Archive for the ‘soccer’ Category

IT’S A COOLEN COOLEN WORLD

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

Four weeks, four solid and significant steps forward for Rini Coolen’s Adelaide United.

It’s worth reflecting on the ride with Rini so far.

Week 1 at home v the Jets: no goals and no real chances created, but a clean sheet meant a point.

Week 2 away to the Mariners: a good first half with a goal & chances created. Not so good in the second half, but still, a point gained albeit with a large slice of luck.

Week 3 at home to the Heart:  not as much possession, but three goals after being twice pegged back, and most importantly a win.

Week 4 away to the Fury. plenty of possession, once again three goals, once again a win, and enough character to not only come from behind but also withstand a nervous final five minutes.

When you think it’s taken Neil Craig years at the Crows to build a team in his image, and he still hasn’t got there, Coolen—although granted it is early days—has made remarkable progress given the Reds well publicised injury list.

In the humidity of Townsville, Adelaide not only won, but they did it against a team that has already taken five points from Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.

The match also put one other fairly long-standing statistic to bed, as it was the first time United has come from behind to win an A-League match since Oct 26, 2008.

On that particular Sunday afternoon at Hindmarsh, Perth Glory led through Socceroo Nikita Rukyavitsa’s 54th minute strike, only for late goals by Alemao and Dodd to seal a 2-1 victory.

United has now scored seven goals this season in just four games. It took eight matches to rack up the same tally last season.

And to complete the statistical navel-gazing, United is now unbeaten in its past six A-League games after winning its final two fixtures last season.

One of the many impressive features of this latest Reds performance was the amount of possession they enjoyed. Overall it was only 51% but during the second half Adelaide had large periods with the ball as once again Marcos Flores weaved some beautiful combinations with Leckie, Pantelis and van Dijk.

And speaking of Flores, his goal, if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth clicking on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGrLeV9btrc  and spooling through to 1:45 for an early contender for goal of the season. The celebration wasn’t bad either.

 

Quite simply Adelaide United has no one who can replace Flores , and he’s one of the few players in the A-League that you will pay money to see play.

 Initially it looked like Flores might struggle to adapt to the more physical tempo of the A-League compared to the ACL, with reports Rini Coolen was struggling to get his message through to the Argentinean number 10.

But not anymore.

Last week against the Heart, Flores was imperious. Against the Fury, his debut A-league goal was the least his graft deserved, as he continues to lead the bidding for early favourtism for the Johnny Warren Medal.

But yes it is very early days, as we may find out next week when Adelaide travels to Sydney to confront the winless Champions at a ground where the Reds have won once and lost seven times in nine visits.

Because the fact can’t be ignored, Adelaide is relative bare bones operation at the moment, simply trying to regain some credibility.  

They have taken significant steps towards doing that, and while this season is still in its infancy, coming off a wooden spoon, second spot and four games unbeaten is certainly worth feeling good about.

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ANOTHER STEP ON THE ROAD

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

The confidence gained from the performance we saw from Adelaide United tonight cannot be underestimated.

A first home win for the season, three A-League goals at Hindmarsh for the first time since August 28 last year, and being forced to twice regain the initiative after conceding equalizing goals despite playing with a bare-bones squad, makes this a massive victory.

United, if only for 24 hours can even enjoy looking down from the summit of the competition such is the tightness of the league in the early days of season six.

Sometimes you get a feeling about a game and tonight was one of those, because despite the absence of Sergio van Dijk, who didn’t even make it through the warm-up with his sore calf, the pace of Leckie was always likely to cause a problem.

Throw in the equally rapid Iain Ramsay, the nimble Pantelis and the guile of Flores—who was behind everything creative tonight in his best game in a Reds shirt— and there existed enough ammunition to give John van’t Skip a heart attack.

And while it’s a while away yet, you will eventually be able to add Travis Dodd to that mix too.

As anticipated Adelaide did struggle down their right hand side with stand-in right back Cameron Watson regularly exposed by Dean Heffernan and Matt Thompson, who both can claim assists for Worm’s and Bahalj’s goals respectively.

