Duke Wins Derby

[ManfredSchaefer]

What a game. What a derby to be at.

Will speak of matters away from Wanderland 2.0 & off the pitch elsewhere.

Bottom line is, for all their huffing & puffing, all their 'back & to the left' revisionist videos from that arseclown Slater, the smurfs couldn't get past our defence, couldn't get past Lopar, couldn't score a fooking goal. This might confuse the likes of Corica & all those taintsniffs in sky blue who should be contacting the deed poll office tomorrow to get Saxa added to their name, but the only bloody stat that counts in sokkah is goals. You get them and stop the other side from getting them, you win.

Not going to get too deep on the technical performances from our boys, tactical structures etc...much has already been said. There are some obvious improvements to be made and certain players are a step up in quality from previous seasons, hence the better results. The likes of Lopar, Duke, Schwegler, Georgievski were key to our win in a derby that, if it had of been played with last year's squad, could've got very ugly. Ugly loss that is, not ugly win.

The most important, most critical aspect of the team's performance and the associated win was the self-belief the lads have. This is a squad that may not always be the best on the pitch statistically. It may stuff up, have some bad segments etc etc. However they aren't willing to give up on themselves or on each other. There weren't any of those dying moment of the game brain fades or panics we all have seen recurring since probably season two. It's the kind of confidence and mentality that guys like Polenz had...never taking a backward step, never not giving your all, never saying that the other side was better and just trying one's best. There's no swagger, no ego...it's all 'we can do this'.

The reffing was good, and whether or not those two crucial decisions went our way through acute skills or good luck, the thing is the tools to support him (i.e. VAR & its officials) were provided and the decisions were supported. I can't begin to count the amount of times in recent derbies where decisions looked as shonky as fook from local refs in favour of the smurfs and we had to deal with it. Karma's a bitch hey.

As for the RBB/Cove noise level, I can't comment on what it was like from any position other than where me, Stringer, AndyPK & some others sit which is aligned with the penalty spot at the northern end. We could barely hear the pre-pubescent smurfs filled with red cordial until the last ten minutes, when they both visibly and audibly became more active. I thought the only reason they cut through the RBB wall of sound was that the latter were taking some breathers or getting into chants that weren't so incessantly and inherently loud.

End of story, we won, send those smurfs home to lick each other's wounds, and we're top of the table after three rounds with so much more to come. 

Today is a good day people.

[Smoggy]

5 minutes ago, Unlimited said:

Re: subs

Who was on our bench last night? Tass, Tate Russell, Ziegler. Three defensive options that were not used.

The reason was clearly to teach the eleven on the park a bit about discipline, grinding a result out, and persistence. Could have easily taken off Yeboah for Russell perhaps so that we had extra legs in defence and has some energy to push forward if needed.

Sends a message to those sat on the bench also. That this 11 are putting in everything..they are grafting out results and if you want a starting place in this side you are going to have to ******* earn it.

We were getting smashed in the middle of the park. When we needed a cool head or two to play out and retain possession we turned it over and let ESFC  back at us. I was wanting a few more subs or two..but glad it is what it was.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Smoggy

[TheSweeper]

Just now, Smoggy said:

Sends a message to thise sat on the bench also. That this 11 are putting in everything..they are grafting out results and if you want a starting place in this side you are going to have to ******* earn it.

We were getting smashed in the middle of the park. When we needed a cool head or two to play out andxretain possesse we turned it ovee and let ESF  back at us. I was wanting a few more subs or two..but glad it is what it was.

Full credit to Meier chasing hard at 90 mins he will be a beast in a few weeks 

[WHACKO]

2 hours ago, Stokz said:

Not sure why Babbel hasn’t made more subs, in both Victory/SFC games, Meier and Yeboah both look very tired towards the end.

Would of been a good to throw on Grozos at least. Last 10 mins or so. Then Ziegler last 5. 

Because the game was still in  the  balance.  Grozos has hardly played and Ziegler hasn't played at all. If we were up 2 nil then possibly. 

