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  • Diamonds Shine At Campbelltown

    mack

    By mack (edited)

    Tony Popovic disrespected the Asian Champions League by naming a 2nd tier squad for his opening match against Urawa, and the Japanese outfit punished him by handing out a 4-0 drubbing with a second half blitz.

    Despite having just won the Sydney Derby, Popovic rotated his squad, bringing back failed foreign player Artiz Borda, the inconsistent Jumpei Kusukami, while also introducing players who haven't played in months, like Steven Lustica. Popovic also gave a debut to young striker Abraham Majok. The disjointed team managed to ease into the match, getting to the half-time break without conceding, along with Majok scoring only to be ruled out by the offside flag.

    The second half was a disaster, just 10 minutes into the half Lee Tadanari sliced through the inept central defensive pairing, Shinzoh Kohrogi latching onto the through ball and stabbing a toe-poke past Vedran Janjetovic. They doubled their lead almost immediately, Tadanari turning from provider to scorer as he took advantage of an awful giveaway from Janjetovic, as he threw the ball straight to Urawa, they launched an attack that eventually ended with Tadanari firing under the keeper for 2-0.

    The introductions of Mario Shabow, Ryan Griffiths & Shannon Cole did nothing to stem the Red tide, as they went for the jugular, picking up a 3rd goal in the 68th minute. Unlike the Wanderers who wasted every single set piece opportunity on the night, Hamill leapt to try and clear an Urawa corner but he only managed a dangerous flick-on. Urawa defender Makino Tomoaki was left unmarked, he waltzed into the 6 yard box, flung out a boot and connected to send the ball crashing past Jumpei on the line.

    Brazilian forward Rafael da Silva was introduced late in the game, and despite not having the pedigree of his famouse namesake who played for Manchester United, Lyon & the Brazilian national team, Rafael was still good enough to blast a fourth goal past the Wanderers defence by embarrassing Hamill & Janjetovic.

    Despite the high of the Sydney Derby win, this was a pathetic loss, one that started from the moment Popovic decided to play a bit piece team made up of failures, players out of position, debutantes, and men who hadn't seen a competitive match in months.

    How Popovic decided that it was fine for his two fullbacks, several midfielders and goalkeeper to back up after the derby, but not the key central defensive pairing of Cornthwaite & Aspro is beyond me. For a coach who has won the competition, he let himself get humiliated, destroying all the momentum from the weekends Derby victory, just in time for a long plane trip to Perth for the weekend, followed by a long-haul effort to face up with Shanghai SIPG next week.

    The few bright spots were Majok and his debut, Shabow finally getting some gametime, and the long awaited return of Shannon Cole. Everything else was a dismal failure.

    Edited by mack

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    Burgerman

    That sucked like the Arnie tifo.

     

    Toothless in attack and asleep in defense, seeing the line up I knew we didn't have much of a chance.

     

    Popa better not dish out a soft line up next ACL game or it will be the same result.

    Link to comment
    Jewwfro

    Why can professional footballer's in Europe play two games in 3 days but in Australia they can't?

     

    With the availability of quality physios etc, surely they can prepare a player for multiple games a week.

    Link to comment
    beatsurrender

    Why can professional footballer's in Europe play two games in 3 days but in Australia they can't?

     

    With the availability of quality physios etc, surely they can prepare a player for multiple games a week.

     

    They probably can but Popa picks the team and he will refer to all sorts of performance data (heart rates, VO2 Max etc) which indicate a drop off in output. He bases his decisions on a lot or science as opposed to gut feel

    Link to comment
    Howie

    I don't know if anyone else noticed that all of the Urawa players physique differed greatly to ours , our players looked like greyhounds in comparison to the thicker set opposition.

    They held the ball up and shielded the ball particularly well , our slighter built guys getting knocked off the ball too easily. 

    May have been a different result had the game been played in 35 degrees.

     

    COYW.

    Cheers Howie 

    Link to comment
    Dez

    When I saw our squad I was going to be happy with a 0-0 draw. Especially after the first half.

     

    Urawa were smart. Like others have mentioned they started wide in the first half then attacked directly and with speed in the second. Their crosses and first touch attack on ball the pummeled our lackluster defence.

     

    My thought is that Popa wanted to play the B squad who haven't had much (or any) match time against the team most likely to top our group and see how they go in game 1 as he has 5 other games to sort his squad and show the players how defensively deficient they were.

     

    After we lost to Ulsan Hyundai in the first round the team looked much sharper in subsequent matches.

     

    Plus he wanted to rest players (who he already know how they perform) for Perth.

