Cough cough 

That’s what colder days do for football they can fit 3 games in one day, also Leichhardt oval is a good fit for Syd around 11k and the ground holds 20k so iti is a good look on tv.

Crowd looks big; well bigger than usual anyway.

Margush and Delianov > Glover

Didn't look to cross the line to me

That looks no where near cross the line.

VAR to SFC's rescue again.
Be an interesting study to see what proportion of VAR decisions go SFC's way.
I'm guessing at least 75% of the time.

How is that not a pen.

Sydney lucky there. Handed a point.

This is why Maclaren will never make it overseas.

Clear pen.

McGowan & Wilkinson had him in their pocket all night.   Only a mistake from Wilko gave MCFC any chance in the game despite the large amount of 2nd half posession they had. 


VAR always favours Sydney.  Oh wait...

Yep,  collected him without the ball, refs now are so shit they're incapable of making clear decisions anymore.   

Shit facilities though.  Old grounds may have a nostaglia factor but for modern sport they're terrible.  

I don't know or care for sure if the ball crossed the line for the goal - but I do care that the commentators are saying 'deadset goal - clearly over the line'.

The defender was behind the line but moved his leg towards the ball. No way any of those camera angles clearly showed anything - so it is right that VAR did not overturn the refs decision really.

Whether the ref was right or not is in the domain of live sport.

Sydney 'won' the game on the strength of their secondary play. Most balls that went loose or got blocked by City were picked up by a Sydney player first. It is one of the key features of their play and they are probably the best side in the league at doing that. Allows for sustained pressure, and when you add in the skill and quality of their playing roster explains why they arse wins that you don't expect.

Sydney 'lost' the game when they started parking the bus and getting 8 to 10 players back instead of maintaining their structure and their ability to pick up those loose balls. Allowed the only real sustained pressure from City all game.

City just seemed to struggle to beat Sydney's marking pressure and they did not play their normal game. I suspect that when City get blocked by quality they start to panic and get thrown off their game. Having both Nabbout and Luna on confuses the City play too as I see it. Both players are made to run into that right front area so having them both on throws them both off. A bit too similar to be effective. Nabbout also did not try to outpace his opposing player to hit the goal line and cross like he has been doing - but that is one of his strengths and what keeps his opponents on edge. Without that he is relatively toothless.

Bratten had a big one tonight.

Interesting match, with both teams having their moments.

Sydney certainly rode their luck later on though. Draw was a fair result, but City were very close to taking the win. 

Baffled to why Sydney FC let go of Tilio, the kid made the difference to win the pen and almost set up the winner with a nice run and pass to Colakovski.

Hollman they also let go and did quite well for the Bulls on Friday night, as they say you cant keep them all when you have talent which Sydney FC's academy have but did Sydney keep the right ones and let go of the wrong ones?

Even game of football though, the level of play from both teams was top notch and expect them to be right in the thick of it by finals time as real contenders for the Championship. 

Watched the game. Imo, the smurfs were the better team in the first and part of the second half. The “ still Melbourne Heart smurfs” weren’t in the game till the last 15 mins when the sydney smurfs decided to stop playing. Liked Tilio but will he have the same impact if he starts? Brattan and Caceres were very good for the smufs. 

Maclaren had about 4-6 shots on goal from open play in the game, which is good for a central striker.  Wilko and McGowan kept him quiet in the first half though.

It was probably more  a question of Nabbout not providing the usual service in the first half. He either had an off night or was injured. Atkinson also provides more  going  forwards than Galloway, although  the latter  played an incredible defence splitting, killer pass that found Maclaren in a dangerous  position in the second half.

Maclaren also provided some  effective  balls for teammates in dangerous positions,  when he is not in a scoring position himself . Sometimes  his dummy runs take defenders out of position, opening shooting opportunities for teammates.

Statistically, City outplayed SFC in the second half. They had more  shots on goal, more balls played into the box, more possossion and equal territory. At the end of the game overall City were slightly in front  from shots at goal, shots on target, possession and territory.

SFC lost their  defensive shape In BPO late in the game, but earlier they were terrific pressing in BPO and very good whilst in Ball Possession too. Brattan played very well when SFC were in possession.   

Forgot to mention Caceres playing as well as he did in the first 70 mins.

what more do you need to sit and watch a game ?
A good vantage point is all most wish for And Leichardt has it in spades for us.
Close to the pitch - the ground suits our game perfect imo - way better than no atmosphere Kogarah.

Good game by the heavy weights of the table - very even.
Great saves by both keepers at times, if I recall right ??? Redmayne pulled off a good double save.
SFC still having trouble finding back of the net enough But 3rd is a good position at this stage.

Of those 4-6 shots, all were genuine goal scoring opportunities and all failed to test the keeper.  The shots were all mis-kicks, scuffed soft shots. If he performs like that in Europe, next week he isn't playing.  Which is why he's back running around in the A-League rather than Germany. Or even Scotland.

If you watch Maclaren carefully you will see that he fails to strike the ball cleanly far more often than a striker should.  Getting a clean strike is basically a strikers job.  If you can't do reliably that then you're playing at the wrong end of the pitch.

I love how close you are to the action at Leichardt but in terms of facilities it leaves a lot to be desired. 

I've seen a lot of games lately, but without having to watch the entire game again, I thought a number of Maclean's shots tested the keeper from positions in limited time and space?

I will watch out for what you describe as scuffs and mishits though in future games, Enzo.

I think  Maclaren is  an excellent striker. To date, in terms of scoring, he has the highest strike rate per game in the history of the A L.

His positions and runs are clever, often been being bent to avoid offside. Moreover, his  first touches and the subsequent shot (two touch actions), or one touch shots, often involve Maclaren getting into an excellent body shape to execute the technique - very quickly. He shoots well with  both feet, evidenced by his left foot clean strike  in the  second last game as he was running flat out towards goal under close marking pressure, and, has improved with his head. He is also creating more assists for teammates to shoot.

If Maclaren has a fault, he relies on service from players a bit. Borello, with Roar, and now Nabbout, with City, have often done wonderful build up work to create opportunities for Macca to score. 

You  imply that European  leagues are homogeneous. They probably aren't in terms of  evaluating  strikers' success. Any one of the big five leagues, or the top clubs in Portugal, Belgium, Holland,  Russia, Greece, Scotland, are going to have to have to  pretty good strikers, but I have still  seen many strikers  fail to score goals from good positions  in big European leagues.