Well that performance was good. Next match should be a classic.
R2 vs Sydney FC | Sun 20th Oct | 8:00pm | SS7
impressive thing for me was our energy levels, we played at such a high tempo
Ball ran his socks off today and looked fantastic. Although many slated him, myself included, sotirio really turned it around after the first 20 minutes or so too, and he put in a pretty solid shift for the rest of the game. The whole team grew into it to be honest, McCowatt and Davila definitely got better as the game progresssed. Disappointing but positive. My only real gripe was with Steinmann and Rufer, thought both weren't great today
Steinmann is clearly a good player and will be fine for us but I agree he did some surprisingly odd things which put us under pressure, including the foul that led to their second goal. If Mandi had done that last season I would've screamed blue murder.
Great to see the nix playing so well live.
Ball so unlucky with his shot off his bar
Was already celebrating when I thought Rufer had finally broken the drought.
Bring on the rest of the season I say
Very unlucky not to come away with a draw tonight. Alot of encouraging signs and great to see Davila has made the A League team of the round
We have zero luck. All our open chances take hilarious deflections and miss and their not a striker just takes a punt and scores.
Both of their goals were flukes/lucky. The first took a massive deflection to go in.
We have zero luck. All our open chances take hilarious deflections and miss and their not a striker just takes a punt and scores.
Both of their goals were flukes/lucky. The first took a massive deflection to go in.
So did ours
Now I've calmed down - we played well and dominated away from home against Sydney. A lot of positives to take out of that, but we really need to be converting chances; Hooper should help; I think Ball looks absolutely like the perfect second striker. He works his ass off.
I thought Sotirio had a really good second half, too - so too Davila and McCowatt. McCowatt did really good to weather the Grant storm for the 15 mins and I thought he ended up getting the better of that encounter.
Libby a huge loss for next week (and potentially the week after), really gutted. I do not trust Walter Scott to fill in for him and I'd rather see Payne or TAHW slot in.
I thought Rufer was pretty poor on the ball today; I think that's his biggest issue - he's OK at a few cross field balls but anytime he has the ball and is facing towards goal he has no idea what to do with it.
The best thing for me is I don't think anyone could watch that game and think we didn't give our all; every single player worked their fudgeing asses off.
one thing with mcowatt he needs to put more power into his passes. a few times in the first half he didt hit them hard enough so they were intercepted. dont think he'll be as much a revelation as singh but he still is a gun.
one thing with mcowatt he needs to put more power into his passes. a few times in the first half he didt hit them hard enough so they were intercepted. dont think he'll be as much a revelation as singh but he still is a gun.
He will get there as he gets more used to the professional game and the rest of his new team
We have zero luck. All our open chances take hilarious deflections and miss and their not a striker just takes a punt and scores.
Both of their goals were flukes/lucky. The first took a massive deflection to go in.
So did ours
Now I've calmed down - we played well and dominated away from home against Sydney. A lot of positives to take out of that, but we really need to be converting chances; Hooper should help; I think Ball looks absolutely like the perfect second striker. He works his ass off.
I thought Sotirio had a really good second half, too - so too Davila and McCowatt. McCowatt did really good to weather the Grant storm for the 15 mins and I thought he ended up getting the better of that encounter.
Libby a huge loss for next week (and potentially the week after), really gutted. I do not trust Walter Scott to fill in for him and I'd rather see Payne or TAHW slot in.
I thought Rufer was pretty poor on the ball today; I think that's his biggest issue - he's OK at a few cross field balls but anytime he has the ball and is facing towards goal he has no idea what to do with it.
The best thing for me is I don't think anyone could watch that game and think we didn't give our all; every single player worked their fudgeing asses off.
Based on?
Great stuff. With Hooper in this team could be the business. Davila looked much better this week too which is a promising sign
All players would get at least a pass mark on player ratings this week. My top ones would be Steinmann, Ball and Davila. Great that all visa players are now worth their place.
Really good game from everyone
Fantastic Phoenix - cannot wait to see what this builds into.
Bring on Perth
Paper version of stuff had result as 1-0 loss..never let facts get in way of deadline
What a game - one we could have come away with a draw too - which is massive given our history in Sydney and usual away form.
Rufer - is still getting to grips with playing beside Steinmen - not at his best
Sotirio - is a bench player at best, one assist does not erase the large number of times his final pass went to the opposition and could have released ball onto goal.
