We knew the Melbourne Victory defence, central defence was too slow, too fragile and lacked Muscat.
And in midfield the pairing of Leigh Broxham and Grant Brebner could never control the game in the Asian Champions League games - at times the Victory were embarrassing - and these our Aussie Champions - and this season they've never had the ball, kept the ball or enabled the style boys to get on the ball.

The Australians are still feeling their way round Asian football and how it operates; or often doesn't. Take Adelaide United. There they were happily looking forward to playing in the Asian Champions League when all of a sudden they are being told that they now have to play a play off against Indonesian champions Persipura.

It may not have been the most difficult challenge that FC Barcelona would have to face in their quest to become FIFA Club World Cup winners. That, however, did not dampen the celebrations as the Spanish and European champions strolled their way past a poor Santos FC team courtesy of a 4-0 victory.

FC Barcelona will compete in this year's FIFA Club World Cup following a sensational UEFA Champions League triumph in 2011. The Catalans must first face AFC Asian Champions League winners Al Sadd before they can start dreaming of the possibility of winning the world crown for the second time in three years.

Kashiwa Reysol and Al Sadd have booked their semi-final places in the FIFA Club World Cup following hard fought victories over Monterrey CF and Esperance Tunis respectively.

Kashiwa, representing the host nation Japan as the 2011 J-League champions, needed a penalty shoot-out to get past North and Central American champions Monterrey after the two teams had played out a 1-1 draw.

The FIFA Club World Cup officially got under way today with two goals just before half-time giving Kashiwa Reysol a 2-0 win over Auckland City in the qualifying play-off to send the Japanese club through to the quarter-finals.

Kashiwa, who clinched the 2011 J-League title last weekend, had Junya Tanaka and Masato Kudo to thank as the pair struck in the 37th and 40th minutes respectively to send the host nation's representatives into the next round.

The FFA and Adelaide United held their breadth at the Asian Casino last night...and won.
United have won direct entry into the Asian Champions League - meaning Australia now has three teams in the group stages for the first time.
More exciting than watching Lou Sticca's fundraiser in Melbourne?

The FFA and Adelaide United held their breadth at the Asian Casino last night...and won.
United have won direct entry into the Asian Champions League - meaning Australia now has three teams in the group stages for the first time.
More exciting than watching Lou Sticca's fundraiser in Melbourne?

The Japanese Newcastle
Gamba Osaka 1-0 Vegalta Sendai (26:11:11)
Newcastle United fan Michael Hudson travels to Osaka to see the Japanese version of... Newcastle United...
There are two ways of getting from Nagoya to Osaka by train. The Shinkansen takes just under an hour and will set you back the best part of sixty quid each way; a combination of local and rapid trains is more than twice as long, half the price and perfectly timed to allow you to read at least halfway through the Blizzard while sitting next to a bloke in a gauze face mask whose head keeps falling against your right shoulder.

AFC Champions League title holders Al-Sadd were the surprise winners of Asia's premier club competition and will feature in their first FIFA Club World Cup. Al Sadd, who hail from the Qatari capital city of Doha, have a quarter-final meeting with African champions Espérance and, should they emerge victorious, will look forward to a semi-final encounter against FC Barcelona.

Whilst the UEFA Champions League continues to take centre stage in Europe as the competition nears the end of its group phase, the equivalent tournament in the Oceania region is two rounds into the 2011-12 O-League and, as usual, the two New Zealand representatives are setting the pace for all of the others to follow.

BREAKING NEWS:
The Colorado Rapids announced on Monday that the club will not renew the contract of Head Coach Gary Smith. The Rapids will begin a search for a new head coach immediately.
"After meeting with Gary, we decided it would be in the best interest of both parties to move in a different direction," said Colorado Rapids Managing Director Jeff Plush.

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In this week's review section, minnows on the brink, how to reach a final and not make friends, and Leeds humbled at home. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below, or highlighted in blue.

On this week's predictions languagecaster focuses on games from Italy and England, including two London derbies.We also take a look at the Asian Champions League and the European version, too.

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On this week's predictions languagecaster focuses on games from Italy and England, including two London derbies.We also take a look at the Asian Champions League and the European version, too.

The Asian Champions League doesn't get much pub this side of, well, Asia, especially not when playing on the same day as the European Champions League. A quick way to rectify this injustice is to start a massive brawl in a regional semifinal. The genesis is as ludicrous as the concept itself:

With two players down in the box (for genuine reasons), one for each side, Suwon was attacking the Al-Sadd goal.

A mass brawl erupted in the Asian Champions League semi-final between Al Sadd and Suwon Bluewings after Suwon put the ball out for attention to an injured player only for the official to wave play-on and Mamadou Niang to score Al Sadd's controversial second goal.

A mass brawl erupted in the Asian Champions League semi-final between Al Sadd and Suwon Bluewings after Suwon put the ball out for attention to an injured player only for the official to wave play-on and Mamadou Niang to score Al Sadd's controversial second goal.

I might have to be writing a bit this season. Things are exciting at the Roar and I am full of material. If anything I've been suffering the writer's block of someone with far too much to say. So fuck it, I'll start with a rave. Anything to get the gripes with FIFA (which I still have) from the top of the page and some news of this brilliant team.

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In this week's review section, we look at stories from the Asian Champions League, pressure at Sunderland and Carlos Tevez embroiled in more controversy. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below, or highlighted in blue.

