2009 Mariners ACL team and match discussions

[Jorome Alexander Bennett]

Having now seen Huke play, where have all the knockers gone?

Where are those who made comments to the effect of "He failed at a standard less than Central Coast park football"?

Mark this lesson well, forumites. Let players prove their merit before having their judgements passed.


The draw has given us a platform to build on. Some measure of confidence that was needed after our well documented poor run of form. If we were at our best we would of owned Pohang.

The good news is it seems that our team is on the rise towards effective play as apposed to
the decline we witnessed at the back end of the A-league season.

I am now confident that we have a chance to progress and will be deserving.

 

[Razorback]

Amazing! I must have been at a different game. Most boring game i've seen in living memory. Would like to see the stat for number of throw ins. Must have been a record. If it wasn't over the side line the ref was blowing his whistle.
Neither side looked like scoring except for one shot each.

+1 Shit match. My wife actually fell a sleep!!!

Simon was hopeless. His free header in the first half was embarrassing, would have missed 3 goals side by side.

Wow we got a nil all draw at home against a team that has never player over here. Hardly confidence building or impressive. Not much has changed for me from last night, still look very ordinary using the hoof and hope strategy.

 

[Razorback]

Having now seen Huke play, where have all the knockers gone?

I'm here, but what did he do?
The reason for the "knocking" was for not recruiting a defender or defenders.

 

[Arabmariner]

How hot did we look in that new strip. Looks friggin' awesome. Heaps better than the Jets strip. LOL!

Agreed.The new strip looked much better in real life than it did in the pics when they launched it.

Was strange, the new strip looked great on the players but didnt flatter any "normal shaped" people I saw wearing it.

Man boobs and beer bellys?

Sigh............better stick to the old one then!

 

[jaypee]

My wife actually asked me if the Ref had Tourette Syndrome - he wouldn't shut that bloody wistle up......never let the game flow

In terms of our Guys - Huke was very good in the air - his headers were impressive from defense...Think we missed Dylan the most last night - really needed a point man up front and i think he would have scared the crap out of their defenders....

 

[Gav...]

for any one interested Mariners are paying $13 to win the ACL

 

[cruiser]

Imho an alll I thought that was the most entertaining 0 -0 i ve seen for a long time yep we missed some chances and did a few ify long balls but we played alot sexy ground game of football then we have in soooooooooooooooooooo long.

Wilko harded up and played well
hutcho was pretty good
heff 1st half was nearly awsome
simon got into alot of good scoring chances very unlucky
huke better then wat people were expecting
mrdja didnt really notice him
ozzie big effort thought did well mostly
pedj made mistakes but made up for them other times
danny didnt have lots to do but did it well when he had too
boogs solid
porter wish hutcho n mrdja would let him take some free kicks

We just held our own if not dominated majority of game in the champions league
FFS we just got a point against asia and were all sorts of unlucky not to get 3 the losing streaks over and the mariners are on there way back.

star fm said crowd was 7k ish

Amazing! I must have been at a different game. Most boring game i've seen in living memory. Would like to see the stat for number of throw ins. Must have been a record. If it wasn't over the side line the ref was blowing his whistle.

Neither side looked like scoring except for one shot each.

Pity about the penalty shout, might have opened the game up.

I totally agree with you. I'd been so looking forward to that game but what I got was boring, scoreless (again!!!!) crap in front of a lifeless, piss poor crowd. And I reckon the ref had his whistle stuck up his arse.

 

[kevrenor]

BOTN match report:
http://spirit.webcity.com.au/AFN/2008-2009/Misc/ACL09-CCvsPS.htm

No I didn't write it...

 

[dibo]

The report's more in keeping with how I feel after that match than some of the stuff on here.

We have a point, we kept a clean sheet, we showed a lot more discipline and organisation than we've done since... well, at least since I came back to the country the day before the 4-3 loss to Queensland, and probably longer than that.

