vs Cold Ghost - 15 Jan 8:30pm SS3

877 replies · 4,933 views

about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I thought things turned around as soon as Leo came on. We had a real issue transitioning the ball up the field before that. Despite the fact that he isn't beating players one on one, he still works harder than any of our other midfielders..

Harder than Vinnie Lia?

Chalk flew up!

Incredible stamina. No shame. Yellow Fever.

Phoenix fans. We have to win them over one fan at a time.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

djtim3000 wrote:

Jeff Vader wrote:

Yeah that was a real left field one the Daniel for Ward. I don't think anyone picked both Bertos and Daniel to get benched for Ward of all people.

That it was Ward that replaced him, was a little out of the blue (considering Ward was supposed to be injured) but I'm not sure why anyone is suprised Daniel was left out of the starting lineup - performing away from the RoF has never been his strong point.

Herbert has benched Bertos for extended periods in the past, when he's not been performing (last season IIRC?) - so again not really suprising. I personally think that by the end of the season, proving he gets more game time, opinions will change to positive about Downey - good positioning, very good pace, the touch will come back with a bit of consistent time on the field. In terms of the one-on-one in reality only, say, 20% of the players in the a-league would have scored that consistently, I think people are being a bit harsh.

The only real coaching shocker was Miron not reacting to his first change. It was immediately obvious that after moving Salley from the midfield into a back 4, the Nix were allowed back into the game. The midfield opened up for the Nix and GC's ability to transition straight through the middle basically disappeared. He had a strange fixation on old vs young players, rather than trying to fix the structural problems that ended up losing the game for his team.

I think I made mention of this at the time that the sub of Rees would come back to haunt them.

Grumpy old bastard alert

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

He covers more ground than Lia, quite easily IMO.

But yes, Lia was probably missed as well. I was very unimpressed by the midfield.rjmiller2012-01-16 12:14:01

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I thought having Miron mic'ed up was a slam dunk win. It was superb.

Incredible stamina. No shame. Yellow Fever.

Phoenix fans. We have to win them over one fan at a time.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

vote for browny

Poll

Who scored the best goal of week 15

< id="ctl56_rbListAnswer_0" name="ctl56$rbListAnswer" value="483" ="">Archie Thompson < id="ctl56_rbListAnswer_1" name="ctl56$rbListAnswer" value="484" ="">Segio van Dijk < id="ctl56_rbListAnswer_2" name="ctl56$rbListAnswer" value="485" ="">Labino Haliti < id="ctl56_rbListAnswer_3" name="ctl56$rbListAnswer" value="486" ="">Patrick Zwaansijk < id="ctl56_rbListAnswer_4" name="ctl56$rbListAnswer" value="487" ="">Mark Bridge < id="ctl56_rbListAnswer_5" name="ctl56$rbListAnswer" value="488" ="">Mohamed Adnan < id="ctl56_rbListAnswer_6" name="ctl56$rbListAnswer" value="489" ="">Shane Smeltz < id="ctl56_rbListAnswer_7" name="ctl56$rbListAnswer" value="490" ="">Tim Brown

< id="btnVote" value="VOTE" name="submit" ="" ="">

15% - Archie Thompson

6% - Segio van Dijk

9% - Labino Haliti

9% - Patrick Zwaansijk

1% - Mark Bridge

29% - Mohamed Adnan

4% - Shane Smeltz

27% - Tim Brown

Thank you for voting!

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

rjmiller wrote:

He covers more ground than Lia, quite easily IMO.

But yes, Lia was probably missed as well. I was very unimpressed by the midfield.

yes midfield was hopelessly inadequate at times being overrun to the point that if not for the defence we could have been hammered. I personally didnt think that ward bought much to the table and aprt from the goal brown didnt either(he continues to gine away silly yellowcards) Sanchez was off form as was Ifill. A lucky result for us but One I will happily take

" If you only have a hammer you tend to see every problem as a nail" - maslow

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

ifill was limping most of the second half, should have got the hook 60 minute mark imo.

Very nice header from brown to win it.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Whitehartlane wrote:

ifill was limping most of the second half, should have got the hook 60 minute mark imo.

Very nice header from brown to win it.

Never seen Ifill play a game where he is not limping at some stage

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

George Kostanza wrote:

vote for browny

Poll

How? Where?

My browser/work's firewalls and filters don't give me a link in your post to follow - just one to Optus' home page and another to www.muster.com.au

Incredible stamina. No shame. Yellow Fever.

