Matchday 5: v Central Coast - Friday 8th November 7:30pm at AAMI Park

[icantthinkofacoolname]

7 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

Florin won’t be missed  

I agree. I think he may struggle to start another game given the form of Brillante, Metcalfe, Griffiths and Genreau. 

[HEARTinator]

Was a great night!

[Mr MO]

 

41 minutes ago, fensaddler said:

Did anybody, like me, feel last night a sense that we'd got our club back? Great football, fabulous active support (I mean it guys, bloody magnificent), red and white. Big message for the club. Recognise the history, bring back our colours, and the old band will reform and rock the place like we always did. Bottle last night and label it vintage. We are red and white. 

Let’s see if they bring out the red for the Christmas derby!?

[belaguttman]

5 hours ago, Falastur said:

Is it possible that the Friday night part contributed to lower crowds? I know that Friday night games in the PL are getting a lot of criticism as being hard to attend for fans.

Yes, definitely. We get lower crowds on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday games😀. 

I think that it's mostly just years of shit football, gut wrenching losses, directionless marketing, and expensive tickets in a city with an extremely competitive sporting market. After 10 years of mediocrity, I'm not sure that the brand will ever match the visit0rs

[mus-28]

This might be a good marketing experiment by the club. Lots of Red and White out there last night, didn't see any of the white/grey away kits and I highly doubt they've sold many. Hopefully they'll take note and make sure Red & White is always our away kit, even make the Mariners home game our Red & White home clash every year. Little things make a bit difference.

[rass]

I enjoyed seeing the players genuinely celebrate with the fans after the game. Looks like they have more freedom to do so. Unlike the last couple of seasons, where it was just such a sterile feeling, even after a win.

[Deluka]

Yesterday i thought was brilliant, one of the best nights for a while - props to everyone, and in particularly the Terrace, who braved that weather!

I wouldn't mind the idea of having a 'heart' or something in that we play CCM at home late November/early December and that we always wear red & white for this fixture - would be a great way to turn an otherwise low drawing fixture into some what of a celebration of our history and would be a great way for the club to stand up and say 'we recognize the club's history and we want to continue recognising it' 

 

 

 

[kiko]

The best thing about last night was that we acted and played like a professional outfit. CC had some early moments and didn't lie down, but our self belief and organisation was evident and carried us through. I watched the bench a fair bit and it's a totally different vibe to last year. We have to build from here, as we're just laying the foundations at the moment, nothing more.

Edited November 8, 2019 by kiko

[Nate]

Gutted I missed out last night but terrific job to all who braved the weather and hopefully we see the red and white at AAMI more often.

[DukeVader]

2 hours ago, Mr MO said:

The reality is that we only miss Jamie.
Florin won’t be missed, just like last year  will take a while to get back to fitness. Unless the other 4 midfielders get injured.

Windy would be nice to have as CB back up but as it stands isn’t in the first eleven.

Does having two of our visa players not in our best 11 say more about our recruitment ? Or more of our young aussie development? 

[Harrison]

Terrific match.

I was very impressed by the way we played. Credit to CCM for being a bit more adventurous than I thought they'd be. We had a bit more of the ball but we produced 23 shots with 9 on target. We probably conceded too many shots so that's something to work on. The goal was frustrating to concede but it's maybe just a problem losing concentration.

Metcalfe was very good. He uses the half-space so well for a young player. Good was great. Brillante and Griffiths were very solid. Luna and Wales did their jobs.

I don't think we had a bad player to be perfectly honest. Everyone performed as expected.

The crowd was concerning. 

[belaguttman]

7 minutes ago, DukeVader said:

Does having two of our visa players not in our best 11 say more about our recruitment ? Or more of our young aussie development? 

It says more about our recruitment because visa recruitment should always target players at a level not available locally

[jw1739]

5 minutes ago, DukeVader said:

Does having two of our visa players not in our best 11 say more about our recruitment ? Or more of our young aussie development? 

This issue is almost as popular as our attendance numbers. If we didn't have those visa players - I don't know the facts but I suspect we don't pay guys like Luna, Cabrera and Windy all that much - we'd either have to play more young players or more older Aussies - and if the latter who would they be? I suspect more A-League journeymen.

I think what we're seeing represents a coach who is going to put the best team he thinks he has on to the park. So I'm not fussed if not all the visa players are in the match squad.

