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  • Grand Final Bound Wanderers Lose To Mariners

    mack

    By mack (edited)

    The Western Sydney Wanderers capitulated to a pathetic 2-0 home loss against the lowly Central Coast Mariners this afternoon at Spotless Stadium.

    After Tony Popovic's striker-less lineup spent 45 minute fumbling with the ball in midfield then the Mariners pounced in the second half with 2 goals to Roy O'Donovan. The Wanderers look devoid of shape and structure in the first half, with numerous occasions holding the ball in midfield 4 or 5 players crammed into the wing, leaving no-one in the middle to attack balls into the box or to make runs off the shoulder of the last defender. Mitch Nichols did little more than get his GPS tracking meters up, as his darting forward, sideways, backwards resulted in confusing the rest of the attackers and leaving them with no forward target.

    If the first half was poor, the second was calamitous. Jonathan Aspro, who has been one of the more solid performers for the Wanderers this season gifted his opponents a chance from the penalty spot. As the Mariners lined up a corner kick, Aspro wrapped up Liam Rose in a bear hug and a mere 1 second after the corner was taken Kris Griffiths-Jones was pointing to the spot. O'Donovan blasted the penalty pasted Vedran Janjetovic to open the scoring in the 65th minute.

    Brendon Santlab was finally bought on and he could not be the miracle man once again this season. He had two clear chances to put the Wanderers on the board, with one he put a diving header straight at Paul Izzo, and a second volleyed effort he put wide.

    O'Donovan then sealed the points. The Mariners launched a somewhat aimless ball over the top of the Wanderers defence, and O'Donovan ran onto the ball and took advantage of horrendous positioning from Vedran Janjetovic to chip the ex-Sydney FC keeper into an open goal.

    The Sydney Derby looms large next week, if the Wanderers lose then Popovic needs to resign or be sacked by the board. Enough is enough. Sentimentality does not win new trophies.

    Edited by mack

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    MathyouWSW

    How I feel about this season:

    c3b7f067f3dd6d66a1ce81e477f63c35.jpg

    If we play the same side today against the Smurfs next week, I don't see us winning.
     

    For the 1st time I will be happy to see a massive cleanout at the end of the season.

    This...

    We have two internationals that aren't even on the paddock, what's frustration is we signed them for two years. Will be interesting to see if we tell them to go or not next season.

    Link to comment
    Burgerman

    Don't blame the Facebook heroes this week as Popa got it wrong with not starting a striker and persisting with horrible short corners, we should of been ahead first half but the 2nd half was poor to match soulless shite hole.

    Not looking forward to next week as today was embarrassing.

    Link to comment
    echidna

    Football is a game that can only rarely be won from outside of the opposition's penalty area.

     

    For all the possession, dominance and speed of (particularly) the first half, it was difficult to see a goal coming.

     

    This game crystallised what I believe to be a significant tactical and strategic failure.

     

    Months ago, when the prospect of a big name and experienced goalscorer was muted, we were (publicly at least) enthusiastic, though subsequently baulked at the cost of such an exercise. I wonder now, if those who made that decision might be regretting their hesitancy.

     

    Many years ago, Chairman Mao decided that to capture power in China, one had to surround the cities from the countryside with his peasant-based revolution. Inevitably, the cities would fall. Popa seems to be adopting a similar approach.

     

    Yet football is a different beast. In this game, a penalty box poacher is invaluable.

     

    We had a great opportunity as a club with big membership, two big home games at ANZ (where the cost of any big-name recruitment could be defrayed), a big new stadium on the horizon - and supposedly big dreams, to make a definitive statement about who we are in the sporting landscape. Instead, we fiddled with our existing roster in the hope that it could produce regular goals - something it has demonstrably failed to do.

     

    I don't think one can be too critical of the players - each has obviously trained really hard and done what they could. At times - such as just a week ago - the performance has been good, albeit against a drained and tired-looking Wellington. In fact, we are close to being an excellent product. We just lack a certain someone...

     

    Today exposed the weakness in our management/ownership strategy.

    Link to comment
    MadKaw

    That sucked....

    Poor all round

     

     

    and so was playing the RBB through the stadium speakers... Didn't need it, they did a great job without it, and it sounded sh^t through the pa... fake atmosphere is fake....

    Edited by MadKaw
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    Smoggy

    RBB left right after the game, refused to meet with the players.