[Neverbloom]

i had a big sleep so took me ages to reply, how the **** did we win that? we should have lost 1-6 so proud that we won but we got dominated 95% of the match was dominated by sydney fc Lopar was covicly i wanted to say godly but covicly seems much more appropriate, i had about 12 heart attacks during the match

 

sydney fc fans on their forum were complaining about how the ref was against them and the goal line decision could have gone against them i dont think we will know if it was ever over the line or not but it wasnt conclusive enough then it goes the way of the original decision, proud of the team even if in general we played terribly

[ManfredSchaefer]

9 minutes ago, WHACKO said:

Because the game was still in  the  balance.  Grozos has hardly played and Ziegler hasn't played at all. If we were up 2 nil then possibly. 

Was talking to Stringer & others nearby re bringing Grozos or Ziegler on. Of the two, if Babbel had brought them on, would've much rather see Ziegler with his defensive capabilities & experience. However as you say with the game in the balance and both subs short of a run Babbel gambled and won.

[ManfredSchaefer]

Going by what Babbel said in the post-derby presser I think we can safely say Snakes will be given a chance to find a new club as soon as he's fit.

Asked about the team he said "Also important now...we have a goalkeeper".

[MathyouWSW]

2 minutes ago, ManfredSchaefer said:

Going by what Babbel said in the post-derby presser I think we can safely say Snakes will be given a chance to find a new club as soon as he's fit.

Asked about the team he said "Also important now...we have a goalkeeper".

Same applies to Nizic.

Edited October 27, 2019 by MathyouWSW

[blurbel]

4 hours ago, Stokz said:

You could tell Pirmin has played in proper derbies before. Going in hard, giving them grief, trying to annoy them, proper mongrel but very smart about it, it was a proper derby performance and something we’ve lacked for years now.

Well said. Only other thing I'd add is that you could see the whole time he was perfectly calm and in control, whereas Grant et al were going full rabid. 

 

To be perfectly honest, i was actually worried he was going to talk himself into a yellow card the first 20mins or so. If it was your standard A-League ref, he would've then gotten a 2nd yellow and sent off in the second half.

 

Faghani had a great game - now if only FFA/new A-League org can get him to train the other refs to such standards.

[ManfredSchaefer]

Just now, MathyouWSW said:

Same applies to Nizic.

Who...

[Neverbloom]

this isnt about the match but about the pyro during half time i was on the top stand about half way up and i felt the heat instantly i mean its not like i was worried i was going to be set on fire i actually felt quite cold and it was nice to feel but the speed the heat hit me and the amount of heat i felt was impressive,it was just really weird to feel

[echidna]

A few of us (me included) previously expressed hope that access to the active standing area not be sold on a purely one per seat basis, but that it be based more realistically on its greater standing capacity - moving us away from the vacant terracing look of our old home. Last night it looked pretty full - just the way it should be.

So, does anyone know if access to the area was adjusted for standing?

[TheWanderer]

13 minutes ago, echidna said:

A few of us (me included) previously expressed hope that access to the active standing area not be sold on a purely one per seat basis, but that it be based more realistically on its greater standing capacity - moving us away from the vacant terracing look of our old home. Last night it looked pretty full - just the way it should be.

So, does anyone know if access to the area was adjusted for standing?

nah people just walked in with other tickets

 

[Smoggy]

15 minutes ago, Neverbloom said:

this isnt about the match but about the pyro during half time i was on the top stand about half way up and i felt the heat instantly i mean its not like i was worried i was going to be set on fire i actually felt quite cold and it was nice to feel but the speed the heat hit me and the amount of heat i felt was impressive,it was just really weird to feel

I don't see the point of this at half time, it should be 5 mins before kick off I think.

[Smoggy]

26 minutes ago, ManfredSchaefer said:

Going by what Babbel said in the post-derby presser I think we can safely say Snakes will be given a chance to find a new club as soon as he's fit.

Asked about the team he said "Also important now...we have a goalkeeper".

MB means business, sad about Vedran and his op, hope it goes well for him and that he makes a quick recovery, will never play for WSW again.

[Edinburgh]

1 minute ago, Smoggy said:

I don't see the point of this at half time, it should be 5 mins before kick off I think.

I don't see the point of it at all.

