The Coach of Sydney FC is a very nice man...or so we're told over and over but after close to three years in charge the team from the biggest city in Australia flatters to deceive.....no-one.
Season 1: Won the Championship. Fantastic, but they were the most boring team ever to win the A-League under Vitaslav.

Is Mehmet worse than Vitaslav?
Arguably they are about the same - although Mem hasn't had a lot of time to work his magic, I'd argue his appointment from Feb should have shown us some better football, better structure than what we've seen.
Should he be sacked?
Who knows but the Board gave him his chance, also Francis Awaritefe.

Nicky Carle created the match winner and Mark Bridge scored his first goal for ages - won't do his confidence any harm - and Carle if he ain't scoring the match decider he's setting them up.
Brett Emerton to return and Sydney FC already in Second place - winning away from home, winning at the death, coming back from behind.

If you've watched Sydney FC in the last two seasons under Vitaslav - it has been boring. I love football - but it was dire!
So boring the fans deserted in droves, even after they clung on to win the Premiership in 2009/10.
Is this year Lavicka's last chance?
I still get the twitches when I think Sydney are playing.

There are only five....I know there are heaps more these days but most blog readers have the attention span of a gnat.
1. Friday night football - Adelaide United at home, I love it and United and Heart always play or try to play good football. Both our Dutch Coaches under the pump, with Versleijan gone and taking a pop at our Craig Foster this week - Dutch are cellar dwellars just now.

Good evening. A fair bit to talk about today so I'll start with the latest news. Holger Osieck has named his 23 man squad for Australia's World Cup Qualifiers this month, calling up Harry Kewell in the process. Brett Emerton has also been given the nod. Its an interesting move considering Harry's (and Emerton's) rather

Any midfield that has Terry Antonis, Nicky Carle, Brett Emerton and Karol Kisel in it's line-up is going to entertain.
Terry Antonis is all energy and all skill. And can only get better. His performances this season have been outstanding and Sydney FC obviously realise this kids abilities.

Sydney are stronger this season - both in defence crucial to their Championship winning year under Vitaslev and in attack.
Last year they lacked the mobility, pace and craft to hurt any team and always conceded- eventually.
This year, anyone who saw their Brisbane performance will know that they were able to dominate the Roar and should have been in the lead by half-time.

Archie Thompson has been one of the A-League most effective forwards and goalscorers in the A-League.
He's tricky, crafty, plays with a smile and when fit causes havoc.
So why not play Archie nearer to the goal, rather than out on the wing, and you might find that the Victory goal drought is over.

Do you remember when we used to make hard work of Oman?
With Harry Kewell, Brett Emerton, Tim Cahill, Vinny Grella all English based in the line-up.
Three times we played them in the last four years - three times we struggled - really struggled.
This time with a bunch of so-called lesser names, younger boys, we waltz it.

Takes a special coach to turn people away from watching Sydney FC.
John Kosmina tried, Terry Butcher was very successful and now Championship winner Vitaslev Lavicka has topped the lot.
Crowds last year were way down - and no football follower I know was surprised.
How could a Championship winning side so dramatically reduce their crowds.

Hi all.
Welcome to ze blog. In most parts of the world it would just be an ordinary, boring, if not tedious, Monday morning.
But with the boys in blue and yellow getting deconstructed (you could happily substitute that with either smashed, mauled, clawed or demolished) on Saturday, there's this concept of Mad Monday to contend with.

Hi all and welcome to this brief blog.
Perth Glory take on Sydney FC in another friendly tomorrow. Both sides lost their previous games (Perth lost to Central Coast, Sydney to Newcastle) and this will be a chance to see where they are at.
Mostly it will be noteworthy because of Brett Emerton, though Fairfax's Michael Cockerill focused his pre-game story on youngster Terry Antonis.

Now the A-league has just two players this year, Harry and Emmo, so it should be more interesting everyone tells me.
Well with Matthew Leckie, Marcus Flores and others having left who are the fellas who the Nearpost is particularly looking forward to seeing take to the field in Season 7:
Melbourne Victory - Of course Harry Kewell, but I'm as interested to see how the young Kiwi Marco Rojas goes.

Local Aussie journos are wetting themselves over the upcoming Melbourne Victory v Sydney FC clash and are starting to twitter themselves into a frenzy.
They want Brett Emerton and Harry Kewell to play for their respective clubs rather than for Australia, in Canberra, against Malaysia.
Of course the Malaysia game is a walk in the park and a friendly at that - but it is four days before the World Cup clash with Oman.

