Lampard! Aguek! Uchida!

Amazing goals have dominated South’s initial highlight reel for the Australian Championship but with four games down a quick look at the table reveals something surprising… South’s best quality might actually be its defence!

South has scored eight goals so far, which is only the equal fourth best in the competition – heck even Moreton Bay in our own group has scored more goals! One reason for this is clearly that other teams have dominated the minnows of their groups whereas we have not. Heidelberg beat South Hobart 6-1, Avondale beat Canberra 4-1, APIA beat Sydney United 4-0… but when we took on Broadmeadow, we only won 1-0! Moreton Bay beat Broadmeadow 5-1 the following week.

Are teams playing more defensive against us? Generally yes I think so, Broadmeadow and Moreton Bay both played pretty cagey games. We have been generating tons of shots, but many have been in front of crowded defences holding on to dear life.

In addition to this, there seems to be some chemistry lacking in the squad. Especially in the first couple of games, it seemed that there were many mistimed passes, and poorly timed runs. Par for the course when you sign 7 news players…

Our defence though has been immense. Two clean sheets and just three goals conceded. That is also equal fourth best in the competition so far, but digging under the surface reveals that may be undercooking it. All three of those goals were shouts for goal of the week. Two out of the box shots and a spectacular dribble that left our defender flat on the ground.

So far, it’s South’s ability to comfortably manage defensive pressure which has been critical to our four wins. In particular the defensive performance against Moreton Bay when we were down to 10 men and soaking up incredible pressure.

So Aguek may steal the headlines but I think it’s our defence that deserves some plaudits too! The real challenge now will be against more dominant attacking teams. Until now we have enjoyed facing generally more one dimensional game plans and haven’t been tested against a team that can hold possession and construct attacking opportunities like APIA or Heidelberg… one for the playoffs I suppose!