[xXCiTyZeNXx]

My opinion but not a fan of Noone. Hasn't really done much with only one goal and one assist. I don't no why he got such a high rating against Ccm. Maybe I'm being a bit to harsh on the bloke and I hope I'm wrong.

 

Onto Florin real quick though, I feel it will be hard for him to find a spot in the team when he comes back as our midfield has been decent, especially from Griffiths and Brillante. I hope Luna can start. It's just hard to fit all our players in as many of them are in form.

Back to Florin, if he can't start start then he needs to go in January as he is taking a marquee spot.

[NewConvert]

Just listened to the pressers. Pretty accurate assessment by the coaches. CCM did play a lot better than the scoreboard shows and certainly they are not the rabble that they have been for the last couple of seasons and they kept on pressing and playing right to the final whistle.

[Imtellingyou]

Active was great! Let's see how we travel away and against main opponents. 

[Mr MO]

1 hour ago, DukeVader said:

Does having two of our visa players not in our best 11 say more about our recruitment ? Or more of our young aussie development? 

With my critical opinion; both, but it’s a good thing and we have excellent squad depth

Not too worried about the visa spots but imagine having a fit marquee on the bench most rounds, it looks poorly on the recruitment and is wasted money plus a missed opportunity to be even stronger.

Currently Noone and Maclaren are the only two out of the marquee/visa group who are genuine starters. Surely we were well aware that we have talented players in Genrau and Metcalf who would push for a starting spot. Maybe we underestimated the quality of them. The uprising of Griffiths might not have been planned either.

Hence questions has been raised on the recruitment and quality of the Uruguayans. Saying that, perhaps our budget only allowed us to get some semi decent unproven foreigners. It’s a difficult one, perhaps it would have better to recruit visa spots in areas of higher needs such a centre forward or GK.

 

 

[Mr MO]

1 hour ago, xXCiTyZeNXx said:

My opinion but not a fan of Noone. Hasn't really done much with only one goal and one assist. I don't no why he got such a high rating against Ccm. Maybe I'm being a bit to harsh on the bloke and I hope I'm wrong.

This one is to divide opinions, some fans only look at simple output such as goals or assist. Others look at players more closely in technical ability. Just compare ball control of Noone vs other players - you’ll see the difference. He also seems extremely frustrated with the football intelligence, easy runs and simple one/two’s are sometimes being ignored or we aren’t able to execute.

1 hour ago, xXCiTyZeNXx said:Back to Florin, if he can't start start then he needs to go in January as he is taking a marquee spot.

Agree on this one but doubt the club will move him on based on our January history. I believe we let Koren go but never really replaced him.

[belaguttman]

16 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

With my critical opinion; both, but it’s a good thing and we have excellent squad depth

Not too worried about the visa spots but imagine having a fit marquee on the bench most rounds, it looks poorly on the recruitment and is wasted money plus a missed opportunity to be even stronger.

Currently Noone and Maclaren are the only two out of the marquee/visa group who are genuine starters. Surely we were well aware that we have talented players in Genrau and Metcalf who would push for a starting spot. Maybe we underestimated the quality of them. The uprising of Griffiths might not have been planned either.

Hence questions has been raised on the recruitment and quality of the Uruguayans. Saying that, perhaps our budget only allowed us to get some semi decent unproven foreigners. It’s a difficult one, perhaps it would have better to recruit visa spots in areas of higher needs such a centre forward or GK.

 

 

Nobody, apart from centre backs, were ever going to look good with Wazza coaching

[haz]

28 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

With my critical opinion; both, but it’s a good thing and we have excellent squad depth

Not too worried about the visa spots but imagine having a fit marquee on the bench most rounds, it looks poorly on the recruitment and is wasted money plus a missed opportunity to be even stronger.

Currently Noone and Maclaren are the only two out of the marquee/visa group who are genuine starters. Surely we were well aware that we have talented players in Genrau and Metcalf who would push for a starting spot. Maybe we underestimated the quality of them. The uprising of Griffiths might not have been planned either.

Hence questions has been raised on the recruitment and quality of the Uruguayans. Saying that, perhaps our budget only allowed us to get some semi decent unproven foreigners. It’s a difficult one, perhaps it would have better to recruit visa spots in areas of higher needs such a centre forward or GK.

 

 

I think Luna will come good. Won't be a world beater but will be serviceable. He just needs to be a little stronger on the ball.