Adelaide also failed to control possession, at one stage the Heart was enjoying 66% of the play, and this will remain a concern for Rini Coolen along with his side’s inability to convert their chances more efficiently.

Sure Adelaide scored three goals, but they should have had that tally by half-time with the excellent Leckie culpable for making the wrong choice or not finishing as well as he could have done.

But such was the pace and movement of players in the front third, it will be interesting to see how Rini Coolen manages Sergio van Dijk when he is fit again, which should be next week.

You can be sure Ramsay & Leckie won’t play that well every week simply because they are young, and in sport youth equals inconsistency, but it’s a nice situation to have because while Coolen doesn’t have many fit players to choose from, he does now have confident players.

With trips to North Queensland and Sydney to follow before the next home game against the Jets, that extra confidence will be valuable because as things stand you can see improvement in their performance every time Adelaide walks out onto the pitch.

 

 

 

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Patience required

Friday, August 6th, 2010

The most obvious conclusion to draw from the opening chapter of the Rini Coolen experience is that we are nowhere near knowing whether it will be a success or a failure.

Coolen’s post match analysis was that United defended well,  had some good moments out wide, needed more time to increase their “attacking moments,” but a draw was a fair result.

The facts are though, Adelaide was lucky to get a draw, and despite having a goal correctly ruled out for off-side, barely created a chance.

The Jets drew several saves from Galekovic, and D’Apuzzo missed a gilt edged chance inside the first 20 minutes when Bridges played him in on Galekovic but he shot with his preferred left foot rather than his right.

In Coolen’s defence after training for three weeks playing a certain system, Adelaide was suddenly missing its creative cog. But boy how they missed Marcos Flores!

The Argentinian number 10 succumbed to a thigh strain and Coolen said it wasn’t worth the risk to play him, but the fact is there is no one in the Adelaide squad who can replace him.

Lucas Pantelis was given the task but by his own admission, creative playmaker is not his role, so as a result the little left-footer struggled to impose himself on the game. Not that he had much of a chance against the two excellent Jets holding midfielders Kasey Wehrman & Ben Kanterovski.

The Jets had a superb structure with Abbas & Jesic buzzing about, Bridges playing in behind the lone striker Rooney, and Milicevic and Topor-Stanley (until he went off injured) solid at the back.

If Rooney can find some sharpness, or Culina get something more from his striker Zheng Shao then the Jets could be right in the mix come the business end of the season.

Based on this performance Adelaide can only dream of such ambition.

Last season they couldn’t convert their chances, tonight they failed to create pretty much any chances.

Big difference.

Flores should be back next week but somewhat worryingly there’s no one else available that can help change things around.

Dodd won’t play for at least six weeks and Barbiero four and arguably the final option Shin is probably not yet able to replace Flores.

And with those creative options missing, the effect on van Dijk was pronounced as he struggled to generate any real threat. He also fell over a lot which suggests either his boots were not suitable or he was playing for too many free kicks.

So while not a disaster, to fail to score let alone win the first home game of the season is not encouraging for Reds fans.

Coolen says it will take time to see the results of his labours, and there’s no doubt he is right, but for the short term at least it won’t get easier from here with a trip to the Central Coast next on the calendar.

For now though we have to believe that Rini will revive the Reds.

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The Rini Coolen experiment

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

There is one eerie similarity between United’s new coach Rini Coolen and former boss Aurelio Vidmar, they were born just a week apart with Viddy able to claim the senior title.

But how much different life will be for the Reds under Coolen is not going to be apparent anytime soon, because  by his own admission, the new manager is in no hurry to thrust his blueprint on the squad.

My colleague, and one time 36ers basketball coach Phil Smyth suggested Coolen’s press conference today was 80% truth and 20% sell, in other-words a solid opening statement from the former FC Twente boss.

It didn’t inspire, didn’t seem unbelievable (Remember Gullit’s sexy football?), but didn’t underwhelm either.

