Looking at the replay of Sasse's goal, what a terrific little pass by Ball through the narrowest of gaps to Kraev who toed it on to Sasse. So much of what Ball does goes unnoticed but he has been such a valuable player for us.
Zawada with a goal involvement in 7 consecutive games I make it. And Kraev with 2 goals in 2 games.
Edit: nice little golden boot tussle with Zawada on 9 and Kraev on 7.
To bring us home with a wet sail we need, with our main scorers holding form, what baseball would call closers- goals from Sasse, Old, Kosta, Ball, Sutton, perhaps even Ugarkovic, Rufer and Wooton to put results to bed… If we put can pressure on City who knows? We just have to pile up results. Leciester did. It’d be that kind of run and win. We’ve always had the players, but it’s been an advertisement for a salary cap league with how close it’s been on the table.
Our attack is not under any dispute, we score. Defending is the issue and I still think ball could be a championship winning DM or CM. He has all the attributes, not saying him in that position is what we are missing but with a bit of practice he could be.
Last night was actually the 8th such time that @WgtnPhoenixFC have scored a penalty and kept a clean sheet, but it had been 8 years since it last happened. pic.twitter.com/rX4Z9tDKJy
Wow, as an additional stat, this is the first time we've ever made it this far into the season without going goalless in a match. We've now scored in 17 consecutive games since the start of the season, our previous best was the opening 5 games of 2020/21 and 2012/13.
Last game where we didn't score was the Australia Cup quarter final vs Macarthur in August 2022.
Edit: Also the second highest number of goals we've ever scored by this point in the season. 29 goals in 17 games this season, 30 in 17 in 2014/15.
That is the type of performance we want every week and what was missing in the last two games. No sitting back on the lead but keeping the pressure on and attacking rather than sitting back and shutting up shop. This performance will make a lot of fans happy. Great goals. Shark loads of fans in that opposite stand, They were ghosts. Obviously Tasmania doesn't give a shark about football.
Well done Nix, this is all we fans wanted - a continued effort for the entire game, no sitting back. I'd like to say that the ref did alright too. perhaps Diamanti warranted a review from VAR and it turning into a red.
Was very pleased with the range of passsing from midfield - across the 6s and 10s it was pleasing to see. Apart from a couple of missed passes, think that was Rufers best performance - showing that potential as a creator (as well as a disrupter) that he was often talked about as having in his youth.
First 10 minutes the phoenix mucked around at the back passing across the field going nowhere... after that we showed more urgency from the back feeding our midfield & flanks, allowing us to create gaps in their defence.
We have lost a lot of games going 1-0 up first - crucial than when we score first we don't get negative & sit on a lead, just allows the opposition to constantly apply pressure deep in our half... if we keep playing positively in a controlled manner we have a good chance of pushing that 1-0 lead out to 2 zip.
Zawada, lacks a bit of gas, and doesn't have the close in ball dribbling skills, but is deadly on goal with his heading skills.
Have two options when taking a penalty, pick a spot in the corner and smash it hard... or come into the ball slowly, the goalie will start to move towards one corner, then place the ball in the other corner, much prefer the latter.
That is the type of performance we want every week and what was missing in the last two games. No sitting back on the lead but keeping the pressure on and attacking rather than sitting back and shutting up shop. This performance will make a lot of fans happy. Great goals. Shark loads of fans in that opposite stand, They were ghosts. Obviously Tasmania doesn't give a shark about football.
Well done Nix, this is all we fans wanted - a continued effort for the entire game, no sitting back. I'd like to say that the ref did alright too. perhaps Diamanti warranted a review from VAR and it turning into a red.
Devenport got a full house at their little ground in their FFA Cup verus the Nix
But big difference between turning out to support your team, verus some souless franchise from Melbourne
Well that was a great result and some lovely play and finishing.
The only prob I have is how we go when the opposition actually have a midfield and they put us under pressure.
But that should add some confidence, and hopefully we kick on from here.
As long as we continue to move forward from the back with really good pace with our short passing game our midfield will perform well... when we move way too slow from the back though it makes too easy for the opposition to squeeze us in the midfield, shutting us down completely.
That is the type of performance we want every week and what was missing in the last two games. No sitting back on the lead but keeping the pressure on and attacking rather than sitting back and shutting up shop. This performance will make a lot of fans happy. Great goals. Shark loads of fans in that opposite stand, They were ghosts. Obviously Tasmania doesn't give a shark about football.
Well done Nix, this is all we fans wanted - a continued effort for the entire game, no sitting back. I'd like to say that the ref did alright too. perhaps Diamanti warranted a review from VAR and it turning into a red.
