I have three points to make, after rewatching the highlights (again).
- Faghani let the foul on Pennington go in the buildup to Mak's goal, because just seconds ago an identical foul on a Sydney player took place few metres upfield. I think that this was a matter of his consistency (I would have blown the whistle on both). This was probably (arguably) no worse foul than that on Old in the dying minutes of our game away to Brisbane.
- Unlike some posters I reckon Pennington had a good game for someone coming back from an injury. He had a mix of good and bad moves (poor shot on goal, etc) but he was overall the same good player. None of our defense and mid coped very well with the high press all first half, so I would not single out Pennington.
- We won the game because of Sydney's errors, in that they should have anticipated our breakout on a counter, since Kosta almost scored on a break in the first half (trying to chip the keeper). The error is seen in that their experienced defenders went up to help with the high press late in the game, but did not have the legs to track back; it was their less experienced defenders that stayed back. We know how it ended: one of them turned Kosta's squaring pass (aimed at Krayev) into his own net; then two of them allowed Kosta to cut inside and score an imperious, classy, indefensible goal. And of course Paulsen's triple save late in the game made the whole difference.
- Faghani let the foul on Pennington go in the buildup to Mak's goal, because just seconds ago an identical foul on a Sydney player took place few metres upfield. I think that this was a matter of his consistency (I would have blown the whistle on both). This was probably (arguably) no worse foul than that on Old in the dying minutes of our game away to Brisbane.
- Unlike some posters I reckon Pennington had a good game for someone coming back from an injury. He had a mix of good and bad moves (poor shot on goal, etc) but he was overall the same good player. None of our defense and mid coped very well with the high press all first half, so I would not single out Pennington.
- We won the game because of Sydney's errors, in that they should have anticipated our breakout on a counter, since Kosta almost scored on a break in the first half (trying to chip the keeper). The error is seen in that their experienced defenders went up to help with the high press late in the game, but did not have the legs to track back; it was their less experienced defenders that stayed back. We know how it ended: one of them turned Kosta's squaring pass (aimed at Krayev) into his own net; then two of them allowed Kosta to cut inside and score an imperious, classy, indefensible goal. And of course Paulsen's triple save late in the game made the whole difference.
Watch the full game for the amount of misplaced passes to the opposition and no man's land he made. That's been cut out of the highlights.
He's not the only one guilty mind, but he was the worst offender of a bad lot especially in the first half. Salas helped tighten up our passing as the goal showed.
I think Salas has the potential to relegate Payne to the bench when he's fully up to speed at RB.
That's a fair point (Pennington) in that I watched the highlights to see things I might have missed in the first place, so may not have gleaned that if the highlights did not show much of that. Still, a lot of our short passes out of the defence (both from Hughes and from Wooton) went straight to the opposition, and only some of the long passes were effective.