The thing that has stood out for me both games is that unlike last season when we went a goal behind the heads aren’t dropping, so far there’s a lot of fight in this team this year.
Before you get to excited, last year, we fell apart after round 5.
Just like last season, AFC will be the test. None of Perth, Brisbane or the Mariners are frightening outfits. Our three early wins last season were against Perth, the Mariners and a complete smash and grab robbery against the Victory at a neutral ground, we looked atrocious in that game. I want to see us play well AND get a result against a decent side before I get excited.
The thing that has stood out for me both games is that unlike last season when we went a goal behind the heads aren’t dropping, so far there’s a lot of fight in this team this year.
That’s the high value of a ‘follow me’ guy like Piper. He literally lifts the energy levels
Though I think if he looks at the video, he was wrong to admonish Armiento for shooting and stinging Bouzanis‘s gloves. Piper wasn’t that open, plenty of Roar players near him
I honestly think he really suits coming on at around 60 mins when the game starts to open up a bit more. LBS should start till 60 when the game is a bit tighter and needing the small touches and to beat a man. Although against AFC I think Piper would be useful to start for his physicality
Armiento has been very good. He's scored twice. He's created. He's defended pretty well. Good on set pieces. Not sure what else you want. You need some selfishness in attacking players and if he didn't think that way we wouldn't have won.
Really impressed with Eze again. It wasn't a game that went his way but just kept going. Such a physical presence and I don't remember the last time we had a striker like him - Zawada was never that physical really. Can't help but wonder how Kosta would've been with him.
A little under the radar but I think a lot of credit has to go to Sheridan too. Yeah lots of complaints about not getting a shot in target until the 60th Min. Guess how many shots Brisbane had? One shot on target the Entire Game. That was the goal, which we should've dealt with. Without a solid foundation, you can't win games. We're slowly getting that, though the Payne injury is huge. (Loke did surprisingly well though)
I think Oluwayemi is what will hold us back from achieving much. He's too timid, no confidence in himself.
The thing that has stood out for me both games is that unlike last season when we went a goal behind the heads aren’t dropping, so far there’s a lot of fight in this team this year.
That’s the high value of a ‘follow me’ guy like Piper. He literally lifts the energy levels
Though I think if he looks at the video, he was wrong to admonish Armiento for shooting and stinging Bouzanis‘s gloves. Piper wasn’t that open, plenty of Roar players near him
Two or even 3 greedy strikers with some power? I don’t mind! Loved seeing Armiento absolutely smash the ball home. Shooting closer with power equals goals!
This feels like a Mad Max team, an A Team team, a bunch of characters who if you play them and if you inspire them will set something on fire, throw something through the window and win some damn games.
Love being above Auckland on the table.
Maybe Oluwayemi is a problem. But maybe not. It seems likely we’ll see Alby at some point. Today we feast and go again!
Ultimately, it’s a great day to be a nix fan. Team didn’t give up, in fact, they just got stronger. Decent if not vocal crowd today. Credit where it’s due, the subs were all on point. Guess brissy did what they said they would, they were bunch of arseholes.
Chiefy thinks broken collarbone & 6 weeks out for Payne
Shyte.
Good chance for Loke though, who I thought really stepped up today after coming on.
Hoping for a swift recovery for Payne though. Crap injuries to get over, and don't discount the need for some corrective surgery as well. 🤕
Loke was a key part in the build-up for the winner. Kept possession for us when the ball bounced to him by chesting it towards Piper and you know the rest.
Sucks to hear about Payne, wishing him all the best with his recovery.
Armiento has two goals, had to fault that - but let's not kid ourselves in terms of his general play and output. His passing is poor, touch heavy and his option taking is poor... he also arguably should have squared a ball in a promising situation earlier only to have a go. On another night that might have cost us the game.
If he continues to score, obviously I will have to eat some humble pie, but at the moment I think those two goals are really masking so pretty striking limitations in his game currently.
Armiento has two goals, had to fault that - but let's not kid ourselves in terms of his general play and output. His passing is poor, touch heavy and his option taking is poor... he also arguably should have squared a ball in a promising situation earlier only to have a go. On another night that might have cost us the game.
If he continues to score, obviously I will have to eat some humble pie, but at the moment I think those two goals are really masking so pretty striking limitations in his game currently.
Really disagree. I don't think it was as on as Piper thought and shooting there wasn't insane.
He also put some good crosses in and a few decent corners.
We've had far far far worse Aussies come in, he's been similar to Piscopo who was loved
His best attribute is his shooting. Has been a while since we had someone who could smash it. Forced a save after the other half chance before he scored too.
