vs Roar, Sun 12 Feb, 5 pm

Which suggests to me that the ref had an agenda concerning us, hmmm..........

"Ah yes, Gillet,This is  .......   from the FFA speaking. Now about the New Zealanders, I want you to put a stop to this nonsense!They're making our good teams look bad and our best players look ordinary.  Bad enough the bloody basketballers making us look silly, AND the leagueys, those All Black Bloody w++kers too....what's the f**kin* world coming to?? Its bloody un-Australian!!
Well its gonna stop, you hear me Gillet? Those Kiwi pricks are not gonna steal our thunder and OUR A-League too.We've worked too bloody hard for too long for that to happen...the AFC are giving us grief..Sort 'em out Gillet ....or your name will be buried in the state leagues roster running the lines.!!"

'nuff said.
RedGed2012-02-13 10:35:33

So with Durante and Brown out, who'll be captain against CCM?

Poor refereeing performance tonight, absolutely woeful. Its a sad state of affairs when chumps like Gillett are supposed to be the very best in this part of the world. I dont think any of the bookings he gave out this evening were necessary, and just the amount of times he blew up good solid challenges was a farce. Hes most of the reason "soccer is for pussies" exists. The fact he had to leave the pitch from via an alternate exit said it all really, he knew he sucked tonight. Why are refs so sh*t?

SigmUnd

Not with a hammy injury he won't.

It's not. Was just cramp. Will play against CCM according to Piney.

small mercies.sweet.

if only Iffy had taken his chances like he normally does. And Lia had been Manny. And the ref hadn't been a twat.

Surely Griffiths will slot into the back 4? Not hugely experienced but he's decent enough and would be a safer option than converting someone else from their usual role.

I think we set out to play a  holding pattern in the first half ,knowing as everyone did that they would have the  most possession,it almost worked with only a dubious goal from the mad Albanian seperating the teams at half time  ,I don't think it was about so showing to   much respect more an attempt at containment.
With a bit of luck we could have got a  couple back in the second half but it just wasn't our night ,no disgrace in the way we played  against a team that I watched tear us apart  in the  Dunedin pre season friendly match !
We are still in a far far better position than the majority of fans would have dared to dream of at the start of the season,still think a top four finish is realistic !

cos they wear blue

with brown out maybe sanchez will the opportunity to play the position that he did so well in earlier in the season

Leo has had bronchitis for two weeks, possibly why he was subbed. He played well, just ran out of puff.

Hard for a ref to be any good with two untrained muppets waving the flags on the side. They missed so much of the match that they'll probably watch the replays and enjoy the 75% they missed

The lino says in that story that Dura didn't say anything rude- will they appeal? I mean as HN keeps pointing out there are players swearing at the ref every game. Appealing Dura's ban might be a go...

If there was no contact with Berisha- perhaps Brown's too...martinb2012-02-13 00:40:52

Ref had a blinder

BOOO!

Why the hell are the TAB giving away Crapple products when our MAJOR sponsor is SONY?

Poor form by the TAB in my opinion...

just why

Brown's tearful Whitney tribute

I really don't see how the ref was at fault for our utterly unimaginative play throughout. Constant Long Ball against two very tall center backs - did we win one of those at all?

Every goal kick from Paston ended up with Roar's possession. KEEP THE BALL. DON'T HOOF.

What was ricky's instructions at half time? Same again lads? Its working so far!

It's just utterly mindless and we were punished for it by a team who know how to hold on the ball and not panic.

I'd chew my kids team out if they played like that.

For me, this game reinforced the need to find a new coach who can think outside the 'hoof it and hope' football model.

just out of interest is Peter O'Leary still reffing A-League games?  

I seem to remember someone saying that it is extremely difficult/impossible to appeal a yellow card, unless it's for something like mistaken identity. Red card yes, yellow card no.

Can anyone clarify?

Interesting.... We played the same tactics in Dunedin... ie sit back and hold make sure we don't get drawn out of position and hit them on the counter attack... It worked then and Ricki was a tactical Genius, essentially same tactics this week and did not quite come off, mainly because we did not take the limited chances we had, ie Leo in first half and Ifills two second half chances in particular and yet now Ricki is apparently a tactical moron??? Brisbanes first goal was an amazing strike, albeit possibly offside and there second was fantastic finish, but at that stage we had shifted to a back three clearly chasing the game after Siggy went off.

