Good on Welnix and Chief for making Salas happen. Think without him it’s marginal if we win. He’s made a chance at the winner there from nothing with a great tackle and a better pass. He looked fresh and sparky compared to the other guys who are stuffed after such a tough season.
WHAT A GAME. WHAT A GAME. I had no expectation of a result, wouldn't have gone if the Littlest Hooligan weren't enthusiastic. I thought we were boned when Payne went off. But after about 15 minutes of weak sauce the team came to life. That Salas fellow's 360 degree turn to set up Kosta for the second goal was worth the price of admission.
I told the Littlest Hooligan that there would be an Auckland team next year and we could support them if she wanted, but no, she's Phoenix till she dies. She even wore a crop top under her cricket shirt (yellow and black!) so she could join in at 80 minutes.
WHAT A GAME. WHAT A GAME. I had no expectation of a result, wouldn't have gone if the Littlest Hooligan weren't enthusiastic. I thought we were boned when Payne went off. But after about 15 minutes of weak sauce the team came to life. That Salas fellow's 360 degree turn to set up Kosta for the second goal was worth the price of admission.
I told the Littlest Hooligan that there would be an Auckland team next year and we could support them if she wanted, but no, she's Phoenix till she dies. She even wore a crop top under her cricket shirt (yellow and black!) so she could join in at 80 minutes.
Don't know her, but proud of little hooligan none the less!
WHAT A GAME. WHAT A GAME. I had no expectation of a result, wouldn't have gone if the Littlest Hooligan weren't enthusiastic. I thought we were boned when Payne went off. But after about 15 minutes of weak sauce the team came to life. That Salas fellow's 360 degree turn to set up Kosta for the second goal was worth the price of admission.
I told the Littlest Hooligan that there would be an Auckland team next year and we could support them if she wanted, but no, she's Phoenix till she dies. She even wore a crop top under her cricket shirt (yellow and black!) so she could join in at 80 minutes.
What a girl! Love reading all these kinds of stories! You’ve raised her well!
What a team! And what a manager. Fudge me, despite all the other shark going on in NZ at the mo, this team are the shining light. Fudge yes! Happy days. Well done to all those who attended. Looked epic.
What an abysmal first half followed by such an improved second half. Wow. I feel like the Phoenix of old would have come out after the break and been even worse but something was said at halftime and the performance really lifted. Funny thing was, as bad as the first half was, we could have scored twice.
I've got no qualms with the ref. He let some heavy tackles go which I'd have blown up, but he was definitely consistent and he let the game flow. Not to bang on about it, but in the first half we were largely to blame for what happened to us. The goal they scored was after our defenders lost the ball 3 or 4 times in their own defensive third when they could easily have cleared it.
Few worries with those injuries but with a bit of luck they can heal over the international break.
Great crowd as well, other than the laziest streaker I've ever seen.
Hoping this win really gives them belief. We are 8 points ahead of third place so it's really going to be a two horse race.
In hindsight this is probably first time in many seasons that I would call this "an epic win for the Nix". We came back from behind, we got one over Talay's FC, and this is the first time ever we won a game reffed by Faghani. Epic. Just bloody epic. And 18,002 fans saw it live.
Perth trashing WSW later tonight would be the perfect result to round up a fantastic evening.
Poor Wanderers, I feel sorry for them. We must'nt forget they breathed life back into the league when they joined and Marko Rudan (as much as many Nix fans despise him) I thought he was the manager who turned the Nix around after a disastrous few seasons. And subsequently kick-started the success we have now.
Yes. And nice interview with Rudan just now. I hope they win.InsulinMachine
number8
Perth trashing WSW later tonight would be the perfect result to round up a fantastic evening.
Poor Wanderers, I feel sorry for them. We must'nt forget they breathed life back into the league when they joined and Marko Rudan (as much as many Nix fans despise him) I thought he was the manager who turned the Nix around after a disastrous few seasons. And subsequently kick-started the success we have now.
Perth trashing WSW later tonight would be the perfect result to round up a fantastic evening.
Poor Wanderers, I feel sorry for them. We must'nt forget they breathed life back into the league when they joined and Marko Rudan (as much as many Nix fans despise him) I thought he was the manager who turned the Nix around after a disastrous few seasons.
He was and he introduced a more professional approach for the club whom have followed suit. I think some of my fellow Nix fans need to let it go and enjoy having the reign of Chiefy, rather than slagging off Rudan.
Perth trashing WSW later tonight would be the perfect result to round up a fantastic evening.
