R15 vs Sydney FC | Wed 23 Jan | 7.35pm | Westpac Stadium

Again, my understanding was that it wasn't 2 awful VAR decisions. They told the ref to look again and the monitor was unavailable. He looked at the big screen but stuck by his decisions. Two awful ref decisions

Looked to me like Sydney set up compact and deep on defence to combat Nix main threats i.e. Krishna & Williams (albeit he was benched for ~60mins) speed and finding space in behind the backline. Their captain said as much in the post game interview that they sat deeper than usual. Definitely a win for Corica over Rudan there.

I thought yesterday we seemed to lack the movement and short passing game to play through that kind of deep defence, or failing that the energy to make something happen going forward. Singh would have helped if he started. Burgess too with that high energy and off the ball movement he has. 

Jeez I felt for Sheridan, it must be incredibly hard playing up front with Krishna in a game like that with Roy's passing game non-existant. And with bugger all service from midfield he was stuck trying to win 50/50s or drop deep to receive then try make something happen through a crowd of defenders. Tough gig.

Hopefully on Sat we see that energy and pace back in the game like we have been seeing the past few weeks.

So that was way above our average midweek crowd of 5,826. Second best ever midweek behind the 9,496 back on 5th Jan 2011 against Victory and just ahead of previous second best of 8,411 also against Sydney back on 4th Jan 2012.

Also of note, was the second best crowd of the round, only behind 9,466 for the F3 Derby between CCM and Jets.

Obnviously not how its communicated, but hyperbole to make a point.

At least the ref was consistent on the hand ball in the pentalty areas. There was a hand ball by them also where the call could have gone either way. Consistency from refs is the least you can ask for. 

too bloody right, shove that up your metric arse FFA.

Hard game to watch, our boys were tired and clearly playing Burns in for Singh didn't work. I'd guess that Burgess might have done better but he is still young and developing so maybe not ready to start. We were better when Singh and Williams came on. Tough on Sheridan cos he wasn't getting the delivery he needed nor was Roy in the first 60 minns (I blame this on Burns not playing the 10 role well).

Tough game. As mentioned earlier - Sydney obviously implemented a game plan to sit deeper and upset our usual quick go-forward play we've been used to the last few games. The constant back passing was a result of this - the field in front of the players was blocked (due to the deeper defending) so passing backwards was sometimes the only option, besides Fenton or Cacace whipping in a hopeful cross. 

We've aced the game plan for when we play against high-pressing teams. Now we just need a game plan and formation for when teams try to play our game and sit deeper, rather than playing their own game.

Krishnas penalty was an easy result to call - called it in the stands. He always goes the same way (besides that blast against Victory). Easy for any goal keeper to decide. Almost happened against CCM too, but Kennedy couldn't quite palm it away.

Our attack changed completely when Singh came on. A player who prefers to go forwards, not backwards.

Sheridan a tough night in the office. Not getting the balls he is after. Having to drop back to go looking for it. 

Onwards and upwards. Prepare for City and hopefully a decent, loud crowd to help the boys bring it home!

False equivalence between ours and theirs - ours was blatant, theirs was just a player shielding himself from the ball. Arms weren't really in an unnatural position.

My understanding of VAR is that the off field man does not make any calls.  He just alerts the on field ref to have another look.  

One could argue that doing that, by inference, is a suggestion by the off field man that he thinks that a mistake has been made in either giving something or not giving something.  The Lowry red card for example was looked at on the sideline as was the Mandi red card.

The call that VAR check has been done and is happy I assume is the VAR man agrees with the original decision.

As for taking penalties, change has to happen.  Either Roy does not go bottom left because every man and his dog knows that is his way or someone else takes.  Assuming he is on the pitch, I reckon the Sheriff might be the man

Game stats from last night if anyone was interested. Unfortunately, didn't win the stat that mattered!

A fail there^ 

Sydney possession: 36%, passes: 335

So last night was the sixth time Krishna has missed a penalty. Considering he is equal top penalty taker now with Ifill on seven, means he is nearly 50/50 on if he will score or not.

That is just straight penalties, rebounds would be just considered goals.

ok slight exaggeration but you get my point.

I thought the crowd numbers last night were more than excellent considering:

A.  Midweek, even in school holidays

B.  There was A grade international cricket on the TV.  I know we got badly beaten there but believe it would have made a difference

Krishna is a penalty taker, just not a 100% good one.

There is a lot of useful analysis written about taking penalties. Krishna fails on some of the criteria (positioning the shot) generally, but can be excused for last night because of the wind. A backup penalty taker (Sheridan) was off the field, but you might argue Taylor should have stepped up for the (undeserved) penno last night.

