There was a time under the soon to be booted nicest man in football when Sydney won 1-0 - boring but they won.
Then in season 2, they lost 1-0. More boring and more frustrating.
Now in Season 3 they lose, by 3, 4 or 5 and that's at home.
Mr Lavicka might be nice - but he's a pretty ordinary coach.

Melbourne Victory announced today that they've secured 26 year old defender, Mark Milligan on a short-term loan deal from Japan's JEF United, until the end of the regular season. Milligan, who has previously represented Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets in the A-League says he is looking forward to playing in his home country once again: "The Japanese season

Over the weekend, Alex Smith and Wellington Phoenix came up with another important road victory in Australia against the Newcastle Jets to move into third place in A-League.

After signing a contract extension this week, Alex Smith will hope to feature in for Wellington Phoenix when they visit the struggling Newcastle Jets on Friday.

BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson reckons Thierry Henry won't find the net in another competitive game for Arsenal before he jets back to America. The ex-Liverpool defender is refusing to join the Henry love-in and says he would be happy to wager that Henry's days of scoring in the Premier League are over. In his BBC [.

Rini from Adelaide he's gone, Branko from Newcastle he's gone, Mehmet from Melbourne already gone...
A-League winner Vitaslav is surely going...The Jets give Championship winningrecently appointed Van Egmond a guarantee, Fergie is he really still there? and Miron draws 2,000 a week, crowd not dollars, and now is set to wear a mic in the half-time dressing room.

Interesting comments from Martin Jol regarding his use of Clint Dempsey (see Hammyend.com for more).

Essentially he's saying that Dempsey is operating as more of a classic 10, now.

This is interesting. From our unusually lofted positions high in Johnny Haynes, Toby and I spent a bit of time on Saturday wondering where everyone was supposed to be playing.

Interesting comments from Martin Jol regarding his use of Clint Dempsey (see Hammyend.com for more).

Essentially he's saying that Dempsey is operating as more of a classic 10, now.

This is interesting. From our unusually lofted positions high in Johnny Haynes, Toby and I spent a bit of time on Saturday wondering where everyone was supposed to be playing.

Fantastic game in Melbourne last night. Is it me or does this stadium lend itself to exciting games. Fast, furious and full of entertainment.
Is it the surface, or the proximity of the crowds?
Harry Kewell was superb in Melbourne last night as the Victory defeated the Jets 2-1.
Returning to his left wing position - wonder what Mehmet thought - Kewell simply did what everyone knows he can.

13/12 v Sydney15/12 v Central Coast19/12 v Newcastle Jets

The latest Aussie export to Indonesia is Sean Rooney, a former Newcastle Jets striker who has signed for Deltras where he will be under the tutelage of their new coach, Jorg Steinbrunner. Meanwhile have a look how Tampines Rovers celebrated their SLeague title last Sunday.

Stevie Johnson's poor decision to mock Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the thigh continues to haunt him. On Wednesday, the NFL fined Stevie Johnson $10,000 for his touchdown celebration. Neither the NFL nor the wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills has commented on the fine.

As we noted earlier, Plaxico Burress decided to ride the high road and has forgiven Stevie Johnson.

Early in the first half Brisbane had crazy misses. Besart found himself clear twice. The first time he fell over. The second he took too long. Then Issey failed to take his chance.
Then Newcastle settled into their 3-4-3 formation with Ruben Zadkovich outpacing Erik Paaratlu, Broich having his quietest half of football ever with a few well timed elbows in the head from Kasey Wehrman, and Newcastle playmaker Ryan Griffiths occasionally looking dangerous.

Canberra United are top of the league. By some margin.
Sally Shipard and Caitlin Munoz are in outstanding form and with Ashleigh Sykes scoring freely now - Michelle Heyman always scores, and US import Taryn Hemmings belting it home on the weekend, the good folk from the Capital are starting to get cocky!

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Kickoff for Sunday's game is now set for 5pm.

ESPN2 is broadcasting New York Red Bulls v LA Galaxy at 3pm, which pushes the kickoff of Sunday's Union v Houston game, which is also on ESPN2, up to 5pm. Why the start times aren't the other way around, given the fact that the Eagles are playing the Cowboys at the Linc at 8pm, the Giants are playing Miami at 1pm and the Jets have a bye, is beyond me.

Nick Ward of the Phoenix left the field shirtless after receiving a red card during the round two A-League match between Wellington Phoenix and Newcastle Jets at Westpac Stadium on 16.10.2011 in New Zealand. Image Credit: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images AsiaPac.

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.

Liverpool v Manchester United: basketball star and Anfield stakeholder Lebron James jets in for clash

Basketball superstar will attend Man Utd clash at Anfeld for first time.