Football fans label Coaches crap or brilliant.
Jose Mourinho used to be brilliant, now he's second he's well...less so.
Alex Ferguson is always brilliant - he always wins, whereas Neil Lennon is crap - he comes second - add in Vitaslev Lavicka - season 1 brilliant, season 2 crap.
Ange Postecoglou is now brilliant and despite losing heaps of players in Season 1 and beginning of Season 2 if he's not top of the league after three games he'll be.

We'll need a squad to see us through to Brazil, a big squad. So no problems for all you Tim Cahill fans, he'll be there to the end.
But is Tim a certain starter in the Australian football team?
Not in my book - not anymore. Now before I get smashed by all you Timmaay fans let's take a look at my reasoning.

With the A-League teetering along last year football was heading back to the future.
Despite the move into Asia, a successful Asia Cup campaign, the rise of the Matildas and the increasing number of Young Guns pushing into the Socceroos and starring in the A-League moving to Europe and Asia, football still lacked any sense of security or money for our A-League clubs to survive, never mind to move ahead.

Got this email overnight from England - loved it, so blogged it!
Eamonn
Without doubt the greatest week in the short history of the A-League.
Not the greatest day: that was when the A-League kicked off but certainly the greatest marquee since Dwight Yorke.
I am currently living in the UK (missing Australia like you wouldn't believe) and I was driving in my car listening to the radio coverage of Arsenal/ Udinese when they cut to Blackburn Rovers who had just scored in the Carling Cup "Brett Emerton.

Michael Lynch - a man who's family is from the far end of the Curragh (Irish Racecourse) we're just a bit closer, but further away. Got it?
Lynchy is a much respected Aussie footy writer - but on his player development focus written in the Age I reckon he has a couple of points wrong or at least is unaware of what is coming.

Tom Sermanni has shocked the Matildas and W-League football followers by leaving out of his starting eleven in tonights game against Brazil three of the stars from the last World and Asia Cup.
Lauren Colthorpe
Claire Polkinghorne
Sally Shipard
and Aussie cricketer and footballer Ellyse Perry who burst on to the scene after the last World Cup - looked a shoe-in for a starting birth - has been overtaken by a 16 year old Caitlin Foord.

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.

Aussies found the game a little more meaningful against Serbia than the run out against the Kiwis.
Michael Zullo was tested and showed he has a lot to learn but still showed enough to get some more opportunities.
Adam Federici and Brett Holman were both outstanding against top opposition and Serbia were a class outfit - recently beaten by South Korea it should be noted despite missing 4 or 5 key players.

The Good

- It's over. Speaking personally as an Arsenal fan, that means the loosening of a feisty nutcracker on my testicles, but I believe it's much the same for most teams. Team and fan burnout is bound to happen eventually, and it's time for the body Duracells to undergo their yearly recharge.

Timeline of the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday (all times local): 4.00pm (1500GMT) At kickoff time Blackpool and Wigan Athletic filled the remaining two relegation places alongside doomed West Ham United. Blackpool, Wigan and Birmingham City were all on 39 points and with only two goals difference between them.

MANCHESTER, England Blackpool and Birmingham were relegated from the Premier League on Sunday as Wigan and Wolves scrambled to safety in a thrilling finale to the English season. Blackpool's fairytale debut season in the top-flight came to an end at Old Trafford where they were beaten 4-2 by champions Manchester United while Birmingham were [.

A confusing weekend for the Manchester newspapers, who, for the first time in some thirty-five years, had a bit of a conflict as to which club's achievements they should be featuring on their front page. We particularly enjoyed the Manchester Evening News, which evaded the problem completely by sticking the Great Manchester Run on the front of their esteemed organ, and dealing with other relevant matters elsewhere.

This Saturday could pretty much be marked as a special day for the city of Manchester as two rival clubs held a party, celebrating both team's success in winning different achievement, United with their 19th league title while City earned their the FA Cup.

Both achievements are special for the two teams as for the Red Devils, this season's title means they have surpassed Liverpool as the most successful team in the league, while for the Eastlands, getting the Cup broke their 35-years of long wait for adding an important trophy in their cabinet.