     

    I think he is still focusing on winning both comps, he is just using the players he has available.

    Link to comment
    Stokz

    Surely CBs can play two games in 3 or so days pretty easily. 

     

    That game with our preferred CB pairing would of been a bit different. 

     

    Hamill and Borda are no where near a-league let alone ACL level. 

    Link to comment
    Gazmon

    Why can professional footballer's in Europe play two games in 3 days but in Australia they can't?

     

    With the availability of quality physios etc, surely they can prepare a player for multiple games a week.

     

    Combination of a few things for me:

     

    • Squad sizes and quality within them. We just don't have enough players at a high enough level to compete across all competitions. Many teams in Europe do.

       

    • Training levels and conditioning. Part of that is that we're simply not used to having to juggle so many competitions. In Europe this is quite normal. It's a rather new concept here.

       

    • Travel. I know we didn't travel this week. But, even for a normal A-League match the travel is equivalent to continental Europe. Then add the upcoming travel through Asia and it starts to take its toll.

       

    Not saying they are excuses, more reasons. That said, there's no excuse for an insipid display as we saw last night. But, the beauty with football is that there's another game just around the corner.

    Link to comment
    Zelinsky

    This squad was assembled with the ACL in mind, and we actually signed Jumpei for this campaign, right? We were told at the beginning of the season that the players that had joined improved the quality of the squad.

     

    Our players are match fit, and the team travelled to Campbelltown. Urawa's season is yet to start. They journeyed to Sydney from Japan.

     

    And then this?

     

    The worst HAL home game of the season, if not ever, is followed by the best home game of the season is followed by our worst ACL performance ever? There is something seriously wrong with this picture.

     

    There were complaints in the past that Asian teams would travel to ACL away games with 2nd tier squads, disrespecting the competition. We seem to have gone one step further by travelling to Campbelltown with a third tier squad.

    Link to comment
    thefairy

     

    Meh, get over it.

     

    Everyone was pretty happy Saturday night.

    One loss and everyone's doing an Arnie again. Spare me.

     

    One win against the Smurfs and the sun is shining? Spare me.

     

    Have faith FCB. It is all part of Popa's big plan.

    Like he said last week. We going to win the grand final.  :xnod:

    Link to comment
    Gazmon

    Meh, get over it.

     

    Everyone was pretty happy Saturday night.

    One loss and everyone's doing an Arnie again. Spare me.

     

    We weren't that good at the derby to be honest. Sydney were more poor than we were good. IMHO we do need a change at the top. We've become stagnant and predictable. Signings have been lackluster and the results have reflected that.

    Link to comment
    DCWSW

     

     

     

     

    We fielded a second string side tonight, and by the second half were exposed by a Japanese side that are experienced playing together as a team.

    Very impressed with the away supporters tonight. They made just as much noise as G.E. and Al Hilal supporters did when they bought out an entire end. Just as loud as the RBB tonight, though they couldn't sustain it for the full 90 like the RBB.

    The only positive is that we lost our very first ACL home game too.

    And that didn't turn out all that bad. :ninja:

     

    One of their female active supporters collapsed and had to be attended to in the first half which explains the break of chanting in the first half....

    Turns out it was a male supporter. I think he fell off the edge

    Did you just assume their gender??

    Indeed, personally i feel offended that he assumed it was a female. Sexist pig.

    Not sure if serious.

     

    I was just going off different reports. Someone tweeted it was a female at first and then someone saw the person and stated that it was a male.

     

    Sorry if I caused any offence. I didn't intend to.

    Link to comment
    thefairy

     

     

     

     

     

    We fielded a second string side tonight, and by the second half were exposed by a Japanese side that are experienced playing together as a team.

    Very impressed with the away supporters tonight. They made just as much noise as G.E. and Al Hilal supporters did when they bought out an entire end. Just as loud as the RBB tonight, though they couldn't sustain it for the full 90 like the RBB.

    The only positive is that we lost our very first ACL home game too.

    And that didn't turn out all that bad. :ninja:

     

    One of their female active supporters collapsed and had to be attended to in the first half which explains the break of chanting in the first half....

    Turns out it was a male supporter. I think he fell off the edge

    Did you just assume their gender??

    Indeed, personally i feel offended that he assumed it was a female. Sexist pig.
    Not sure if serious.

     

    I was just going off different reports. Someone tweeted it was a female at first and then someone saw the person and stated that it was a male.

     

    Sorry if I caused any offence. I didn't intend to.

    Not good enough!! You cis gendered white male!! We want you to kneel down and beg for forgiveness for mis gendering that poor oppressed person.

