Fook the suits 
We're got two cracking games this weekend.

Who's winning and why? 

CCM/SFC
First leg I reckon Sydney finish with a 1 goal lead with the help of some VAR controversy.
Second leg sees Central Coast close the gap and game ends in a shootout. Flip of a coin as to the final result. Vuka is probably in better form, so maybe CCM take the win.
NIX/MV
First leg finishes in a 0-0 draw. Nix continue their winless streak at AAMI.
MV win second leg in regulation time. (my biased wishful thinking)

That being said, as always I prefer to see the premiers win the GF. That way there is absolutely no debate over who won the league.

Part of me also thinks we may get another big blue GF. It would be a great game, but probably not what the league needs right now.

Mariners will be tired but on a high from Afc win. Sydney without Lolley. 2-1 Mariners.

Victory will want revenge for last minute 1 nil loss to Nux last time. IF Victory take their chances they can win at home. 2-1 Victory.

The APL have announced that a Mariners grand final will be played at Gosford. I reckon this news might be a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand it will be great for the local fans to experience a truly home GF. On the other hand, the stadium only holds 20k and once you take into account the away section (especially if it's MV), it doesn't leave much. The APL will almost certainly inflate ticket prices to make up for the less than ideal capacity.

Sydney without Lolley is a critical loss for them. Mariners 0-2 in first leg.

Nix not challenging for Premiership based on nothing. Nix to win 0-2 their first leg.

just been pissing down again here in syd.
Gonna be a skimming night of football.

Mariners are exhausted but SFC without Lolley means the match will be pretty even.

I suspect it will be very close tonight but CCM will come home with a wet sail next week.

Would not be surprised to see a CCM v Victory GF. Mind you I tipped H Clinton to beat Trump.

Didn't the Russians help Trump. Are they still connected to SFC?

Is there a straight red card in every Sydney FC game (to them or against)? Has to be some kind of record.

I think I heard 6 in a row last night.

I missed it but why was Lolley not playing?

Lolley out for the season, hamstring. 

Girdwood-Reich lucky not to get an early yellow for another crude, thoughtless tackle. Hurt himself then got knocked soon after and he was gone.

Mariners looking threatening for the first 20 minutes, but Sydney started to come into from then and scored with momentum inside the half hour.

Clear red card in the second half for sliding in front on, studs up, foot raised and contacting shin.

Totally deserved second yellow for the second red - both for a clear jabbed elbow backwards into the chin/face and doubled up with a professional foul impeding a promising attack. A clear jab back and up made contact - how can you pass that off as anything other than a yellow? Commentators saying 'it's just a foul' - play on.

Theoharous was somewhat irrelevant in the first half - or at least more so towards the end. I think he was told to get involved at halftime because he came out niggling and harassing when he did not have the ball. Looked to suck the ref in for his penalty - seemed he was the one desperately trying to tangle and hook Cacares' leg in some way as he went to ground. I don't think that was a legitimate foul and doubly wrong being a penalty.

Mariners the cleaner, better team. Deserved the win.

Kaltak and Hall doing a great job of timing critical tackles. Really impressed with them. Nisbet influential again.

Fabio terrorised Mariners midfield with his control and speed. Took 4 players to shut him down when he made a good run - but they did shut him down. Brattan constantly in the face and ear of the ref - just tell him to f'off ref. You don't have to explain every decision. I don't like Burgess for some reason, but he is a dangerous and capable player. Going two players down just disrupted anything Sydney might have otherwise done.

I am against the 2 legged semis. Being higher in the table should give you a home ground advantage - you have earned it throughout the season.

It worked - Kuol foot went over the ball and was planted on the ground,  Brattan rakes Kuol's leg and because he had been in the ref's ear before Kuol gets the yellow. From then Kuol's effectiveness was lesser as he was scared of a second yellow. 

Surprised Burgess didn't start and equally surprised he was the one sacrificed.

You can't.

Absolutely infuriating.

Christ. No wonder there's such a lack of respect for the officials.

