I’d say it’s to save on costs. No point in opening the whole stadium for the game. At least we are back at Suncorp.

Interesting, thanks. Shows the lack of interest that there is a dearth of posts and just 3 days out from the season opener.

well it's game week so thats exciting but i just looked at the seat map for the game and it looks like they are only opening the eastern side of the bottom tier. we will be lucky to get 8k which is very disappointing. Thank god there are no mid summer arvo games at suncorp because that stand bakes in the sun and i avoid it at all costs. 

jcp and knowles are good pick ups. if i dont have anything on i might head out to lions stadium on monday to have a look at training. 

Well, we beat Rochedale 8-0 the weekend before last (I did not go) and from the report it was good to see that Aldred got 45 minutes back from injury. Hope he stays fit and is ready. I like the speed of the younger CBs but nothing beats our experienced, physical, capable, organising CB to add the defensive spine we were missing and let the team focus on going forward. Too many games/seasons we have seen our team look back defensively all game and lack confidence in the backline to drive forward.

Dehmie returned from injury for a bit too - I would not say I am thrilled about that but the part game he played recently showed him with a little bit better balance and self control. Nothing to base it on, but hopefully he is improving on that aspect of his play. Falling over and running past the stopping point were huge weaknesses for him (somewhat like a large puppy) - would love to see him develop balance and co-ordination to go with his enthusiasm and other good abilities. For what it is worth, he also scored against Rochedale.

Daley stepped up to convert a penalty taking it from 7-0 to 8-0 - maybe he is the one to confidently strike a penalty now.

Knowles (age 26) is a great signing. From the decent bits we have seen of him, he looks like he is ready to compete with ALM players; unlike a lot of NPL players who have to develop into that step up. Early days, but promising.

JCP back (on loan) provides another CB option and also a backup left back (or is he our left back?). His Poland adventure did not see him rise to glory so he will no doubt be keen to demonstrate his worth to one and all again.

Overall, I think we have got a team this season that is not going to play lazy, contented football with security of position taken for granted. I think we are going to see a lot of pressure on incumbents and please, please Moon pick your first 11 so we can develop cohesive play, with pressure from individuals to break in, rather than the mix and match teams we have been seeing.

And on that note (see how I tied this in) -  did anyone go to the fan forum yesterday? Get anything interesting out if it?

Yes... :(

Not even 4th.
Sydney United didn't finish in top 5 for FNSW top flight and so missed out the finals.
BBlacktown City beat Manly United in the GF

Look I’m no tactician but if you play a 442 and Austin drops so deep isn’t danzaki isolated? You definitely want Austin in goal scoring positions and use O’Shea to create chances 

Sydney Utd, At best would be 4th ranked team in Sydney and still can’t beat them. 

We can’t beat NPL sides, that’s a major worry!!
we only win the last game because it went to pens, but we couldn’t beat either in regulation and extra time.
I’m so not impressed.

We are well setup for quick transition with pace out wide but against a set defensive bloc offer little. Our service into the box is woeful. Hore was good again but Danzaki, Akbari and others went missing. 

Pretty crappy result, but not unexpected given other results so far. I think the Adelaide game was an anomaly. 

Very much seems like we've still got the same wasteful Roar that we've had the last couple of years. Lots of hit it and hope, but not a lot of vision or creativity to make something happen.

Austin could obviously do well, but not if the other players can never find him, or if he's always needing to play deeper to get the ball and try to make something happen. 

We lost that game on our defensive line-up I think. But at the same time we also did not win the game due to some very wasteful football. Better performances at either end could have given us victory.

Always tough to break down a well structured, well trained and cohesive defensive set - and Sydney United had that.

We did not hold strong in the box and got smacked on most of the few attacking forays that came into our area.

We were not playing bad football to start with, but we deteriorated as the game went on - not so much as individuals and effort, but in terms of playing good passing football. The longer the game went on, the more we relied on individuals doing "something amazing" rather than our team plays and combinations which should be the strength of a fulltime aleagues side over an NPL side.

Our constructive attacks became long and useless bombs - which was madness because when we did play the ball through we got down the other end with opportunities.

I am not bothered by the result as we are in pre-season and we were beaten by a well oiled team playing quality football. I am disappointed in the result though as we should be able to do better at this stage of pre-season.

Austin is not being used like a striker of quality. He is being used as a central midfield setup player more often which really is where O'Shea provides his greatest value.

Freke is still no presence between the sticks in my opinion.

Hore had a very productive game - creating opportunities all day. What we do with those opportunities is the problem.

A missed penalty, an airswing, poor shots, and plenty of open players in the box ignored wrote us out of the goal story. We do not have good intuitive forwards. Several times the keeper spilled or parried balls and our attacking players only started running in after the ball hit the ground. One ball, probably form Hore, got deflected by the keeper as it flashed across the goal at the near post - and no-one was making a run either up the middle or to the back post to tap it in. The clever curled ball off the outside of Ivanovic's right boot as he ran across the top of the box also went to ground and no-one looked to be anticipating anything promising coming from it.

I would expect Austin to do that - but he can't if he is back in a midfield attacking role.

We are not playing crap, and we are not without quality - just we are not seeming to have enough structure or understanding in our final third yet.

Go SU58

So big semi final tomorrow 

"Henry Hore brought down at the end for the penalty" - Ah Henry, never change dude :)

Thanks for that. I could not get to it.

Victory look like they had a pretty strong team and that was reflected in the first half dominance. For us I saw on Twitter (not a member - just peeking) that our starting team was Hingert as captain, supported by all the bench, fringe, and some youth players with most of our regulars sitting on the pine.