[GreenSeater]

8 hours ago, Dylan said:

Given our injuries. We are a massive chance this season

You put Jamie Maclaren on the field last night and we win at least 5-1 imo

[Fredinho69]

Great work to the active last night you guys were excellent. Last night reminded me of the night we played CCM when Matt Thompson scored from passed halfway. Same shocking weather conditions however this time we got the win and it was a complete performance

[MCMLIII]

With the shit crowd last night and all the free tickets to the Western United games, WU after 2 home games have had more fans than MC. I didn't expect to see that.

[jw1739]

4 minutes ago, MCMLIII said:

With the shit crowd last night and all the free tickets to the Western United games, WU after 2 home games have had more fans than MC. I didn't expect to see that.

Forgetting of course that there were plenty of City supporters down at Geelong for the derby?

Anyway, everyone knows why so many City supporters have drifted away over the past two seasons. There's absolutely no point in going on about it. Re-stating the problems doesn't do anything to try and solve them. If you've got any suggestions, how about putting them to the club?

[haz]

2 hours ago, jw1739 said:

Anyway, everyone knows why so many City supporters have drifted away over the past two seasons.

 

[jw1739]

11 minutes ago, haz said:

 

IMO it's not fair to blame only Joyce. He didn't help, but the club also disconnected in other ways.

[haz]

3 points clear, only team still unbeaten!

[silva10]

A great performance yesterday and the most complete team performance for a long while.

It's good to see Noone on the right, because he is more effective coming inside on his stronger foot. The midfield were excellent and for me Brilliante shaded Griffiths for MOTM, with Metcalfe not far behind. In defence Galloway, Delbo and Curtis were excellent, but Jamieson and Bouzanis were poor IMO. I am not convinced with Wales or Luna at the moment. I would actually like to see Luna move to the left when McClaren is back and see if he can produce the goods for us there. 

It's great to be top, but I do believe there is so much more to come from this team. Maybe we can move out Florin and the Austrian in January and bring in at leat onw more forward who will contribute better than those two.

 

[K-aram92]

The start of this season has been very impressive but IMO the only question mark is how we will perform interstate, as so far both away games have been in Victoria and the only trip we've taken was to Adelaide for the cup final, which we all know how that turned out. Hopefully we can put on a strong performance in the next 2 games away from home and really make a statement as the team to beat this season. All the signs so far however have been positive and suggest we are a far better side than recent years

[johnno cpfc]

On 08/11/2019 at 10:42 PM, thisphantomfortress said:

Fuck me. The weather was shit but otherwise a dominant display by the boys and probably the best terrace in years. 

This was, i think, the main reason for the poor crowd the weather probably convinced people to stay home and watch it on TV. It certainly was a very impressive performance spoiled by bloody awful weather, i was there and it was very raw cold weather.

 

[citypool]

It’s a winter sport but we complain about the weather 

[Jovan]

35 minutes ago, citypool said:

It’s a winter sport but we complain about the weather 

Wait till summer hits and get ready for the moaning. 

[jw1739]

2 hours ago, citypool said:

It’s a winter sport but we complain about the weather 

 

1 hour ago, Jovan said:

Wait till summer hits and get ready for the moaning. 

A bit cynical there fellers. Any 30,000-capacity stadium with just 5,000 people in it is pretty miserable whatever the weather. And in a country slated to be one of the most affected by climate change, summer football is going to be a real challenge, especially with kick-offs scheduled for 4.00 pm and 6.00 pm AEST - in reality actually 3.00pm and 5.00 pm. FFA must have some sort of death wish.

[Jovan]

15 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

 

A bit cynical there fellers. Any 30,000-capacity stadium with just 5,000 people in it is pretty miserable whatever the weather. And in a country slated to be one of the most affected by climate change, summer football is going to be a real challenge, especially with kick-offs scheduled for 4.00 pm and 6.00 pm AEST - in reality actually 3.00pm and 5.00 pm. FFA must have some sort of death wish.

My point was that people complain regardless, hot cold wet. Its human nature to moan about something. 

Regarding playing soccer in summer, it was a necessity at its time, but I think we need to really reconsider its effect.

You just can't play in the heat. When I was a liitle younger I wouldn't show up for pre season until late March, it was just crazy. 

Now the actual quality of the game is effected by playing in the heat. 

I get that at the time competing with the other football codes was seen as counterproductive and the wise men decided to play summer soccer,  but if we are to ever really make a decent league with quality product it must be played during winter.

