There is a certain art form to playing well and not winning. Arsenal and their loveable French coach Arsene Wenger have perfected it in recent years, playing the kind of pretty bells-and-whistles football that commentators and fans drool over, but ultimately failing to win even the door prize at the Premier League awards dinner. Unfortunately this art form can turn into a disease, and it appears that NQ Fury have contracted a mild, yet worrying, form of it.
Now, I'm not deluded enough to think we're as good as Arsenal, but some similarities are there. We're quite a young team that is high on energy, enthusiasm, and the desire to play football. We have dominated possession and chances in at least half our games this year. But sadly while Arsenal have the talent and know-how to at least score goals, if not win the silverware their play might deserve, we have yet to develop this talent.
Even with my green-tinted glasses off it's obvious to me that we outplayed Melbourne Heart two weeks ago, and were the only team that looked like winning on Saturday night against Melbourne Victory. Most Victory fans on the FFT forums are delighted they emerged with a point, and most neutrals agree we were desperately unlucky not to carry away all three. Six points would have seen us breathing down the necks of Adelaide United, but instead we took one and we're languishing in tenth. Much of the problem here lies in our newly-acquired inability to score.
Heading into the Heart match we were on the cusp of becoming the first team in A-League history to net at least twice in our opening five matches. That we have failed to score since then is attributable to a few factors which Franz Straka, faultless up to this point, must quickly address.
In the Heart game we were a bit unlucky as our midfielders had a few chances, but a combination of poor finishing and inspired goalkeeping by Clint Bolton gave us the goose egg on the scoreboard. Against Victory we dictated play and carved out a few chances, most notable for Chris Grossman, but were again unable to ripple the net.
Number two on the list is our missing players. Dyron Daal is missing with injury and surely would have had an impact on the Victory match, with his languid runs and never-say-die attitude that has endeared him so well to the DFS faithful. The other two absentees, Chris Payne and Isaka Cernak, have been two of our best attacking players this season and are sorely missed for their imagination, ability, and work rate.
Factor number three is Eugene Sseppuya. Like everyone else I had no idea who the big Ugandan was when he arrived, but I had faith in Straka's decision and waited with baited breath for his contributions. Sadly they've come to almost nil, save for a bizarre goal that was more down to Rodrigo Vargas's desire to play tunnel ball than it had to do with nifty finishing. A horror mis-hit against Heart that will feature on A-League bloopers shows for years to come is about the sum total of the remainder of his attempts at goal.
Numbers one and two are variables you can't control. With a bit of luck Gareth Edds's volley from near the penalty spot would've smashed into the roof of the net instead of finding Bolton's gloves; Grossman's ghost run into the penalty area may have instead seen the ball side-footed past Victory's balding custodian. Daal, Payne and Cernak will all return shortly and add a bit more pace and vigour.
As for problem number three, see the solution to problem number two. I'm not sure what it is with Sseppuya but he has been very underwhelming, despite the many chances he's been given. For a big man he has an unfortunate failure to hold the ball up, an absolute necessity in our team to get the likes of Williams, Payne, and Cernak in behind the defence and creating opportunities. His touch and vision simply haven't been good enough either and, judging from what I heard on the weekend, the Fury faithful are getting a little frustrated with him. I expect he'll hold his spot for now, more due to complete lack of options in the squad than anything else, but I think we'll see him shoved to the bench when our more influential players return.
Re: the crowd, kudos must go again to those who came to Dairy Farmers on Saturday night. The atmosphere was still very good and I was surprised to see only 4,900 flash up on the scoreboard. I'm not sure why the crowd was so low but I guess all the Fury can do is keep playing nice football, keep making the place fun to be, and eventually the crowds will come. There is good promotion going on local radio and I know local clubs have been hosting Fury training and warm down sessions recently, so hopefully this will translate into a few more through the gates. Special mention must go to the Fury players who, to a man, went around the fence at DFS after Saturday night's match and gave high-fives and autographs to everyone.
So where to from here? We now face a tough road trip with three games in nine days, and realistically I hope we can take away at least four points from our travels. Wellington has been a graveyard for all travelling teams for a while, but Sydney are in horrendous form and master tactician Graham Arnold has failed to capture the CCM imagination with his revolutionary tactics. Provided we can find the antidote to our own Arsenal Syndrome, I can see us taking points from the last two.
After all, it's nice to play well, but it's even nicer to play well and take the points!