Just once I want to watch a game and here a commentator say, after watching a slow motion replay, 'the ref has got that 100% right, great call given all the traffic around him and the speed of that tackle' or whatever.

How fucking hard is it?

I don't mind referees getting criticised, they're humans and they will make mistakes, but all the disrespect at grassroots starts at this level and above.

Just balance out the criticism with some occasional praise.

I say to the players before the match 'I'll try and explain my decisions if I have time AND I WANT TO but it's not a conversation or a debate.'

Can't believe the shit the refs put up with from clowns like him.

My turn to criticise a ref. Book him FFS and be done with it. Set the standard you want on the pitch.


Spoke to a Sydney coach of a team I reffed the other day and I was saying there was way too much chatter in the last match (yesterday) and in the next match they'd be going straight in the book. Looks at me and says with a straight face 'they're used to getting away with a lot more in Sydney'. What the f? Why are we country bumpkins setting the standard of behaviour here that's better than what they have down there.

Who's truncating/censoring the f bombs?

Happened to me and RIMB.

Testing: Fuck!

Someone who doesn't want to give you a yellow card I'm guessing lol

Is the away goal rule in place?

"Scores across the two legs will be aggregated to determine the winner of the tie. The Away Goals rule will NOT be used."

Source: https://aleagues.com.au/more/official-documents

Amazed that Brosque and Wilkshire were criticising the second send-off. Elbow to the face is usually a straight red, not to mention the prevention of a promising attack. It's almost as though they used to play for Sydney...

No commentary at all either on Theoharous being fouled on the edge of the Sydney box immediately before the Sydney goal. That was very clearly an ankle clip and should've been a free kick.

Awesome effort by CCM to win away after so much travel and other matches, but SFC are still in with a hope. Please no refereeing "incidents" - anyone but Evans or Fagani.

Completely agree. Ridiculous comments from Brosque and Wilkshire. And the level of analysis offered up by 10 is very basic, and consequently uninteresting. I've given up on watching the pre-match discussion and interviews, and generally can only now stomach a little of the post-match offerings. The interviews in particular are invariably mind-numbingly dull.

Strange starting line up for Sydney.Plenty of defenders and defensive midfielders.Possibly Talay wanted to swamp Nisbet and Doka in the midfield having identified them as the creative threats for the Mariners.He also may be wanted to soak up pressure from the Mariners to tire them out after their Asian adventure and then in the second half bring on his attackers -Burgess,Fabio and Wood to press hard and  force mistakes up the field.

Funnily enough Girkwood-Reich's injury( self inflicted from his reckless tackling) led to Burgess coming on and he changed the complexion of the game.Sydney started to dominate possession leading to their goal( albeit from a fortuitous deflection) .The Mariners had nearly all the possession in the first 15 -20 minutes and nearly scored on a couple of occasions.Brattan was cunning ( like the shithouse rat he is) by going down after an innocuous elbow to the ribs by Kuol and drawing the ref's notice to the fact.He then got inside Alou's head by his constant barrage of abuse.Then when the two players came together for a loose ball it was the Mariners striker who was yellow carded though it appeared to me that the Brat had slid in with the intention of injuring his opponent.

Nisbet's goal on the stroke of half time did unsettle Sydney and they started the second half  on the back foot.The deserved red for the reckless and dangerous tackle really put Sydney into a tight spot.The penalty put the nail in their coffin though it did appear on the replays that Theoharous was looking for the contact from Caceres but in that area any contact on an attacker with possession of the ball invariably leads to a penalty decision.Doka wasn't concerned by the Wiggle's antics and drilled it home.

Holman's red was justified.Rather than using his body position to block Barcellos he did jab the elbow backwards with some force and hit him in the face.The Brazilian certainly went down as if shot by a sniper but Holman  was ill disciplined in using his arm like that.Ill discipline seems to be a problem for Sydney and with Brattan constantly harassing the referee  the team feels it can get away with the sly fouls-clipping ankles and pushes in the back -which seem a trademark  of their play.Their niggling fouls and verbal harassment came back to bite them very hard in this match.

To their credit Sydney did look better with nine men and the Mariners started to play some panicky football with turning over possession in the midfield.Perhaps their legs were really starting to feel heavy.