Phoenix fans. We have to win them over one fan at a time.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

bwtcf wrote:

I thought having Miron mic'ed up was a slam dunk win. It was superb.

Would have been superb to hear his reaction if Greenie had of scored that one while they were mid-conversation with him.

Yellow Whever Whanganui

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

sthn.jeff wrote:

Whitehartlane wrote:

ifill was limping most of the second half, should have got the hook 60 minute mark imo.

ï¿½

Very nice header from brown to win it.

ï¿½

Never seen Ifill play a game where he is not limping at some stage

I think that was due to that tackle where he dug up most of Skilled Park.

Yellow Whever Whanganui

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

paullt wrote:

rjmiller wrote:

He covers more ground than Lia, quite easily IMO.

But yes, Lia was probably missed as well. I was very unimpressed by the midfield.

ï¿½

IMO the fix for midfield would be...

Lia to RB
Muscat to defensive mid
Smith stay put
Brown to the bench.

Yellow Whever Whanganui

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

goldienz wrote:

paullt wrote:

rjmiller wrote:

He covers more ground than Lia, quite easily IMO.

But yes, Lia was probably missed as well. I was very unimpressed by the midfield.

IMO the fix for midfield would be...

Lia to RB
Muscat to defensive mid
Smith stay put
Brown to the bench.

And the result of that if it had of taken place Yesterday would have been ??????

1) Embarrasment for Paston

2) Us loosing 1-0 to Cold toast

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

paullt wrote:

rjmiller wrote:

He covers more ground than Lia, quite easily IMO.

But yes, Lia was probably missed as well. I was very unimpressed by the midfield.

See, right there is why I get annoyed at comments about Brown. Fact is that seconds before that yellow card Brown had got all the way forward to challenge for a header at the far post, then turned around, sprinted all the way back and brought Hallaran down in midfield as he was making dangerous inroads towards our goal.

Given that Hallaran spent much of the game terrorising our defence, especially down our left flank, I think that foul was justifiable, and was just a case of Brown doing his job and taking one for the team.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

sthn.jeff wrote:

goldienz wrote:

paullt wrote:

rjmiller wrote:

He covers more ground than Lia, quite easily IMO.

But yes, Lia was probably missed as well. I was very unimpressed by the midfield.

ï¿½

IMO the fix for midfield would be...

Lia to RB
Muscat to defensive mid
Smith stay put
Brown to the bench.

ï¿½

And the result of that if it had of taken place Yesterday would have been ??????

ï¿½

1) Embarrasment for Paston

2) Us loosing 1-0 to Cold toast

I'm making the assumption that changes to the midfield would have prevented Paston being in a position to have been nearly embarrassed in the first place.

Isn't the lack of a strong midfield the issue? Isn't the fact one of the 'defensive midfielders' is usually hovering around the edge of the box looking to score, and leaving a hole in the back?

Yes Brown scored off a set piece. Yes it won us the game. Yes, he's now earned himself another 6 games grace of being able to be invisible.

Could we have had more opportunities though if we didn't have a weak midfield last night? Would we really have lost 1-0 to No Fans FC?

Yellow Whever Whanganui

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

bwtcf wrote:

George Kostanza wrote:

vote for browny

Poll

How? Where?

My browser/work's firewalls and filters don't give me a link in your post to follow - just one to Optus' home page and another to www.muster.com.au

oops, sorry mate here's the link

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/wellingtonphoenix/

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Our biggest problem is that we can't clone Manny. What a legend that man is.

I still don't rate Smith. What do people see in him? And why is everyone so lenient on his performances compared to Brown/Lia? He has a very impressive jump but that's about it. He is an atrocious 1on1 tackler, is a below average passer and seems to get caught out of position a hell of a lot (maybe it's because he's covering for Timmy)

Would keep him if he was an Aussie/Kiwi but nowhere near worth an import spot. Hell, I'd rather have Paul Reid in there.

valeo2012-01-16 17:16:35

a.haak

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

valeo wrote:

The one(?) game smith got some time in his natural forward position he scored a goal

smith gets cred in my book because he's covered utility roles for us out of position and done well enough

doesn't justify an import position long term from what I've seen, but he's been pretty damn useful

but not only can we not clone manny, but we still haven't resigned the original

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Yeah.Whats the guts there?

COYN

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

valeo wrote:

I was a fan early on, since then i dont see a lot of difference with our permanent central/defensive midfielders either.

Considering we drop to 4 imports next year he has to go when his short term contract expires.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

still smiling from the win, it made day one back at work surprisingly do-able

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Whitehartlane wrote:

ifill was limping most of the second half, should have got the hook 60 minute mark imo.