The Twitter feed says it was Henry Hore brought down at the end for the penalty as opposed to Austin but for me the diabolical comment is:
"It was the Roar, however who would have the final chance of the match as Charlie Austin was brought down inside the penalty area. The Roar’s star signing stepped up to the spot and chipped his effort into the arms of the sprawled Matt Acton to ensure the match would finish 1-1".

On the one hand it reads like a sporting gesture in a match where the result is irrelevant, but did he actually try only to fail dismally? Hopefully someone went and can at least tell that much.

Some details here: https://melbournevictory.com.au/news/report-friendly-v-brisbane-roar

did anyone go to the match vs victory on the weekend? 1-1 is not a bad result given the team that we started with. I havent been able to find what sort of team victory used but even if it was a second string team ours was too. 

Very good point about needing to improve our closing out of games. I lose sight of the fact that if we don't practice it in a pre-season game - when are we going to get the chance?

Close them out Moonie!

Don't forget the Roar playing Victory at 3pm AJ Kelly Park in Redcliffe this Sunday if you are planning your weekends today...

yeah it was a bit disappointing to sit back and stop our attack. Hopefully it was just Moon being a bit pragmatic and giving the team some work out at closing out a game. It is definitely a skill and one that we clearly need some practice at given the last 2 games. It does take practice to know how to absorb pressure and choose your moments to kill a game without leaving yourself open. In the end a win is a win (particularly in a knockout comp) and that should help us run into the season. Game against Victory this weekend, then SU58 next weekend. Probably a week off the following week, trial game weekend of 24th, Australia cup GF weekend of the 1st then season proper starts.

How good would a home GF be at suncorp leading into the first round (could be vs MacArthur back to back)

Mileusnic, as I have seen him up until tonight, was a flying winger who generally bombs in a random cross or cuts inside once he is behind the lines and has a hasty shot.

Last night I saw a Mileusnic who had the confidence and skill to cut inside and lay off a good pass to someone who does have more finishing quality.

I would have him in our starting side now based on that performance (and would have had him in anyway based on his speed and opportunistic runs).

Ivanovic, on the other hand, was pretty much a wasted substitution when Moon had us playing that stupid, deep, give the ball away and hold tight style. He had bugger all chance to do anything other than a bit of chasing back. When Moon brought on Pitbull Daley as a central play breaker you knew we weren't trying to score anymore. One of Ivanovic's more anonymous run outs but not his fault as such.

Some very good things and some very not good things. 

Austin is a really good player, particularly his passing range, it really caused adl trouble, particularly finding danzaki and melusenic behind lines. However because he drops in deep to get these passes away it really leaves us with little option in the box. It will mean Riku, Melusenic and Hore will have to do a lot better in front of goal than they have been or do better at holding up play in and around the box so that the charlie/others can catch up. Riku was better at that last night so hopefully keeps improving.

That is a particular flaw of melusenic and why i mostly dont like him (though he was less frustrating last night). When he played with adl i would say just give him the line, let him burn you because he would run himself into a position where he only had the option to blast inaccurately from a difficult angle or blast a cross to no one. He is very wasteful, and that will need to improve. we really should have put the game to bed in the first half but wasted plenty of opportunities.

Oshae and the front 4 linked quite well in the first half but was much quieter in the second where we really needed some composure and time with the ball to blunt ADL, particularly after the red. 

Zabala is not a left back and struggles to play out on the left. Hingert is better there but Zullo would be better still, we need to bring him in or a dedicated left back. Zabala does better on the right where he has more confidence bringing the ball out. He is still young and gets caught out with defensive positioning but does well to scramble back, this will improve with game time.

Mlinaric did very well at CB i thought and it will put pressure on Akbari when aldred, neville, hingert and (hopefully a left back) come back. does moon keep mlinaric/trewin/Neville at CB and move Chapman/Trewin into CDM. i think so. Akbari seemed to be quietest and danzaki looked better in the AM role. i would like to see our fist team of

                                                          Holmes

Zabala/Hingert              Aldred                           Mlinaric/trewin/Neville                Zullo

                                   OShae                              Chapman/Trewin

Melusenic                                     Danzaki                                                    Hore
                                                      Austin



we are still light on attacking wingers, so i can see why moon would be looking at Kruse. But we really need someone with a bit more quality. we have too many squadies. melusenic, hore, lofthouse, ivanovic none of them would start in any other aleague team and that is a problem.

Well, we got a big win in a comp that we have failed at consistently.

Some really great signs with us still in pre-season form.

I had been worried about our front end not being sharp enough to worry teams, but on the back of the good interplay in that first half tonight I am no longer concerned. I was loving Mileusnic with the ball at his feet, and Trewin as well (at least going forwards). Charlie's impact is clear through the whole front third with him as both support and attacker.

I'd love to have our left back sorted out sooner rather than later - and have him (Zullo or otherwise) into these Cup and pre-season games so we hit the season as players who have played a serious game at least once together for a change.

We have had some bad luck starting seasons lately with injuries at the last minute forcing adhoc teams to try and come up to speed within the season itself. Having 3 injured backs and a red card suspension to our other back rings too many bells for me.

I am going to say that I think we have got the players (Zullo included) and a team capable of playing good enough football, to easily make finals.

If you can't be cocky in pre-season - when can you be!

Zullo- ??? Yes

Kruse-No-Nothing to offer- will get jnjuried and we’ll be paying him a wage.

Put in a positive light though, 2 of those 34 years have not seen his body enduring the physical damage of play.

Effectively an experienced 34 year old in a 32 year old body.

Probs still better than playing Hingert there.

A 34 year-old who has played one game in the past two seasons - forgive me if I'm not jumping with excitement at that one.