New Year Spirit Not Enough To Overcome Macarthur

[StringerBellend]

1 hour ago, mack said:

Clisby & Cameron might be the worst defensive duo the team has ever had at fullback. If this league was one where the owners could freely add new players from January 1, it might have been their last games in the A-League for both of them.

It won't be Clisby still has the photos of Staj 

[StringerBellend]

5 minutes ago, EmMac said:

Agreed, overall I didn't think they were much better than us.

They weren't better than us they just didn't give away 2 stupid goals that's what makes it so frustrating 

[andypk]

1 hour ago, Erebus said:

Clisby gets 100 crosses a game yet is still terrible at them.

I swear teams don’t mark Clisby knowing that when we have the ball, he’ll get it if he’s in space. Then they apply a little pressure and if the ball doesn’t go backwards, he’ll give it to them by stuffing up a cross.

Harsh, but true.

[sonar]

Personally, I'd love to give a slap in the face and a kick in the nads to all those WSW supporters who prayed to the sky fairy with wtte of " I don't care if we never win the A league as long as we beat Al Hilal"....this is all your fault you drunken idiots......you effing cursed us......

[StringerBellend]

Amazing that we still can't find a left back 

[andypk]

1 minute ago, StringerBellend said:

Amazing that we still can't find a left back 

We already have Panta who is a big step up

[StringerBellend]

3 minutes ago, andypk said:

I swear teams don’t mark Clisby knowing that when we have the ball, he’ll get it if he’s in space. Then they apply a little pressure and if the ball doesn’t go backwards, he’ll give it to them by stuffing up a cross.

Harsh, but true.

The bit I don't get is clearly he's told by Staj to play high up the field (as he was by RudeBoy) but it results in every team knowing to just knock the ball in behind him. I could understand it if Clisby was some sort Leighton Baines style attacking left back but he can't cross the ball and can barely pass it. 

 

[WHACKO]

The one thing Clisby should of done when he had the chance was smash the Germ Man (Germain) in the mouth when he had the chance. 

Either way it's a good result the Germ Man gets what he deserves. 

While Clisby gets suspended and doesn't  play at all.

[SBW]

It was fair effort, this was Mata's best game for us so far, shame the players weren't on the same page as him when he was picking out passes in the channels.

Our non-existent defensive backline needs reinforcements. It was a Tough debut for Cameron, Bonnetig should have done more to stop Piol but instead got out muscled and outpaced by him, Marcelo, Spiranovic, Mrcela, NTS would have not allowed Piol to go around them like Bonnetig did. 

And Clisby? **** hell. 

1 hour ago, SNS100 said:

Milanović, for all his potential, has an attitude problem. He is the ultimate hog, more often than not. His own highlights reel seems to be his priority. Constantly ignoring the simple pass. His body language after losing the ball is poor. 

Frustrates me, because we need him firing. 

He's such a talented player but he's starting to piss me off with his ball hogging and ruining our chances.

Panta was in an open space ready to take his chance and Milanovic gets in his way, takes the chance off him then he loses the ball, he also got into Borello's way when Borello got into the box to take his shot. Is he really a team player? He needs to stop thinking about himself because he will piss his teammates off if he helps doing this.

[Benched]

58 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

The bit I don't get is clearly he's told by Staj to play high up the field (as he was by RudeBoy) but it results in every team knowing to just knock the ball in behind him. I could understand it if Clisby was some sort Leighton Baines style attacking left back but he can't cross the ball and can barely pass it. 

 

The Titanic turns faster than Clisby. Still!

[Sithslayer1991]

We are average 2 goals a game with this defence. For RB was more of the issue in this game especially in the first half they just ran right through us, Cameron just left his CBs alone. CB needs a leader. Bonetig does his job but in terms of marshalling the defense that's where he is lacking, taking a foul to stop attacks, using the dark arts, getting his wing backs into position, etc.

Pelekanos red card he took one for the team because Piol had him for pace and would have been 1v1 to make it 4-1, but he was getting killed again just like Adelaide, except Macarthur just knew they needed to lob the ball over the top to get through.

Reality is unless we get adequate reinforces for defence we will fall short of the 6 because we can't lock it up at the back.

[Davo]

11 hours ago, Unlimited said:

#BringBackJeong

he is our saviour and will stabilise the defence

I know this is tongue in cheek, but now that we’ve played five games with him and five without it’s easy to compare the stats.

