Had a good look at the CCM v Macarthur game on P+ replay.
The extra intensity of the CCM Squeezing and the cohesion of it forced Mac to play under less time and space, resulting in possession and territorial dominance to the Gosford team in the first 60 mins. Wish they had been more like this in the ACL, where I'm led to believe they barely gained a point.
Conversely, Macarthur had a cohesive defensive shape when CCM had the ball, but there was little intensity in their team Squeezing, which enabled the Mariners to keep the ball more easily.
Both teams played some pleasing possession football, which is good, because in most previous games this season and last season that I've seen them play, CCM have played mainly accelerated attacks on the counter at high intensity.
Eames - good starting eleven debut for CCM. I think he is only 16? Good composure for his goal too.
Interesting to see Brattan win a perfect thunderous tackle, which he was able to get to. For the Socceroos against Japan, he just couldn't keep up with the tempo of play. The defensive midfield triangle of Brattan, Hollman, and DDS should have played closer to each other at times, to keep the ball - which they are all capable of doing - well.
The 10-15 pass sequence for the the first Mac goal finished by Drew was superb! The ball was played from the back of the pitch to the front culminating in a goal being scored, without a Mariner touching it - Aus curriculum football!
It is really annoying me that Macarthur and Western, despite playing some good football in recent times, continue to draw tiny crowds for home games. Having inside contacts within FA, Gallop was a whisker away from awarding Tas an AL team. However, Fox didn't want it and lobbied Gallop not to grant the Belteky/Stamouolis Tas bid. Now Fox have withdrawn from supporting football anyway. We get bigger crowds down in Hobart than Western U's rostered home games in the AL than they do in Campbelltown or Geelong.
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