Decentric said:

Some phenomenal attacking interplay from Jets in first half!

Not just Badalato’s goal involvements, but Dobson ( who looks about 14), Boshello ? ( blond youngster) and Burgess’s attacking interplay in some scintillating passages of play!

Being so young, apart from Burgess (Talay you are a moron overlooking his ability), they will be inconsistent, but it all clicked in that first 45mins.

Disappointed in Valadon for MV. A few trampoline touches, plus isn’t on the ball enough. He and Stella need to work harder to shake their markers to open passing lanes. Jordi V did some excellent passing and moving in tight spaces, but not enough of it.

Genreau has improved though.

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Yeah I know you rate Valadon highly, but that was his worst performance that I can recall. They need to bench Stella & start Valadon, Genreau & Mata. This will be unpopular, but I don't rate Esposito - just let young Dobson just stroll past him, to cut it back to Badalatto to score - no desperation. He made numerous errors at the u20 WC as well.

I've got a feeling that Roar will put 5 past us if we play that stupid high press game today, Watching how City dicked Glory who also use a high press i think the Nix are gonna be in for a long hard battle. If we lose this match we are def contenders for the spoon.

NoMates said:

I've got a feeling that Roar will put 5 past us if we play that stupid high press game today, Watching how City dicked Glory who also use a high press i think the Nix are gonna be in for a long hard battle. If we lose this match we are def contenders for the spoon.

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Good try - I know how you work now. Tip your opposition to flog you because your tips are always the wrong way round.

We're not fooled.

Too early to be predicting anything about either team in my books - other than it being a hard fought battle.

Good luck, and when the best team wins I hope you are not too bitterly disappointed.

WhatAmIWatching said:

I just had a look at the squad and PG's back 3 was quite old. Kaltak, never the fastest player, is now even slower. Wooton and Risdon are in the same age bracket and none of them showed any desire. Zdrillic did have inexperienced defenders on the bench but made no subs. If he doesn't relegate Kaltak to the bench next week, then it is Zdrillic that needs to be benched.

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yea that's been the concern , I am praying for a turn around this year because if its as bad as last year , its going to be very hard to keep the core support that we have in Perth here

Roar 1-0 up, Nix have been woeful in the final 3rd.

Halftime, and we are dominating the game without dominating the ball.

Nix are having lots of possession with us pressing from around halfway. Nix seeming basically toothless coming forward despite being able to pass around among themselves well.

Herrington is such quality. You watch his positioning, 1v1s, and timing on tackles and dropping back and he is a step above most. We feel solid at the back when he is involved.

We are progressing the ball forward pretty comfortably. A lot of long balls to Long and Vidic seeing Vidic dominating and Long still a step off being effective. His options when he gets the ball wide have not been fruitful.

Klein with an almost criminal header onto the crossbar in front of an open goal felt disappointing. Vidic with a beautiful piece of movement to step inside the Nix CB, open the goal and chip the keeper making up for it.

It is on Nix now to lift their attacking play. I can't see us needing to change much about our play - we are winning a lot of 1 v 1 challenges (and there have been a lot of them) and finding good, smart options for faking a pass and holding the ball to open up the line, making space and using the players who offer themselves up, and just composed team play.

Nix had a chance to mount pressure with a couple of free kicks and we were lucky and structured enough to manage the danger.

Armiento is looking fitter than I have seen him in previous seasons.

If Chiefy's voice was any louder it could wear a shirt and count as a player.

I haven't seen anything from Wellington Brisbane are just capitalizing on their errors

YUSSSSSSSSS!!! Nix just to good in the last 15min!. Roar for the spoon!

NoMates said:

YUSSSSSSSSS!!! Nix just to good in the last 15min!. Roar for the spoon!

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That was a rough watch.. eze should have been sent off but piper won the game for ya

Nix deserving winners at 2-1.

From the 60th minute the game was pretty even. Nix were winning more of the 1v1s that had gone our way in the first half and pressing as much as us and having the better chances from memory.

From the 75th minute - literally seconds before the Nix equaliser - there was a tangible shift in the play and Nix were just outright dominant. That may coincide with us dropping deeper and deeper where we had been holding quite a high defensive line.

