Mariners 2012 AFC Champions League megathread

[Wombat]

Rose is having a shocker again. He doesnt like playing against Asian teams.

 

[adz]

Japanese version of yellow submarine from the crowd

 

[Wombat]

Arnie has had a shocker tonight.

 

[scottmac]

What. A. Joke. Who paid the ref?

Cant blame the ref, we've been pathetic. Wrong formation, wrong game plan, and the wrong players. FFS less than 15 to go and Amini is still not on? Not one of them is up for this game Arnold included.

Duke? WTF. I though Arnold said this game was bigger than a GF.

 

[greenlig]

3-0 - Tanaka easy header in the box.

 

[shipwreck]

Tulio is awesome

 

[LFCMariners]

Nagoya were a sharper team in regards to executing passes, but the Mariners did reasonably well considering it was 11 v 12 virtually all match.

No Amini though- wtf?

 

[Wombat]

We weren't shite but we didn't show any class. We didn't work off the ball, we didn't press and we didn't pass to feet.

Yes we missed Olly and Pedj but that showed how much we lack depth.

Arnie didn't put out a great side and his subs were poor. Having said that all 3 goals were really soft.

I won't give points as I would be to harsh so I,ll just say if I think the player passed or failed in their individual jobs tonight.

Ryan. PASS. Good in patches but not totally convincing.
Rose. FAIL. Barry Crocker.
Sainsbury. PASS. Not a DM but a reasonable defender.
Dutchy. PASS. Did ok but not great.
Wilko. PASS. Did just enough.
Pelle. FAIL. Simply not good enough.
Hutcho. FAIL. Not as bad as Pelle and WeeMac but still totally toothless. We will never be successful with him in that position. Great as a emergency number 6 but that's it. It's harsh and we all love Hutcho ....but it's a reality.
WeeMac. FAIL. Terrible. Not sure what was worse his attack or defence. His worst game of the year.
Rogic PASS. Great balance, great feet and one of our best but still a very flawed performance. Looks to only have 60 mins in him.
Kwas. FAIL. Poor.
McBreen FAIL. Very poor.

If Kwassie and McBreen are our starting strikers we are in a shit load of trouble.

McClennen. PASS. Looked like a proper player for the first time in a CCM shirt.
Bernie. FAIL. Looked low on confidence tonight.
Duke. Not on long enough to judge but still looked sharper than McBreen

 

[Roy Law]

Only able to watch first half - we weren't terrible but they were sharper. First goal dreadful - just shows you should never have a forward in the wall. WTF was Kwas doing? Second goal all class showing the true difference between the teams. Rogic looked a handful but I really question why Amini, who clearly has the class to play at this level is left off, and Pellegrino, a donkey at best, is preferred.
The real lesson from this campaign is that we should have beaten Tinjan Teda away in China and we should have won at least one more of the home games.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

That's right Roy. But the real lesson behind that is the same lesson we have had for the past 3 months...

You don't win games if you can't put the ball in the net.

Perth and those early games in the AFC had all the chances required to put those games to bed. We desperately need a truly clinical striker or two, and IF we are to replace Hutch at DM as many seem to feel is ideal, what we need is pace and or fast acceleration to close that mid field down quicker and be able to break quicker - also being able to track fast runs would be nice.

I don't want to rag on players, it's been a great season and I love them. But we do simply need a bit more quality on the park if we want to win doubles and progress through Asia. I'm sure Arnie knows this better than any. Re signing Pedj and signing Zach Anderson was great business... let's sign Tommy... and then look to a couple of really high quality recruits... and we'll be away.

 

[Rocket]

The bottom line is, wouldnt it be great to be able to operate with the larger budget's that most of these Asian teams can utilise. But the reality is we can't.
Thank you to all our current investors, sponsors, the players and Arnie & support staff for a good season. You have passion for yourselves, the Club and the supporters.
This is what football is about, look at that passion that following this team creates within this forum, the good, the bad, and the ugly, but still REAL passion.
Season 2012/13 began at the final whistle last night. The passion continues ..........

 

[tsd]

i have my suspicions about amini and the copious amounts of cotton wool that seemed to appear around him once Rogic was signed and instantly promoted to starting AM. i believe there may be lingering issues that may have cost CCM $$$ if they flared up before the move to germany.


