SoccerBlogs

Great weekend for the believers in young Australian football players, attacking players.

Bernie Ibini, Mustafa Amini, Demi Petratos, Mate Dugandzic just some of the young Aussies hitting the net - and three of them are Under 20.

Laugh: Robbie Slater in his column on Sunday discussed how to beat the Roar - and he mentioned how Sydney would miss THE PACE of Mark Bridge.

Friday night football usually means Adelaide, good football, the boy Leckie and Flores but this week it's the Mariners.

Now Matt Simon, Nik Mrdja, Adam Kwasnik and Daniel McBreen don't excite me as a forward line to watch Oliver Bozanic, Michael McGlinchy and Irish international Paddy Perez do get me twitching.

Justice prevailed but it took a while. The ref was only playing his second game and it showed. I think refing needs to be consistent through the season. If it was Matt Simon would have been lucky to stay on the park. As it was he didn't even concede a yellow card for the foul that had Luke DeVere leave the field early.

They missed beating the greatest team in Australian football by four minutes in the Grand Final last year - and even with a few Olyroos missing they still comfortably accounted for an in-form Sydney FC.

Bernie Ibini-Isei has lifted the Mariners. Younger than McBreen more skilled than Matt Simon he's a forward with an increasing goal threat.

Many people will have already allocated the points from this one. Why not, Melbourne Victory are the super club of the A-League.

The only thing is that they tend to have a good year and an off year. May not be the case this year. I suspect their pre-season has been less rigorous than other clubs as Asia (ACL) means they have a long season ahead.

Pity these games get so little coverage. CCM played well and the Koreans were very mediocre at home.

The omens were bad. Foxtel lost transmission in the opening minutes and only came back as Donelison smashed home a penalty in the opening minutes. The Korean team's Brazilian was the difference between the two teams - on the scoreboard and in terms of overall performance.

Hi everybody,

Welcome to today's blog. Did you all have a decent weekend?

FP was out on the track for the final day of the races in town. It seemed like a ridiculously indulgent day full of booze, women and more booze. Hopefully your weekend was just as fun.


So Perth Glory lost 1-0 on the weekend to Central Coast Mariners with a former Glory boy scoring the goal.

Okay Arnie if Harry says, via Bernie, you're poisonous I'll ignore it. Because it's unfair almost stupid of "our Bernie," who manages "Our Harry." How did an Agent get to become such a spokesman btw?

Anyway I was disappointed with the 2007 Arnie led Asian Cup. It was crap. The Olyroos qualification was extraordinary under Arnie and Baan but the Beijing Olyroo performances were.

by Usman Azad, Football Perth Editor

Central Coast 2 (Wilkinson 42, Simon 89)
Perth Glory 1 (Sterjovski 82)
Crowd: 5193

A HARROWING mistake from young goalkeeper Tando Velaphi has resulted in another loss away from home for Perth Glory in the A-League this season.

Both teams were level on the scoreboard late in the game, when Velaphi misjudged the bounce of a long ball into the penalty box, slipped over and watched helplessly as Central Coast Mariners striker Dylan Macallister squared the ball for an easy tap-in for Matt Simon.

Mariners and Jets both needed wins in matchday 4 and despite some notable performances they both flopped badly to Japanese sides.

Yes that's right the "technically better Japanese sides".

But maybe it's not the technical difference between the players that is so crucial to results against Japanese sides.

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.

a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eG5nyD8m7lE/SdeMHQGt5hI/AAAAAAAAAqA/dubt2uLWHzc/s1600-h/Matt+Simon.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320875540971644434" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 208px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eG5nyD8m7lE/SdeMHQGt5hI/AAAAAAAAAqA/dubt2uLWHzc/s320/Matt+Simon.

Matt Simon scored two stunning goals for the Mariners last night, and with Victory's erratic keeper Michael Theoklitos given his marching orders for stomping on Sasho " I'm never innocent" Petrovski in the second half, at 2-1 in 93+40 seconds everyone must have thought the game was won.

And then the ball broke to Archie Thompson.

So the expected has happened, and Graham Arnold steps into the chair vacated, voluntarily it seems, by the man who replaced him at Northern Spirit.

For all his team's staleness over the past year, Lawrie McKinna's contribution to the nascent A-League has been considerable, and worthy of great respect.

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Nationally we look at the A-League draw talk Asian Champions League and hear from Lawrie McKinna and Matt Simon ahead of last nights 2-1 defeat to Kawasaki Frontale.

On the local show we hear from FFA Tech Director Han Berger.

Everyone knows that the Colorado Rapids are not exactly deep when it comes to strikers. If either of first choice duo Conor Casey or Omar Cummings gets injured, the Rapids will have draft pick Ross Schunk or new signing Gregory Richardson to pick from. Schunk and Richardson have a combined MLS experience of zero games.

Something for these prepared to look beyond the results. The A-League teams were as good as the top level Japanese teams.

The turnaround from a 0-5 walkover was massive for CCM. And Newcastle can be seen to have improved as well despite going backwards from an away draw.

CCM continue to be let down by their set piece performance (both goals).

Nearpost Aaron Walker, Paddy Bordier and Eamonn Flanagan talk Socceroos' Coach, all the Payneful A-League news from Sydney and Melbourne. Will Perth kick their way to the A-League title, is Gerard Parson ruining the game, why do teams play two centre midfielders when one surely one would do, especially if you want to win a game.

Less than 12 months since we played Kuwaitin Canberra and look at the team. Expect to see 7 A-League players on the field tonight.

But how many started in Canberra.....meaning the National Coach stuffed up big-time, in my view, with his teams selections.

More so that many of his starting A-League players that Canberra night aren't EVEN in the squad this time!

Got an article from the past 24 hours that we missed?
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Total articles found today: 59

Americans Abroad / USMNT
Americans Abroad - Soccer Insider

Chicago Fire
Hamlett Not Afraid To Set Tone With Veterans - The Red Card
Cold Weather Can't Put Out Fire - MLSnet
Chicago Fire Beats New York Red Bulls 1-0 - Chicago Tribune
Warriors Brave Tough Conditions For Dream - MLSnet
Fire Owner Has High Expectations - Southtown Star

Chivas USA
Chivas Wins Three Straight To Open MLS Season - Dentro del Rebano
Chivas Off To Best Start In Club History - MLSnet
Chivas USA, Galaxy Coaches Have Different Stories To Tell - Los Angeles Times
Chivas USA Revels In Gritty Victory Over Columbus - Goal.