The longer the game wore on, the less we were able to play any sort of composed football. We hit it long or nowhere and stopped functioning as a team. We also started playing at the ball in tackles rather than being smart and staying goal side. Time and again a Nix player would simply turn us and be free to run.

The delicate breeze may have played a part in the game - with it behind us in the first half when we dominated and behind the Nix in the second half. The delicate nature of the breeze saw the corner flag blown past 45 degrees in stronger gusts.

Valkanis has some work to do to get our heads on better. We failed to adjust our play in any positive sense when the Nix were becoming dominant and went to pieces.

60 minutes of good football. 30 minutes of unsettled reactions.

As an aside, an unusual table this season. If Macarthur were to turn it round and get the win tomorrow there would be 4 teams on 4, 6 teams on 3, and 4 teams on 1. Unusual to have most teams with points after 2 rounds (11 out of 12 even if Macarthur lose).

melbcityguy said:

That was a rough watch.. eze should have been sent off but piper won the game for ya

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It looked pretty clear there was a deliberate swinging arm making contact in a clear. No idea how it can have been adjudicated as a yellow.

Since when can you swing and hit with VAR watching?

Did not make us play worse though - we did that ourselves.

RIMB said:

It looked pretty clear there was a deliberate swinging arm making contact in a clear. No idea how it can have been adjudicated as a yellow.

Since when can you swing and hit with VAR watching?

Did not make us play worse though - we did that ourselves.

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To be fair Roar were fouling our players all game without any warnings or yellows, so i can understand why Eze lashed out with a arm but it was a soft yellow all day.

NoMates said:

To be fair Roar were fouling our players all game without any warnings or yellows, so i can understand why Eze lashed out with a arm but it was a soft yellow all day.

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It is honestly funny how we see our teams.

I thought the Nix went in harder from the start and continued throughout. There were so many 50/50 situations where both players went in hard and fast.

For the soft yellow - he went running after him, ran into him, then swung his arm in what looked an awful lot like a side arm punch. Never just a soft yellow to my orange eyes.

RIMB said:

It is honestly funny how we see our teams.

I thought the Nix went in harder from the start and continued throughout. There were so many 50/50 situations where both players went in hard and fast.

For the soft yellow - he went running after him, ran into him, then swung his arm in what looked an awful lot like a side arm punch. Never just a soft yellow to my orange eyes.

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Ill have to watch it again, the commentators mentioned it after the game and it was brought up to Nix coach about it in his interview. Which he blew off as a result of being fouled all game. Look Roar are no Adelaide when it comes to being thugz there better then that but they did a lot of fouling however it is what it is. Wasn't the best match to watch for neutrals but Im happy we got the win as i doubted we could hold the high press again and not be punished which is what happened for Roars only goal.

The commentators were idiots.

After halftime they were saying "The Roar are just sitting back and absorbing pressure while waiting for the counter". We had more players over halfway in the Nix half of the field when they were saying it, and had been holding the game around the halfway line most of the time anyway.

They just had a preconceived notion of how we were going to play against the Nix and were sticking with it.

They also had the opinion of the Roar playing rough and ready before the whistle to start the game. Done their research and didn't need to actually consider what they were looking at in the game.

Doesn't change what we each see - but I wouldn't be quoting them to support my view even if they were saying what I thought .

6890 at Wellington.

One more game tonight

SocceroosFan said:

Yeah I know you rate Valadon highly, but that was his worst performance that I can recall. They need to bench Stella & start Valadon, Genreau & Mata. This will be unpopular, but I don't rate Esposito - just let young Dobson just stroll past him, to cut it back to Badalatto to score - no desperation. He made numerous errors at the u20 WC as well.

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Young players are often inconsistent, SF.

Esposito had a poor game.

Valadon came into the game from 45 min to 78 until Bad hammered the wondergoal. I think Vic played some decent possession in that period, with Jordi V on the ball a lot.

I think Vic are missing Miranda, Teague and Arzani, and the injured Nishan V.

melbcityguy said:

One more game tonight

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I’ve had a good look at the second half against Bur in the ACL, and the MC game against Glory.

You must be delighted with all the MC youth players coming through and playing seniors, MCB?

Can’t wait for the next ACL game against Duke’s team from Japan.