I never said playing 9 behind the ball was the problem - it was giving the ball away long at every opportunity. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Roar had the height to neutralise this, and you'd think after the 15th attempt we might have realised this. Our attacking chances came through the ball being run and passed on the break, with players moving together, not hoofed to a lone striker.
zonknz2012-02-13 09:43:16

Pretty much agree

I don't really understand all the angst - like people have said, tactically, at least in the first half, was the carbon-copy of the tactics from Dunedin, just didn't work out this time. Second-half we were forced to push up much higher up the pitch to press them, and this succeeded a few times where we managed to get the ball high up the field and have a couple of decent opportunities. But pressing that high with so many numbers is a very high-risk tactic against a good side (there was one situation I remember where we tried to box them in in one corner, and they passed their way out of trouble and the move ended with them shooting at our goal), and it is impossible to sustain over a long period of time. Like I said, we were forced into it through the circumstances, but we could not play like that for an entire game.

The bottom line is, they are just a better team. Their midfield is far superior to ours, they transitioned through the middle of the park almost at will, we could not even slow them down the whole day. Contrast that to our midfield, where we really struggled to get anything going. The best thing is just to move and write it off as a loss to a better team, and not dwell on it too much.el grapadura2012-02-13 12:10:12

I'm not that downcast about performance, like El G said we were just beaten by a better team on the day. In saying that we gave oursevles enough chances that on another day we may have snatched a point.

Also a note on the ref, considering all the angst there.

Let me start by saying that the refereeing standard in this league is generally pretty poor. But last night, I don't think the referee was anywhere near as bad as he's made out to be here, particularly considering that his worst decisions of the night were actually in our favour.

Durante's challenge in the second half was a dead-set penalty for which he should have got carded. Also, from where I was in the first half there appeared to be a trip on Berisha near the by-line in our box in the first half which also easily could have been given as a penalty. Let's also not forget that our best chance of the game, Ifill's 1 on 1 with Theo, came after one of the most obvious attacking fouls I've ever seen - Ifill literally shoved the defender off the ball prior to his shot.

Furthermore, I see a lot of people here have stated their first goal was offside - I have to say I was very interested to check this out, as watching it live I felt it was very close and I looked towards the AR as soon as Berisha received the ball. So I've looked at some replays, which are not completely conclusive. But based on the evidence within them, I'm 99.9% certain that Berisha was on and the goal is legitimate. The replay quite clearly shows that Durante was not very alert to danger, however.

As for the bookings people are complaining about, Durante would be well advised to know that dissent does not only come in the form of words, but also in the form of actions. Waving your arms around showing everyone that you thought the ref (or his assistant) got it wrong and that you strongly disagreed with the decision is not really that different to calling the ref a blind moron. So you're just as likely to get booked for it, just like players have been carded in the past for ironically clapping refereeing decisions.

As for Brown's challenge - and I'm speaking from memory here - he pretty much played the man, and not the ball, in a promising counter-attacking move by the opposition. Even if there isn't much contact (and remember, there DOES NOT have to be contact for a referee to blow up for a foul) I can easily see why a referee would want to caution a challenge like that with a yellow card.el grapadura2012-02-13 13:58:44

Everyones making is out to be like the loss at the end of out unbeaten run.
It wasn't like that.
We dominated large periods if not most of the second half, we spent most of it up their end, it was all they ( a better side?) could do to put it out for a throw.
All this to much passive, to much respect is bullsh*t; we played the roar the way your supposed to and were unlucky to cop a first half goal.

Agree with this, disagree with you on the ref. Offside was marginal, I think his body was offside, but can't blame the AR for not making the call when it is that close.

Berisha and Brown in the first half wasn't a penalty (assuming that is the one you are talking about), just a tangle of legs, and Berisha didn't claim a penalty and helped Brown up. I don't think Durante's one was a penalty either, was a shoulder to shoulder challenge to me.

I didn't see what Durante did to get the yellow, but it sounds like arm waving and dissent by action. I would actually love that to be cautioned more, but it seems pretty inconsistent to book Durante in this case, when previous cases go unpunished left right and centre. Browns yellow pretty clearly had no contact.

A significant number of fouls we gave away in this game (but by no means the anywhere near the majority) were never fouls but clean tackles.

I'm still pretty certain (but not 100% as I don't have 'smoking gun' replay) is that it wasn't offside. The best shot I could find is Berisha half a stride in fron of Durante, with the ball some well in the air already. From the shot, it's clear Berisha is in full stride, Durante at best is flat-footed, at worst has just stepped up. Extrapolating the situation to the moment the ball was passed, I'd say at worst Berisha was level with Durante, therefore not offside. But like I said, I've had a hard time finding a really good replay I could pause at the time the ball was passed.

Interestingly, in the TWs game earlier in the day, Musa made an almost identical challenge on Slefendorfas, penalty and a yellow card, and not a single soul at the ground grumbled about it. Durante's challenge I certainly didn't see as a shoulder to shoulder, it was pretty much a full body charge/check which is legal in ice hockey, but not in football.

The one positive I took from yesterday's game was the behaviour of the portly older gentleman several rows in front of my friend and I.

A big steaming pile of this.