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  • Youthful Exuberance Can't Avoid Defeat

    mack

    By mack

    The bottom of the table contest between the Wanderers & Newcastle ended with Newcastle taking all three points in a scrappy but hard fought face.

     

    Having just returned from their 0-0 draw in Korea and with another mid-week away fixture in Brisbane to come, manager Tony Popovic elected to send out one of the youngest starting lineups in A-League history. Daniel Alessi, Jonathan Aspropotamitis, Yianni Perkatis, Jaushua Sotirio, Alusine Fofanah & Steve Kuzmanovski all starting alongside Ante Covic, Iacopo La Rocca, Sam Gallaway, Jason Trifiro & Nick Kalmar.

     

    Perkatis stepped up to provide the opening chance of the game for Sotirio. Perkatis latched onto a misplaced pass by Kantarovski, then launched a defence splitting through ball that put Sotirio clear through on goal, but his first touch took him wide and allowed Daniel Mullen to making a diving block that saw the ball deflect off the ex-Wanderers defender and hit the side netting.

     

    Newcastle took the lead in the 21st minute, taking advantage of a horrendous goalkeeping error from Ante Covic. Edson Montano played in Enver Alivodic on the edge of the box. Ante Covic came flying out of his area and completely missed both the ball and man, giving Alivodic a saloon passage to take a composed touch before firing into the unguarded goal.

     

    What made headlines around the world wasn't the eventual result, but a moment in the 31st minute with one of the most ludicrous offside decisions ever made in Australia, rivalling the "offside from a throw in" in a match between Brisbane & Melbourne Heart several years ago. Daniel Alessi was beaten for pace by Hoole, who delivered a cross that neither Covic or Aspropotamitis could clear. It bounced through the central defender to Montato for a tap-in, only for Sarah Ho running the lines to inexplicably raise the flag for offside. Montato was not just behind three Wanderers players (La Rocca, Covic & Aspropotamitis) but he was behind the ball player!

     

    Just before half-time another error from Covic let Ki-Je Lee double the Jets advantage. A nicely worked overlapping run from Lee saw Gallaway up against two attackers, and when Andrew Hoole eventually released the Korean he arced in on goal then blasted a shot that had Covic committing the cardinal sin of goalkeeping, allowing himself to be beaten at his near post.

     

    5 minutes after the break Nick Kalmar pulled a goal back for Western Sydney, converting a free kick over the wall and leaving Ben Kennedy standing on his heels with no chance of a save. He had another free kick chance from an almost identical position but this time he only found the side netting. Newcastle killed the game in the last 5 minutes very effectively, closing out the game with the Wanderers not having any real clear cut chances to score an equaliser.

     

    The Wanderers are now back on the bottom of the A-League ladder and have been mathematically eliminated from the finals race. With 6 games to play the club are 19 points behind Melbourne City, and winning all 6 matches would see the Asian Champions reach 29 points.

     

    The Wanderers next match is against Brisbane Roar, on Wednesday March 25th, in Brisbane.

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    AEK

    I'm still trying to work out how that Newcastle goal was disallowed... that has to be the worst call I've ever seen in all my years watching football hahaha

     

    Sarah Ho....

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    West13

     

     

    I'm still trying to work out how that Newcastle goal was disallowed... that has to be the worst call I've ever seen in all my years watching football hahaha

    Sarah Ho....

    Called it in the pre match thread. **** she is useless

    Fox sports gave kuzi one point

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    • Popular Comment
    Smoggy
    • Popular Comment

    We'll all be back again next game. Rotten though isn't it? 20-odd years supporting Villa. Welcome to my life (apart from the poor ****) on here who supports Boro - he has it even tougher than me. ACL champs get the spoon. Who woulda thought.

     

    Aye, I have been through whole seasons where you win a few games and relegated with 2 months of a season to go, ***** we were even in administration and locked out of our own ground once  :D

     

    What an awful off side decision that was, terrible. I was sat in the East, not right behind the lines women but not far away and I couldn't believe she put the flag up, I assumed it must have been a foul she noticed  :rolleyes:

     

    Alessi, well I am not going to be hard on the kid at all, didn't work for him this time but I am sure he will learn from it, I have seen enough of him previously to more than suggest he has a future in the game, so chin up lad. 

     

    Sotirio needs to learn that moment of composure in front of goal, panics a little and snatches at his shots a bit, but he gets in the good positions in the first place, more to come from him.