Blackburn Rovers vs Manchester United 2011 Ewood Park- 14/5/11- 14th May 2011- Saturday. Final score:- Blackburn vs Manchester United 1-1 ( Brett Emerton/ Wayne Rooney penalty) Manchester United survive a scare before drawing 1-1 with Blackburn Rovers to lift the 2010/2011 Premier League crown and overtake Liverpool as England's most successful club.

Mais uma semifinal da Copa da Ásia de 2011, foi realizada no dia 25/02/2011, na cidade de Doha-QAT, no Khalifa International Stadium, onde jogaram as seleções do Uzbequistão (108º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção da Austrália (26º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo
2010Sydney 01/04/2009 AUS2:0 (0:0)UZB 2010Tashkent 10/09/2008 UZB0:1 (0:1)AUS
O árbitro desse jogo, foi: Ali Al Badwawi-UAE
O primeiro gol do jogo, foi de Harry Kewell, aos 5 minutos do primeiro tempo, ele que é jogador do Galatasaray-TUR, que marcou seu 16º gol pela seleção nacional.

Australia have reached the 2011 AFC Asian Cup final in Qatar this weekend after crushing Uzbekistan by six goals to nil in yesterday's semi-final. Japan also went through but did it the hard way as Alberto Zaccherroni's men needed a penalty shoot out to get the better of arch-rivals South Korea.

There were six different scorers for the Socceroos as they put Uzbekistan to the sword in a game which was expected to be a lot closer than it was.

Uzbekistan vs Australia AFC Asian Cup 2011 Semifinal- January 25, 2011 Current score:- Uzbekistan 0-4 Australia ( Harry Kewell, Sasa Ognenovski, David Carney, Brett Emerton) Australia aim to reach their first ever Asian Cup final as they play Uzbekistan in the semifinals. The Socceroos will face Japan in the finals of the tournament.

DOHA, Qatar – Socceroo striker Tim Cahill is racing the clock to be fit for Australia's Asian Cup semi-final against Uzbekistan next Tuesday. Asked yesterday if he would play, Cahill said only: "I hope so." Cahill was touch and go for the Iraq match, after badly bruising a thigh against Bahrain. He managed to play [.

DOHA, Qatar — A 117th-minute strike from Harry Kewell powered Australia to a 1-0 quarter-final victory over holders Iraq at the Asian Cup on Saturday and into a showdown with Uzbekistan for a place in the final. The Galatasaray forward met a pinpoint cross from Matt McKay towards the end of extra time and angled [.

Australia beat Bahrain 1-0 thanks to a Mile Jedinak strike but the real concern is the wounded soldiers, some limping, some suspended, some just ageing.
Did anyone really think Harry Kewell could play six games straight?
Well he's up to three, but he's showing signs of slowing. Meanwhile Brett Emerton pulled his Croatia 2006 World Cup trick, getting booked for nothing on the eve of our most important game in a while - watch Iraq or Iran just like Italy pour down the Aussie left next game.

DOHA, Qatar Mile Jedinak's first-half goal against Bahrain at Al Sadd Stadium was enough to send Australia through to the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup. The Genclerbirligi midfielder scored his second goal in as many games to ensure the Socceroos finish top of Group C and go through to the last eight unbeaten following [.

Lucas Neill, Brett Emerton, Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill, Jason Culina, Mark Schwarzer will not be in Brazil.
One or maybe two might - if Australia get there.
So this is really the last hurrah for these guys, as a team.
Let's hope they can build on the India game. They certainly look more prepared than the previous Asia Cup in Thailand.

DOHA, Qatar — An impressive Australia crushed India 4-0 to get their Asian Cup campaign off to a decisive start Monday with red-hot Everton star Tim Cahill collecting two goals. Played at an Al-Sadd Stadium packed with noisy expatriate Indians, a convincing win was needed by the Socceroos to demonstrate their tournament credentials against a [.

Since the shock sacking of Sam Allardyce, Rovers have averaged one point per game. The previous regime had a healthy 1.5 points per game average; a tally that would safely stave off relegation.
This has seen owners Venky's discard an expected 57 points finish for the new - far less comfortable - target of just 43 points.

Back to the road for Liverpool as they visit Rovers at Ewood.

"This time will be different," my heart tells me. "No, it won't," my head says. "Oh."

An away match, celebrate! Oh, nevermind that, Roy Hodgson is still at the helm, and as Dion Fanning so warmly and cruelly reminded us months ago, Hodgson's squads are "a walking, talking three points for the home side.