vs Sydney FC, 6th Oct 7.30pm

 Good signs there, even though Sydney weren't great. Fenton had a great debut, Brockie had his moments, and Huysegems had a very good 60 or 70 minutes. Wasn't completely impressed by Totori.

Lovely to watch the first game of the season in the Fox, and such a good game it was too. Cheers to Davey and Jono and Davey's friend whose name I didn't hear.

Okay: I'm not happy with only 12,000 to watch that thorough spanking of Del Piero FC (or with Dewhurst's ramblings, I wish we'd had the Aussie commentators) - but if it really is 7 degrees in Wellywood, then good effort for all the shirts-off lads.

I have nothing to say bad about our team at all - except, as mentioned, that Totori had some brain fades and was pushed off the ball too easily, but remember his cracking shot that hit the upright?!? I'll forgive him a lot for that. Leo was pushed a couple of times on defence in the second half and he got back well. And Manny was ENORMOUS. His delivery to Louis Fenton... wow, just wow.

But as a 'keeper, I have to declare that game the Ivan Necevski Comedy Hour. WTF? As if it wasn't bad enough that his all-white outfit made him look like a 40s East European fascist dictator, he made Totori look like a model of composition. And of course my pretend bf Pasty was fan-freakin-tastic.

Stein is a real find and I want to see Big Pete explain how he sucks now. Fenton... well, what can I say, he deserved his celebration in front of the fever. Boyd looks like one of the New Kids on the Block. Clarke did some nice things in his brief period on the field.

I can only imagine what the ADP fanboys back in Turin thought about that big ball of nothing. To be fair, he was definitely the best Bling player, which is really not saying much. WTF? Some of their passing was just criminally sloppy, especially against Muscat and Fenton. I have no idea what they were thinking.

 Stein and Fenton were the standouts for me . Manny was excellent in the 2st half but invisible in the first.

Not a bad word to be said after that game - for the the first of the season I thought we were brilliant.

Manny and Fenton were the standouts for me - Fenton looks a little more Kosta than Marco; will play a big part this season. Nice to have some attacking depth; Brockie didn't have a great game and we still scored 2 without Ifill on the pitch, very good signs.

Think Totori will be a terrific impact player off the bench when (hopefully) everyone is fit.

Siggy and Dura will be the keys like last season.

Some Bling fan on the justin.tv chat feed: "apparently the nix have a new wonderkid"

:D

Sydney were awful, or made to look awful.  ADP obvious quality.  Emerton spent a lot of time trying to make something happen later in the game and got no-where trying.  Nix constantly mugging blue shirts for the ball.  No over-rugged defending costing cards, though Smith must have said something to the ref for his.  Fenton a great to have home town piece of quality well worthy of the start, with good pace.  The brief look at Boyd suggests he is quick and will be useful.  Totori, for my first look at him looked less headless chook than posters had made me believe, though he did loose the ball trying to beat players, that's his job and his ratio wasn't too bad. 

Stein looks like he will fit in well, good touch and an eye to set up players round him.  Not quite an Ifill, but an improvement on Greenacre imho and pretty good at getting involved.  Didn't see enough of Clarke to comment.

Really promising start.  A lot of good players on the field and quality coming off the bench. 

Will be interesting how the B team goes v Heart.  Might be enough quality still around to surprise.

Great way to start the season! Tore them apart in first half. Great to see Manny in midfield again. Hysegems  has great vision - "we've got the best Belgian in the league" ! Nice to see Fenton's magic and the fact that he seems stronger and braver than Rojas will ad to his impact. Teams will find us more difficult now that they don't have to watch just Ifill.

Great start!

What Doloras and Valeo said.  

Manny - so Manny tonight.  

Absolutely Manny. Manny, Manny, Manny Muscat.

That Justin.tv stream is amazing. Has all the buildup shows, and Matchday Saturday in between games. It's my go to stream for A-League football.

Firstly, Sydney should be embarrassed.  That was awful.  6 month off season and they come up with that?  Pathetic really.

But a lot of that was down to us, we sensed they had no rhythm and were so ruthless breaking them down in midfield.  

1-7 (goal keeper, back 4, defensive midfield) I thought we were brilliant.  Constantly snapping and biting in midfield and so strong in central defence.  Great platform that won the game.

Fenton was excellent.  But also let's give him a chance to find his feet.  Young players are often inconsistent so let's not overdo it - the seniors need to step up and make his impact a bonus.  But that's a truly great moment, young kid who was probably a fan last year scoring in front of the fever zone.

Totori was ok. I think he needs to play closer to goal.

Brockie and Stein looked decent but neither looks comfortable back to goal - Brockie especially looked a little clumsy.  Both seemed to want to run in behind and both looked a lot better when they did.  The ball didn't stick up front which meant we didn't build really and our attacking play was best when we worked off turnovers and transitions etc.  

Ifill is different class and when he came on the standard lifted immediately.  There's still life in the old dog yet!

Still a little worried about our passing through the midfield but that can be worked on and overall a solid start.  Oh and the fever were great!

Boom! What a start to the season.