[Neverbloom]

2 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

I don't see the point of this at half time, it should be 5 mins before kick off I think.

the point of them was to warm me up........i was feeling cold

[Hughesy]

I didn’t hear the cove but gee they looked sad 

😂🖕🏼

[Zakman]

9 minutes ago, TheWanderer said:

nah people just walked in with other tickets

 

Could this explain some of the empty seats? Also noticed that the outer bays of the standing area were participating in few if any of the chants - tourists?

Edited October 27, 2019 by Zakman

[Taurus]

6 hours ago, wendybr said:

PS Not sure where you were at the old stadium, Taurus, but in my last season down the Southern end, a bit further to the South than you were last night, there were definitely no sounds reverberating from the RBB. All you could hear was the sound of people chatting.

That's what I whinged about over and over again. 

Bay 47 represent.

Directly behind the WSW bench, for those whose memories may be fading  

[Taurus]

4 hours ago, wendybr said:

Well- it's not good enough for Western Sydney and Daniel Lopar - after a game like that!

Come on - you can give us a "fantastic" or "brilliant", can't you - just this once? 

He did get saved by the woodwork on at least 2 occasions.

He still has plenty of areas to work on

[NickNova]

12 hours ago, GunnerWanderer said:

Well said Nova we didn’t have the greatest game but finally we have a team who knows how to work hard our grind it out 

Wrong Nick hahahaha

[Edinburgh]

8 minutes ago, Taurus said:

He did get saved by the woodwork on at least 2 occasions.

He still has plenty of areas to work on

Sometimes a team is saved by the woodwork because of what they did earlier to limit the options 

[NickNova]

I said on ATB leading up to the derby that this was a game that we have a solid defence that we haven't had since 15/16 with NTS and Aguilar (as well as Jaimeson and Golec/Neville) so it was big for Jurman and McGowan to show us that they are boss and f*** me they showed it.
Jurman gave everything and is no nonsense, along with McGowan and the collective of the other 9 - Lopar represent, **** me - his reflexes are like a cat.

That midfield of Sydney's is still damn good even with an ageing Ninkovic who is still quality and worries me as always, but O'Neill not having Brillante makes them a little so-so but they still bossed it even with the German DM master a part-passenger. Retre in for Zullo is a massive weakness and we saw it from a cheeky attempt to flick on and got rekt by a banging ball in from Danny G and Duke late in the box flying in - proper boss.

For the rest of the game we were outplayed - no denying that - but like many have said defence win you championships and we've got a solid backline with a coming back to fitness Aussie Pat and the youngsters who are becoming regulars (Wilmering first derby didn't seem nervous).

All-in-all a very good outing at Bankwest and I'll take another 26 of these results.

[EmMac]

I know many think we were  lucky but I'm with Bozza on this; last year we would have conceded, crumbled even, under that onslaught. But we took our chances and scored. And due to skill, depth and quality of this squad we were able to defend like muthafaaarkers, soak up the pressure and win the game.

My one compliant was our sloppy turnovers. Gotta do better to keep the ball.

But, we're only just getting started, were going to get better and win more games. 

[wengerboy]

Lopar keeps clean sheets better than a virgin.  He won us the match.

[theguyyouwishyouwere]

5 hours ago, Wanderboy said:

Can't wait till we add double dot to the starting lineup.

who?

 

oh, nm.

[WHACKO]

51 minutes ago, Taurus said:

He did get saved by the woodwork on at least 2 occasions.

He still has plenty of areas to work on

Maybe so. Would rather him in goals than Vedran though.

[wendybr]

55 minutes ago, Taurus said:

Bay 47 represent.

Directly behind the WSW bench, for those whose memories may be fading  

That's where I started... for the first 3 seasons.

So moving to the other end of the stadium was a shock - when I realised how little we accessed the noise and excitment of the RBB.

[Neverbloom]

27 minutes ago, EmMac said:

I know many think we were  lucky but I'm with Bozza on this; last year we would have conceded, crumbled even, under that onslaught. But we took our chances and scored. And due to skill, depth and quality of this squad we were able to defend like muthafaaarkers, soak up the pressure and win the game.

My one compliant was our sloppy turnovers. Gotta do better to keep the ball.

But, we're only just getting started, were going to get better and win more games. 

those turn overs were killing me during the match we just didnt want to keep possession