Poor Wanderers, I feel sorry for them. We must'nt forget they breathed life back into the league when they joined and Marko Rudan (as much as many Nix fans despise him) I thought he was the manager who turned the Nix around after a disastrous few seasons.
He was and he introduced a more professional approach for the club whom have followed suit. I think some of my fellow Nix fans need to let it go and enjoy having the reign of Chiefy, rather than slagging off Rudan.
Agreed! I recall Rudan's predecessor finally introduced Singh into a game and he had a sensational 15 minutes only to be left out of the squad for the next game. Rudan brought Singh into the team as a regular and he was sensational.
Also thank goodness under today's culture if you are good enough you are old enough.
If he thinks a player goes to ground too soft he will wave play on which I like. But we have never got the rub of the green with him. Maybe because we always play away when he is reffing us and the home crowd effect seems to have a bit of influence on his decision making.. Us being at home with a big crowd for a change could make a difference.
Glad we got the rub today as we were S H I T.
Couldn't string two passes together for the majority of the match, especially in the first 20 where every pass went to the feet of SFC unforced.
I don't agree with either VAR call but will take it given the amount of dodgy VAR calls we've had against us. A wins a win.
Old is still not ready to leave, he's still a season or two from being ready, was poor today and made the completely wrong decision with ball and time in front of goal but skied the cross over the bar in the second half.
Max Burgess was very dirty today too, under other refs he could well have been in the shower before the final whistle.
While 18K there with a few Sydney fans was good, I thought there would have been 20+ given we're top of the league, it was a nice day and all the buzz around the Auckland FC.
Pennington is worrying me this match too, far too prone to coughing up possession.
Pennington was poor today, loads of passes to nowhere, missed takles etc. Al-Taay should have played but I wonder if he's fasting due to Ramadan so can't play a full 90. Al-Taay our best Aussie now for me.
After so many years, so many coaches, so many players... how can this team still be so bad off of set pieces?!?
The one short corner we took was better then every other corner we've taken this season.
I honestly think every team in the A League knows that if defending under pressure in their 18 yard box, the safest bet is to put it out of for a corner as we are completely useless at taking them. Gives them a breather and a chance to clear.
Good to see Faghani cracking down on time-wasting rather than cynical fouling
I don't think it was time wasting as much as Suttons penchant to walk halfway up the sideline before he throws it in. Faghani could clearly be seen telling him to go 2kms backwards!
The half time switch of Hughes to the right worked well. Blimey Kosta works his arse off. Rufer was immense in the midfield. Well done you Nix. Great fun in the YF zone.
Had a glance at r/ALeague. All the Sydney fans on there are moaning about how the ref shafted them. Have I lost my mind? How can they think that? I haven't seen game on TV so maybe I missed something but I couldn't believe it.
Had a glance at r/ALeague. All the Sydney fans on there are moaning about how the ref shafted them. Have I lost my mind? How can they think that? I haven't seen game on TV so maybe I missed something but I couldn't believe it.
Usually this ref looks after Sydney. Any Statspotters out there that can give his stats on games involving Sydney??
Good to see Faghani cracking down on time-wasting rather than cynical fouling
I don't think it was time wasting as much as Suttons penchant to walk halfway up the sideline before he throws it in. Faghani could clearly be seen telling him to go 2kms backwards!
He had already walked backwards to the stands to get the ball, and then back to the touchline rather than taking one offered by the ball kids, and all this whilst being within catching distance as the ball originally went out and letting it go.! Watching the replay it was 29 seconds from the ball going out to when ref got out the card, and in total 46 seconds before the ball was back in play!
Pennington is worrying me this match too, far too prone to coughing up possession.
Pennington was poor today, loads of passes to nowhere, missed takles etc. Al-Taay should have played but I wonder if he's fasting due to Ramadan so can't play a full 90. Al-Taay our best Aussie now for me.
Don't agree with all of what you say but Pennington was running at about 70% yesterday.... He needs to get fit and get his act together. 2 weeks to do it. Chiefy sees him as important.
Had a glance at r/ALeague. All the Sydney fans on there are moaning about how the ref shafted them. Have I lost my mind? How can they think that? I haven't seen game on TV so maybe I missed something but I couldn't believe it.
it's because they're not used to having calls go against them. They think that a handball in the lead up to a goal should have been ignored, and that an on side player was off side for our goal, but ignore a blatant foul in the lead up to their goal.
The club have stats to show we have bias against us. Often it's because we get inexperienced refs with the more experienced refs being reserved for the bigger games in a round. I remember when Merrick was here he couldn't believe how bad it was and things he could get away with at victory and decisions he'd expect to go his way were going against him.
