Harbour view: Season Review

Whenever a club which holds itself to high standards fails to reach the finals, there will be a lot more negative points then positives. After a 4-0 win over Perth Glory on the last day it is a case of What Ifs in the mind of all Sydney supporters…

The Good

Emergence of undiscovered talent (Jurman, O’Neil)

Who would’ve thought that when the club released him in 2011, we would be talking about Matt Jurman as a mainstay in a Sydney Fc side. Having solidified his spot towards the end of last season, Jurman stepped up to a new level this campaign only missing one or two games this season. In the games he played he was a colossus, often saving points on his own. O’Neil on the other hand was handed his opportunity early in the season through a Dimitrijevic injury. He took it with open arms setting up a memorable derby victory through an assist of which Ninkovic converted. Since then his been in and out of the squad although he has started more games than not towards the end of the season. In a negative season, he has provided glimmers of hope for future campaigns.

Ali Abbas

In a season which hasn’t had much to write home about, one story within our club stands above the rest. A lot of fans including myself thought the injury sustained in the derby last season would be the end of Ali’s career. However thankfully it wasn’t, he returned in January on a memorable day at ANZ stadium where he scored on return. Since then he has given his all for the club and has delivered good performances in the ACL and a-league alike. Over to you Mr Arnold, cause he definitely deserves a contract extension.

The Bad

The Existing Visa spots

Towards the end of last season the sky blues were playing some of their best football on the field. Looking back now, that lulled the whole club into a false sense of security. Shortly after the grand final last season, Tavares and Faty were retained, both those players didn’t show anything like the form they showed towards the end of last season throughout this campaign. This was followed in the late pre-season by Milos Dimitrijevic being signed up for another season, however he never really got running and failed to live up to the standards of which he set last year.

Injuries & recruitments

Which brings us to the new recruits, Milos Ninkovic is a player I would want to keep, he has shown he has the quality to build a team around. Fillip Holosko our new marquee, has also shown he also has the quality to be a stand out player in this league. However. He has struggled throughout adjusting to Australian pitches and missed too many games for someone on marquee wages. Apart from that, recruitment was nothing special (more later). The main blow however came with the injury to Alex Brosque. Simple fact is the club shouldn’t be relying on a player whose 32 years of age. Unfortunately this was the case for us throughout the season, and we were a completely different team without him.

The Ugly

Strikers

So I have managed to go 500 words without writing about our striker problems, Success! However this issue is inescapable and has had me pulling my hair out all season. Simple fact is for most of the season, our strike force has been: Smeltz (Too Old), Simon (Most clumsy human being I’ve ever seen) and Blackwood (who was thrown in the fire too soon). Watching these players trying to hit the target in the warm up has been extremely painful all season. Simple fact is our top goal scorer has been our right winger who has got ten goals this season. What does that tell you? That the service has been there, however we are as harmless as a bunny rabbit up top.

Late Season streak.

You may ask how our season could’ve got worse from the pre-mentioned striking issues. How about losing 11 games in a row? Yeah that would do it. When you’re season is on the line ACL or not, you expect fight from your team as a supporter. However this is Sydney Fc we’re talking about so the opposite was bound to happen. Too often in games where points and a confidence boost was needed, the team seemed to role over way too easily for no explainable reason. As a supporter I can only hope this inspires the team going forward into next season.

Google+