     

    Ruka's first touch continues to annoy the **** out of me. He came up with a good goal against City but then frustrates so much at times. He gets up to speed so well but his brain sometimes doesn't.

     

    A mix of fatigue, too many players injured / lack of experience combined to mean we would struggle against any team in the A League today. A shot of Spira, Juric and Bridge at one point all sat in the stand looking on told the story,

     

    Disappointing, but I always enjoy my weekends at the football. It is more than the game itself for me, It is being at the football with my son and a few of his mates, it is the pre and post game ritual. I just enjoy being at Parra Stadium and look forward to the next game. :good:  

    Edited by WSWBoro
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    ManfredSchaefer

    Midfield sucked so hard it could've taken the chrome off a tow bar.

     

    Though Fofanah and Kuzmanovski were definitely our best on ground, and Sotirio was also well worth the place in the starting XI. Everyone else were at best sub-par, and Kalmar's lovely goal doesn't excuse his woeful efforts in regular play.

     

    A couple of questions...what has gone wrong with Alessi, and is Ante on a form slump that needs a dramatic resolution?

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    DomJ

    Kuzmanovski needs more shoot farkn. he got into some good positions with the ball and should have taken some snaps at the target.

     

     

    Midfield sucked so hard it could've taken the chrome off a tow bar.

     

    Though Fofanah and Kuzmanovski were definitely our best on ground, and Sotirio was also well worth the place in the starting XI. Everyone else were at best sub-par, and Kalmar's lovely goal doesn't excuse his woeful efforts in regular play.

     

    A couple of questions...what has gone wrong with Alessi, and is Ante on a form slump that needs a dramatic resolution?

    Edited by DomJ
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    marron

    There is absolutely **** all happening with the combination play up front. Heavy touches don't help but half the time there's no one there any way.

    Are they working together on anything? AAt all? Who's taking them through that stuff?

     

     

    Anyway I'm on team Boro attitudinally. No relegation, enjoy yourself, I know I did despite the frustration.

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    AEK

    I swear i heard the ground announcer say that Wanderdogs were also being sold behind active bays in the north end, went looking for it, found nothing....

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    Sime11

    its frustrating that we can match it with most of the top teams (victory, phoenix etc) but we play **** against the **** teams, im expecting another **** performance against Brisbane and another 1-0 loss :(

     

    Kuzi is a gun, more please, sotirio was unlucky in first 10-15, should have scored.

     

    Trifiro & Perkatis could have been better tonight :(

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    dmixtaaa

    Midfield sucked so hard it could've taken the chrome off a tow bar.

     

    Though Fofanah and Kuzmanovski were definitely our best on ground, and Sotirio was also well worth the place in the starting XI. Everyone else were at best sub-par, and Kalmar's lovely goal doesn't excuse his woeful efforts in regular play.

     

    A couple of questions...what has gone wrong with Alessi, and is Ante on a form slump that needs a dramatic resolution?

    I totally agree with all of that Manfred . As for Covic, he was to blame for 2 goasl tonight. He should have retired after last ACL as the perfect retirement gift, but just like many boxers, love the game too much and go just a little too far.. Bouzanis was terrible also in the game against Melb City. If we had to choose, I'd go with Ron Corry myself, he couldn't do much worse at the moment at 73.

     

    Alessi, I'm going to put it down to just one of them days. He has produced far better in the past.

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    Nel

    I'm not coach or have any technical ability but from a layman's point of view, I thought:

     

    The Good:

     

    The young guys showing a hell of a lot of promise, esp Kuzi, Aspro and Sotirio.

    The ball play in the first half

    The fact that we're now one game closer to finishing off the year and being able to build for next season

    The fact that we seem to have a minimum core support of 10,000 or so, win or lose and ESFC could only manage 11000 in a game that gave them a chance to go top of the table

    The RBB giving their all

    There's no relegation

    Takahagi

     

    The Bad:

     

    The midfield play in the second half

    Our defense without Spira and NTS

    Covic's form

    Ruka's first touch (was it this bad when he was at Perth? Don't think so).

    Our defensive play

    The fact we're likely to finish with the spoon

    The traffic on james Ruse Drive (did some drunk get hit by a car after leaving Rosehill Racecourse?)

    Paper airplanes

     

     

    That is all and I apologise in advance.....

     

    Cheers.

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    Shogun

     

    kids gotta learn its not fifa and try to skill their way around defenders. either take them on and shoot or look for options. 

     

    We Da Best

     

    We still da best, but when we think that we're so good that we think its FIFA, we gotta put our feet back on the ground. 