Ball - played well and will score plenty I think, he footwork on the ball is superb.
The red card was a red all day, unlucky for Libby as he was going for the ball, but it was careless and he stood on a guy's shin. Plenty to work on with defending set pieces, but still promising.
Never happy with a loss but think we walk away from that game with alot more positives. Has been plenty of questions asked so far about how we are going to score goals. Maybe time to be asking how are we going to stop other teams scoring because we have given away some soft goals so far.Its been as issue for a number of seasons and at this early stage looks like we may have similar issues.
We actually look better defensively than last season when we relied heavily on luck and a brilliant keeper. So to see us ship these soft goals when for the most part we've defended in a well structured way is incredibly frustrating.
so the ref waves play on and you lie on the ground you get a VAR check...ffs
And then a replay comes on in the ground, people see it, start booing and then it becomes a VAR check...
Not debating the red card, but if we're living in a VAR influenced world. Surely replays in grounds shouldn't come up on the big screens to influence decisions before they're made by the guy with all the camera angles at his disposal...
Come on var worked exactly as its supposed to. Bad on field decision over turned after a clear mistake on a major decision
You're missing the point. Read again, and then try again.
Whether there are boos or a replay at the ground first doesn't really matter does it? The VAR was used correctly and the correct call was made. Would have and should have been the same call regardless so what does it matter? What's the difference?
I don't think either the player staying on the ground or the crowds reactions were factors in that VAR decision.
I've calmed down a bit now so fair point's. I've been anti-VAR all the way so just venting some frustrations, mostly from the heart but without using my head. Apologies to the other joker in this thread that I was baiting a few pages back too.
Back to the game itself - we were mere centimetres from taking 3 points away from home against the reigning champions. Football being the heartbreaker that it can be, and unfortunately we walk away 0-2 to start the season.
Usually for a Nix side that loses away from home, we're scrappy, we keep it tight and we usually don't get too much flair and drive going forward, there's a lot of longballs and it's a bit of a hard watch at the best of time. For a long time we've been feeding off scraps and living in a perpetual state of counter attacking type football. Tonight that notion was blown out of the water! Creating pressure, pressing/harassing and challenging Sydney to the point we dominated the game, this was the most pleasing aspect of it all. Sure we didn't get a result, but we will play a lot worse at some point this season and we'll end up winning games, which is just the way it goes.
Despite the result, there is a lot to be encouraged about from that performance. Ball was fantastic and Uli was solid, it'll do him a world of good in terms of confidence getting that goal as well. Bodes well for the season ahead. Looking forward to seeing Hooper bringing a real cutting edge up front from next week too.
COYN!
On reflection, I think this is a little bit OTT - they did have several good chances (which luckily mostly fell to Kosta who had a bit of a mare). I think the fact that we kept the ball so well, but also created chances was the most impressive thing, we've just still got to stay focussed for 90 minutes and not give up those sharkty goals...
What a game - one we could have come away with a draw too - which is massive given our history in Sydney and usual away form.
Rufer - is still getting to grips with playing beside Steinmen - not at his best
Sotirio - is a bench player at best, one assist does not erase the large number of times his final pass went to the opposition and could have released ball onto goal.
Ball - played well and will score plenty I think, he footwork on the ball is superb.
The red card was a red all day, unlucky for Libby as he was going for the ball, but it was careless and he stood on a guy's shin. Plenty to work on with defending set pieces, but still promising.
I thought Rufer had an excellent game, he was much more positive and was turning in midfield with his head up. We dominated midfield from 15 minutes until the red card so I'd say he had a pretty effective afternoon.
That Sydney attacking midfield lineup is stacked!
Steinmann and Rufer played well, you can dominate a game against Sydney without winning the midfield battle, which we did.
One metric we have certainly increased this season is our nutmegging. Last week Davila with the double nutmeg, this week Ball with a triple (?) nutmeg and Cacace with a brilliant one to escape down the left.
Also, this is probably the most positive I have ever seen Nix (and neutral) fans after a loss. That's telling as to how the game went.
One metric we have certainly increased this season is our nutmegging. Last week Davila with the double nutmeg, this week Ball with a triple (?) nutmeg and Cacace with a brilliant one to escape down the left.
Also, this is probably the most positive I have ever seen Nix (and neutral) fans after a loss. That's telling as to how the game went.
Considering the opposition, this has to be one of our best away losing performances ever
How long before we know how long Libby has to spend in the naughty corner?
