C'mon Phoenix

Had a little karma moment yesterday. In the morning I happily rejoiced in Arsenal's loss to Mr Harrods' Fulham, sending off a text to a colleague to rub it in, only to have it blow up in my face last night with Phoenix putting on their worst performance yet, going down 4-2 to Melbourne.

I thought the Dominion caught it quite well, noting the similarities between almost every game last year:

An enterprising start, the concession of a goal against the run of play, vulnerability on the counter-attack, a mini-fight-back and a wonderful Shane Smeltz goal, but then a lapse at the back gifting a soft but well-taken goal.

It was pouring with rain as well so there was basically no walk-up crowd, meaning it was the worst turn out in the club's short history.

The season started well enough with the Phoenix making the Pre-Season Cup final (which desperately needs a new name), but the first two games in the A-League have been ordinary to say the least. Our defence at times resembled the shambolic amateur hour that was the White Ferns at the Olympics. The strategies just don't seem to make sense - when it was a fine evening they played a conservative game with long balls, yet last night when it was bucketing down on a water-logged pitch, they played a short quick passing game.

I dunno, but they need to get it together as soon as possible - otherwise more and more people will choose to stay away.