    Link to comment
    Themumf

    Such is the distrust and cynicism of the board, it did cross my mind that the news of the bans was put out today in an effort to draw comment away from the disgrace that was put on at Campbelltown last night. And I am not talking about the hotdogs.

    Link to comment
    matty

     

     

    Meh, get over it.

     

    Everyone was pretty happy Saturday night.

    One loss and everyone's doing an Arnie again. Spare me.

    We weren't that good at the derby to be honest. Sydney were more poor than we were good. IMHO we do need a change at the top. We've become stagnant and predictable. Signings have been lackluster and the results have reflected that.

    I don't disagree but some are too bipolar for my liking.

     

    More big picture viewing required.

    Link to comment
    StringerBellend

    Such is the distrust and cynicism of the board, it did cross my mind that the news of the bans was put out today in an effort to draw comment away from the disgrace that was put on at Campbelltown last night. And I am not talking about the hotdogs.

    The chicken rolls were good though

    Link to comment
    btron3000

     

    Why can professional footballer's in Europe play two games in 3 days but in Australia they can't?

     

    With the availability of quality physios etc, surely they can prepare a player for multiple games a week.

     

     

    Combination of a few things for me:

     

    • Squad sizes and quality within them. We just don't have enough players at a high enough level to compete across all competitions. Many teams in Europe do.

       

    • Training levels and conditioning. Part of that is that we're simply not used to having to juggle so many competitions. In Europe this is quite normal. It's a rather new concept here.

       

    • Travel. I know we didn't travel this week. But, even for a normal A-League match the travel is equivalent to continental Europe. Then add the upcoming travel through Asia and it starts to take its toll.

       

    Not saying they are excuses, more reasons. That said, there's no excuse for an insipid display as we saw last night. But, the beauty with football is that there's another game just around the corner.
    Travel to Perth is longer than almost all European flights.

     

    Also, summer.

    Link to comment
    StringerBellend

    Last two games proved what we already suspected. The addition of vedran and Antonis along with return of Santa and the development of baccus and aspro means our first XI is competitive.

     

    However as 3 of our 5 foreign players are useless, we lack the depth to rotate squad and the slow start gives is no room for error

     

    Finally we are over reliant on a striker who's shoulder is liable to fall off as we didn't get a striker in Jan

     

    What's the point of Griffiths signing if you aren't going to play him?

    Link to comment
    StringerBellend

     

     

    However as 3 of our 5 foreign players are useless, we lack the depth to rotate squad and the slow start gives is no room for error

     

     

    You're being overly generous with that comment.

     

    Niko is the only visa player I'd feed

    After last night I'm starting to agree with you

    Link to comment
    Dmtd

    Very disappointed last night with the RBB ......!

     

    The fact that I couldn't buy any GA merchandise , I was looking forward to buying a shirt , coffee cup and umbrella .

     

    FMD , did anybody else buy one of those 16" hotdogs sitting on a 6" roll .

     

    FTFFA ......

    Link to comment
    Swifty

    FMD , did anybody else buy one of those 16" hotdogs sitting on a 6" roll .

     

    FTFFA ......

    And on a crusty roll not a soft bun. Due to the wind, the poor ba$tard that was four seats away from me must have copped half a roll's worth of crumbs.

    Link to comment
    BrightSpark

     

     

     

     

     

     

    We fielded a second string side tonight, and by the second half were exposed by a Japanese side that are experienced playing together as a team.

    Very impressed with the away supporters tonight. They made just as much noise as G.E. and Al Hilal supporters did when they bought out an entire end. Just as loud as the RBB tonight, though they couldn't sustain it for the full 90 like the RBB.

    The only positive is that we lost our very first ACL home game too.

    And that didn't turn out all that bad. :ninja:

     

    One of their female active supporters collapsed and had to be attended to in the first half which explains the break of chanting in the first half....

    Turns out it was a male supporter. I think he fell off the edge

    Did you just assume their gender??

    Indeed, personally i feel offended that he assumed it was a female. Sexist pig.
    Not sure if serious.

     

    I was just going off different reports. Someone tweeted it was a female at first and then someone saw the person and stated that it was a male.

     

    Sorry if I caused any offence. I didn't intend to.

    Not good enough!! You cis gendered white male!! We want you to kneel down and beg for forgiveness for mis gendering that poor oppressed person.

    Sooooooooo

     

    Getting back to the Urawa supporters, I just noticed that Copa90 named them in their Top 5 Ultras in Asia.

     

    That certainly explains what we were seeing and hearing last night. I even recognised the Che Guevara tifo they brought with them.

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