     

    still, kuzi is an exciting prospect, he just needs to improve his touch and not think twice about shooting. 

    Link to comment
    Prydzopolis

    First let me start off by saying, Covic had two/three horror moments, just :nono:

    But if changes had to be made;

    why not an attacking change? rather than hook alessi for golec why not put ruka or haliti on up front.

    we were 2 goals down!

     the problem was Alessi didn't have a good game, they were targeting him & was being found out. Problem was it burned a substitute early on but it needed to be made.

     

    I actually would have rathered haliti to come on instead of Ruka. Push Sotirio outwide (in his natural position) and play haliti up top. Playing with Sotirio, Fofanah & Kuzi in the final third meant that there was no presense up top but they did a very good job.

     

    Cant complain, people were demanding that youth get a run, they did, most performed admirably

    This is the thing, when you make that many changes & essentially play a youth dominate or 3rd XI this is the problem we are going to have. Keeping the core of the side together (impossible with 10 players out) bringing in 2-3 youngsters at a time is the way to do it. Playing 6 youngsters & our fifth choice midfielder was always going to create issues in terms stability & cohesion of the team. When Golec & Takahagi came on, the gulf in class was telling which changed the game.

     

    The reason why we play 4-2-3-1 is because we can bring in players like we did tonight, they know exactly what to do & don't need all week in training getting used to it. The players arrived in on Friday & there was simply no time to learn a brand new formation. This is the reason we play this way, exactly for this circumstance. The biggest problem was the players and the difference between our first XI & our youth side, they can come in to do a job but they aren't game changers. As I said, when Takahagi came on we played completely different to the first half.

     

    The most frustrating thing today apart from the mistakes at the back was the amount of passes that went astray in midfield or just miscommunication between our players in advanced positions, just when you thought we could do something.

     

    The most promising part of today was the performance of Sotirio who played out of position, Aspro solid at the back, Fofanah who did well considering this was his first game time since Wellington last year & Kuzi who was simply outstanding on field. I didn't think Kuzi had the fitness to play 90 minutes but he showed some great stuff in the 90 minutes he played tonight, just needs a bit more shoot ***** ;) more please Popa

    Link to comment
    Dalison

    The Alessi sub could've waited to halftime.

     

    While the game was passing him by, I'd also prefer Perkatis to get 90 minutes rather than Trifiro.

     

    The progression, or lack thereof, of those two kids is disappointing.

    Edited by Dalison
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    dmixtaaa

    The Alessi sun could've waited to halftime.

     

    While the game was passing him by, I'd also prefer Perkatis to get 90 minutes rather than Trifiro.

     

    The progression, or lack thereof, of those two kids is disappointing.

    Alessi sun only happens for late games.... :ninja:

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    marron

     

     

     

    Oh teah, forgot, Fofanah was a nachine out there today!

    Is that a machine that makes Nachos...I want one.... :ninja:
    Damn. Fat fingers, small buttons. .

    Too many treats from the nachine!

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    Dalison

    Overall some real positives with Kuzi, Sotirio and Aspro.

    Covic now must be dropped and Deano installed as #1

    Our formation sucks balls

    Stick with Covic ahead of Bouzanis. Dean Bouzanis isn't up to it.

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    stewballs

     

    Overall some real positives with Kuzi, Sotirio and Aspro.

    Covic now must be dropped and Deano installed as #1

    Our formation sucks balls

    Stick with Covic ahead of Bouzanis. Dean Bouzanis isn't up to it.

    Mate at some point every player has to be held accountable. Even Covic . If he isn't held to account then players will feel that there is rules for some and rules for others.

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    HungHuynh

    When did paper airplanes came into our games?

    They;re major hazard, i almost got my eyeball poked out last week by that.

     

    Waiting till Martin Lo get selected to debut A-league. We will have some creative midfield for the empty space we have most time. Kalmar performance overall today was a shocker. too many incomplete passes.

    Link to comment
    Dalison

     

     

    Overall some real positives with Kuzi, Sotirio and Aspro.

    Covic now must be dropped and Deano installed as #1

    Our formation sucks balls

    Stick with Covic ahead of Bouzanis. Dean Bouzanis isn't up to it.

    Mate at some point every player has to be held accountable. Even Covic . If he isn't held to account then players will feel that there is rules for some and rules for others.

    You make a change to make an improvement. Even in his current form, Ante Covic is better than Dean Bouzanis. Bouzanis had a run in the team and was poor. There's a reason why he couldn't get a game in League Two......

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