Devenport got a full house at their little ground in their FFA Cup verus the Nix
But big difference between turning out to support your team, verus some souless franchise from Melbourne
We of all teams should know that, from our time at Wollongong...
I wouldn't call the Nix a souless franchise like WU. Though I think alot of that will change for WU with a new stadium & proper base. There is a big, rapidly growing population out in Melb's Western burbs.
But yes huge difference in turning out to support your team, verus some outfit with almost nil affiliation to your area, and like the Nix were in the Gong, you know it's just a temporary thing.
I wouldn't call the Nix a souless franchise like WU. Though I think alot of that will change for WU with a new stadium & proper base. There is a big, rapidly growing population out in Melb's Western burbs.
But yes huge difference in turning out to support your team, verus some outfit with almost nil affiliation to your area, and like the Nix were in the Gong, you know it's just a temporary thing.
didnt the mix in the gong get bigger crowds than wu or MacArthur?
I think maybe one or two games got over 3,000, but mainly due to travelling away crowds from ccm and wsw. Some games nix got like less then 2500 to games Ryan
coochiee
I wouldn't call the Nix a souless franchise like WU. Though I think alot of that will change for WU with a new stadium & proper base. There is a big, rapidly growing population out in Melb's Western burbs.
But yes huge difference in turning out to support your team, verus some outfit with almost nil affiliation to your area, and like the Nix were in the Gong, you know it's just a temporary thing.
didnt the mix in the gong get bigger crowds than wu or MacArthur?
Decent week for us in terms of teams ahead of us dropping points, everyone ahead of us dropped points so we're only 3 points behind second now.
True but teams sitting 5th through 7th are all on 24 points now though.... Which means if we lose next week away from home against a very good mariners team we will almost certainly be out of the 6. Thankfully we have some very winnable home games coming up.
Decent week for us in terms of teams ahead of us dropping points, everyone ahead of us dropped points so we're only 3 points behind second now.
True but teams sitting 5th through 7th are all on 24 points now though.... Which means if we lose next week away from home against a very good mariners team we will almost certainly be out of the 6. Thankfully we have some very winnable home games coming up.
That is true but with the two games after CCM against those teams right behind us Sydney and Jets puts it into our hands to take points off them. Both games at home so I'd take a 2/3 out of those 3 games.
Decent week for us in terms of teams ahead of us dropping points, everyone ahead of us dropped points so we're only 3 points behind second now.
True but teams sitting 5th through 7th are all on 24 points now though.... Which means if we lose next week away from home against a very good mariners team we will almost certainly be out of the 6. Thankfully we have some very winnable home games coming up.
We're either good enough or we're not. If they beat those teams they'll be comfortably top six. If we aspire to home finals then we need to be good enough to beat Mariners as well. But I'll take what we can get. They looked good enough to be top two for a bit. So hopefully they can get back to that level.
Yeah the commentators mentioned it when he got a yellow against WU. Suspension time.
Payne should be able to slot in to that position, we have options for CB (Wootton, Boxall).
Yipe but he hasn't played there for awhile, and the fitness demands are much higher for that RB role, tearing up & down the sidelines compared to CB. Who slots in there if he is buggered after 70 mins? Sydney had it's hottest day of the year last weekend. Think N Boxall has played a bit at RB.
Decent week for us in terms of teams ahead of us dropping points, everyone ahead of us dropped points so we're only 3 points behind second now.
True but teams sitting 5th through 7th are all on 24 points now though.... Which means if we lose next week away from home against a very good mariners team we will almost certainly be out of the 6. Thankfully we have some very winnable home games coming up.
We're either good enough or we're not. If they beat those teams they'll be comfortably top six. If we aspire to home finals then we need to be good enough to beat Mariners as well. But I'll take what we can get. They looked good enough to be top two for a bit. So hopefully they can get back to that level.
Reckon, in our remaining games if we play in a positive manner consistently throughout those matches & mark well, especially mark tightly in our box, the Phoenix will easily stay in the top 6.
Yeah, the sooner he returns the better - would like to see Elliot get involved more though, he's one of the few players in the team that has the close in ball dribbling skills/ability to constantly beat a player, and he's fast too... Elliot is very effective when he beats a player down the flank, gives us another option of finding space behind a defence, other than mainly through balls etc.
I wouldn't call the Nix a souless franchise like WU. Though I think alot of that will change for WU with a new stadium & proper base. There is a big, rapidly growing population out in Melb's Western burbs.
But yes huge difference in turning out to support your team, verus some outfit with almost nil affiliation to your area, and like the Nix were in the Gong, you know it's just a temporary thing.
Just to clarify, I didn't mean we were a soulless franchise, because we're clearly not. I meant just the 'playing in a neutral venue' thing 👍
