Sunday, September 02, 2007

Still feeling the let-down

Over at Football in the Capital, Eamonn made a bit of a better recap of the game from last night than I did. I suppose I was disappointed, I still am. Anyway, had a bit of a rant over there, and I think my comment is a bit of a supplement to my initial post.

Much like I couldn't watch Perth vs. Newcastle last week, if I wasn't a Melbourne fan and at Telstra Dome I would've walked away from the TV set.

I don't think our boring play and apparent reliance on long balls is due to the surface of TD. I simply think we didn't have any ideas. Patafta, who has been a spark of energy in the preseason cup and against Wellington had no, or little effect. He seemed to get out-muscled, and I think his early yellow card put the dampener on him.

I'm quite annoyed with Archie for not passing the ball off to Allsopp at about the 85 minute mark when we had superior numbers to Perth - 2 to 1 (not including the keeper). Archie should've passed it off to the left, where Allsopp was, as the Perth defender was approaching (can't remember who - I was very Melbournised at this point of the night). But no, Archie chose to hold onto the ball, and upon being tackled by nameless Perth defender, lost possession of the ball.

Keenan's injury didn't help either - he's a little consistent, but if he's on the field at least there's a chance of him producing something special. Caceres not in the squad was also a disappointment - he's a far more competitive player this season by what I've seen and I can only hope there was a good excuse for him not to have even been on the bench this week. I'm hoping he's making the trip to Adelaide.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was furious with Archie, he should have pass the ball, probably best chance of the match.

Also if Archie is injured then Love should start. I am not sure why, but people always pick on Danny, he has his obvious limitations but I find Archie far more frustrating.

Out of curiosity could you here us (L3NT) from where you were sitting? What is your opinion about the support last night?

Cecilia said...

Watt,

That WAS the best chance of the match! AAARRRGH!!! I'm still fuming about it and still yell at the TV when they replay it.

Unfortunately the laws of physics was an issue when it came to the chanting. As I sit on level 1 in the members area at about halfway, the sound waves generated by you (collectively speaking) were not of a sufficiently low frequency to bend as required!

The chanting I could hear clearly was from level 1 - both south and north. When doing the "We're north end over here" thing in conjunction with level 1 I could hear you. Or rather, I could hear that it was a bit louder, but not significantly.

At half-time I bumped into 'Cafu' and we were discussing the lack of excitement coming from the gold members area - which is where we both reside during matches. There wasn't much of an atmosphere compared to what I recall, but then, the last two matches were the semi final and final! Completely different matches really!

Any chance you can perhaps shift to be behind the goal on level 3? Though I suppose that could create coordination issues with level 1, if that's even a valid concern! I'm sure that you'll sort yourselves out, and I'll be conscious to pay a bit more attention to you in a fortnight.