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Ok, so this is purely an opinion piece, but Clive Palmer is the most bigoted pig to enter the football frame in Australia. And given the corruption-riddled Soccer Australia, that’s a pretty big call.
Now I’m happy for the Gold Coast, they have a great team and Clive’s dollars have gone a long way, but do we really need this guy commenting on everything?
Call me old fashioned, but I prefer a club owner to be a lot more centrally focused. He’s built his team, but now he’s bored and needs something to spread his opinion on.
Every week is something new. Before the season his now famous quote of going undefeated the whole year took everybody by surprise. Miron didn’t want a bar of it, the players played it down as much as possible, it’s just tough talk from a man who from the look of him doesn’t play many sports.
Only a handful of teams in history have gone undefeated through a whole domestic season, regardless of the competition, let alone in their inaugural season. There’s confidence and there’s blind stupidity, this must be an example of the latter.
And then in the build up to Round 1 he called for a boycott of the Brisbane-Gold Coast game by his new supporters to make a statement to the FFA. Chucking a tanty like a four year old because he didn’t get a home game as first cab off the rank, saying he’d be watching the game from the comfort of his house and Gold Coast residents should do the same.
Of course, this was the dumbest bluff possible, I doubt a single person thought it was a great idea, including himself who caved and was spotted by the cameras in a corporate box at Suncorp.
And the latest outburst of unknowledgeable threats levelled at the FFA has been the threat of legal action against the A-League judicial system after one of his players was suspended.
What. The. Hell. Surely you can’t be serious. He was, but don’t call him Shirley.
A judicial system is standard practice in every code in every sport in every country. His problem was imposing a penalty before the hearing. That’s kind of the point of the hearing.
Sure, it is a bit of a guilt before innocence system, but that’s how it is best worked in sports. If the penalty is a small fine you aren’t going to waste your legal teams time fighting it are you? It saves the FFA and the clubs time and money. Think things through Clive…
So a millionaire billionaire buys a licence and we have to be subjected to his uninformed, over zealous remarks on the game and the running of it in the country? He needs to learn chucking money at something doesn’t make it go your way. The most expensive players will still get red cards. Away fixtures will happen.
I don’t want complete pacifism. I want someone who knows what they’re talking about and has constructive not destructive comments. As my mother always said, if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all. And I’ve completely ignored that with this blog. But he started it.
What can I say, I have been the epitemy of slack in the off season, posted zilch and its gonna stay that way. I refuse to do a pre-season predictions, everyone get it wrong and the A-League is so weird, and with two new teams in the mix its impossible, I mean already tonight the Mariners have beaten Melbourne. That's not right. So, how about after Round 1 I do a run down of the teams? Compromise, that's what great couples, and bloggers and readers do. Okay, if your going to twist my arm I'll do a ladder predictions, lets see if it changes in a week.
Brisbane (Not Bias at all right, but they have the squad, they can do it this year)
Melbourne (Will probably finish top, they're so good)
Sydney (Should improve, like the looks of the coach)
Gold Coast (Aren't gonna come close to all season unbeaten, but will be a solid team)
Adelaide (Hate them, can never tell, massive losses at the back will change the most defensive team in the league)
Central Coast (Meh...)
Perth (Recruited well, but its not enough to move drastically yet)
Newcastle (Crap crap and crap, this bottom three is very interchangeable)
Phoenix (No Smeltz, and they weren't brilliant when they had him. Scored literally more than half they're goals last year. That's tough to replace)
Fury (Fowler breaks his leg in Round 4)
That was fun, can't wait for the weekend, Saturday's South-East Queensland Derby shall be a corker, I'll let you know how it goes.
Queensland Roar extended their recent good form to end the home-and-away season with an enticing 4-2 victory over Perth Glory.
The Roar, now with five victories in a row at Suncorp, started strongest with McKay, Nichols and Van Dijk creating plenty of chances in the opening stanza but couldn’t quite finish the job.
However, it was Perth which struck first through Nikita Rukavytsya, the star striker fresh back from his trial with Eredivisie side FC Twente showed why there is so much interest in him. Rukavytsya caught the ball on the edge of the area off a long ball from Bulloch. He then cut inside four Queensland defenders and placed his shot well out of McMaster’s reach.
That was neither the first nor the last time Rukavytsya terrorised the Queensland defense and crowd. Easily the most dangerous player on the field, everything he did kept the Roar supporters on the edge of their seats.
The Roar bounced back fast however, McKay and Pellegrino both attacked the ball, and although both finished up on the deck, the ball trickled away. A flying Danny Tiatto swooped on the ball and set off on an enterprising run down the sideline. His cross floated into the centre with Van Dijk getting the header across goal from the far post. It beat Tando Velaphi but not the woodwork. The ever-goal-hungry Mitch Nichols was there for the rebound and cleaned up the crumbs to draw Queensland level.
The first half trailed off with the teams trading blows, Queensland as they usually do at home, establishing dominance in field position and possession but Nikolai Topor-Stanley was containing Van Dijk well in the centre.
The second half started much the same as the first. The Queensland crowd roared at the return of Scottish playmaker Charlie Miller who was put on for Tahj Minniecon who seemed to be having an off day. With Miller coming on, that pushed Nichols out to the wing, not his favoured position. Over the next few seasons he is going to become vital to Queensland’s attack. Miller can’t last forever and Nichols is being well-groomed as his replacement. Glory also made a half time substitution with Nick Rizzo coming on for Wayne Srhoj.
The consistent barrage on the Glory goal continued with Miller, though obviously rusty is still a class above everyone else, making good space for Zullo out wide or McKay in the centre who would in turn whip in a cross or a through ball respectively. Topor-Stanley, who had a great game, was sticking to Van Dijk like an adhesive gel to a well-prepared clean flat surface and although that is the Dutchman’s game, Topor-Stanley was getting the better of him all day.