I'm much more lenient on locals v imports and he's done about as much as Ishige already
I was very down on his signing too so I don't have any bias here
Piscopo while inconstent and injury prone had much more of a touch of class about him. Armiento looks pretty much incapable of dribbling past a player or putting someone in with a perfectly weighted pass. His two shots that became goals are basically the only decent things he has done for us
We were at the game and got home to find our sheets blown off the clothes line.
Can't have been easy out there.
Brisbane didn't offer much except physicality. And the middle third was congested with 20 players for a lot of the game. It was hard to get a decent game going. Until Piper and LBS's fresh legs and directness lit it up.
Reasons not to play Amiento cited so far: apart from the goal he offers nothing, and he's selfish. Shesh. Two goals in two games and we want to complain about him. Tough crowd. Brilliance from Chief to move him into that role, support coaching him in that role and now having the player loving it there.
That was a couple of great goal celebrations by the guys. They are enjoying it. Good to see.
Piscopo while inconstent and injury prone had much more of a touch of class about him. Armiento looks pretty much incapable of dribbling past a player or putting someone in with a perfectly weighted pass. His two shots that became goals are basically the only decent things he has done for us
His dead ball is pretty great, and has whipped dangerous crosses in open play too. Hasn't been lost defensively in a new position, I think this is unreasonably harsh.
Piscopo while inconstent and injury prone had much more of a touch of class about him. Armiento looks pretty much incapable of dribbling past a player or putting someone in with a perfectly weighted pass. His two shots that became goals are basically the only decent things he has done for us
Two games, two goals, seems like the player that we were looking for.
Piscopo while inconstent and injury prone had much more of a touch of class about him. Armiento looks pretty much incapable of dribbling past a player or putting someone in with a perfectly weighted pass. His two shots that became goals are basically the only decent things he has done for us
Rubbish. He's fast becoming one of the best corner takers the Nix have had in years. The wind may have helped (or hindered) him today, I have no idea. But nearly all his swinging takes caused problems for the Roar.
The guy is in a big learning curve re the full back role, but to date he's been defensively sound, scored 2 goals, and created genuine chances. He played the full 90 mins today, and looked pretty shagged.
The sight and sound of a team mate stinging the gloves of the opposition keeper lifts a team. You know you are not far off scoring, and Bouzanis's block could easily have fallen to the feet of a Nix player. Too many times in the recent seasons the Nix have played it endlessly around the box for no shot taken.
I remember the corresponding home Roar game to end last season was truly dire. Was there a Nix shot on target that day?
Piscopo while inconstent and injury prone had much more of a touch of class about him. Armiento looks pretty much incapable of dribbling past a player or putting someone in with a perfectly weighted pass. His two shots that became goals are basically the only decent things he has done for us
Rubbish. He's fast becoming one of the best corner takers the Nix have had in years. The wind may have helped (or hindered) him today, I have no idea. But nearly all his swinging takes caused problems for the Roar.
The guy is in a big learning curve re the full back role, but to date he's been defensively sound, scored 2 goals, and created genuine chances. He played the full 90 mins today, and looked pretty shagged.
The sight and sound of a team mate stinging the gloves of the opposition keeper lifts a team. You know you are not far off scoring, and Bouzanis's block could easily have fallen to the feet of a Nix player. Too many times in the recent seasons the Nix have played it endlessly around the box for no shot taken. I remember the corresponding home Roar game to end last season was truly dire. Was there a shot on target all game?
Piscopo while inconstent and injury prone had much more of a touch of class about him. Armiento looks pretty much incapable of dribbling past a player or putting someone in with a perfectly weighted pass. His two shots that became goals are basically the only decent things he has done for us
Rubbish. He's fast becoming one of the best corner takers the Nix have had in years. The wind may have helped (or hindered) him today, I have no idea. But nearly all his swinging takes caused problems for the Roar.
The guy is in a big learning curve re the full back role, but to date he's been defensively sound, scored 2 goals, and created genuine chances. He played the full 90 mins today, and looked pretty shagged.
The sight and sound of a team mate stinging the gloves of the opposition keeper lifts a team. You know you are not far off scoring, and Bouzanis's block could easily have fallen to the feet of a Nix player. Too many times in the recent seasons the Nix have played it endlessly around the box for no shot taken. I remember the corresponding home Roar game to end last season was truly dire. Was there a shot on target all game?
