Spirit were woeful, the referee was inconsistent (so what's new?) and the lino on the O'Reilly Stand side seemed to have problems with the offside rule and his eyesight (unless shirt pulling and throwing opponents to the ground are now allowed - come to think of it I've seen this allowed to happen so often this season it must be). The only positive aspect to the game (from a Spirit perspective) was that Canberra seemed to be hell bent on proving that they can match Wollongong in the butchering of gilt-edged chances department (or was this actually a negative as a 0-5 might be more likely to force the board to do something). The Spirit build up and counter attack was (as always) too slow and negative and that has to have a lot to do with the coach. Burgess and Moreira were continually finding themselves offside because the midfield was taking way too long to release the ball. We saw a striker brought on as sub early in the second half and played at left-wing back. Mendez (the closest thing Spirit have to a creative midfielder) was replaced by a defender (admittedly it was Mendez first game back from a lengthy layoff so he may have been lacking fitness). To cap it all off even Burgess' performances are starting to drop to the level of his teammates. Final Score: Spiritless 0 Cosmos 2 (Angelucci and someone else).
Crowd 4,600 and something.
Its obvious the Spirit need a new coach as they aren't getting the best out of the players they have (and as its across the board and has occurred for two and a half seasons I don't think its the players who are the problem), and the tactics never change from week to week, despite the fact that they aren't working. Given next week's game against Wollongong has been postponed and a "friendly" v Rangers U-20's is being played it would be the perfect opportunity for a new coach to get the team playing to his preferred tactics and formation in a reasonably competitive game without any points being at stake.
Also noted that it was announced tickets for the South Melbourne game are available from the club or NSO and no mention of Ticketek, and a lot of people entering the grandstand had non-Ticketek tickets. Does anyone know if this means the club no longer sells through Ticketek (esp as previously tickets HAD to be bought through Ticketek)? If so, this might contribute slightly to the fall in crowd numbers as people may not have had any idea where to get tickets, and may also find it difficult to get to the appropriate locations to buy them. I know Ticketek service was pretty poor and they didn't seem too keen on selling me a season ticket at the beginning of the season (the appropriate people were never around and phone calls were never returned) but at least people knew where to buy tickets.