I truly believe that the only thing stopping us doing well in ACL is depth. when we where fresh and full strength we won 5-1, when we played with anything but a full strength team it showed . do any of us doubt that if we held on to matt simon and griffith we would have won at least one of the drawn games?

look at this team sheet from facebook... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150948443461206&set=a.420684981205.216600.206561121205&type=1

they have double the amount of players. as soon as we have a single suspension or injury we are forced to play with players that are not even Hal starting quality.

which brings me to my next point... its andrew clarks fault!

the team is so healthy and injury free that the backup players get virtually no game time! therefore when they are finally called upon they are not up to scratch... maybe if weemac needed a month off mid season for a ankle pelle would have found his mojo out wide? maybe mcdonald would have been able to get himself up to scratch enough to fill in for olly with a few weeks mid season? devils advocate only, please dont think i want the boys to get injured!

 

[pjennings]

That's right Roy. But the real lesson behind that is the same lesson we have had for the past 3 months...

You don't win games if you can't put the ball in the net.

Perth and those early games in the AFC had all the chances required to put those games to bed. We desperately need a truly clinical striker or two, and IF we are to replace Hutch at DM as many seem to feel is ideal, what we need is pace and or fast acceleration to close that mid field down quicker and be able to break quicker - also being able to track fast runs would be nice.

I don't want to rag on players, it's been a great season and I love them. But we do simply need a bit more quality on the park if we want to win doubles and progress through Asia. I'm sure Arnie knows this better than any. Re signing Pedj and signing Zach Anderson was great business... let's sign Tommy... and then look to a couple of really high quality recruits... and we'll be away.

This is exactly right. It has been a great season and that is something that should not get lost in the post mortem. The question is simply how do we go to the next level in the HAL (I believe if we had held on to Rostyn and Matty we would know the answer).

Then how do we go to the next level in Asia. We competed well in Asia and really should have won at least one and possibly two more games. However, if you make a mistake in Asia it seems to cost you on a much more regular basis. We need to be similarly clinical.

 

[bikinigirl]

I truly believe that the only thing stopping us doing well in ACL is depth. when we where fresh and full strength we won 5-1, when we played with anything but a full strength team it showed . do any of us doubt that if we held on to matt simon and griffith we would have won at least one of the drawn games?

. that is a little conflicting as we obviously achieved the 5-1 win without matty & rostyn but your point is valid

which brings me to my next point... its andrew clarks fault!

the team is so healthy and injury free that the backup players get virtually no game time! therefore when they are finally called upon they are not up to scratch... maybe if weemac needed a month off mid season for a ankle pelle would have found his mojo out wide? maybe mcdonald would have been able to get himself up to scratch enough to fill in for olly with a few weeks mid season?

. as i was reading your post i already had this in mind (as i have for some time) and was getting ready to unload it ... but you beat me to it

. in the lead up to the season the talk on here was that we had great depth in the squad (casting aside the hal vs acl depth for the moment)

. familiarity (& confidence) also comes into these 'depth' considerations ... for example the wee-man often becomes a shadow of his former self without his big mate backing him up. no surprises then that our worst performance occurred when both pedj & rose were out (half of our stable backline and two of our most dynamic players) ... very hard boots to fill which requires a considered effort from the rest of the team

. would a bit of squad rotation have helped? who knows?

. in such a tight comp (hal) it is very difficult to do anything other than put your very best team on the pitch - even moreso when you step up to the acl. you just don't experiment if there is no need

 

[true believer]

dale rojo . tuesday .

 

[true believer]

well done adelaide. fly the flag brothers

 

[yellowcake]

well done adelaide. fly the flag brothers

+1

So nobody from Group G makes the quarters. Seongnam Ilhwa down 0-1 to Bunyodkor

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Well done Delaide. Nagoya were always beatable. Especially away from home. I think we should have beaten them by at least a couple.... AND would have rather played Gamba in the group than Nagoya...
Next year...

 

[Gratis]

enjoyable game to watch too

 

[true believer]

bruce djite was outstanding and for one guy ran the japs ragged. galekovic was world class .caravella until subbed was best on ground ,super performance. mckain a goal and won the battle with kennady.

very good from the reds