Max Balard was immense for CCM in defence and attack.I have never seen him so angry and  full of energy-he was   probably sick and tired of Sydney's dirty tactics.On the down side for the Mariners Kuol was very quiet after that yellow so that was a victory to Brattan.Also Theoharous who was involved in the first red card and who "won " the penalty had a very poor game.However those two incidents probably ensured the Mariners victory-funny how football turns out sometimes

Balard has truly had a breakout season. Will be fascinating to see how he goes in Portugal. Box to box midfielder with a great shot from distance - the heir apparent to Jackson Irvine perhaps?

I reckon and if he hits the ground running in Portugal he's got to be in fairly soon. 

For a tie that doesn’t involve the away goal rule that was quite an underwhelming game, lack of quality even at aleague standards from both team especially from Victory.

Fans want attacking football especially when they are so many sports and other entertainment around, games like that don’t help get more viewers interested. 

What do you mean no away goals? Is this correct? What’s the fkn point of home and away then?

Do keep up. Away goals have been gone for a few years now.

So extra time then penalties or straight to penalties?

I think FIFA got rid of it a few years ago, to be fair away goals made for conservative football just see the champions league this season with some of the scores. 

In overseas football the home ground advantage can be a decisive factor... Playing the second leg of a cup tie at home, going into extra time and then penalties favours the home team.... I dont mind the change.

Spot on. But in terms of the away goals rule, here's one thing I never like about it: Goals in extra time still counted towards the away goals rule.

The Nix came to Melbourne with the sole intention of 0-0 and achieved that with minimal discomfort.

Victory should have known this. We should have gone hard early and tried to put goals past the Nix before they had a chance to settle. But instead, Popa puts Arzani and Brimmer on the bench and starts a player that has provided absolutely nothing (Khalifi), which played perfectly into their hands.

The Nix have scored twice late against us to get results in previous games this season. I get the feeling Popa was spooked by this and wanted to ensure we had legs on the bench for late in the game, especially after playing 120 minutes last week.

All to play for next week. I still think we can get a result over there, but Popa’s reactive squad management isn’t making the situation easier for us. Now I am starting to understand why he can't win Grand Finals. 

Was below average game to watch but i’d say especially from those boring Nux players. Victory had 20 shots at goal, 5 on target. Nux just 6 shots, 0 on target. If every side played such boring football as Nux the AL would be like watching grass grow.  if Victory don’t beat them, hope Mariners or Sydney destroy their boring negative arses in GF 

Nix were just doing what they've done all season. Very predictable, shouldn't be any surprises. Popa should have anticipated this a bit better. Nix were always going to be solid and compact at the back, which is why many of those 20 shots were from outside the box. Personally I would have liked to see Popa make that triple change at half time, it may have caught them out for enough time to pick up a goal. The absence of Machach was definitely evident. Victory really needed that physicality to break through. Unfortunately I reckon we'll see a very similar game again next week. Very few strong chances from either side. Winner will either be a late goal or shootout.

Yep. Really can’t stand the time wasting of Paulsen every goal kick too. How he escaped yellow cards should be officially questioned 

how do you sydney and ccm supporters rate the 13k crowd ?

I suspect you'll say the weather was a challenge.

Shite crowd.

yer thought so mate - considering the rampaging winning run ccm is on you would have expected a good solid crowd venturing down the freeway.
SFC supporters I see them being very fickle imo.
Highs and lows forever and a day.
There i am turning up to watch my sons games the last weeks through wind gusts and rain squals (damn ugly at times) at Prem games, might I add many others doing the same.
SFC supporters have the updated SFS/Allianz or whatever its called today - my daughter went and said Dad even the food is better now (probably a rip off to me) but yer nah its too cold and ugly.

Impressed with how chief approached the game could have had a goal early on.when he knew victory were starting to push he got the team to bunker in. Amazing how he can change the system 2-3 times a game and the team knows exactly how to adapt.
Popa made some good subs aswell was a great tactical battle maybe not a great watch but tactically interesting.