AS I'VE just arrived home from the game, I thought I’d commit my thoughts to the blog whilst they are still fresh.
Although it was disappointing not to start the competition with a home win, I am more optimistic having seen the effort put in tonight, and the general competitiveness of the side, against what is an established and successful Korean team.
After reading all about the disappointment of the Jets initial foray on Tuesday night, it was a particularly satisfying performance from the Mariners given they have been under the critical spotlight for the last few months.
Whilst I don't believe all the criticism was unjustified, and I have certainly been an active subscriber, I can now readily concede that tactically I witnessed a clear and definite shift in approach by McKinna's men. It may not have been quite enough, but...
The key positives - the tempo was up, possession was superior, defensive strength was there, and the formation was tactically better. Yes we ditched the 4-3-3, however I confess it could have been more to do with McAllister's illness, it allowed for far greater width, and really presented the bulk of the first half attacking opportunities (of which there were very few).
Heffernan was particularly good in the first half on the left. Bojic was also very busy and effective in both attack and defense, and Boogard had a very solid game at the back.
Matt Simon fashioned the best chance to win the game with a well worked opportunity from about 18 yards that he struck well, drawing a solid save from the Pohang keeper, and generally he was much more effective at winning and holding up the ball than Mrdja on the night.
The other less positive aspects of the game were simply that we seemed to struggle to maintain any quality at this higher tempo. There were simply too many forced passes and heavy touches. The result was the breakdown of promising attacking moves with the final pass. You can maintain possession by playing with width and depth in defence, that's ‘come to work' at the top level, but it's what you do with it in attack that requires some quality.
We also persevered for far too long with Simon and Mrdja, when we clearly were not winning enough ball through the air with both of them up front. Caceres needed to be on the field a lot sooner and get the ball to feet so he could jink and turn, take on players, and play off Simon. He did this well when he came on with less than 20 minutes to play.
Osman, on the right, although possessing pace, was never penetrative, and does not take on defenders. I realise Elrich may not be fully fit but what is the point of bringing him on with 7 minutes to go. Really, did Lawrie think Osman was going to be the game breaker? Come on!
As for Huke, well there were signs of his ability, but he did not seem to touch the ball enough. He should be available as an outlet a lot more, and not seek to constantly lob the ball over into the forward line with a first time pass. It was just wasteful.
Hutch was solid, however never looked like getting into scoring position from midfield.
In the end, there were probably three genuine scoring opportunities in the game, Simon's shot, and two from Pohang. A genuine drive requiring a tip over from Vukovic, and a free header from a corner that Stevo (I think that was his name) powered narrowly over the bar. Incidently, I think his usual strike partner Richo may be back for the return leg so watch out for him!
Pohang were clearly quite content to only really attack with the two front men, so it was clear that a point away was going to be a good result from their perspective. The onus was always going to be on the home side to set the tone of the game.
Lawrie needs to recognise that against Asian teams, pumping it long to a couple of big forwards and hoping superior physicality will work is problematic.
Firstly, the refereeing in Asia errs on the side of netball (possibly I am being unfair to Netball as I suspect it actually allows more body contact than is tolerated in the ACL), and secondly Pohang were highly effective at neutralising the tactic anyway, with simple athleticism and timing.
The only times we opened the defence up were when we did the basic things well, and used width in attack, and ‘played the triangles' (as Pim says).
Generally, the paying fans were somewhat disgruntled by our goal scoring impotence. However, I am now much more confident that the team is at least showing the potential to give the competition a decent shake, Lawrie just needs to refine the game plan a little more and make some line up changes for the next away game.
Oh, and practise your corners, they were woeful!
