The usual tiresome whinge from a white, over 50 Australian journalist about the game of Soccer.
This time in the Sydney Morning Herald.
And while I could reply with criticism of his "giants of the AFL and NRL, which are the pinnacles
of their parochial codes" I'll make just the one point.
In AFL, Paul you can have 18 teams with 38 players in a squad - some pinnacle you have got going
there.
When Ben Buckley and I chatted briefly at the Asia Cup in Bangkok in 2007, okay I don't do brief,
he responded to my question, what is the greatest challenge football faces in Australia? thus:
Grassroots - the greatest challenge and ultimate success of the game will depend on connecting and
getting the grassroots on side.
RIP Gold Coast United Well, the FFA showed their gutless side today by announcing that Western
Sydney will be the 10th team in a 10 team completion next season. Not one mention of GCU and our
fate. I have been a season member for 3 seasons now and an active agitator to get palmer to [...]
It's the vibe of the thing, your Honour. Dennis Denuto summed it up in the classic 1997 Aussie
movie, The Castle. It is that something that is hard to convey to non-football people, but we all
know what "the vibe" is. Last night I went as usual to watch and support my Gold Coast United [...]
Brisbane could pay a heavy price for poor finishing against Adelaide. CCM now favoured to win.
Brisbane - gee - doing it the hard way.
Should have beaten a hapless Newcastle defence 6 or 7 -1 including Henrique missing a penalty.
Mitch showed him how to do it a bit later. Brisbane fielded a weakened defence - why hasn't Hingert
started before now?
Brisbane could pay a heavy price for poor finishing against Adelaide. CCM now favoured to win.
Brisbane - gee - doing it the hard way.
Should have beaten a hapless Newcastle defence 6 or 7 -1 including Henrique missing a penalty.
Mitch showed him how to do it a bit later. Brisbane fielded a weakened defence - why hasn't Hingert
started before now?
With his future very much in doubt, Alex Smith put in a strong performance on Sunday to help
Wellington Phoenix defeat Gold Coast United and move into fourth place in the A-League.
It is anxious times for a Brisbane Roar fan. I mean hell, the undefeated streak stretches to 34
games. But it's hard not to notice that the last two games have presented a new challenge. It's
hard not to notice that we have not scored from open play in the last two games.
In week one, Central Coast tried to handle us the way they almost did last season, with their
half-open, counter attacking game, but once again, came up short.
Question marks:Sydney (will Emmo make the difference), CCM (will their Roar style no marquee
approach pay dividends?), Gold Coast (will their Dutchmen payoff?
Melbourne Victory announced today that they've signed defender Adama Traore from Gold Coast United
on a two-year deal. Traore, 22, was to be out of contract at the end of the season and with the
future of Gold Coast up in the air, chose to come to Melbourne. "I'm excited to be moving to
Melbourne
Ahead of the match against Gold Coast United today Melbourne Victory have announced that captain
Adrian Leijer has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with an injury to his hip. A
statement from the Club read: "Over the past three weeks, Adrian began to experience severe
discomfort in the pelvic region, leaving
35,000 fans turned up to the quietest Melbourne Victory I've ever heard.
Big Boo to Promoter Lou Sticca. Imagine taking a team to play Celtic, Man United or Liverpool and
saying your home supporter end, The Jungle, the Stretford End or The Kop are not allowed to sit in
their usual places. Call yourself a football fan Lou - think not.
The latest episode of Victorycast, victoryblog.net's Melbourne Victory podcast is now available for
download! This week we discuss the fallout from Francis Awaritefe's departure and the pressures on
Mehmet Durakovic on his players, review the Gold Coast game and look ahead to this weeks match up
against Newcastle.
Melbourne Victory's first half performance was the best they've ever played this season according
to Coach Mehmet Durakovic.
Blimey!
I know the standard has been poor this season but best they've ever played takes the biscuit.
A flukey penalty gave them a 1-0 lead after 40 seconds and then after the usual huff and bluff died
down at Aami Stadium the Gold Coast started to turn the screw.
Thanks to Melbourne Victory Football Club I have two double passes to give away for the next home
game vs Gold Coast United, this Sunday the 27th of November at AAMI Park. To enter answer the
following question.... Mehmet Durakovic's favourite saying is: a) What can you do? b) Thats
football c) Â Short, sharp passing
Thanks to Melbourne Victory Football Club I have two double passes to give away for the next home
game vs Gold Coast United, this Sunday the 27th of November at AAMI Park. To enter answer the
following question.... Mehmet Durakovic's favourite saying is: a) What can you do? b) Thats
football c) Â Short, sharp passing
Check out the video and you'll know how to stop the Roar!
If you watched the recent Wellington Roar game you'll have seen Ivan Franjic played in time and
time again a la the above video training drill. Four men in the box, the ball played back or across
to a Roar player.
In the drill there were only defenders - against Wellington and Victory there were 7 or 8!
FFA came under a lot of fire over the last couple of years as they put all their attention and
resources into the World Cup Bid, at the expense of a still fragile national league sitting in an
over-subscribed professional sporting arena.
Now it seems things are improving.
We had the season changes, and like the AFL and NRL, some key planning has gone into making noise
at the right times.
Rocky Visconte was the man of this match. Not because he was the best player, but because he played
so much better than he has before. Ange starting him over Issy added new Broich like movement to
the Roar on attack. For the first time in 5 games, Brisbane had a midfield that was always
searching forward, looking to beat the first defender and so drawing the second across and creating
space elsewhere.
At first the crowd looked disappointing. But that seems to be the problem with people turning up at
game time to buy a ticket. By the time Eric had headed the ball into the back of the net there was
a good covering of people across the ground, and they were in full song.
The first 14 minutes were even, then after the goal the ball raced from end to end.
Building the game is not about quality. It is about capturing the imagination of the live sport
watching public. The crowd chooses the marquee game, not FFA, or Fox.
FFA was surprised in season one about the rivalry that Brisbane people felt about Sydney FC. The
opener and one of the best crowds for the new league was 20,000 against the doomed Auckland
Knights.
Ian Ferguson will tell his Perth Glory players they must enda wretched run in Queensland against
basement club Gold Coast United on Sundayto be taken seriously as Grand Final contenders (Live
soccer betting: Gold Coast United 11/4 drawSoccer betting tips: 12/5 Perth Glory evens - bet365 90
minutes).
A match up that could have been so much more if Gold Coast hadn't boycotted the first derby and
Gold Coast hadn't been so good - but not good enough in its first year. Gold Coast's 5-1 win 2
years ago probably finished the interest in the game. the sad reframe of 'at least we haven't lost
to the Pheonix, at least we haven't lost 6-0' was redundant within days.
I don't exactly know how to feel about tonights game. On one hand I can see us smashing Gold Coast
United a new one. On the other, losing 1-0 in the final minutes of a drab game of football seems
just as likely. You'd probably have a better chance of picking the winning numbers in
So last week, despite making it difficult for ourselves, we managed to get all three points at
home. Great. But here comes the true test can we back it up with another strong performance? Will
we see the same passion, desire and teamwork that was evident against Gold Coast? I think so. I
hope
First seen during this past weekend's Gold Coast Sevens, the Australia Rugby Sevens Seviin 2012
home kit has been launched. Here are the details from a press release from Kooga spinoff brand
Seviin. Australian Rugby Union have unveiled an exciting new look for the Australian Sevens team
– a lime green playing strip worn for [.