In this week's review section, we look at stories from the Asian Champions League, pressure at Sunderland and Carlos Tevez embroiled in more controversy.

In this week's review section, we look at stories from the Asian Champions League, pressure at Sunderland and Carlos Tevez embroiled in more controversy.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In this week's review section, we look at stories from the Asian Champions League, pressure at Sunderland and Carlos Tevez embroiled in more controversy. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below, or highlighted in blue.

It is true to say that in football, the strikers are the ones who get the goals and get the headlines. Goalkeepers can play fantastically well for a full 89 minutes out of a fantastic match but one mistake and all know what the internet and newspapers will focus on.
Lee Dong-guk is one of the biggest stars in the league.

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In this week's review section, a wonderful gesture by the Old Lady, Korean clubs in the Asian Champions League and a football executive forced to resign in England.

The 2011 AFC Asian Champions League has reached the quarter-final stages with the first legs taking place today. As has been the case in recent years South Korean clubs feature prominently in the last eight of the competition with FC Seoul, Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors involved this time.

Picture courtesy of FAS If you guys want to know what are my thoughts over the announcement made this afternoon at Kuala Lumpur (pictured above), I would say I'm still struggling to formulate my thoughts.
As everything to me still looked so vague, nonetheless, I allowed a journalist friend to quote me as follow when he called earlier.

With the European sides playing in European Club Championships you can see the "professionalism" or cheating of the players beginning to rise. And of course their football nous, skills and fitness.
W-League is great - for ten games - but surely it's time for Japan, China, Korea to join with our top two W-League side in an East Asian Champions League.

Mitchell Langerak, Mustifa Amini and Dylan Tombides.
All three are at top German or strong English Clubs - Langarek is proven as a keeper having played in the A-League and in the Asian Champions League and in Germany with Dortmund he can surely only improve and challenge Adam Federici in years to come for the Soccerooos spot.

It has been a topsy-turvy season in the K-League so far. Asian champions Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma have been kept off the bottom of the standings only thanks to the dreadful form of Gangwon FC. Suwon Bluewings find themselves in one of their annual slumps in form while champions FC Seoul have improved since earlier in the season but still can't quite break free of the middle level.

The often mooted ASEAN Super League – a regular competition featuring the best football clubs from amongst South East Asia's 10 nations – is unlikely to be further discussed until next year. The FA of Singapore formally proposed the ASL in 2006 but, as yet, has been unable to confirm support from the major ASEAN Football Federation members.

Jeonbuk Motors: Speeding down Asian football's fast lane is a post from: Just Football

With the 2011 Asian Champions League knockout phase kicking off this week, Mehdi Rahnama takes a look at one of the teams to keep an eye on in his debut article for Just Football:

The group stages of the 2011 Asian Champions League is over and it concluded with a number of surprises, as some teams unexpectedly made it through at the expense of bigger names knocked out early in the competition.

Jeonbuk Motors: Speeding down Asian football's fast lane is a post from: Just Football

With the 2011 Asian Champions League knockout phase kicking off this week, Mehdi Rahnama takes a look at one of the teams to keep an eye on in his debut article for Just Football:

The group stages of the 2011 Asian Champions League is over and it concluded with a number of surprises, as some teams unexpectedly made it through at the expense of bigger names knocked out early in the competition.

More quality Aussies coming through than ever before, right?
We're all agreed and there seems no co-incidence that the increased focus on young player technical skills, an increase in the length of the A-League season over the last five years, add in the ACL games and of course the numerous young Aussies playing more competitive national games in Asia and.

It's tough being Urawa Reds. The "biggest club in Asia" tag is a difficult one to live down, even if the Saitama giants haven't come close to winning a trophy for years.
The Reds burst onto the Asian football scene by winning the J. League under the swashbuckling auspices of German coach Guido Buchwald in 2006, before his more circumspect successor Holger Osieck steered the Saitama giants to Asian Champions League glory the following year.

Jonah Freedman lays out four solid points as to how to get MLS players and teams more prepared to compete in the CONCACAF Champions League on a regular basis. While it is true that the USA through MLS is a solid #2 in the region, some of this comes from being good but not great.The top teams of Honduras and Costa Rica have historically better than those in MLS (except this year).

Kevin Muscat retires at the end of the Asian Champions League - and he's been the backbone of the Victory side for years.
A leader on the park - hard to believe he wouldn't have had huge influence over the playing side of things at Victory - but his name rarely seems to be mentioned in the mix for the Victory job.

2010 was a year to remember for Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma. The team from just south of Seoul not only won the Asian Champions League but went on to finish third place at the FIFA Club World Cup after meeting European champions Inter Milan.
It was even better for Sasa Ognenovski, a man looking forward to his third K-League season.

When the reigning TPL champions Muangthong United make their return to the Jalan Besar Stadium tomorrow to take Tampines Rovers, I expect it would be a fiery AFC Cup showdown.
After all, when the "Twin Qilins" were here last February, they were crushed out of a chance to make it to the continent's biggest club tournament - Asian Champions League (ACL) proper, following their loss to the Singapore's SAFFC on penalties.

The current owners do not have the resources to match other A-League clubs.
While they are happy to have an investor or investors, for the right and big price, take minority interests, they will not give up control. Unfortunately, this has been a deal breaker for ambitious potential owners.