😂😂😂 it's so bad I can't stop watching. I did watch the FFA Cup stream but gave up at 4-1 with five minutes to go .... and it apparently finished 5-4. Not my night.

I am genuinely watching for the commentary due to how bad it is.

Liverpool deciding to become witches cones to give Sydney a consolation goal. Sydney deciding to cock it up royally to give the whole situation are cringeworthy twist.

Well, having watched the shit SFC served up tonight I will now support an FFA ban on touring teams.

arnold seems to like very large youngsters.....

who missed the sitter?
Meanwhile I've never seen what Arnold sees in mat simon

Why?

Not before time....

@city sam
Why should i leave
Got a problem?

It was a joke in reference to the constant nonsense of your posts.

For the love of god, someone bring Chen back.

I think we could see in this game, why Brillante was found out in Italy. He had a disaster of a debut for Fiorentina and hardly featured again. Apparently he trained well, had a good pre-season but come the match level, intensity of Serie A and he was lost. In the A-League he was a rock, hardly put a foot wrong this season. But his poor capability on the ball and in distribution - when you actually press him he crumbles and hopefully more A-League teams learn of this and exploit Sydney FC far more next season. Guys like Brillante will cough it up when you make them panic. He and O'Neill just had too much time and space on the ball this season. FTR They pressed O'Neill too and he did too cough it up at times, but he also coped better on other occasions with his close ball control and half decent switch passing and lobs.

It shows how reliant Sydney are too, on Ninkovic, with their on the ball play. It's a shame Holosko wasn't on the field either as I think he may've been a good outlet and his physical capability, aswell as technical, would've actually cause Carragher and co some trouble. It's still a surprise they've let him go, but hopefully Arnie and co have scouted some good quality to replace him - They really should be able to.

I actually enjoyed the cringe-fest that was John Conway Tonight and Chen was the best part of this telecast - that deadpan humour, subversion, dry delivery and timing. Indeed this game deserved was a guy unveiling an NFL shirt - It's about the level of the NFL novelty event, when 70k turn up to just be bored and do the wave, because there is soo little to interest them on the field.

It's all about the moolah, so I hope the FFA and our game, got our share and not just the visitors who take it up with them and leave.

Definitely.

ABC got it all wrong, they saw "meaningless friendly" and thought they'd try and make it light and humorous rather than serious. At best the balance was wrong and there should have been some knowledgable football people in the pre-game, at worst our football audience take themselves too seriously and couldn't handle anything comedic.

Don't panic Waz - it's still about the bottom line and if it somehow boosts the coffers, then still no harm in a glorified pre-season game. As Bluebird and many have said, there can be no different if it's Steen's 'Sydney Olympic'  or it's 'Liverpool' - it's Post/Pre-Season to loosen some cobwebs and give some fringe players and youngsters a run out to boost their confidence and perform infront of the coach in match conditions. Can be some motivation too and for the youngsters with talent and drive, a good stage to impress and promote their talents infront of touring coaching staff. Connor Pain and Bernie Ibini did well, in games like this and others have too, in the past. For young players, including those having a run with Liverpool tonight, it's the way they can get an opportunity and with such opportunities some stand-up which leads to further opportunities down the road. It's just a shame that Kulesvki (sp) kid fluffed up his chance, later in the second half. Some of the SFC youngsters acquitted themselves quite well, even though the intensity had dropped. If anything, George Blackwood should have been subbed sooner, pulling up short, as too Flottmann for a spent Wilkinson. Antoniou delivered a nice cross-field pass or two (That set-up the Kulevski chance) and should have come on a bit sooner too as we've seen enough of Brillante and O'Neill this season and Brillante was off his feet, as was Zullo and some others doing all that chasing first half.

To see McManaman subbed on sooner than some of the SFC young guns, that's where we can blame Arnie and his conservatism! Lokolingoy and Antoniou seem as promising as fans have suggested - they really need to feature next season and may well do with SFC's ACL campaign.

Crowd of 73k is pretty good, shame about ABC fking it up TV wise.

Gloryperths back yay! And still posting mega posts with no breaks which actually are worth reading if you can be arsed wading through treacle. Welcome back comrade.

Plastic. You probably leave the game 10mins early to beat the traffic

The FFA should ask for an apology from the ABC for the appalling coverage of the game, why did that bloke where a Sydney Olympic jersey? talk about being informed and unprofessional.  

Liverpool put out a team that would fit for a League Cup game buddy, that first half they made Sydney look average given they got off the plane this morning/late last night too. 
Sure sydney had a few foreign players unavailable but it would not be huge difference
There intensity and touch were another level and in the end, it shows where the a-league has to go, which is good as were need to measure ourselves against the best to see where we are at.

It didn't just show how reliant Sydney are on Ninkovic for his ball play but also for his off the ball work. Sydney have relied upon the high intensity press that he and Holosko can provide out wide, in comparison Carney and Blackwood may as well not have entered the field. Bobo and Brosque's defensive positions were made redundant with the lack of support and Liverpool were free to attack Brillante and O'Neill making them unable to provide their usual cover defence. 

I know Liverpool were always going to be a class above Sydney but it was very unlike Sydney not to be pressing hard and at least triynm accelerated counter attacks,
Maybe they were still a bit hungover from just finishing the season.
I'm not a Sydney supporter but i reckon the youngsters did quite well bar the guy that missed the tap in LOL

Sydney looked like they had already been at Bondi for a few days on the lash.

