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  • Second Half Collapse Costs Cup Semi-Final

    mack

    By mack

    An abysmal second half from the Wanderers gifted Sydney FC a 3-0 win and a place in the FFA Cup final tonight in Penrith.

    The Wanderers should have opened the scoring just 7 minutes in, Riera cut through in on goal 1v1, but elected to try a cutback across the 6 yard box for Roly Bonevacia. Perhaps the left winger didn't expect the striker to shoot so he was caught a little on his heels, and it allowed a defender to come back and block the ball. Shortly after there was a shout for a Sydney FC penalty with Keanu Baccus sticking a bit of his leg out, it would have soft and the referee decided to let play continue.

    Andrew Redmayne kept the scores level with a strong save in the 20th. The Wanderers piled on the pressure, a corner fell to the feet of Captain Brendan Hamill and he blasted a shot at the near post that Redmayne palmed away. 10 minutes later Riera just couldn't touch a cross by Roly Bonevacia, and just before the break Sotirio had a shot spilled by Redmayne but no-no from the home side could follow up. The two teams went into the half level, with the Wanderers slightly on top in terms of chances but lacking a cutting edge in front of goal.

    The second half was a disaster for the Wanderers as they fell behind immediately and totally lost control of the game. Raul Llorente misjudged a defensive header, giving it to Sydney FC in a dangerous position, De Jong found Trent Buhagiar and he blew past Elrich with pace and tapped it around the onrushing Nizic.

    The game should have been level in the 63rd minute. Josh Risdon was clear through on goal, with no-one but the keeper to beat and sent his shot straight at Andrew Redmayne. It was a dismal finish from a national team player, a shot that was harder to miss than score. It was the last major action for the Wanderers and not long after they were two down.

    As is an A-League referee's want, they favoured Sydney FC all night and a dodgy foul outside the area was the catalyst for Sydney FC's second goal. De Jong stepped up and curled his strike to the opposite corner from Nizic and the keeper's despairingly slow dive was too late to even get a touch. A 74th minute penalty was the sealer, Tarek Elrich, who was deployed in central defence due to a raft of injuries to the club's nominal central defenders tapped Le Fondre on the knee and the striker went down like a sack of potatoes. Having won the penalty he stepped up and fired a rocket into the top of the goal for 3-0.

    The match petered to it's inevitable conclusion as the Wanderers could barely manage a shot on target let alone a goal, and in fact Sydney FC had the best chances to extend their lead. For all the pre-match talk from Hamill questioning if Sydney FC had improved, it was the visiting side who took their chances and kept a clean sheet. The Babbel era has kicked off with a succession of injuries and a lack of composure up front, and there is not a lot of time left before two tough away trips to Perth & Sydney to start the A-League season.

    Adelaide United were drawn as the hosts, and will want to take revenge for their FFA Cup final defeat in Sydney last year.

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    Sithslayer1991

    1st half we should have been at least 2-0 up we played really well. 2nd half the team didn't show up and Easts had 2 chances and took them and we fell apart as always. Grozos and Baccus were good for the 1st half but 2nd half they went under pressure and that is where you need experience. Elrich is not a CB and llorente had a shocker

    Edited by Sithslayer1991
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    StringerBellend
    3 minutes ago, Themumf said:

    Painfully lightweight midfield. Once Brillante and his little mate started grinding it in, we fall over. Sadly predic. Hard to see a different outcome in a few weeks time.

    This

    we need a big grok in the midfield 

     

    Link to comment
    Smoggy
    1 minute ago, mack said:

    Babbel doesn't want him.

    Figures...if he is not even on the bench for an FFA Cup game!

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    Bellby

    Found the line up odd & the subs more so. Why we still left O’Doherty & Fitzy on the bench is beyond me, yet played Majok in some sort of weird roaming role. 

    We severely lacked any sort of energy,  movement & directness in the 2nd half which both those boys would of provided. 

    In saying that, SFCs squad is ridiculous. Two horse race this year.

    Link to comment
    jockman

    Gonna be a long season...terrible all round performance second half. Plus poor refereeing ..

    Good to see sfc continuing with Arnie ball tactics still  constant fouling to break up play of opposing team. Giving them time to get back into shape.

    Second half completely dominated in midfield by sfc

    How does Risdon get a go with the Socceroos . Rubbish.....

    Been said in game thread. Sotirio crap under 3 coaches but still gets game time. 

    Not sure sfc are that good this season we were just very bad in second half.