All right, but apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
I am happy to see Rufer back to good form, looking nice and calm in the middle. Sets the tone.
That effort on goal though 😭 think there were a couple of times I thought he reverted to the safe option when there were outlets on. But overall he commanded the team brilliantly. Great captain.
Really dont get the negativity from some about Armiento. Did you even bother to look at how well taken todays goal was. For years we have moaned about someone having a go. We finaly get someone who has a rocket of a left foot and we get moans. As for Piscopo think someone may have forgotton how fragile he was and didnt deliver on his promise.
Really dont get the negativity from some about Armiento. Did you even bother to look at how well taken todays goal was. For years we have moaned about someone having a go. We finaly get someone who has a rocket of a left foot and we get moans. As for Piscopo think someone may have forgotton how fragile he was and didnt deliver on his promise.
One of those pretty little players who always had a headache and never put out
(Please can we have emoticons so that no-one takes these tongue in check comments too seriously ....)
How was that not a red for Eze. He literally clocked the Roar player with a running right hook. Lucky it didn't really connect, could have knocked the guy out.
Piscopo while inconstent and injury prone had much more of a touch of class about him. Armiento looks pretty much incapable of dribbling past a player or putting someone in with a perfectly weighted pass. His two shots that became goals are basically the only decent things he has done for us
Better that than fancy dribbling with no end product. We need players who get things done without the fluff
I watched the Eze moment on TV just now and none of the zooms showed what actually happened. He was swinging the arms and made contact but bugger me I wish there was a slow mo zoomed in to see what co tasted and where.
Still, dumb of him to overreact.
Man this thread is a journey. From sack Cheify to begrudging acceptance to winning joy.
They are playing new strategies so I expect us to leak a few goals as they bed in, but we seem to be getting better.
Armiento was massive. A lot of shots and crosses that looked dangerous. The shot from outside the box was excellent. You need to defenders to have to worry about shots like that as if we always go up the side and cross it they know how to defend easier. Plus shots on target have the chance for deflections that can turn into goals.
One of the things I loved was after Nagasawa scores the goal he grabs the ball and sprints back to halfway. Not content with celebrating tying the game up. Thats a winning mentality!
Banger of a game. Can't turn the game off this year as we can pull anything out. Twice fans have been rewarded now for sticking games out.
Opera wouldn't connect for round 1, which is why I switched. Proton worked for R2, which could be a coincidence, but anyway Proton is much faster, shows you the specific country connected to, not just the region, and it's just better! No ads too, if you use the duckplayer in duckduck go. Mainland FC
nixin
Try Proton VPN?Fast and free.martinb
Ahh bugger. They’re still screwing me over on the YouTube thing.
Install Opera as your go-to browser for football. It has an inbuilt VPN.
I watched the Eze moment on TV just now and none of the zooms showed what actually happened. He was swinging the arms and made contact but bugger me I wish there was a slow mo zoomed in to see what co tasted and where.
Still, dumb of him to overreact.
Man this thread is a journey. From sack Cheify to begrudging acceptance to winning joy.
They are playing new strategies so I expect us to leak a few goals as they bed in, but we seem to be getting better.
Armiento was massive. A lot of shots and crosses that looked dangerous. The shot from outside the box was excellent. You need to defenders to have to worry about shots like that as if we always go up the side and cross it they know how to defend easier. Plus shots on target have the chance for deflections that can turn into goals.
One of the things I loved was after Nagasawa scores the goal he grabs the ball and sprints back to halfway. Not content with celebrating tying the game up. Thats a winning mentality!
Banger of a game. Can't turn the game off this year as we can pull anything out. Twice fans have been rewarded now for sticking games out.
Never saw what the attendance was though.
I can't see an official release via media or the club, but the number floating around for attendance today was 6890.
Thought LKH was very good today, his passes set up a bunch of moves and threaded some nice gaps, and was very defensively solid. Massive improvement on last week, one of the best games I've seen him play since the season we came second. James was also very good, although he is showing a worrying habit of making one or two catestrophic mistakes each game.
Eze should clearly have been sent off, but was anyone watching what the Roar CBs were doing to him off the ball? They should be sitting in a cell tonight for GBH. I was counting, he got shoved to the ground way off the play 4 times in the first half alone, plus those two right before he saw red. Not justifying his actions, but at some point the ARs have to tell the referee what's going on behind his back or someone will seriously hurt him.