With Jeong: 0.8 points per game, 2.4 goals conceded per game, 5.4 shots on target conceded per game.

Without Jeong: 2.0 points per game, 1.6 goals conceded per game, 4.2 shots on target conceded per game.

There are plenty of other factors, like the team improving under a new manager, and Thomas being in goal for all five games without Jeong but only one with him. But our defence is no worse without him and visa players should be an improvement on what we can get locally.

[StringerBellend]

Ok in Staj we trust etc.

But just noting that Perth last year conceded 69 goals in the season finished last while in attack they had the golden boot winner, overall they scored 46 goals so 5th best. For contrast the coasties finished top scoring 49 goals and conceding 27 

 

[WSWJACK]

Next day bit calmer now, but their forward Piol, how big is that guy?, I was way up in the stand and he still looked a massive unit and had the pace to go with it, Bonetig needed a lasso to pull him back, he got out muscled, outmanoeuvred and got burnt for pace, just gotta learn from that.

That Piol guy is a handful and is one to watch , wonder if he will even be an A league player next season. 

[Carns]

27 minutes ago, WSWJACK said:

That Piol guy is a handful and is one to watch , wonder if he will even be an A league player next season. 

They said on the commentary that he'd previously played for WSW for a year. And that Sterjovski had gotten him from Adelaide MetroStars, so I assume he is originally from South Australia?

[StringerBellend]

25 minutes ago, Carns said:

They said on the commentary that he'd previously played for WSW for a year. And that Sterjovski had gotten him from Adelaide MetroStars, so I assume he is originally from South Australia?

He was at WSW we sacked him for going forwards with the ball and not passing it back to the centre backs

[pseudonym]

Crowd = 9012

[Sithslayer1991]

Piol looks to me the standard big athletic fast player. But he is almost like that Sunday league player that drinks red bull before the game and then starts, smashing walls like the Kool aid man. 

He was very quick Bonetig is no slouch but he just couldn't reel him in and that's where experience is lacking, he was in that position because Cameron hadn't retreated quick enough to cover his position or slow down the throw in. If Cleur was there he would have taken the yellow card blocking the throw in, or be back into his position to double up on Piol

[mack]

42 minutes ago, Carns said:

They said on the commentary that he'd previously played for WSW for a year. And that Sterjovski had gotten him from Adelaide MetroStars, so I assume he is originally from South Australia?

Commentator was confused about the timeline. But yes, he was born in Adelaide in 2005.

Piol played for Metrostars in their youth teams in 2019 & 2020, was promoted to their NPL squad for 2021, had a great 2022 with them winning their club senior golden boot as Metrostars finished 4th in the league (then lost on pens in the semi's of the playoffs).

This got him a trial for WSW. He then moved to Sydney & played from the start of the 2023 NPL Season, scoring 5 goals with 5 assists in 18 games. As far as I can tell he was on the basic contract the NPL youth players have, not an A-League scholarship.

Macarthur poached him from us after Round 20. He scored a goal for our NPL team in a 2-2 draw vs the Wolves, then a week later he was on the bench for Macarthur Academy. He only scored 1 goal for their academy in the 10 games he played for them, but he did enough to impress them as they elevated him to a scholarship contract in February 2024 for the rest of the season. Three months later they extended his contract until 2025/26.

James Temelkovski has done the same route, winning the NPL SA golden boot in 2023 (getting signed for WSW as a result) as Metrostars won the league this time, but lost to Modbury in the semi-finals of the play-offs.

[Kotallo]

29 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

He was very quick Bonetig is no slouch but he just couldn't reel him in and that's where experience is lacking, he was in that position because Cameron hadn't retreated quick enough to cover his position or slow down the throw in. If Cleur was there he would have taken the yellow card blocking the throw in, or be back into his position to double up on Piol

Spot on, the whole time Bonetig was getting skinned Cameron was nowhere in frame. Bonetig has his strengths but chasing a powerful pacy winger from midfield will never be one of them.

[mack]

19 minutes ago, Kotallo said:

Spot on, the whole time Bonetig was getting skinned Cameron was nowhere in frame. Bonetig has his strengths but chasing a powerful pacy winger from midfield will never be one of them.

Cameron was miles upfield because he had made a good forward run into empty space. Pelekanos completely missed hitting that open space with his pass, causing a turnover. From there Cameron was closing down the ball carriers. It's hard to put any blame on that specifically on Cameron as he was doing his job, and the turnover wasn't his fault.

