotten what to do with the ball out wide in the attacking half and play broke down when he had it. On defence, it was the reverse. The Downey/Siggy combo on the right was kids stuff all day and Siggy was frequently beaten cause he had concrete boots or got dragged high into the midfield (more on this). Siggy tried to wrestle a few players when he got beaten and I think he was lucky not to get pinged on one occasion in the box. If that our right side defence this year, left wingers are going to eat us for dinner. Siggy also has a tendancy to try to head long balls forward which invariably fall to their midfielder in an attacking half, looking at a back 4 with room to play and often, we thought he could have looked to head back to Paston. Not sure if it was a lack of communication between the two but it was never explored (again I'll come back to the midfield) Griffiths came on for Siggy and while being a better player on the ball, he was switched to the left and Durante to the right. Griffith didn't really look like an upgrade but he didn't have much to show.

Midfield: I know we had 3 players that are supposed to play as midfielders but they did anything but. McGlinchy is a quality player and you think they would know this yet he was given free reign until he was subbed. I know Lia was there because he went down once and also kicked the ball out on a few occasions. As that front screen defensive midfielder, Muscat has been a rock for us but today was invisible but I know he was on because he too went down once. Brown, I know he was there because I saw this yellow streak and a '6' so I know he was there. As for that, our midfield was pathetic. While people may have possibly played worse, at least they played. These guys didn't even show up.

Bertos I thought suffered for the lack of ball from Lochhead and at times, found him standing at left back and Lochhead at left wing. Ifill did the best he could and Greenacre couldn't do much because he either had to chase balls into 30y of space or any ball sent to him was like a rocket and thus with a wet ball and surface, his touch was not adequate enough.

Paston made 1 maybe 2 saves but CCM were able to get into the box in the first half without much effort and also in the last 15. At times, there was real communication issues and the ball was just sitting free in a crowded 6y box with him waiting for someone to hoof it rather than call it and dive on it.

To be fair, and I've thought about this, the pitch and conditions were not conductive to good flowing football however it was the same for both sides and CCM made it look easy. The dark lad they bought on late (number 9) stung with two shots off his left and converted from his right. In 15 mins, he really shone - that and McGlinchy. Matt Simon was continually left unmarked as well as their left hand flank having a picnic...

In terms of play, the 1st half was all CCM along with the last 15. We had parity or better for the 30 after half but its hard to tell if we earnt it or simply CCM just sat off and let us play. The subs we made contributed to them having the better of the last 15.

I made a point of watching Pav when he came on and if he is the back up, we are in real trouble because he does not offer anything except the ability to run around at pace. We still have this same looping cross in from the flanks which is an easy read however when they whipped in a couple of low driving crosses in the 2nd half (ala Rojas) they actually looked a little dangerous so I think its more of the same formula sans Rojas.

The 5 of us left with the opinion that this could be a long season....
Jeff Vader2011-09-25 20:02:29

Oh yeah... shirts. Either our guys have put on a lot of weight or we are trying to be like the All Blacks and wear skin tight shirts. A few of the boys looked fat. I know they are not so maybe they might want to consider going up one size in shirts. Bertos 'looked' dreadfully overweight so I blame the shirt size.

Excellent, get the crap days out of the way before the season starts!

I know its an often trotted out excuse, and its easy to dismiss BUT it is only preseason.

After watching the Roar in Hamilton last year I was picking them to end up near the foot of the table as they were AWFUL, and i'm sure I wasn't the only one. Hopefully we pick up a goalscorer soon, which we are sadly lacking, and the players have a bit of weight off their shoulders with the news of the last week and can focus on the season ahead.

I know it is preseason but to counter that as well, we put out a starting XI - literally the same starting XI of last year and they looked very unconhesive. Now whether that was deliberate or not I don't know but this teams' top XI are no strangers to each other and I actually expected a lot better.

McGlinchy really is a class footballer and I look forward to watching him this year. If we had him.....
Jeff Vader2011-09-25 20:22:11

Wouldn't have happened at ROF. Just saying.

Bernie Ibini-Isei, young Socceroo and one of Australia's brightest prospects for the future.

He looked quality. Has height, build, plays off both feet, pace and skill..

Not at all. Expectations so low, we're bound to do better than I thought.

Bernie Ibini-Isei made his debut in Welly 2010.
Traitor2011-09-25 21:37:55

The next harry Kewell?

Well, one of them.

ahhh the season does not sound super exciting. I am worried about our defense, as the current combos arent doing the job, and we arent looking to add someone there to strengthen - only someone to back up what we have.


I want to see Sanchez starting for Brown, and Pantelis for Leo perhaps- although Leo could be in for a good season.

Did Pantelis get injured or did i read that wrong?