     

    A rare occurrence.....and a true gauge that all is not well......

     

    Today, the second half especially, was unacceptable. But then so much has been unacceptable this season..

    Edited by WSWBoro
    Link to comment
    KGee

    I'm also looking forward to the awesome pitch at ANZ that has been covered for six days with floor matting, 40 degree heat for 3 of those, due to the fantastic Guns N Roses concert I attended on Friday.

     

    I'm looking forward to staying at home next Saturday half watching the game on TV and not bothering to pass on my tickets for resale.

    Link to comment
    Smoggy

     

    I'm also looking forward to the awesome pitch at ANZ that has been covered for six days with floor matting, 40 degree heat for 3 of those, due to the fantastic Guns N Roses concert I attended on Friday.

     

    I'm looking forward to staying at home next Saturday half watching the game on TV and not bothering to pass on my tickets for resale.

    I will be there and i am dreading it to be honest...so sad and shouldnt be this way...can't wait for the end of season fan forum this year! Edited by WSWBoro
    Link to comment
    eggs

    Crowd was 9000 and something.

     

    It was a typical display for this season. Made lots of half chances. Agree with the above, the only time the keeper made a save was when we ****ed off the short corner and put it on Cornthwaites head. Should've been doing that from the start.

     

    Where was WEST today?

    Link to comment
    West13

     

    RBB left right after the game, refused to meet with the players.

    Oh, sorry. Should we have stayed and said "Jolly good effort lads. We'll get them next time"? Give them three cheers and a round of applause?

     

    Pffftttt. Nope. Not good enough.

    If the players showed half the ******* heart and passion that the RBB showed we would be in a much better place.

    Our lives we give was a blast to watch from upstairs.

    Link to comment
    sonar

     

     

    I'm also looking forward to the awesome pitch at ANZ that has been covered for six days with floor matting, 40 degree heat for 3 of those, due to the fantastic Guns N Roses concert I attended on Friday.

     

    I'm looking forward to staying at home next Saturday half watching the game on TV and not bothering to pass on my tickets for resale.

    I will be there and i am dreading it to be honest...so sad and shouldnt be this way...can't wait foe the end of season fan forum this year!

     

     

    I felt like leaving early,didn't,but felt like it.

     

    A lot of the folks around us booed at the end.Not a good sign.

     

    We were all over them in the first half and didn't score.The second half was effing terrible to watch.

     

    I would love someone from the club to explain to me how is it that we get a corner and then we pass it all the way back to our keeper.I always thought a corner was a chance to attack for goal not to see how many f**king passes it takes to do stuff all.

     

    Dread the ACL coming up.If the teams in our group are any good we will get our asses handed to us on a plate.Derby next w/end,not looking forward to it.Hope we win,can't see how we can.  Sigh !

    Edited by sonar100
    Link to comment
    WestSyd

    CCM came here thinking they get a result, and deep down inside I honestly thought they could as well. All it would take was a little complacency from us. It happened.

     

    One has to ask why we are so impotent at home? Teams for a while now have come to our home ground and not feared us. They take the game to us. Even at Parramatta in a lot of games this has been the case after season 2. We won't do much if we can't win our home games.

    Link to comment
    Nel

    That hurt. Have to admit that last week was one of those falsh in the pan moments that we've had every once in a while this season. I'll be in a fully catered box next Saturday night so if what I think may happen does happen, I can just sit inside and get slightly smashed.

    Link to comment
    Smoggy

    CCM came here thinking they get a result, and deep down inside I honestly thought they could as well. All it would take was a little complacency from us. It happened.

    One has to ask why we are so impotent at home? Teams for a while now have come to our home ground and not feared us. They take the game to us. Even at Parramatta in a lot of games this has been the case after season 2. We won't do much if we can't win our home games.

    To be honest, justice has been done as they should have beaten us as SOP back in Nov, we were **** poor that day also. Edited by WSWBoro
    Link to comment
    beatsurrender

    "We thought [the selection] worked well in the first half, we created chances. At the end of the day we didn't score, we can look at who played where, who did what, we did more than enough to win that game and we didn't win," Popovic said. 

    Link to comment
    EmMac

     

    I would love someone from the club to explain to me how is it that we get a corner and then we pass it all the way back to our keeper.I always thought a corner was a chance to attack for goal not to see how many f**king passes it takes to do stuff all.

    Yep, what is the point of all that possession if its all for nought.

    Link to comment


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