View the full story here: The Telegraph

A news article on 2011-10-14 11:53:13 from: The Telegraph

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Australian A-League club Newcastle Jets unveiled its 2011/12 home and away kits from from Australian sportswear firm ISC on Friday. According to the club's website, the home kit "sees the return of Newcastle's iconic colours, red and blue, the same colours worn by fellow Novocastrian representatives, the Newcastle Knights.

Coach and his son dumped only days before kick-off A coach has been dumped from one of Australia's A-League clubs just an hour after representing them at the season launch. Newcastle Jets' boss Branko Culina was fired by club owner Nathan Tinkler on Tuesday afternoon. Later the same day the club sought the [.

After about 48 hours without power, we are back up and running here (although many in the area may have another week without juice). We are way behind on our business news, but here are a couple of stories from the last couple of days.

The George John transfer from FC Dallas to Blackburn fell through.

Jerricho Cotchery wanted a new start after growing frustrated with his role in New York with the Jets. That new start will take place in Pittsburgh after the Steelers signed Jerricho Cotchery. Terms of the contract have yet to be revealed.

Honestly, I don't see how this role is any bigger than the role Jerricho Cotchery left in New York.

Sydney FC's build up to the pre-season has been Lavicka-esque.
Dull and duller.
Apart from the Harry talk - even that is subdued compared to Melbourne - what is there to reignite the place.
The club needs excitement off the field, all year. And what have we got? Jamie Coyne!

Just like last season, FC Dallas has embarked on an extended unbeaten run to shoot up the league standings.

The defending Western Conference champions haven't lost in nine games and find themselves second in both the Supporters' Shield standings and SBI MLS Power Rankings after another clean sheet victory and a sweet goal from Marvin Chavez.

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.

This morning there are rumours flying around suggesting Scott Parker is the subject of big interest from Arsenal. There are tons of names flying about right now but the main attribute that would make this deal one to get very excited about is the attitude of the player, he is a battler a doer not an excuse maker like so many players in this team.

Seems like the Nearpost are not the only one who thinks running the dunes is for yesterdays men.
Raymond Verheijen has come out swinging after hearing what Branko had in store for his pre-season regime at the Jets.
''From which century is this guy? Still a long way to go Down Under,'' Verheijen said yesterday.

THE Newcastle Jets will be running up sand dunes, racking up kilometres on mountain bikes and rock climbing in what coach Branko Culina predicts will be the most thorough pre-season his players have experienced.

Shades of Big Jock Wallace at Leicester in the 70s - and they were nowhere near a beach.

Spurs last won a league title in 1961. The Jets last won a Super Bowl in 1969. And for years since those titles, both have competed with the best some years and floundered in others. Lately, they're both making a push to the top, with the Jets reaching two straight AFC championship games and Spurs qualifying for the Champions League with a top four finish last year.

Off The Ball never rests in its mission to scratch around the underbelly of professional football to find the most bizarre, humorous and inexplicable stories.

This week, Domenech calls his France team a bunch of "spoilt brats", Newcastle Jets offer Michael Owen a cash-plus-horse deal, a posse of Corinthians fans force Ronaldo to retire and Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott loses more than just the derby to Wayne Rooney.

It's easy to be distracted by some of the soap opera-like goings-on we see in professional soccer; every year (week, day?), there's plenty of gossip and bad behavior on and off the field. Some of it is even entertaining and interesting. But it's easy to lose track of some of the fundamentals of the game when we pay too much attention to that sort of stuff.

Newcastle Jets millionaire owner Nathan Tinkler is ready to offer Manchester United striker Michael Owen a thoroughbred Horse and cash to join his AFL side.

Owen who's contract run's out in the Summer could join the likes of Robbie Fowler and Dwight Yorke in the Aussie League.

Una vez mas la reportera mexicana da de que hablar en el dia de medios de la NFL rumbo al super tazón, y las bromas pesadas entre algunos periodistas y fanáticos de la NFL no se han hecho esperar.
Otros mas reconocen que Ines Sainz va a cubrir a la NFL pero que muchos periodistas deportivos como Sean Jensen, Albert Breer y Rich Eisen van a cubrirla a ella , que incluso ella tenia a mas reporteros y fotógrafos atras de ella que muchos de los jugadores.

What to do quarterbacks do on the sidelines as their defense is playing their hearts out to stop the opposition? Apparently, they pick their nose and wipe it on a teammate. In the video below, you can see Mark Sanchez wipe his booger on Mark Brunell. This crime was committed by the Jets starting quarterback on the Jets backup quarterback.

I don't need to tell you that Arsenal thumped West Ham in a convincing 3-0 win. I also don't need to tell you that it was a huge return to form for most of the squad, save for Eboue. But, what I do need to tell you is that Robin Van Persie has finally made me the fool. Several weeks ago I wrote about how unconvinced I was of Robin van Persie's return to form, in particular that Chamakh is capable of delivering more.