The Bulls took the throw 10 yards upfield from where it went out but weren't told to retake the throw. It touched off Pelekanos then rolled to half-way where the Bulls player grabbed it and threw it in straight away. That extra distance and the refs not pulling up the excessive distance made Pelekanos not even close to the play. Brillante was the closest player to the throw and he should have been sprinting to catch up, but they were both ball watching & jogging back.

Bonetig's mistake was not dragging down Piol by the shirt when he first knocked the ball forward. Take the yellow card and regroup. Instead he tried putting a hand on the shoulder & got nothing but air. From that point where Piol blasted past him, any foul could easily have been a red and/or penalty. Can't take that risk.

Oscar Priestman was also ball watching & jogging in the middle of the field and he was the only other player who could have sprinted back to cover. Instead he got outsprinted by the ref & Kraev.

[StringerBellend]

56 minutes ago, pseudonym said:

Crowd = 9012

World champion hide and seek game on again 

[Unlimited]

1 hour ago, Carns said:

They said on the commentary that he'd previously played for WSW for a year. And that Sterjovski had gotten him from Adelaide MetroStars, so I assume he is originally from South Australia?

Yeah he was our marquee player: Piol-vaccari

Good times!

[Wanderboy]

3 hours ago, pseudonym said:

Crowd = 9012

It looked much larger on tv than our previous games, so I reckon that was about right. Certain parts of the ground looked good.

Sadly, this was our big chance to keep the extras coming back, and yet again we f***ing blew it.

[Edinburgh]

41 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

It looked much larger on tv than our previous games, so I reckon that was about right. Certain parts of the ground looked good.

Sadly, this was our big chance to keep the extras coming back, and yet again we f***ing blew it.

There were a lot more people milling about at the stadium than previous games.  I was expecting a bigger number. 

[Bangaverage]

3 hours ago, Kotallo said:

Spot on, the whole time Bonetig was getting skinned Cameron was nowhere in frame. Bonetig has his strengths but chasing a powerful pacy winger from midfield will never be one of them.

If you watch it back, Cameron was making a forward run, they turn the ball over, brillante and Mata watch the player run past them and don’t track back at all even though they can see Cameron ahead of them. Pelekanos then gets caught out horribly which leaves Bonetig and he isn’t good enough 1 v 1. not sure how any of that is Camerons fault, Cleur would have been in exactly the same position!

[Hughesy]

I don’t agree with the red card. He was last man (just) but no way was that a DOGSO. Clisby was within a few metres and would’ve covered easily/had a challenge for the ball. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the modern adaptation of the last man rule now that there has to be a DOGSO to deem it a red card? There was still a lot of ground between Piol and the goal. I’ve seen those incidents in a similar position over the past 2-3 years given a yellow, you pretty much have to be within shooting range/the box for it to be a red under the updated rule. Thats my understanding of it. 
 

[Themumf79]

13 minutes ago, Hughesy said:

I don’t agree with the red card. He was last man (just) but no way was that a DOGSO. Clisby was within a few metres and would’ve covered easily/had a challenge for the ball. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the modern adaptation of the last man rule now that there has to be a DOGSO to deem it a red card? There was still a lot of ground between Piol and the goal. I’ve seen those incidents in a similar position over the past 2-3 years given a yellow, you pretty much have to be within shooting range/the box for it to be a red under the updated rule. Thats my understanding of it. 
 

Looked a nailed on red for me. Clisby wouldn’t have caught him on a motorbike. And he would probably have fallen off the **** thing trying. 

[mack]

Denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity has been a straight red for ages. The only change has been that if it's inside the box and was a legitimate tackle/challenge, then it will be a penalty & yellow instead, and if it were a regulation "stopping promising attack" it's penalty but no card instead of a penalty and yellow.

This is where the foul starts. Without that hold Piol runs onto the ball and beats Pelekanos and Clisby for pace and has a one on one with the keeper. It's a clear cut straight red. The only reason the ref didn't give it in the first place is because from her position behind the play she thought the ball was gonna run through to the keeper instead. I think Kraeve was lucky not to get sent for his 2nd minute lunge as well.

 

[Sithslayer1991]

10 hours ago, Hughesy said:

I don’t agree with the red card. He was last man (just) but no way was that a DOGSO. Clisby ...

Come on really hahaha, Clisby isn't catching Piol from where he was. Piol could in his own half and still blast through Clisby.

It was a red no debate, and Pelekanos knew he went straight off when they went to VAR.