Diagonal Runs: A-League Week 5 Wrap-Up | Thebigtip

A pretty disappointing week’s worth of action to be honest. There wasn’t too much going on, which probably becomes evident when the subtitle for the wrap comes from Ross Aloisi of all people. Anyone who watched either the Sydney-Adelaide or Perth-Wellington match would understand. That’s assuming their TV wasn’t on mute, which is perfectly acceptable.

Central Coast 2 defeated Melbourne Victory 0

What a weird game this one was. I don’t think anyone could argue that the Victory had the better of general play, but they were absolutely hopeless in the final third, while Central Coast were clinical in the opportunities they had – all two of them.

In terms of watch-ability, it was a very average game. For all Arnold’s supposed ‘beautiful football’, there’s been zero evidence of that – save for the 30 minutes Perez was involved in last week. There was nothing to the game really – to sum it up would basically entail the following:

-          Melbourne have possession for an eternity

-          Turnover

-          Central Coast play ‘let’s get the ball as far away as possible’

-          Melbourne retake possession

That’s it. As far as Melbourne go, I don’t know if during the off-season Merrick has become Arsene Wenger’s biggest fan, but the passing seems to have increased to ridiculous levels with the shot count decreasing at the same rate. All the pretty passing in the world isn’t going to do much good if all you do is pass it around prettily. That horrible word-play in the previous sentence was better than any attacking thrusts the Victory served up on Friday night, which shows just how bad the match was.


Melbourne Heart 1 defeated North Queensland 0

Finally, the Heart get their first win on the board. It helped my fantasy team out quite a bit, as I had the trio of Heffernan, Marrone & Hamill all starting, so the clean sheet bonus for all three led to me scoring a bucketload of points. For that reason I was wrapped that the Heart kept the clean sheet for the first time ever.

It was one of those games (similar to the Australia-Switzerland friendly on Saturday morning) where you look at the final scoreline and think there should have been a lot more goals then it indicates. Both Pasfield and Bolton had a lot of work to do, and if it wasn’t for their work it could have been another goal-fest involving the Fury. They’re so entertaining to watch, so combine that with the lack of hateable players (in a good way), and no wonder they seem to be everyone’s second team.

Kalmar stood out to me again yesterday. It’s funny how in a squad littered with big-name players, a relative nobody from the Victorian Premier League has arguably stood out the most. His finish for the sole goal of the match was very classy, and for a teenager to come straight out of that league and shine shows the potential that he has. It was made more impressive when you take into account that he was borderline for the match because of general soreness. Thankfully, van’t Schip isn’t Mark Harvey, so Kalmar played.

For the Fury, yesterday was the first time I’ve really noticed their captain Gareth Edds. In previous matches he’s just been there without really imposing himself on the game. But yesterday I thought his late runs into the box was a highlight of the Fury attacks, and he really should have scored a couple himself. His post-match interview was also impressive, and it highlighted the interesting mental battle the Fury players will be facing now. Their response to two consecutive defeats that they should have got points out of might end up shaping their season.


Sydney 1 defeated by Adelaide 3

Even though I tipped the Adelaide win, I didn’t expect Sydney to be as woeful as they were. I’m tempted to call it rock bottom, but I can’t see where the improvement (aside from Brosque returning) is going to come from. At the moment it’s extremely hard to find any positives from their play last night because I’m not taking anything after Adelaide’s third goal into account. It’s easy to point at that little period where Sydney scored and say, ‘Look! They’ve turned the corner!’ but let’s face it – it was Adelaide taking the foot off the pedal more than anything.

It’s hard to know where to start with Sydney, but I’ll go with the obvious – a complete lack of effort. Bosnich summed it up well during half-time when he said that Sydney were playing at half pace. I’d say he was being generous when he said that, because the starting XI honestly didn’t look like they wanted to be out there. I know personally that when I lose in whatever sport I’m playing, I can accept it if I’m beaten by the better team. However, being beaten because I didn’t put in all the effort that I could is a completely different story, and that should be the motto for any sporting team.