    First a league game away to glory. Can see a hammering coming our way. Then another derby following week. Already bought tix  so will go. But can't see much of a turnout from us..

    Just to top it off was sat next to a bunch of loud Leeds fans. Telling every body how good Leeds are. And how tough Thier fans are.

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    scarcev

    If Nizic is the best keeper we can hope for we are in serious trouble, hands aside every player at this level should be able to hit a ball rolling towards them with both feet as a minimum, his lack of aggression getting the wall he wanted and his positional play from the free kick were ordinary and he doesn't instil any confidence in coming out for crosses or corners - he is not even Assoc level standard, he would not get a run in my PL squad.  Risdon well wow if he is the Australian fullback we are in more trouble than I thought.  Sotirio, no point going there again.  That midfield in the second half had nothing going forward and nothing in defence, Sydney were terrible and they tore us apart, they will be no better than mid table this season under Corica, we were just simply that bad.

    Edited by scarcev
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    tardotz

    TBH I sat half way between the cove and rbb and the cove were as loud if not louder. Something was not right and after all the missed chances in the first half there was only one way for this game to finish.

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    SBW

    Horrible performance

    How the **** are both Sotirio and Nizic professional footballers?

    But all in seriousness, our players seems have lost themselves after conceding the second goal. They were all over the place. The passes, the touch and the defending, I mean what the **** was ll of that?

    Tonight's show game where we lack the most, a proper midfield like a La Rocca and Poljak, a proper winger with cutting edge like Castelan. 

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    Smoggy
    10 minutes ago, mack said:

    Four coaches.

    Isnt it just easier to say he is just plain shyte.

    It worries me Babbel keeps sticking with him. He has his work cut out big time to get us competitive because right now i can see us being bottom after first few rounds.

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    Sime11

    Just needed to convert one of those chances in the first half and the game would have played out differently.

    Need a rough tough defensive mid for when the going gets tough, we just imploded in that second half and once we went a goal down, we lost our cool and played right into Sydney’s hands.

    can blame refs for this and that but we shoulda been heading to the sheds in the lead and we simply didn’t. Wasting opportunities yet again, we’ve seen this script before and it sucks.

    Focus on the positives, season is about to start, we start on 0 points like everyone else, it’s up to us if we want to make it a good season. Potential is there, we have a capable squad, just gotta get it right and we can shake this competition up 👍

     

    On a controversial note, those people who left after the 3rd goal, don’t come back, or leave early when we’re up 3-0, gotta endure the bad games with the good games.

     

    COYW !

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    wengerboy
    3 minutes ago, btron3000 said:

    The best part was when Majok slid in and after the ensuing scuffle we kicked into a rousing rendition of "**** off east sydney".

    That's the passion that's been missing from the derbies lately, they've beaten us too easily these last few years.

    Edited by wengerboy
    Link to comment
    Hughesy

    Death, taxes and losing the derby. I’m at the stage where I’d pay $10 on top of my membership to guarantee at least some sort of competitiveness in these games. 

    Wtf happened at half time? Whatever the talk was, it wasn’t about football cause the team never returned back onto the field after that. Very disappointing. 

    I’m usually pretty fair on giving players time to prove themselves rather than writing them off ASAP. Nizic though... I have no confidence in him. In all seriousness, he’s flat out kicking and catching a ball. The amount of clearances he absolutely murders from pass backs put on a platter for him is laughable and he constantly insists on punching every ball coming in. I feel as though someone at some point in his youth stuck him in goal simply cause he’s tall and he’s been trying to play keeper ever since ...

    Unrelated to Nizic, that’s yet another free kick that we’ve conceded. We are so vulnerable with these regardless of who’s in goals. I find this really concerning when you consider how many players there are running round in the A-League who can hit a ball. You get a free kick against WSW these days, as long as it’s for some sort of accuracy to it, it’s most likely going in. 

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    mack
    12 minutes ago, hughsey said:

    I feel as though someone at some point in his youth stuck him in goal simply cause he’s tall and he’s been trying to play keeper ever since ...

    Lol. When he was about 11 years old he was an outfielder but got forced to play in goals because of an injury, and stayed a keeper since then.

    Unrelated to Nizic, that’s yet another free kick that we’ve conceded.

    And our free kicks are awful. Baumjohann got a chance at a similar distance from the other side. He blasted it into the Nepean River. They scored. And we had a bunch of corners we threw up into the middle of the 6 yard box with no real purpose and they all got cleared away, and only once on a rebound did we get a shot away.

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