A large number of good results this round, including an interesting match in Brisbane, with two disappointing defensive errors gifting a win to a deserving Perth Glory. Central Coast won the first ever Battle of the Coasts, in magnificent fashion. Sydney FC won by a narrow margin, but that seems to be a trend for the Sky Blues.

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by Usman Azad, Football Perth Editor
Perth Glory 2 (Jelic 4, 54)
Melbourne Victory 1 (Thompson 9)
Crowd: 8056
SERBIAN striker Branko Jelic scored two opportunist goals, as Perth Glory defeated Melbourne Victory 2-1 at ME Bank Stadium tonight.
Jelic, formerly with German Bundlesiga side Energie Cottbus, scored the game's opener in the 4th minute after Naum Sekulovski's cross into the box was headed to Mile Sterjovski, whose shot squeezed through Victory keeper Glen Moss. Click to continue reading...

by Usman Azad, Football Perth Editor
SO it's Tuesday and we are fast approaching Perth Glory's next match against Melbourne Victory on Friday night.
There's been a tinsy-whinsy bit of confusion on the times for the clash and FP may have found out why.
In the original fixture list released by the FFA, the game was going to be played on Saturday instead of Friday. Click to continue reading...

If it's not Pete FitzSimons writing rubbish about Union and having a dig at football, (why do journos in this country feel the need) in the Sydney Morning Herald every week, we now have Phil Gould trying to tell us that Jarryd Haynes is the greatest footballer in any code in Australia.
Phil wrote this in his article on Rugby League in the Sun Herald today. Click to continue reading...

A fair few contentious refereeing decisions to chew over in the wake of the A-League's second round of matches.
First, the Gold Coast v. North Queensland match (or massacre, if you like). A round of applause for Chris Beath for producing only a yellow card rather than a red one for Beau Busch when he upended Michael Thwaite in the box, for the penalty that gave Shane Smeltz his second goal. Click to continue reading...

Danny Tiatto had to go off just before half time. Brisbane were up by 2 (1-3). His departure changed the game. Before that he had been everywhere and dominated the defensive mid-field and then opened the scoring with a cracker from wide-left and outside the box. A minute later and Henrique goes down in the box, penalty - great kick from Van Dijk - no one is saving that. Click to continue reading...

Pim put out a third rank team for the Asian Cup game in Canberra recently. Insulted Archie Thompson prior to the game, and you have to wonder at Verbeek's motives.
The team that took the field against Ireland, a friendly on a FIFA date, had Jade North flying in from Asia and all basis covered. Click to continue reading...

Whatever level of sport you play at stepping down at the peak of your career to play at a lower level is practically unheard of. These guys are born winners and focus on winning and everything that goes with it.
Craig Johnston stopped completely at 28, but can you imagine Ronaldo stepping down to division 2 anytime soon, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, or Roger Federer at their peak stepping down to local tournaments only. Click to continue reading...

Too young, too quick, too slow, too fragile, whatever the reason, whatever your code I'm sure you've heard the criticism of the A-League.
But with the Socceroos heading to the FIFA 2010 World Cup few fans would expect to see the squad without a pack of A-League players.
Yes that's right the A-League will be sending a host of players to the World Cup,to one if not the greatest stage in World Sport. Click to continue reading...

The A-League is shaping up for it's best season yet. There's still a way to go and expect a few more twists and turns but new teams, new players added to an established old guard seem to be getting the fans excited like never before.
The new teams: Gold Coast and North Queensland Fury, the bank and the paupers, top v bottom maybe. Click to continue reading...

Arnie speaks the truth

"I take all the responsibility," concluded Arnold of the Beijing Olympics. "I was the coach. I'll tell you honestly, and people might not believe it, but we got the maximum out of that playing group.

Speaking in FourFourTwo Graham Arnold discusses the Beijing Olympics and the disastrous Asian Cup campaign 2007. Click to continue reading...

A few weeks ago, I received a pair of Nike5 Zoom T-7 FS in the mail. Receiving freebies is one of those lovely perks of blogging, up there with waking up in the morning to find a few comments on your latest post. I suppose it compensates for those mornings when you wake up to find an anonymous Adelaide United supporter accusing Archie Thompson and Kevin Muscat of doing all sorts of lovely things; or those days when you find your site's been hacked by some Viagra spammers.