Maybe its just from where I was sitting. I could see that Taylor and Fenton were working together to unleash Krishna or have Fenton put a cross in. Like I said on my original post its a shame a good cross wasnt put in until AFTER Sheridan came off. Fenton was doing a good job to stretch the play, he was also the target for our "quick" switches of play. I mean I could see what they were trying to do but it was the final execution that lacked, that goes for the whole team though not just Fenton.

he couldn't cross a road. 

Ok, here's my opinion, not that it counts for a lot - I thought it was a fairly even game played in very trying conditions. That wind was a real killer as the smoke bombs and ground sprinklers before the game can testify. Both sides contributed to a midfield battle with not a lot of attacking in that final 3rd for most of the game. 

VAR gave a very good argument for abandoning the idea completely from the game. More time was spent reviewing things than actual injuries, including the goal scored one. That looked like a season ender to me. But rather than enhance the game, it slowed it down and I felt for the players. No wonder Durante wanted the ball so much, it kept him warm in between waiting for VAR decisions to be made.

Only major disappointment for me was Sydney happy to watch us revert to previous seasons tactics of playing the ball back and forth across our back line too much before doing the very predictable long ball to our wings. It made the crowd quite restless towards the end of the game when we really needed to score. I do question our penalty in that I thought the goalkeeper was not allowed to move until the ball had been kicked? That goalkeeper was bouncing around like a kid being given a large sugar rush.

The biggest highlight for me was the attendance. Despite being a midweek game and the crappy wind, to get 8k is excellent. I actually think the figures were fairly accurate this game. Well done to those whom made the effort. Including the Wanganui attendees, the Waiarapa ones and our Tauranga fan/s. Quite a few from Sydney made the effort too and I wish to acknowledge them and their good sportsmanship.

A chance missed by us, hopefully a calm Saturday and 3 points for us. We need fear no one. But we need to win this one for sure.

dragged my grandaughter down last night for only her second ever phoenix game, she now collects phoenix gear and autographs and even though she is not a football player she still loves all things phoenix. introduced her to some of the players at the signing area after the game and she talked most of the way home about her great night out and already looking forward to her next game at the stadium

This Saturday? Did you grab a $10 ticket on the way out?

My understanding is goalkeepers can move as much as they like on the line, which could include jumping or moving across, but can't come forward until penalty is kicked....

I imagine if Stephen Taylor was a goalkeeper he'd be 10 times worse!!

i used the phoenix 50 code this morning so tickets were $12.50 which is still a bargain.

Correct, keeper is allowed to move but only on their line. They aren't allow to take a step forward until the ball is kicked.

Also, watch this video version for sound https://vredd.it/files/op3nysoot8c21.mp4

would be pretty hard to miss if the keeper couldn't move til the ball was kicked!

I'm sure we still could've managed.

So he is a Wiggle in disguise. I now know a new chant for our next game against them. A"re you a wiggle, are you a wiggle, are you a wiggle in disguise? Are you a wiggle in disguise?"

♫ Get ready, too wiggle!♫

I think it does matter, because it shows someone else should probably be taking penalties.  No ifs, buts or maybes, every penalty should be scored - you shouldn't have to rely on the rebound which is pure luck really.  It cost us a point but I don't think it's going to change our season

On the tv3 news this morning it showed an altercation between Rudan and a Sydney coach after the game. Anyone know anymore about it?

Was this, Rudan took offence to something Corica said after we beat Sydney in Sydney last game so they got into a heated discussion after the game last night

 https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/11...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/110...

So much this.

From what I heard, a failed penalty is always the penalty taker's fault - no matter how much we think a goalie "saves" a penalty. Hopefully our resident goalies, past and present, might comment.

I thought the all time avarage possibility to score in a pen is 60%, so 50 would be below, but if he put in the next in, Krishna would be above the average. Funny that.

I thought our midfield was the problem, Mandi was to deep, not much creativity moving the ball around. Maybe Sydney where just good stopping us and we run out of ideas. Clearly Singh’s creativity and the urge going forward in the second half helped. But all in all we didn’t create a lot of changes and starved Sheridan on opportunities to do anything with the ball in front of the goal.

Missing the pen was a shame. A draw, and the lost two points against the Victory would have lifted us above City with a win on Saturday.

Expected Goals from a penalty across top euro leagues is 0.76. Not sure if that includes 2nd phase 

I thought the problems started at the back - our entire backline were so bloody slow in distributing except for Kopa. It was glacial pace. Was never going to work.