An exciting performance. So MANY options on attack... such a different team to watch. MOM for me was Louis Fenton. Manny was fantastic, Smith looked to thrive on his role, Lochy is going to really enjoy running forward with Fenton in front of him... our front two looked excellent together, and with totori and Ifill feeding them it's very exciting.

 Am i the only one who thought ADP had a shit game? He sent through a few good balls here and there but his shooting was terrible, and he was dominated for strength and pace by pretty much everyone.

How could you tell, given the competition? 

Fenton makes sgets himself into the game. If he doesnt have the ball, he goes looking for it and comes inside to pick it up, Unlike Marco who would go missing in games.

 Thought he looked like a Masters player.  Masters 1, but Masters.

Fenton MOM for me. Well done son.

Muscat was immense, love having him and Smith together in midfield.

We should have had 5 goals, finishing needs to be sharper to bury these teams earlier, but it was first game of the season and the wet ball skidded off heads and feet a few times.

Brockie had good first half. He and Housey disappeared in  second half.

Very pleasing game with a 'new' team.

Sydney were awful. Tried to play the ball out from the back way too much, often with little urgency.

Their fascist goalie was flappin like no tomorrow.

I assume you mean ADP, not Fenton. :)

Something is SERIOUSLY wrong this season.

Exhibit A: The match, the tactics, the vibe (Mabo etc)

Exhibit B: An awesome kids parade to the stadium (somewhat marred by them waiting around in the cold and rain until 6:30 pm).  Unfortunately the parade in the stadium was called off.

Exhibit C: (brace yourselves everyone) As it was late and we had no opportunity to eat before hand I got the kids pies and chips from the stadium. $20 (two of each) - steep but not outrageous by stadium standards, but HEAPS of tatties and the pies were exceedingly edible and tasty.

WHAT THE FRICK IS HAPPENING HERE?

Also I now know that eyechart t under stripey has good mojo (plus bandana and beanie and new season scarf).

Manny was magnificent. Fenton was fantastic. Loving Stein's great work rate. Sydney were woeful but I'm loving this years Phoenix. Same quality defensive base (except with Bertos) with a revitalized attack and more depth upfront then we have ever had. 

aaahhh *satisfied sigh* Its good to be back.

Just watching Unicorns vs Salties at the moment and it's quite interesting, the Unicorns are playing very much like we were, but CCM's defence are about a bazillion times better than ADPFC's.

And your lady-friend, whose name I sadly missed.

Okay.  So how does Lia and Sanchez fit into this now?  Obviously if Sanchez is back, Clarke goes and not enough obviously was seen of him today to comment.  Interesting

Lia is clearly our cover in the backline.

Personally, I'd slot sanchez in behind a roving front three made up of a combination of broke, stein, fill and fenton depending on form and fitness (with totori in reserve).

Options.

Awesome.

A few thoughts from being at the game...

- Fenton. It's all been said already but he was great. What a discovery. JD makes a good point though, can't expect that from him every week.

- Sydney were terrible, Del Piero included. A few nice touches but if you didn't know who he was you wouldn't have thought he was anything other than an average-to-good A-League player tonight. Expect them to be better by Dec 9 though.

- Bertos went OK at right back but hard to tell when Sydney didn't test him at all (apparently they were going to target him - LOL).

- Pleased that Huysegems and Fenton were the scorers. I'm pretty confident that Ifill and Brockie will both score their share of goals this season but wasn't so sure about the others. So it was great to see Huysegems and Fenton get straight into the goals.

- Was expecting Manny to be man-marking Del Piero but he didn't. He just played that screening role well and was free to make a few crucial contributions on attack. If that was a conscious decision by Ricki then it was a great call - don't believe the hype!

- Adam Griffiths - a headband and a pony-tail? Wtf? Seriously dude, that's disgraceful. Look no further for why Sydney were shit. If I was walking down the tunnel with a twat who looked like that it would drain all my confidence too.

- Totori was OK but has he got the physicality required for the A-League?

- A liitle disappointed with a crowd of 12,000 but two hours of pissing rain right before kickoff probably didn't help.

- The Phoenix make me happy.

 First time we've won our first game of the season. Will take it. Sydney looked rubbish.  One of the fans reckon they only had 4 preseason games.

Great win! A very polished look to our play and it was only game one, I'm excited about what this team can achieve

Here's the Italian review of the game, from La Gazetta dello Sport (we're the gialloneri [nice!], skull bash Fenton [lol])

LGdS match review 

They kept talking on the aus commentary about how they had 3 or 4 pre-season matches called off.  Which is so poor, I mean how can you look that rusty after 6 months off?

Could somebody please please please make a gif of that Fenton goal? I could just watch it over and over and over.

EDIT: I made a low quality one from a YouTube video.

Louis Fenton
Skull Basher

Very impressed with what we saw tonite.Going to be hard to back up next week with so many missing but if we are going to win the toilet seat they need to do it.

Thought most of our guys stood up tonite but just wish Tootori didnt drop so easily

Shit are some of the sydney fans spewing it makes beautiful reading.Under the radar i dont think we are any more.Sack ricki when did he decide to rid of that long ball.