-PB

The worst part about it all is that it made news across the world. Many of the football facebook/twitter pages posting that half time clusterfuck

And to put the icing on the cake, the interviewer asking that same old question about what they thought about the standard of the A league and Klopp trying to say with a straigh as face as possible oh its good LOL

I always thought HAL teams tried to play at their best against these glamour European teams.Apparently not for SFC.
This was a pretend Liverpool team with a few pensioners and SFC still looked like an npl team.
SFC playing out from the back? When did they start that?They looked like Brisbane under Mulvey before he got sacked and That was Liverpool hardly pressing.
Clearly without Ninkovic SFC are a very average side.

Yeah i cant take claims of ABC 'making a mockery of our game' when Liverpool started players who are years retired.

That to me is more of a mockery than any cringey television coverage. 

Here's a bit of surprising news people might need to sit down for:
The Socceroos wont win the world cup. They wont make the semis or the quarters. They may not even make the round of 16

But I'll be joining hundreds of thousands of Australians in watching the Socceroos play

Sport isn't about winning and losing. It is about seeing people or teams compete. Its about the skill, the decisions, the different plays, and even seeing the elite perform. If you have any doubts about what last night was for, listen to Simon's post match interview

If you only watch sport to see your team win, then that makes you a gambler. Makes sense why Australian sport is balanced. Makes sense why we have a day off for a horse race, and gambling ads at every turn. I guess sport for you is how much money you lose on your good for nothing team. I pity you actually

ABC coverage aside I was happy with last night's game. As were a lot of people. Yes Sydney were outclassed but zero surprises there. We have a salary cap and a balanced competition. A League teams might look good in their own league but we aren't up to the grade of teams that play competitively, instead of playing so weak fans can win money. It also spends an end to the Myth the finals teaches / rewards teams to stand up where it counts. See what the Grand Final winner did last night?

People calling for bans on games like this don't get competitive sport. That don't get why sports fans live, breath, eat and shit sport. They don't get why kids dream of moments like these and shell out hundreds of dollars

The A League has already proven with the ACL that it cant hide from the poor structural decisions. And last nights game continues to reinforce this. Its not games like this that causes the A League to look bad. Its having every league structured like a horse race

A League teams just have to continue to use games like these and the ACL games to push the FFA for some common sense. We are part of a world of competitive sport. Those who don't like it can go back to the AFL and live in the sheltered reality that West Sydney is an Aussie Rules powerhouse despite not having a league 3 years ago

Nice rant Bluebird,if you watch games to see teams compete,then how can you be satisfied with what SFC dished up ?
They let their best player and one of their best defenders go on holiday .amd lost their two righ wingers.The rest of the players were insipid.I thought the SFC mantra was to win every contest.
Last night it was the opposite.
Yes average ACL performances by HAL teams were woeful.So SFC just maintained the status quo.But lets not kid ourselves the SFC performance had anything to do with salary caps.They just didnt compete.
What is this bs about sport not being about winning or losing?Are you over medicated?
If you want to watch teams look pretty and forget about how to win ,then watch our national youth teams or go to the ballet.
I have followed many sports since i was a boy and not once was wondering about betting odds.I wanted the team i supported to win.Sometimes a loss was more palatable if my team played well and just lost.But i always wanted my team to win....If you don't play to win ,then you wont.
A League teams might look good in their own league but aren't up to the grade of teams that play competitively?What are you talking about?
When Brisbane beat a glamour Chinese team away 2-1 with Tevez amd knocked them out of the ACL,was that not competing?
Yes FFA make life very very difficult for HAL teams to compete week in week out with teams outside Australia.But properly prepared with their best players,they can compete.Last night SFC didn't compete and it had nothing to do with winning a Grand Final.They clearly didn't prepare properly ,didn't pick their best players,didn't play to their normal game plan and didn't want to hurt their opponents.


Maybe you are living in a bubble,but Australia doesn't have a day off for a horse race.

Do you think Sydney FC are a good team? Or do you think the teams they were forced to play against this season were bad?

Sydney didn't go from being this invincible incredible team to a team that didn't know how to play overnight. Last night was them. No team is ever going to have a full squad or match fitness but that was them

Sydney dished up shit because the A League is a non competitive league. It is rigged, balanced, and no consequences for failure. The team that finished third only won 40% of their games. Contrast this to Brisbane's season where CCM and Adelaide matched them most them of the way

Sport has upsets. Anybody knows that. Sure Brisbane beat a Chinese team but what did they do in the rest of the league? Did they win the ACL due to their effort against a Chinese team with Tevez? I must have missed that part

A League teams are not up to the grade. We know this from the ACL. We know this from the Socceroos. We know this every time a leading stats getter is snapped up by a foreign club, sits on the bench for a year and comes back. Our best strikers don't play week in / week out against 4-5 of the best 20 defenders in the A League. The best players are distributed evenly (even in Sydney FC). The result is weak watered down teams that might look good against one another by comparison

By sport isn't about winning or losing what I mean is I don't stop watching my team if they lose. I don't call for games to be cancelled because my team is not up to grade

Yes Sydney lost. Yes they were humiliated. But damage to the game? Come on. The only damage to the game is what the FFA continue to do with this stupid balanced model. In a fair fight with Sydney at their best, even with a 3-0 loss and no shot on target for 80 minutes, it would have been respectable due to the gap

Nobody expects you to beat Bolt in a race. But they do want to see you run 100m as fast as you can

We can both agree Sydney didn't do that. But we will have to disagree on who was to blame

What was on display last night was everything that is wrong with Australian football from u6 to the a league.
In the first 10 min Liverpool proved they could of defeated SFC in double figures and had they the consensus of opinion would have been that it was unsportsmanlike.
2 things to be thankful for
1 they did not play the Socceroos
2 I did not pay to go to Sydney and watch that shite

Now get a top 3rd div English team over here and play full on so we can get a true indication of our level