We need to understand that as a game we are never going to compete with AFL in the southern states with crowds so accept that if we play in proper sized grounds 10 to 15k in winter the product, that is for TV is will be better and therefore more lucrative. 

So for me when we get to 14/16 teams and maybe a second division it must move to winter with the caveat that most clubs play in proper sized venues. 

Will it happen, not in my lifetime.  

[Nate]

I think playing soccer in Australian winter is a death wish in its own right. I wouldn't know the stats, but I'm sure many A-League supporters would also support AFL or NRL and watching both concurrently will be near impossible.

There's really no clear solution though as the growing heat is a big issue. 

[Afif Adam]

On 09/11/2019 at 9:46 AM, HEARTinator said:

Was a great night!

Holy shit credit to whoever took this, zoomed in to all our players and great to see they're losing their shit after the first goal....not sure if it's because of the 10 year anniversary game or our players actually give a shit, spot me a city player that doesn't have their arms up....hell Deano looks like he's giving the finger to the CCM fans, and Erick with the cheeky celebration turn to the bench... ecstatic, idk about you lot but this is what we've been missing ever since JVS left, though I must point out that it would be rare to see players under Joyce celebrate similar to Friday night when we score.

5 games in undefeated, top of the ladder, Terrace is back !! cmon city 

[Jovan]

3 hours ago, Nate said:

I think playing soccer in Australian winter is a death wish in its own right. I wouldn't know the stats, but I'm sure many A-League supporters would also support AFL or NRL and watching both concurrently will be near impossible.

There's really no clear solution though as the growing heat is a big issue. 

I wouldn't know the stats either, but for me all that are connected and comitted are already in, maybe a 10 to 20 % swing either way but generally those that are interested in the game go each week. The league should be targeting these people to increase their satisfaction rather than trying to convert others.

Australians and In particular Melburnians aren't stupid, they know quality.   

[Dylan]

League should mandate any new stadiums built are indoor to the point where they can have decent climate control

[belaguttman]

5 hours ago, Jovan said:

My point was that people complain regardless, hot cold wet. Its human nature to moan about something. 

Regarding playing soccer in summer, it was a necessity at its time, but I think we need to really reconsider its effect.

You just can't play in the heat. When I was a liitle younger I wouldn't show up for pre season until late March, it was just crazy. 

Now the actual quality of the game is effected by playing in the heat. 

I get that at the time competing with the other football codes was seen as counterproductive and the wise men decided to play summer soccer,  but if we are to ever really make a decent league with quality product it must be played during winter.

We need to understand that as a game we are never going to compete with AFL in the southern states with crowds so accept that if we play in proper sized grounds 10 to 15k in winter the product, that is for TV is will be better and therefore more lucrative. 

So for me when we get to 14/16 teams and maybe a second division it must move to winter with the caveat that most clubs play in proper sized venues. 

Will it happen, not in my lifetime.  

Whilst I agree, the problem will be stadium availability. AAMI, for instance is shared with Storm who will chop it up in winter. Of course, we need our own stadium

[Centrehalf]

5 hours ago, Jovan said:

My point was that people complain regardless, hot cold wet. Its human nature to moan about something. 

Regarding playing soccer in summer, it was a necessity at its time, but I think we need to really reconsider its effect.

You just can't play in the heat. When I was a liitle younger I wouldn't show up for pre season until late March, it was just crazy. 

Now the actual quality of the game is effected by playing in the heat. 

I get that at the time competing with the other football codes was seen as counterproductive and the wise men decided to play summer soccer,  but if we are to ever really make a decent league with quality product it must be played during winter.

We need to understand that as a game we are never going to compete with AFL in the southern states with crowds so accept that if we play in proper sized grounds 10 to 15k in winter the product, that is for TV is will be better and therefore more lucrative. 

So for me when we get to 14/16 teams and maybe a second division it must move to winter with the caveat that most clubs play in proper sized venues. 

Will it happen, not in my lifetime.  

Some very good points here.

Mark Bosnich is an advocate for this. Lets be honest. Only one city is going to be affected. Melbourne.

Sydney NRL crowds are putrid and the league in general is held up by Brisbane, Melbourne and a couple of Sydney clubs. Syd FC, Wanderers and Macarthur would be largely unaffected.

Stadiums are an issue, however this would be very easily solved with certain agreements on playing dates etc. 

All big Asian leagues are Feb/March to November. This is where we need to be. 15 teams, 28 games. No more.

Short term pain for long term gain. Has to happen.