Surely just a week, right? It was a bad tackle but that's that!
I managed to catch only the second half and that was a joy to watch. The wins will come, but it seems like we've got a football team that can play entertaining football with some decent quality, pace and skill. With some good mental strength. And with a heap of upside from time together, development of the younger players and Hooper to come.
I think in both games we've looked better in the second half. And we've improved from game 1 to game 2. Good signs that Ufuk's delivering the right technical adjustments and mental positivity as a coach.
Touch wood, but we could have a season to look forward to.
COYN
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
When we start bitching on this forum about the price of craft beer at the RoF, that's usually the sign we have a decent team.
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
The usual sign that we have a decent team is when we start bitching on this forum about the price of craft beer at the RoF.
its early days, I reckon after a home win we'll be on the "beers are too pricey" bandwagon
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
Is someone editing your posts or
For me, I didn't expect much results wise out of this season and these perfomances have been above my initial expectations. That's all I can ask of this team; of which, most have never played in the A-League.
I expect Cacace to be out for 2 weeks. In positive news, Talay indicated that Hooper would be avaliable come round 3, pending fitness.
Anyone pissed a little with Sky coverage. End of the game, cuts straight away to some filler show on Wembley and no interviews or analysis (not even a graphic of the score with stats).
Sky coverage is absolute dog shark.
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
I expect Cacace to be out for 2 weeks. In positive news, Talay indicated that Hooper would be avaliable come round 3, pending fitness.
Anyone pissed a little with Sky coverage. End of the game, cuts straight away to some filler show on Wembley and no interviews or analysis (not even a graphic of the score with stats).
This is the same amount of coverage you get for free on youtube if you're overseas (or using a vpn)...
Kinda poor for a service you pay for.
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
Is someone editing your posts or
For me, I didn't expect much results wise out of this season and these perfomances have been above my initial expectations. That's all I can ask of this team; of which, most have never played in the A-League.
I expect Cacace to be out for 2 weeks. In positive news, Talay indicated that Hooper would be avaliable come round 3, pending fitness.
Why two weeks? It was just a bad/clumsy challenge. Surely the regular one match punishment for a red would be sufficient?
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
I expect Cacace to be out for 2 weeks. In positive news, Talay indicated that Hooper would be avaliable come round 3, pending fitness.
One of the commentators mentioned that Uffie had told them we were waiting on a visa prematch
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
Is someone editing your posts or
For me, I didn't expect much results wise out of this season and these perfomances have been above my initial expectations. That's all I can ask of this team; of which, most have never played in the A-League.
I expect Cacace to be out for 2 weeks. In positive news, Talay indicated that Hooper would be avaliable come round 3, pending fitness.
Why two weeks? It was just a bad/clumsy challenge. Surely the regular one match punishment for a red would be sufficient?
Sure, but this is us; we'll get the shark end of the stick
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
Is someone editing your posts or
For me, I didn't expect much results wise out of this season and these perfomances have been above my initial expectations. That's all I can ask of this team; of which, most have never played in the A-League.
I expect Cacace to be out for 2 weeks. In positive news, Talay indicated that Hooper would be avaliable come round 3, pending fitness.
Why two weeks? It was just a bad/clumsy challenge. Surely the regular one match punishment for a red would be sufficient?
Sure, but this is us; we'll get the shark end of the stick
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
Is someone editing your posts or
For me, I didn't expect much results wise out of this season and these perfomances have been above my initial expectations. That's all I can ask of this team; of which, most have never played in the A-League.
I expect Cacace to be out for 2 weeks. In positive news, Talay indicated that Hooper would be avaliable come round 3, pending fitness.
Why two weeks? It was just a bad/clumsy challenge. Surely the regular one match punishment for a red would be sufficient?
Sure, but this is us; we'll get the shark end of the stick
If it does end up being a large amount of time out, do we risk appealing? Clearly there was no malice in the tackle, but I wouldn't bank on that lessening the punishment. If we lose the appeal, does it add a match or two onto the total sentence, or am I making that up??
I'm concerned Nix are going to be a good side and I wont have anything to moan about.
Is someone editing your posts or
For me, I didn't expect much results wise out of this season and these perfomances have been above my initial expectations. That's all I can ask of this team; of which, most have never played in the A-League.
I expect Cacace to be out for 2 weeks. In positive news, Talay indicated that Hooper would be avaliable come round 3, pending fitness.
I agree with that. It was a bad challenge
