Not a bad team then?
The Jets crushed Adelaide (can I say 'crushed'? Is 3-1 a crushing?), and then dominated Brisalona / Brasalona for over an hour (wink & nod to Reinaldo's man-bra - what's with that? Are his pecs sagging?).
What does that say about the Jets? Are they Sydney-like in their average-ness as their position on the table suggests, or has the lack of points just been a bizarre combination of unlikely happenings, freak goals, poor ref decisions and missed opportunities? The latter obviously. It's time for the Jets to go on a bit of a run, and with Sydney and Perth rating high on the dismal-ometer at present, it's a good time for it.
The Jets were in a winning position for over 150 minutes of the last two games. Is it all down to Franny Jeffers? I don't think so, although he definitely helps a huge amount. Again, the Jets either missed golden opportunities, or were denied by excellent goal-keeping and the woodwork. And that's the only reason they didn't beat Brisbane.
Credit where credit is due however, Roar did continue to try to play their style of football right through to the final whistle, and it resulted in a well taken goal through some uncharacteristically sloppy defending from the Jets. But Brisbane were missing Matt McKay and although the team didn't fall apart, I think his absence was apparent.
So here we are back out of glum-world and into positive attitude territory again. Rose-coloured glasses back on (click, snap). It's funny how when your football team is not doing so well, the clouds seem darker. How can a few games of football affect your overall mood so much? I don't know about you but I had a pretty good week last week, finishing off a few projects and then had some good news to boot. I felt pretty good by Friday. But it wasn't until after the win against Adelaide that my mood really lifted. That's weird.
So let's look at Saturday's game first, since the blog demons were clogging up 442's server yesterday and I couldn't upload a blog about Saturday.
Nikolai Topor-Stanley. You are a legend! Not only did Topor-Stanley open the gates against Adelaide with that first goal, he barged the gate down and stamped the splinters into the ground.
After seeing the segment on Fox last weekend about Nikolai and his one-man mission to have his previous goal credited, it was a double victory when he thundered that header in on Saturday night. I was smiling not just for the breaking of the Jets goal drought but for him too, because it was such a deserved goal and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I'm sure half the crowd were happy for him too. If only Fox had delayed that segment by a week it would have been perfect timing...
Point two. Francis Jeffers. Class. Hope it rubs off. Better than God. Faster. Fitter. Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. But he hasn't scored a hat-trick. Yet. I have to admit being surprised by the huge influence he had on the game and the Jets. You wouldn't think one player could do that, but I suppose it's about just taking things up a grade at the pointy end, because in general, the Jets can play quality football, and their defence has been very good.
It was both a relief and absolute pleasure to see Jeffers' form on Saturday and yesterday. His touch was sharp, his ball possession great, his runs in behind the defence were astounding. No wonder he was called the fox in the box.
At times I was just watching him when the play was going on elsewhere. He would be just loping about, looking like he wasn't going anywhere, when suddenly he would start running and somehow be exactly where the ball was going to. It was amazing stuff. His movement and link play with others was a joy to watch. He will be invaluable for the Jets and lets hope there might be a way to get him to stay here longer. If Michael Bridges can get back on the field at the same time as Jeffers, the Jets could easily go on a run of wins. They might do it anyway.
It was also a great relief was to see how easily the players were able to shift to a different formation and a different style of play against Adelaide. With two up front in a more traditional 4-4-2, they were playing along the ground a lot more and splitting Adelaide's defence at will.
To his credit, Branko acknowledged after the match that you can't keep persisting with the same formation if it isn't working. It's a good thing that the team and the coach are willing and able to change seamlessly into different styles. This should mean that other coaches will be unsure of the Jets tactics before a game.
Against Brisbane though, they were back to a 4-3-3 and were pinging balls over the top a lot more. It really unsettled Brisbane's defence and should have resulted in a couple of goals. The Jets pressing and physical presence also upset Brisbane and didn't allow them to play their way.
There were plenty of chances. I'm still not convinced though about that formation though, as Marko Jesic was wider than on Saturday in many instances and again found himself isolated chasing down balls and shooting from a lot further out. I wonder why Branko went for that 3 up front formation when it seemed to work much better with Jesic and Jeffers working together as a front 2. With the two of them there there seemed to be a greater threat and more movement.
In last night's game against Brisbane, there were a number of excellent performances. I thought Casey Wehrman was just exceptional. The number of times he won possession from Brisbane and then distributed the ball with pinpoint passes or switches of play was awesome. A few times he also went on little weaving runs, evading the Brisbane midfielders with ease. Too good!
Zadkovich had an excellent night too. It's getting to the point where it's unfair that he hasn't scored yet this season. That was a super shot late on in the game but, well, it was Theoklitos in goals, probably the form keeper of the league at the moment. Except for our Ben of course.
Kantarovski just keeps getting better. His tackling and movement are very impressive and he also deserved his goal after nearly curling the ball around Theoklitos in the first half. It was a credit to Theoklitos that he stayed composed really because Jeffers put him on the spot and I'm sure gave him heart-failure on at least two occasions that I can remember.
The Jets can continue the roll against Wellington on Saturday, and with the statistics on the Phoenix's away form being bad reading for them, we can hope for 7 points from a possible 9 for this home game run, which would take the Jets ahead of Sydney and North Queensland and level with Perth and Wellington but ahead on goal difference.
It's something to look forward to.
