The FAT Website est. 1999
NEWCASTLE JETS 2 – MELBOURNE VICTORY 1
ADELAIDE UNITED 3 – WELLINGTON PHOENIX 1
BRISBANE ROAR 0 – WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS 1
MELBOURNE HEART 0 – CENTRAL COAST MARINERS 1
SYDNEY FC 2 – PERTH GLORY 1
Notes From Round Four
It’s been a weird start to the A-League this year. I guess football is a game about making the most of your chances and riding your luck but I gotta say, Sydney FC sitting there on six points, ahead of Wellington Phoenix doesn’t seem quite right and I don’t think is a fair reflection on how much of a better side Wellington are than Sydney. Likewise Adelaide and Newcastle both felt like they ran out of puff in the last two rounds but there they are on nine points. Last week Newcastle basically had their win against the Mariners handed to them by referee Ben Williams and this week, Wellington Phoenix should’ve come away with something against Adelaide but had defender Ben Sigmund unjustly sent off which promptly turned a 1-0 lead into a 3-1 defeat.
On the plus side, its great to see the marquees Emile Heskey and Alessandro Del Piero both continues to score week in, week out. Del Piero scored off a penalty in his 800th senior game and Heskey grabbed a double against some awful Melbourne Victory defending. I have a sneaking suspicion that Wellington’s Stein Huysegems might be in the running for a golden boot this season. Like Besart Berisha and Emile Heskey, he has scored plenty of goals this season already but he has yet to play against the Victory which is pretty much a guaranteed couple of goals.
What’s orange, wet and can’t pass?
Brisbane Roar played their inaugural fixture against the winless and goalless Western Sydney Wanderers at home and wouldn’t you know it, WSW finally scored their first goal in the competition and then stuck ten men behind the ball in the second half and parked the bus. A win is a win. For the Roar, it means we have just one win in four starts and already two losses. It’s not panic stations yet, not by any means, but our defending was once again sub par and our passing game has gone to shit. Against the Victory, we showed signs of willingness to move away from Ange Postecoglou’s vision of sticking exclusively to the short passing game. When the Wanderers pressed high, that should’ve been our cue to change tactics. Sadly, it never came and we ended up losing only our third home game in thirty games. Sitting in the stands when its raining only added to what was a glum night.
So, a slow start to the season and the third game out of four where we’ve conceded the first goal. Maybe its time to blood our new defender Takahashi? It looks like our central defender Matt Jurman is lapsing back into the type of form he had last season which saw us hemorrhage goals every week. We miss Adnan dearly.
This week, a home game on Sunday against Adelaide United.
Man this league is crazy.
Watched the first half of Roar v WSW and have to say Wanderers looked pretty decent and probably should have had at least 2 goals (how did Mooy’s shot not go in?? – off both posts!), whereas Roar looked slow and rather unorganised. Thought Hingert was pretty solid at RB though. Berisha is an absolute nutcase.
And as for the Nix game.. don’t get me started! Where does the A-League find these bloody refs?!? And what’s up with the review panel? So much for stamping out ‘simulation’. Although Sigmund shouldn’t have given his shirt that little tug.