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Mariners only conceded 5 at home...it could have been more!
Haven't seen many teams as outclassed as the Central Coast Mariners for many years. Haven't seen a home coach get it so wrong either.
And can the Central Coast Mariners hierarchy or fans except that?
Celtic, my team, have had many pastings at the hands of Barcelona and Man United in recent years but funnily enough we rarely lost. Click to continue reading...

If you thought Adelaide's season couldn't get any worse, you either need to watch the highlights below or think again! They must have seriously pissed off some afterlife gods or some shit cause the nightmare only seems to continue. It wasn't enough that they were punished 5-0 on aggregate against Gamba Osaka in the ACL finals, they missed out on the Premiers plate to Melbourne by a point, got drilled in the two legged major semi-final 6-0 and now their coach Aurelio Vidmar has spilt the beans on in-fighting and. Click to continue reading...

If you thought Adelaide's season couldn't get any worse, you either need to watch the highlights below or think again! They must have seriously pissed off some afterlife gods or some shit cause the nightmare only seems to continue. It wasn't enough that they were punished 5-0 on aggregate against Gamba Osaka in the ACL finals, they missed out on the Premiers plate to Melbourne by a point, got drilled in the two legged major semi-final 6-0 and now their coach Aurelio Vidmar has spilt the beans on in-fighting and. Click to continue reading...

Archie Thompson knows a thing or two... or 5 about finals football yet even though this isn't the actual final, the Victory are pretty sure they have one foot in it already... and possibly one hand on the prize too.
As it stands so far, Adelaide have only manged to score 2 goals in four matches against the Victory this year and well they're currently down 2-0 on aggregate going into this all important decider, so much like the ACL final, this match is not really about if they can win the game, it's about how many goals they'll try not to concede! Click to continue reading...

Archie Thompson knows a thing or two... or 5 about finals football yet even though this isn't the actual final, the Victory are pretty sure they have one foot in it already... and possibly one hand on the prize too.
As it stands so far, Adelaide have only manged to score 2 goals in four matches against the Victory this year and well they're currently down 2-0 on aggregate going into this all important decider, so much like the ACL final, this match is not really about if they can win the game, it's about how many goals they'll try not to concede! Click to continue reading...

Every journo in the country wants Craig Moore back in the Socceroos.
Every player says we need Moore. We don't, and I don't want him nor his thuggish style.
Craig Moore has played and achieved great things for Rangers and the Socceroos. But he came back to Australia younger than many. Click to continue reading...

Archie Thompson proved himself the hero on Saturday night when he snatched a last minute - literally - equaliser against the Central Coast Mariners, ensuring the Melbourne Victory remains at the top of the A-League ladder after five rounds. For the second week in a row, Melbourne ended the game with ten men. Click to continue reading...

Matt Simon scored two stunning goals for the Mariners last night, and with Victory's erratic keeper Michael Theoklitos given his marching orders for stomping on Sasho " I'm never innocent" Petrovski in the second half, at 2-1 in 93+40 seconds everyone must have thought the game was won.
And then the ball broke to Archie Thompson. Click to continue reading...

Key Questions and answers this week:
Will Mark Bosnich get caught out again either kicking or coming to clear the lines. Yes and it will be fun to watch, or maybe embarrassing.
Can Perth win at home? Not this week.
Will the Jets turn up? Not unless Van Egmond solves the central midfield woes. Click to continue reading...

Archie Thompson has re-signed with the Melbourne Victory for another two years. Archie has been the club marquee since its inaugural campaign and with him re-signing today, it seems he may continue to be the marquee for the next two years. As with most things, some fans are happy with the news, while others aren't quite so [. Click to continue reading...

A-League Assists
If you look at the FFA Hyundai A-League player assist table it shows after Melbourne Victory's 5-0 demolish of Newcastle Jets that Archie Thompson leads the assist table with 3.
A mistake....
Surely Jade North should be on 3, and after last weeks showing Tarek Elrich should be on at least 2. Click to continue reading...