Queensland won a corner, which McKay played the ball to Tiatto about 25 metres out from goal. The former Socceroo lined up his shot, as he has many times in the past, the difference is this one was hit sweetly into the top near corner. There will be a lot of talk about the great goal and game Tiatto played. All I’m saying is you do the same thing twenty times, you’re bound to hit one right.
Just four minutes later however, the hero turned, well, back to his regular self when his irrational tackling that seems to be the foundation of his career again cost his team a dangerous free kick and himself a yellow card. Tiatto led in studs up and collected the player's foot late, he had clearly connected with the foot before the ball.
Pellegrino put the ball into the area and Anthony Skorich got above Tiatto to head the ball past McMaster off the inside of the post.
The Roar didn’t lie down, au contraire, the Queensland attack got straight back into action. Zullo was catching everything on the left wing. Some of the touches he was pulling out were amazing. One that I could watch over and over again was when he brought the ball down with a back heel … somehow. I don’t ask, I just enjoy.
On one of his runs Zullo was brought down by Scott Neville, who was doing all he could to keep Zullo under wraps. Miller came over fast and saw Matt McKay’s early run to the line. He took the short option, McKay pushed the ball in front of goal and Van Dijk flicked the ball through Topor-Stanley’s legs and into the back of the net. A basic goal seen so many times from so many quality sides. That could have just as easily been Messi to Eto’o or Scholes to Rooney.
Queensland didn’t lift off the accelerator though. They kept the momentum going with the 17,367-strong crowd really getting vocal and behind their home team. After a lot of pain and sorrow at Suncorp Stadium the Queensland supporters are really enjoying seeing their team do well.
In the 82nd minute Queensland put in their third goal from set pieces, a great corner by Matt McKay straight into the path of Josh McCloughan who got up well above the rest to put the ball past the posts. The big man is always good in the air but just needed the right ball and when it was forthcoming showed why he comes down to the area every corner.
So Queensland, fending off a few surges from Perth Glory, have forced Adelaide into a tense 24 hours. Adelaide now need a win to finish top two. Central Coast, assured fourth spot may choose to rest players, which could play well into United’s hands, but surely form is a much more important thing in the short competition that is the A-League. And that is what Queensland and Melbourne have.
So this one is actually rather serious for a change. A huge blow I know, but these things occasionally have to happen. One can only build so much of a career on puns.
Queensland have taken the three points away from ‘Fortress Suncorp’ tonight with a blinding strike by 17-year old Tommy Oar breaking the dead lock with the Phoenix with minutes to spare
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Only in the A-League does a pun like that actually make sense. Next season glorious Glory can make Fury furious. Sounds better then Red beat Blue? Maybe not. Onto the game.
If football games were decided on effort and not goals Queensland would be on top of the table. If the ability to keep a clean sheet wasn’t a key part of being a goal keeper, Liam Reddy would be playing for Australia. If Queensland loses another home game, this writer may fall violently ill
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Version Four of the Hyundai A-League is under way and it’s shaping up to be the closest one yet. With the opening round producing three draws and a One-Nil win for Adelaide it’s looking like it will go right down to the wire. And I cannot wait.
The usual suspects are there. Melbourne, Central Coast and Sydney are all doing their usual thing but what’s making this season incredible is the Adelaide, Newcastle, Queensland and even Wellington are matching them. In the past it has been a few points between the finals and no post-season, this season its shaping to be a few points between 1st and 7th
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I apologise for the lack of updates recently, I have been somewhat hit with writer's block given the lack of television coverage of Euro 2008 in Australia. I'm sure there's plenty to talk about, I just haven't seen it.
Let me give you a brief overview of what I’ve thought so far. What about the Dutch! Not only are they a writers best friend since they have so many names you don’t have to resort to repetition, but they’ve also blown the competition out of the water. 3-0 against the World Cup winners. 4-1 against the World Cup runners-up. Going into it all the hype was about Portugal and Spain and then Holland turn up and make everyone second take
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Manchester United have rightfully claimed the Premiership and the Champions League. Without a shadow of a doubt one can now say that United have been the best team of the year, and Cristiano Ronaldo, the best player of the year.
What an astounding difference between the ball-hogging-but-going-nowhere 18 year old that first arrived at Old Trafford to the goal scoring machine that is Ronaldo today. I will put my hand up and say that I absolutely loathed him the first few seasons. Trying to beat six defenders with a run instead of taking the sensible easy pass. I still hate that Ronaldo. This is not the same man. He has transformed into a great. Rumours say that Real Madrid offered Man U 100 million euro for Cristiano. I wouldn't let him go for double that
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The 2008/09 Hyundai A-League draw was released last week to little spectacle or surprise. Same old set up as the last three seasons.
After all the hype of the new teams and changing and expanding the sport with its popularity rising the FFA have done nothing too improve the actual league, but I have to give them some credit. I personally absolutely love the idea of a youth league
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What is the FFA thinking? Vukovic's ban has been reduced to five months. But that’s not all. It has been cut in half so as to coincide with the Olympic Games, and thus allow him to compete. That is absolutely and inexplicably unacceptable.
What a pathetic display of parenting shown here by the officials. Their little boy has hit an uncle, but instead of their initial punishment of a month grounded he has bitched and moaned about it enough that they’ve caved and given him a week but he’s still allowed to go to his friend’s birthday party on Friday night
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Comments (1)
Comment by Adrian Demack
on When something for nothing isn’t worth anything
Fourth Substitute
So I see your point, I just think trying to, for the lack of a better word, trick, new people into coming to the games is not the answer. That kind of attitude turns the league into a sideshow, focusing on the quality builds for the future of the game. Long term over short term. Nice piece, thanks for the stimulus.