And we did play the ball on the park for much of the time, we didn't aimlessly hoof the ball up the park all night. Sometimes I think people post on here with their whinges pre-written and forget to actually watch the matches.

When in doubt, pull another one out of the 'long ball' file. That line's getting a bit tired? Oh, must be time for the 'can't string two passes together' line. For all the talk on here and in certain sections of the media, I don't think either has been strictly true of our team. We play long balls *sometimes*, but so do Arsenal and Barcelona. What's more, they lose possession sometimes as well.

I know, shocking!

Blind Freddy would say we're not playing really well or looking like world beaters. But he would also tell you that there's significant improvement over what we saw at the end of the regular season, particularly at the leaky end of the park.

 

[marinerbhoy]

i think we are going to miss osman when he leaves. i think he has the best ball control in the team. it only really hit me last night that it will suck not to have him on the books.
i know it has been said before but it would be great to have porter play in the midfield, but i do understand that is difficult with the currrent balance of the squad. does anyone know if pedj can play on the right side? will ask his former sutho coach if thinks he can next time i see him.

otherwise, with putting things in perspective it was a good night. the squad has been spiralling down and a halt in that poor form is great. wilko was my man of the match, he really stood up. the night was great, actually a bigger crowd than i expected. great to see some new oppposition. i prefer sitting behind the players benches but i dont mind change. i will see next game if we can move back to the other side, if not no biggy. new kits are fantastic! loving the champions league

still pissed off about the geisha. would be furious if i was Korean. would be an awful reminder of the way the imperial japanese treated the Korean women.

 

[Tassiemariner]

Must say Bojic needs to learn what an effective pass is.
First 30 minutes i think he made one in about 35 attempts.

Was a dull match but to be honest i don't think it's a bad result.
We didn't conceded and the defense was fairly solid for once.

 

[brett]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOCzwt18goM&feature=related

Fairly comprehensive highlights the other game in our group here. This link is the first half, see the related videos to see the second half.

In this one I got a shock when I saw Mark Bridge, but of course he is playing for Teda.

In the second half vid, check out around 4:30-5:00. The Frontale Brazilians start going nuts with flair and stepovers. Juninho is a real threat - he is like Archie Thompson when he was a bit quicker, but a bit better technically too. I make the Archie comparison because we know Archie's record against us.

From this it looks like a 4-2-3-1, with the 3 being Brazilians Retaninho (sp?), Vitor, and Juninho. The target man is a Chinese guy called Chong Tese and he doesn't look that much chop from this match. Their pitch looks huge, and their movement up front is so flexible. We're really going to have to be on our game in every facet to match Kawasaki. We need to defend as well as we did last night, but keep the ball better and force them onto the back foot. It looked possible to get in behind them so it would be worth using some pace out wide, maybe Kwasnik.

Tianjin didn't have many highlights from this match, but it looked like their best tactic was getting it wide to cross it. That might just be because they were playing against a team that was 4-2-3-1 which means there is more space out wide and less central. Crosses into the box shouldn't bother us too much. Bridge will no doubt get his token goal against us but I think we could score two, certainly at home. They looked beatable.

 

[midfielder]

Further to my earlier post IMO Huke was my Best on park and he was given a nice wrap in the smh today.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/football/a-league/huke-is-holding-his-own-at-mariners/2009/03/12/1236447397627.html

FILLING the sizeable hole left by Mile Jedinak has evolved from a quandary into a full-blown saga for Central Coast Mariners' coach Lawrie McKinna, but after months of searching, his answer may have arrived at long last.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Further to my earlier post IMO Huke was my Best on park and he was given a nice wrap in the smh today.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/football/a-league/huke-is-holding-his-own-at-mariners/2009/03/12/1236447397627.html

FILLING the sizeable hole left by Mile Jedinak has evolved from a quandary into a full-blown saga for Central Coast Mariners' coach Lawrie McKinna, but after months of searching, his answer may have arrived at long last.