I feel piper is better as a sub as his main traits are his physicality and his hussle, both of which work better against tired legs. His lack of technical skill (which is improving, but still needs significant work) means that when he was starting last season there were often long stretches when he looked decidedly ordinary, and then he would pop up with a brilliant moment. Running off the bench he can out work those who have been running for 70, 80, 90 miniutes and the technical difference doesn't matter as much.
As others have said the mentality on show was great with Nagasawa grabbing the ball and running back to halfway after his goal (while Eze was trying to start another fight incidentally, calm down lad), but I loved how they all came together in a huddle on halfway after the final whiste, came over to clap the fans before going over to the signing (something which hasn't happened in years) and had a big celebration in the changing room after. Really seems like a team who are really united and would run through walls for each other, great to see.
How was that not a red for Eze. He literally clocked the Roar player with a running right hook. Lucky it didn't really connect, could have knocked the guy out.
I watched every bit of vid of that several times. I think it looked worse than it was. The "right hook" was accross the defenders torso. The defender milked it going down clutching his face. So could have been carded for simulation.
I think it was marginal whether it was striking an opponent or just a more awkward version of the spread arm that holds a player behind. We've seen plenty of players cop an elbow or hand in the face from that blocking arm.
Before the "right hook" the defender drives a shoulder under Eze's raised arm and into Eze's chest. Eze bounces out of that and pushes his body ahead of the defender while trying to maintain his run and twisting and swinging that arm, to hold off the defender and push off and stay in front, to allow him to continue his running line.
Arguably fair enough for the yellow for pushing and holding. But I think it would have been a tough call to deem it striking an opponent and violent conduct. I think he was making a genuine effort to get his body in front and to hold position against a guy who had shoulder charged him under his arm and into his chest. And he windmilled and wrapped his arm hard around the torso to push off and maintain his running line.
Arguably just two players running clashing lines and then a windmill of arms and legs and torso clash with each player trying to get their body in front and continue their line.
But also I think ot is arguable that the defender changed his line to body check Eze, causing the initial contact - and that could have been called a foul as well. On top of the advantage we already had for the earlier rugby tackle on Eze.
It looked bad. Plenty Brisbane had done also looked bad and hadn't been carded. You play to the ref. And it might have been what the ref had previously been letting go that meant he was never going to give a red for that.
How was that not a red for Eze. He literally clocked the Roar player with a running right hook. Lucky it didn't really connect, could have knocked the guy out.
I watched every bit of vid of that several times. I think it looked worse than it was. The "right hook" was accross the defenders torso. The defender milked it going down clutching his face. So could have been carded for simulation.
I think it was marginal whether it was striking an opponent or just a more awkward version of the spread arm that holds a player behind. We've seen plenty of players cop an elbow or hand in the face from that blocking arm.
Before the "right hook" the defender drives a shoulder under Eze's raised arm and into Eze's chest. Eze bounces out of that and pushes his body ahead of the defender while trying to maintain his run and twisting and swinging that arm, to hold off the defender and push off and stay in front, to allow him to continue his running line.
Arguably fair enough for the yellow for pushing and holding. But I think it would have been a tough call to deem it striking an opponent and violent conduct. I think he was making a genuine effort to get his body in front and to hold position against a guy who had shoulder charged him under his arm and into his chest. And he windmilled and wrapped his arm hard around the torso to push off and maintain his running line.
Arguably just two players running clashing lines and then a windmill of arms and legs and torso clash with each player trying to get their body in front and continue their line.
But also I think ot is arguable that the defender changed his line to body check Eze, causing the initial contact - and that could have been called a foul as well. On top of the advantage we already had for the earlier rugby tackle on Eze.
It looked bad. Plenty Brisbane had done also looked bad and hadn't been carded. You play to the ref. And it might have been what the ref had previously been letting go that meant he was never going to give a red for that.
Yeah I think it was Elder playing advantage for the earlier foul on Eze, that saved the Nigerian being sent off when he retaliated. Elder gave him some leniency as he'd let play continue, rather than penalise the Roar player.
If Eze had been playing for the Roar we would mostly have been outraged he didn't get a red. Remember this game when over the season the Nix get the inevitable bad controversial call.
ALM seems to be getting more & more physical. But Eze needs to calm down. Teams & opposition crowds are going to target him for sure.
If it gets really bad, Chiefy may have to consider starting Piper alongside Ifeanyi, just to share the physical contact targeting by other teams.
Wonder if MRO will review Ezes brain fade if so he could have trouble coming. Someone needs to tell him and Armiento to stop throwing themselves down. Get Eze had some shark dished out to him but he still goes down to easily in contact just want to see him use that pace to pressure defenders and the GK.