Very nice header from brown to win it.

If you took off Ifill every time he had a pained look on his face or limped, he wouldn't play

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

goldienz wrote:

IMO the fix for midfield would be...

Lia to RB
Muscat to defensive mid
Smith stay put
Brown to the bench.

Step away from the keyboard man. Really??? You must have watched a completely different game to everyone else. Get Smith the hell out of that engine room fast and swapping Lia and Muscat... *shakes head*

Grumpy old bastard alert

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

rumour has it that a mosquito flew into downeys eye as he struck the ball for that 1 on 1 , also he is going back to the training ground to perfect the 'kick and run really fast approach he has'

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

sthn.jeff wrote:

Whitehartlane wrote:

ifill was limping most of the second half, should have got the hook 60 minute mark imo.

ï¿½

Very nice header from brown to win it.

ï¿½

Never seen Ifill play a game where he is not limping at some stage

true.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

mjp2 wrote:

valeo wrote:

The one(?) game smith got some time in his natural forward position he scored a goal

smith gets cred in my book because he's covered utility roles for us out of position and done well enough

doesn't justify an import position long term from what I've seen, but he's been pretty damn useful

but not only can we not clone manny, but we still haven't resigned the original

By the time Smith scored that goal he had reverted to playing as a Defensive Midfielder IIRC.

I think he has layed best for us is as a Midfielder playing directly in front of the two centre backs in a role similar to what Manny played last year. Sure he is not Manny but he is a reasonablee ball winner, Is good in the Air and provided he is just playing simple balls, a reasonable distributor. I forget which game it was, but it was early on at home.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

valeo wrote:

He was signed at a time when we couldn't get players to sign for love nor (Terry's non-existent) money.

He's not a flash player but he works hard, and from what I've seen has a pretty hard shot on him.

I agree he's not worth in import spot but it's not like he's in there at the expense of someone else.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

The reality with Smith is that he is an attacking midfielder and we are settled on who that should be in Sanchez. He was rubbish against GCU as the designated DM but you can't tell others that because they think he is the business. He is not a bad footballer as an AM but not when he is played out of position (DM).

Considering we have Bertos on the bench, Lia to come back and talk of Ricki using Lindsay soon, the appearance (and madness) of Downey and Pav, then I say let him walk. Pantellis next year as well and as an import, he is not a stand out 'I should be starting each week' player

Grumpy old bastard alert

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I agree with the general sentiment about Smith re - signing JV, but I still think his best game for us was early in his contract, (first start at home) where he played just in front of the back four. He was poor on Sunday, but then again in reality most of the side in front of the back four were.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Yeah I remember that game Jeff and he did play ok. I think he has had 2 games. 1 with the goal and that one. Otherwise, for an import, I'm not really seeing much else in terms of stand out performances that imports should have. Warner has had a few but the last couple of his games were not flash compared to his earlier ones. And yet we are talking about letting Warner go because he is not that flash as an import. If Warner is the standard to let go, well Smith falls below that for me.

Grumpy old bastard alert

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Jeff Vader wrote:

I think he has been ok. He was good against Perth in Perth, our loss to Victory in Melb and the 5-2 win against Newcastle,was decent when we lost to Victory but battered them at home and was disciplined when we drew away to Brisbane. Only really poor game he has had IMHO was against Adelaide in Akl.

This game we were a bit out gunned in certain areas of the pitch, Ricki having 3 up front (a proper 433) with Sanchez and Greenie rotating on playing in the wide right and Ifill not doing much on the left didn't work as well until we got Bertos on which allowed Greenie and Ifill to play more centrally (Ifill offered nothing on the wing and was lazy and allowed GCU an open passage down our left). When GCU removed their numerical advantage in midfield were we only then able to gain some traction in the game.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Why did we sit back and allow them to bring the ball back to halfway before any one of our players would challenge the ball carrier. Where they put pressure on us right from the back. Was it to conserve energy for the next game. Or a tactical error.

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Jeff Vader wrote:

We've got him to the end of the season, he's value for that. We've sure had decent use out of him and he's covered a few bases. After that, he competes against new imports and we would hope to do better. i like him, but that's what he's up against.

mjp22012-01-19 22:52:51

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about 14 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

hi all, i'm not sure if this is the place to look but a couple of yellow fever boys came into the den for the sydney game same weekend as gcu v wello. If you guys are on here was wondering if i could get the photos you took from that great night haha.

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