WPM R10 vs Sydney FC | Fri 29th Dec | 9:45pm | SkySport 4

We should be winning this game currently in my opinion.

Their press is effective and our passing/movement isn’t. 
But the last 5mins or so have shown we do have some fight in us. Keep going lads!!!

I'd forgotten how much I f ucking hate sydney

what is wrong with the grass in the goal mouth at our end??
pitch looks great nice and green, but the goal looks barren?

Jazzy Jeff

I'd forgotten how much I f ucking hate sydney

Grant and Bratten - my two most disliked players.

If we can keep them to the one goal we might come back into it 2nd half. Hard to keep up this high intensity press for a full 90 minutes, even with subs. 

We’re making it way too easy for them. Making silly mistakes and the wrong call every single time. 

We'll be doing well to keep it to one goal at the break. 

Ben Old has more technical skill in his pinky than their midfield of scumbag flogs (and I won't hear out any rebuttal to that statement)

Mandatory stoppage of play HARPER???
 Seriously ……
Know your stuff you fudgeing loser, we had the ball.

Packboy

We'll be doing well to keep it to one goal at the break. 

We're doing well!

Jazzy Jeff

Ben Old has more technical skill in his pinky than their midfield of scumbag flogs (and I won't hear out any rebuttal to that statement)

It's genuinely brilliant to watch him blossom into such an exciting player.

you're not wrong, he'll beat 2 or three almost everytime he has the ball.

we've survived the onslaught, hopefully chiefy makes some adjustments and we can come back in the second.

Hardly the tactical masterclass from Sydeny though as per comments team, they basically been allowed to get away with a high press and fouling us if we break on them.

theaucklandphoenixfan

Mandatory stoppage of play HARPER???
 Seriously ……
Know your stuff you fudgeing loser, we had the ball.

not surprised, he has never been one for knowing anything.

theaucklandphoenixfan

We should be winning this game currently in my opinion.

I think our best chances came before their goal and we weren’t clinical enough. 
Ben Old looking very good. 
We’ve gotta back ourselves. Doesn’t Uffie sit behind the ball at some stage. 

martinb

theaucklandphoenixfan

We should be winning this game currently in my opinion.

I think our best chances came before their goal and we weren’t clinical enough. 
Ben Old looking very good. 
We’ve gotta back ourselves. Doesn’t Uffie sit behind the ball at some stage. 

he did with us, but then we did have a very frail defensive unit during his tenure. Its usually around he 60th minute

We look dangerous on the break, when we do finally get the opportunity. Hopefully the yellows will knock a bit out of them , both the cards and us. 1-0 down at HT is not the end of the world given the possession they had. Need to stop making silly decisions and plays out from the back though, it’s coming right back at us. If we’re going to do it, be decisive, we have the ability. 

Fudge Sydney and their bully boy tactics. 

Jazzy Jeff

I'd forgotten how much I f ucking hate sydney

Wanna go back to not even pitying them…have to tell Kosta not to worry. We know he’s not Superman, just lay on the next one or keep possession. Don’t have to win it with every touch. 

not many games this season when we have so little of the ball 30%

OK, hear me out.
Until they score a second or third, I'm going to be a glass half full kind of guy.
Yes, they have dominated possession and had plenty of chances, but so far the only goal came by way or a brain fart and bad marking from the ensuing corner kick.
We have been pretty good in transition and on the counter and have created some good chances ourselves.
They have 3 players on a yellow and will need to watch themselves. We have shown that we can run in behind and get players in dangerous positions.
I think the one change I'd make at HT is Kelly-Heald for Sutton as the latter has been terrible defensively. Old has also suffered on that side, but at least he's got his attacking prowess and has put Sydney in a spot of bother.

If we can keep them out and create a few more chances, we could get something out of this.

Also, very impressed with Rufer. Barbarouses has also been good but hasn't been pragmatic enough in front of goal.

Sydney with 3 yellows will help us - they can't keep rushing in the way they have been.

We should have a few more gaps to exploit in the 2nd half - going in 1 - 0 is pretty good considering how much we have been dominated.

Very poor half of football from us.
Was clear from about the first 10-15 minutes that playing it out from the back was going to hurt us - Constant turnovers and poor ball retention (think we're sitting about 75%) has allowed Sydney to gain a foothold. We're lucky it's not 2 or 3 zip. 

It's not all bad however and there is room to rectify. I'd look to potentially go to a 4-5-1 setup & have Old & Kosta wide (hugging the touchline wide - stretch the field) and their pace and trickery is superb on the counter. Finally I would like to get more options in the middle of the park if we're going to persist with playing out, since we're making it too easy for them to just pick us off with a strong high press when we're in possession.

How good is Ben Old by the way? Kid is electric!

so we score once every five shots, we;ve had four so the next one we score!!

Halftime. My expectation is that Sydney will restart exactly where they left, since the hard high press has proven to be very effective so far.
I don't necessarily agree that "they can't keep it up all night" - they will just replace a couple of tiring guys (or those on yellows) and continue. It is actually us who have to figure a way to get out of our own half, and to produce better passing accuracy. 
If Sydney loses some of the intensity we may get more possession, but not necessarily get better of them. I will settle for a draw.

What a massive chance that was, and Harper wasn't even watching.

a draw keeps us top of the elague into the new year so it would be  success for mine.

must have been a few games since I've heard Old being described as a promising golfer -  had almost forgotten.

*Ben Old goes on a Maradona-esque run*
Commentator: "Well of course, that pace would have been wasted on the golf course,"

WE KNOW, FOR FUCKS SAKE

Playing better this first 10 minutes. Gotta be very careful though, if Sydney score a second the floodgates could open. Just seems like that sort of game 

Come on Phoenix! 

I’m feeling dread. Prove me wrong. Needs something a gear or two up from someone imo. 

Jazzy Jeff

*Ben Old goes on a Maradona-esque run*
Commentator: "Well of course, that pace would have been wasted on the golf course,"

WE KNOW, FOR FUCKS SAKE

Did any of you guys know that former Nix player Albert Riera drove ambulances before he became a football pro?

good chance for Kosta, nice ball from Pennington.
Caceres hobbles back on

that was nice too, good play from the left nice cross to Kraev, good save Redmayne.

Caceres done, ex nix player Burgess on for him.

Two outstanding chances in the last 3-4 minutes. Come on!

if Old could finish like he can run he'd be an amazing footballer.

This is more like it. COYN!

I like some of our touches and turns. Bit more calmness on the ball

Kraev felled on the break again, thankfully Mak gets the card he deserves

I hope we get on this earlier than last time. It’s a bit stressy!

Harper - "if Mak goes down there its a ded set penalty" - when surnam has barley touched him and certainly not fouled him