Although it would be very easy to keep going in-depth, I don’t want to give an obituary of Sydney when their opposition was excellent. It’s the old cliché of ‘but we must give credit to...’ but in this case it’s the truth. Compare Adelaide’s passing game to last season and it’s like watching two different teams. Of course, anything different would have been an improvement by default, but I digress.

In my season preview I mentioned that Leckie should be playing just behind the strikers. I don’t care if we’re only five rounds in because I’m comfortable in declaring that a monumental failed call already. Leckie’s looked so at home up there, and with Van Dijk rounding into form nicely it could be the making of a formidable strike force in the short-term until the inevitable offer from overseas comes for Leckie.

One last point about Adelaide has to be mentioning the excellent job Coolen is doing at the moment. He’s not afraid of making changes (i.e. moving Ramsay back to the bench after scoring a brace against the Heart), and the whole squad seems to be clicking and playing with a freedom that hasn’t been seen for quite a while. It’s a far way removed from the rumours of player revolt when he took the job.


Newcastle 0 drew with Brisbane 0

Last week I awarded the first 60 minutes of the Sydney-Central Coast game as the worst of the season. Scratch that, because the first 60 in this match takes the cake. Excruciatingly boring and hard to watch. There was nothing going on, and if it wasn’t for the saving grace of Bosnich in the commentary box I might have actually fallen asleep.

The obvious reasons for the above were the bumpy pitch and extreme wind. It’s hard for any team to play decent football when the conditions conspire to take away both avenues for said quality. If you can’t play it on the ground, try to play it in the air – the problem was that you couldn’t do either.

The red card (two yellows) for Zadkovich was deserved, as they were both bookings. Playing him out of the defensive midfield position was a mistake, as he’s not suited there. Then again, based on his performances so far it doesn’t look like he’s suited to anywhere except the bench. Zadkovich also lives a double life as former Adelaide AFL player Nigel Smart when he’s not playing for Newcastle, so good on him for being able to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. Seriously, am I the only one to notice the massive similarity between the two?

As for Brisbane, nothing much to say apart from noticing that it seems Broich has been afflicted by the Holman virus. How he didn’t bury one of the chances he had is beyond me. Brisbane didn’t seem to go through Reinaldo too much either, which confused me a little bit. Surely an easier tactic in the conditions would have been to use the target man as often as possible to keep everything simple, but I guess Postecoglou wants to ingrain Plan A into the team before Plan B, C and co come into it.


Perth 2 defeated Wellington 1

Let this game be remembered for the best line uttered during an in-game interview. Eugene Dadi was being interviewed about his plans for the future when he came up with the following gem that caused me to lose it: “And remember, today is Fathers Day so if you need a Dadi I’m still here”. Absolutely brilliant.

As far as on the field goes, before the Wellington goal I thought it was Perth’s best performance of the year. They completely dominated the play, and it was refreshing to see that from them rather than the counter-attacking football they’ve been showing in recent weeks. Being able to have multiple strings in your bow is something that a title-challenging team this season is going to need, so it was an impressive performance. The more I think about it, the more I realise Perth are ticking off all the boxes that will hold them in good stead come finals time.

It’s a bit ironic that it was Velaphi who gave the Phoenix a chance to get points out of the game, and then it was the same person that effectively snuffed out the visitors with an excellent save. I know that I’m a broken record when it concerns him, but he needs to have more command over his area. That header from Sigmund for the Wellington goal should never have happened because Velaphi should have collected it with ease.

Again Wellington were dominated through midfield. Writing and trying to recite past matches off the top of my head at 1am is bound to produce some mistakes, but I can’t recall a single match this season where the Phoenix can say they won the battle in the centre of the park save for the Mariners game. That’s three out of four games where a supposed title challenger loses the most important area. Next week against Sydney is already shaping up as a critical match for both teams.

So with another week done, I’m already looking forward to Wellington v Sydney on Saturday evening. So until then, as usual you can follow me on Twitter (rickm18) and offer your thoughts on the weekend down below.