And so, once again, it was a case of Tim Cahill to the rescue.
The Socceroo performance wasn't quite as bad as their last outing against Oman, but there were long periods of the game where Australia were dreadfully uninspired. And, let us remember, Oman were denied what looked like a plain penalty a few minutes from the close. Click to continue reading...

After a poor start to the season, we can breathe easy again. Two wins on the trot has put Melbourne a point from first place, though the A-League is so tight this season that we're still only in sixth place. But it's good to see the team hit some form at last.

With a third of the season almost done, I thought I'd pop in to share my thoughts on how the mighty Victory are faring this year.

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 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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With confirmation that Danny Allsopp has left for Qatar club Al-Rayyan Sports, Melbourne Victory has lost not only one of its two primary scoring targets but a long time servant of the club.
Of course the writing has been on the wall (or in this case within the forums) for a week now after Allsopp failed to not only take the field against Newcastle but wasn't even present at the game. 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...

The wait is over, the first match played and a surprise result already. Season previews and bookie odds are in tatters after a team most tipped to finish in the bottom three up staged last years premiers (and bookies favourite) to take the points in the opening match.
To be honest Victory hardly looked interested in the first half. Click to continue reading...

It's an interesting little fact: in the first three A-League seasons, the winners of the season curtain-raiser went on to claim the premiership. And with that in mind, Lawrie McKinna can afford a little grin after last night's surprising result.
There were, in fact, plenty of parallels with the Mariners' dogged first-up win over Sydney FC in the first round of the 2007/08 season. Click to continue reading...

So this is the best season ever? Well how come Fox Sports presented a show designed from 1967.
Get six talking heads,
all men, in black suits and no tie and get them to talk and talk and talk. Missed it? Well just imagine the staring at the picture above for 90 minutes.
In a world where we can't do anything for more than 15 seconds Fox produced that! Click to continue reading...

Update: We've got fourteen writers, a host of crap names and that's it..so we're moving along nicely!
Well what would you even call it.
It would be something to read maybe when Matty Mckay shoots wide, or when Danny Allsopp hits the corner flag, or Danny Tiatto gives the game a rest with one of his tackles or when Kevin Muscat starts arguing with ref, Cristiano goes for a roly poly. 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...

With Melbourne's Kevin Muscat on his last legs, should they have kept Milicevic.
What a player? He's played a couple of A-League games, a couple of Asian Champions League games but I'm desperate to see him sign for the full A-League season
Seeing him controlling the Newcastle back four in recent weeks, playing the ball from the back, surging forward is joyous to watch. 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...

Great game in the A-League recently, with Melbourne Victory going two goals down against Sydney FC, but still living up to their name with a 3-2 win. The misery didn't end there for Sydney manager John Kosmina. As well as watching his team give away a two goal lead, he got knocked to the ground by [. 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...

Wellington won, honest the beat the leaders Sydney FC. I kid you not. And Victory had another sent-off, for what I don't know.
Central Coast thumped Perth, will Dave Mitchell be sacked after Pim Verbeek's vote of confidence, and the youngsters shine for the Kruse less Roar.
Queensland Roar are better away. Click to continue reading...

Brett Emerton, 29, has signed for Blackburn for four more years. And Josip Skoko, 32, has gone back to play in Croatia for Hadjuk Split.
Fair enough. But don't come back to the A-League Emo and Josip after these contracts run out. You'll be too old, too slow.
Emo has talked about playing in Sydney while he still has something left. 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...

Pim Verbeek held his second training camp yesterday, this time calling in 29 players from the A-League. Eight of the players at the last training camp were left out this time, including the Melbourne Victory's Leigh Broxham and Nick Ward. Kevin Muscat, Archie Thompson and Rodrigo Vargas have all been picked again though. Click to continue reading...

Pim Verbeek announced his 22-man selection for a Socceroos training camp next week. Among them are Melbourne Victory's Archie Thompson, Kevin Muscat and Rodrigo Vargas. Only A-League players were picked for the training camp, though Verbeek insists there's no guarantee that he'll pick exclusively A-League players for the opening World Cup qualifier against Qatar on February [. Click to continue reading...

Apparently Lynch was missing, so the two Victory stars decided to interview each other. Topics include the Phoenix match, the upcoming match against Perth, Muscat's send-off and the Socceroos World Cup qualification draw. Check it out. Share This Click to continue reading...

When Ljubo Milicevic and Archie Thompson missed breakfast on Saturday morning, who knew their absence would cause the controversy that has developed over the past few days. The incident has escalated into question marks over whether Milicevic still has a place at the Melbourne Victory. The pair, who are close friends, went out on Friday night [...] Click to continue reading...

Despite being diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture, a break he apparently suffered in the match against Wellington, Muscat is still hopeful of playing against Adelaide this weekend. What measures he would have to take to guard his arm remain to be seen, but he certainly doesn't seem willing to write himself off as a [...] Click to continue reading...

A cursory glance at recent statistics will tell you the Melbourne Victory machine isn't running as smoothly as it did last year. But when rumours surfaced last week that Ljubo Milicevic, one of this season's star recruits, had done a runner, matters just seemed a notch worse. Thankfully, Milicevic, a 24 year old Melbourne boy, isn't [...] Click to continue reading...