This year we seen to be getting more calls go our way. Maybe it's because we're going well, maybe it's the league trying to be more even, maybe it's just luck. And look where we are. So, for Sydney, when you come from a position of privilege and are used to marginal calls going your way, then equality feels like oppression. Same as victory fans claiming the league is being rigged to stop them winning because they've had a couple of calls go against them.
Gutsy effort and we found a way to win. They sufficate the life out of ya with their press and we hung in there. He's a really good ref but ignoring blatant fouls early on in the interest of letting the game flow is a bit wierd.
Pennington is worrying me this match too, far too prone to coughing up possession.
Pennington was poor today, loads of passes to nowhere, missed takles etc. Al-Taay should have played but I wonder if he's fasting due to Ramadan so can't play a full 90. Al-Taay our best Aussie now for me.
Don't agree with all of what you say but Pennington was running at about 70% yesterday.... He needs to get fit and get his act together. 2 weeks to do it. Chiefy sees him as important.
yep, he wasn't great yesterday but he will improve. I bet we'll see him killing it again against Brisbane once he is fully fit again. Pretty tough ask to come straight back into the starting line up after being injured a few weeks
After he lost the ball and we were scored on I was moaning that it should of been a foul but really he lost that to easily I reckon. Im totally one eyed when I'm watching the Nix live I think!
Not many minutes this season but my word he has been bloody brilliant every time he's had the opportunity. Very composed and intelligent player, so good to see the pipeline from reserves through to the first team is going bloody strong. 💪
Was it RR or someone else on here saying he's never tasted defeat after making an appearance?
Honestly thought that was his worst performance in a Nix shirt. He under hit a few passes, which put others under pressure & seemed to struggle with the high press. He normally is the CB that brings the ball on forward runs when we play three at the back and we didn't see any of that yesterday. I do wonder if some of it was because Salas wasn't providing the same cover in defense that Payne does.
He had set the bar really high previously, so should be surprised he can't keep meeting or exceeding previous efforts.
He is still undefeated & I really hope that injury isn't serious, I was quite worried when he went down.
Good to see Faghani cracking down on time-wasting rather than cynical fouling
I don't think it was time wasting as much as Suttons penchant to walk halfway up the sideline before he throws it in. Faghani could clearly be seen telling him to go 2kms backwards!
Totally agree. I like Sutton but he likes to take the piss even more. He was still doing it, but more carefully, after he’d gone into the book. I’d have carded him too.
All this talk of there being stats to show there is bias against us is nonsense and is a losers mentality which, fortunately, this team is shedding by largely playing well.
Even if we’d had 50 games under Faghani and lost all of them, that isn’t evidence of bias. There could be bias but just as conceivably it could mean we are playing shark.
We’ve had some howlers go against us but we’ve also had the rub of the green too. It’s cliche, but we are making our own luck and with our defenders (usually) being so solid we are reducing the opportunities for opponents to make their own luck against us.
I’m open to the argument that there are isolated calls against us which defy logic but every club can say that. There’s certainly no conspiracy, and I don’t think there’s an unconscious racial/nationality based bias against us either.
Faghani isn't biased against us. He just allows more physicality and our players are not used to it. Just look at the tantrums Kraev had. Combine that with him tending to get the big games & us normally having him away, it's unsurprising our record is terrible under him.
What annoys me with Faghani is you can murder someone for 70 mins and then suddenly breathing on someone is now a foul.
Using facts to improve things for us is not a losers mentality. It's a winners mentality. Ignoring all the challenges stacked against us without trying to improve them means we will always struggle, it's a game of small margins.
The team uses the information to lobby and pressure the APL to give us a fairer percentage of experienced refs who should be more consistent.
People who win try and get any edge they can. We need to maximise our advantages, and minimize our disadvantages by lobbying the APL and making sure the refs are aware that we are usually among the most fouled team in the competition yet teams against us get the fewest yellows.
I doubt any single ref is biased, but over the course of a season we don't tend to get the rub of the green. As I said, Dome has said in an interview he thinks it's because we consistently get the most inexperienced refs, that is useful information for the team to take to the APL.
The ref was fine. He gave not the usual shoving and pulling fouls, we needed to adjust our ‘what is a foul’ tactics accordingly to that, but we could not. Non of the fouls were malicious, at least I can’t remember any. I would have showed Sutton the yellow card the moment he was telling the ball boy not give him the ball and slowly fetching it himself, clear time wasting intent.