The entire A-League has been handed a weekend's recess to allow the national team to concentrate on their World Cup qualifying visit to Uzbekistan on September 10, but it turns out only one side will actually be affected by national team coach Pim Verbeek's call-ups.
After finally being convinced to elongate the regular season to allow byes over FIFA-recognised match dates, Australian football authorities must now wonder why they bothered. Click to continue reading...

Can't wait to see Melbourne and Sydney playing at home this weekend. Both of the big city clubs have shown they have enough talent and money to keep me awake this year...
Melbourne might have the luxury of leaving Archie Thompson on the bench. Wow!
And Sydney still have John Aloisi to come in. Click to continue reading...

Nick Ward and Archie Thompson will both miss another round, while Michael Theoklitos has also picked up an injury and won't make an appearance against the Wellington Phoenix. The big story this week, though, is the return of Grant Brebner. Brebner hasn't played since December 2007 and looks ready to make his reappearance after a long time [. Click to continue reading...

Nearpost Host Russ Gibbs asks the question.....
The Olyroos: Where was the Magic?
By Russ Gibbs
So, that's that then. After building it up for several months in advance the Australian Olympic team have bowed out of the Beijing Games with barely a whimper having picked up a solitary point from their three group matches. Click to continue reading...

Big game tonight. Can Arnie's defence hold out? and perhaps more importantly can we create....anything!
Australia earned a point, outplayed generally by Serbia in the opening game, but yet if the fastly improving Billy Celeski had scored rather than unluckily hit the post we would surely have won. Click to continue reading...

Strikers Mark Bridge, Nikita Rukavytsya, Archie Thompson Midfield David Carney, Billy Celeski, Stuart Musialik, Neil Kilkenny, Kristian Sarkies, James Troisi Defence Adrian Leijer, Trent McClenahan, Mark Milligan, Matthew Spiranovic, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Jade North, Ruben Zadkovich Goalkeeper Adam Federici, Tando Velaphi The Offsiders Everyone is talking about the exclusion of Burns and Djite. Click to continue reading...

The Olympic team was announced today and I must say I am disappointed. Greame Arnold has left out Djite, Burns, Williams, Vidosic. He has bizarrely used age as a reason for the decision not to take Djite or Burns. These are the same players that have played against the likes of Kevin Muscat and Craig Moore week in week out. Click to continue reading...

After the hammering Bruce Djite got for his move to Turkey, Harry Kewell has followed by signing with Galatasaray for 3 years. This must mean that the various Italian and Spansih talent scouts gave him a big thumbs down.
It is a very curious move and it will be interesting to see what the financial inducement was. Click to continue reading...

Bruce Djite out, Nathan Burns out, bu Canberran Nikolai Topor-Stanley is in. The Olyroo squad has been named, and eleven A-League players are in the 18.
Australian Football's Big Chance
The announcement today of the men's football section of the Australian Olympic team was a long-awaited reward for eighteen promising athletes. Click to continue reading...

Oman, Kuwait and our near neighbours Indonesia, that's are group for the 2011 Asian Cup.
With the games to start in January on top of the World Cup Qualifiers we're going to need as many professional footballers are we've got. Keep the games and the players coming.
And with left-back David Carney expected to be named in the Olyroo's Beijing squad today as an overage player along with Harry Kewell and Archie Thompson, Canberra born Nikolai Topor-Stanley will face an anxious wait. Click to continue reading...

The calf injury Archie Thompson picked up in the Socceroo's World Cup qualifier with China earlier this week could keep him on the sidelines for the next six weeks. At the very least, Archie will not be available for the Melbourne Victory's April 9 Asian Champions League match against Gamba Osaka, considered by many to be [. Click to continue reading...

"Hand of God," I'll take that in Kunming, how about you?
Now I don't want to worry you but have you seen our goalscoring stats. Goals for Socceroos in brackets.
Now Harry Kewell (9 goals) is out, we have Archie Thompson (21 at least 13 against the Solomon Islands), Marco Bresciano (10 goals) Brett Holman (1)
Michael Beauchamp(1) Jason Culina (1) The other fifteen players No, Zilch, not one! Click to continue reading...