When pressed with the inevitable question about the style his team’s like to play, Coolen said being Dutch he’d “prefer to play with good organisation, like to decide what happens on the field with a lot of goal scoring chances, a lot of technical moments, not too many high balls, nice football.”

But, he added there was no point in enforcing such a style until he had assessed the type of players at his disposal.

A sound approach if you look at the World Cup as a guide. Two eminent football people Fabio Capello and Diego Maradona selected their best 23 players and then tried to force them into a style they wanted to play.  The result was failure. 

On the other hand, Germany’s Joachim Loew decided on a style and then set about choosing the squad that would best suit his tactical master plan. Simple. Successful.

Of course, Coolen won’t have the luxury (for this season at least) of handpicking his squad, as only between one and four players can be added to the team before the A-League starts on August 6.

On top of that, Adelaide has spent most of its salary cap and has got its quota of foreigners, so there ain’t much room to move.

In reality “success” should not be hard for Coolen to achieve, as anywhere above bottom will be an improvement. But based on last season when Aurelio Vidmar alternated between 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1 and the traditional Dutch 4-3-3 formation, will we see much of a change in how Adelaide United look on the field?

Possession is without doubt a foundation of Dutch football, but last season United was often unable to keep the ball for any real period of time. The addition of Marcos Flores can somewhat rectify that and a fit Paul Reid will also be a boost.  That however is about it, although IF he can rediscover the confidence he appeared to lose very quickly last campaign, Insoeb Shin could also be a factor.

Dutch coaches also like wingers. Dodd can be one, but will need to improve the consistency of his crossing. On the left, Pantelis is the only obvious choice. With Jamieson now in Sydney, unless Cassio has the legs to play both forward and back, United will lack real width.

A narrow United might be a problem for Sergio van Dijk who should be keenly anticipating the arrival of his compatriot.  A proven goalscorer at the Roar, van Dijk scored in his second game for the Reds but then appeared to lose his way under Aurelio Vidmar’s rigid system. Whether he is more suited to a 4-4-2 will soon become apparent.

Under a Dutch system, United would more often play the ball out from the back. In Mullen, Fyfe, Barbiero and of course Reid, United has the players who can do this. Cornthwaite is not such a player but is injured anyway and given he won’t be fit for the start of the season, a solid start by the Reds might make it hard for him to reclaim a spot in the starting 11.

So the bare bones are there, but there is a question mark over depth, and crucially there is not much time.

Coolen is now back in Holland and won’t be back until the day of the Wellington trial game on the 16th, so between now and then it’s down to Phil Stubbins to ready the team. Stubbins will also play a big role when Coolen returns because in the boss’ eyes, Stubbins is the head coach and Coolen is the manager. And as a manager Coolen says, he like “to delegate. “

So while Coolen gets his eye in, Stubbins will have the major say in how this team plays and who plays in it from which it’s easy to assume United will start the new campaign playing in a similar way to last season.

United CEO Sam Ciccarello, admitted that Stubbins is “feeling pretty raw” at missing out on the top job, but Stubbins says he has “moved on” from that disappointment and is very excited about working under Rini. There is no doubt though, being given more responsibility has greatly helped ease Stubbins’ disappointment.

Fact is, any bruised egos could bring the whole house of cards down.

Rini Coolen may not have been a name on anyone’s lips, and another Dutch coach may not prove to be the right road to go down, but as much as Phil Stubbins deserves an A-League coaching job it would have been a shame for a pile of overseas coaches to apply for this job only for it to go to a local.

So like Rob Baan and John van t’Schip,  Rini Coolen becomes the third former FC Twente coach to join the Aussie football revolution.

He has scouted for Pim Verbeek and was once in the frame for the Sydney FC job, so a job in Australia has been a dream for some time.

That dream is now Coolen’s reality but what happens from here of course is unknown. That shouldn’t be a problem here though because Australian football is very much on a voyage of discovery of its own. Whatever happens, the Rini Coolen experiment will be a fascinating one to observe from close quarters.

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