 

[Kareem]

does anyone know if pedj can play on the right side?

he used to play RB in England- + I played him there on Fifa09 
but seriously, he has the attributes for a solid defensive right back- a bit hard I always though for him playing left back...

from reading northhampton match reports he seemed to play a bit at RB before injuries and the signing of a new RB, he then also played a bit further up the park (wing). Scored a few goals as well

I honestly always wanted him to shift to RB following the return of heffernan- pushing porter up the park!

 

[dibo]

Hutchinson can play left back, and he's left-footed. I think he's a better defender than Heffernan too - in Season 1 he used to drop into LB all the time as Heff pushed on. His ballplay would be fine there too.

I wonder whether given the personnel we've got a 4-2-3-1 might be an option for us. Especially given that Simon and Macallister simply don't seem to combine as strike pair.

            Vukovic
Bojic Boogard Wilkinson Hutchinson
          Huke Porter
Kwasnik Caceres Heffernan
              Simon

It relies on the three attacking midfielders being willing and able to get beyond Simon where need be and be available to finish chances. All three can do that. Can change it to a 4-4-2 where need be.

            Vukovic
Bojic Boogard Wilkinson Hutchinson
Kwasnik Huke Porter Heffernan
        Simon Caceres

 

[Kareem]

Hutchinson can play left back, and he's left-footed. I think he's a better defender than Heffernan too - in Season 1 he used to drop into LB all the time as Heff pushed on. His ballplay would be fine there too.

I wonder whether given the personnel we've got a 4-2-3-1 might be an option for us. Especially given that Simon and Macallister simply don't seem to combine as strike pair.

             Vukovic
Bojic Boogard Wilkinson Hutchinson
           Huke Porter
Kwasnik Caceres Heffernan
              Simon

It relies on the three attacking midfielders being willing and able to get beyond Simon where need be and be available to finish chances. All three can do that. Can change it to a 4-4-2 where need be.

             Vukovic
Bojic Boogard Wilkinson Hutchinson
Kwasnik Huke Porter Heffernan
         Simon Caceres

Love your formation- I would have a few tweaks- the major being Porter which is very ambitious...

              Vukovic
Bojic Boogard Wilkinson Heffernan
          Huke Hutch
Elrich      Porter    Caceres 
              Simon

 

[marinerbhoy]

Hutchinson can play left back, and he's left-footed. I think he's a better defender than Heffernan too - in Season 1 he used to drop into LB all the time as Heff pushed on. His ballplay would be fine there too.

I wonder whether given the personnel we've got a 4-2-3-1 might be an option for us. Especially given that Simon and Macallister simply don't seem to combine as strike pair.

             Vukovic
Bojic Boogard Wilkinson Hutchinson
           Huke Porter
Kwasnik Caceres Heffernan
              Simon

It relies on the three attacking midfielders being willing and able to get beyond Simon where need be and be available to finish chances. All three can do that. Can change it to a 4-4-2 where need be.

             Vukovic
Bojic Boogard Wilkinson Hutchinson
Kwasnik Huke Porter Heffernan
         Simon Caceres

loving those squads! our only major dispute would be heff and hutch. i would swap them around. how do you think simon would go as a target man? we got 3 players to try in that role anyway. i really do feel porter should be playing in the middle of the park. maybe it is to late to change the team so much in the champions league. but it could be tested leading up to the a-league

 

[Razorback]

             Vukovic
Bojic Boogard Wilkinson Hutchinson
Kwasnik Huke Porter Heffernan
         Simon Caceres

I like your reasoning behind this team especially regarding hutch (speed maybe the only question), but would pick Elrich before kwas even if elrich had no legs

 

[FFC Mariner]

            Vukovic
Bojic Boogard Wilkinson Hutchinson
Kwasnik Huke Porter Heffernan
        Simon Caceres

I like your reasoning behind this team especially regarding hutch (speed maybe the only question), but would pick Elrich before kwas even if elrich had no legs

So you would pick a Elrich over the clubs all time highest scorer huh?