Kicks off tonight with Melbourne Victory V Western Sydney Wanderers.
Season 10 of the A-League should be good, with a number of teams looking more competitive than last year. Some notable marquee signings - Damien Duff at the now Melbourne City FC (formerly Melbourne Heart and last years wooden spooners, now owned by Manchester City. They actually did brilliantly towards the end of last season with new coach John Van Schip), joined for a 10 match loan preiod by David Villa who apparently had a decent career in Europe at some point. Unfortunately I won’t get to see Villa live, but looking forward to Duffer signing one of my Ireland shirts when they visit Gosford.
Brisbane have lost Berisha to Melbourne Victory, but I doubt they’re overly concerned. Brisbane will still be the standard to beat this season. Next season could be different though, they’ll be getting long in the tooth and need to start signing players.
Melbourne Victory will hopefully implode, with their wanker manager Kevin Muscat getting a jail term at last.
Sydney FC should be a completely different animal to the jokeshop they were under Frank Farina. Graham Arnold has taken over as coach and as we all know from his three years of brilliance at our beloved Central Coast Mariners, he’s a serious operator. They have signed Austrian captain Marc Janko (who actually got sent off for Austria last night against Moldova) and Berni Ibini, a Mariners favourite who has just been called into the Soccerros squad.
Adelaide will be serious contenders after their Barcelona educated coach Josep Gombau finally taught them how to play football last year.
Western Sydney? This is their third season in existence. So you would think that this might be the season they may start to contend for a finals place. Maybe they are over their growing pains and maturing. Not a bit of it. They’ve been in the last two grand finals and have now qualified for the Asian Champions League final. A fucking remarkable achievement. For a club less than three years old. Their coach Tony Popovic will be managing Crystal Palace soon, but for now he’s a genius here. No massively marquee players, just good players playing very good football.
Our beloved Central Coast Mariners overachieved last season after losing an iconic coach and a raft of players (8 of the team that won the grand final in 2013 were gone at the start of last season) by finishing third and subsequently knocked out in the finals by WSW. Some minor signings in the off season, but a finals place this year would again be overachieving for the smallest and poorest club in the land. I’ll be there at Gosford waterfront tomorrow evening to watch us dismantle the Newcastle scum though.
Wellington, Perth, Newcastle are a joke and I wouldn’t worry about them. Former Wolves stalward Andy Keogh from Cabinteely is now with Perth.
So I’ll go for this being the standings at the end of the regular season:
Results from last weekend:
Melbourne Victory 4 - WSW 1
Central Coast Mariners 1 - Newcastle Scum 0
Sydney FC 1 - Melbourne Citeh 1 :rolleyes:
Perth Glory 2 - Wellington Phoenix 1 :rolleyes:
Brisbane Roar 1 - Adelaide United 2
The Mariners / Scum game was gash, but Dukey sealed it at the end with a John o’Shea like winner in the 94th minute. The Scum were sickened, so good times.
Huge win for Victory, they have a very potent strike force led by Berisha who was outstanding.
Adelaide laid down a marker, Brisbane looked tired.
David Villa scored a couple of minutes after coming on as a sub for Citeh. But the real story of that game was Damien Duff who has received universal praise for his MOTM performance, setting up Villa’s goal (which in fairness he took very well) and marauding up and down the right wing throughout.
It was great to be back at Fortress Bluetongue to watch our beloved Mariners in our picturesque setting beside the water as the sun set. We’re home again this weekend to Wellington, which will be interesting, as former Celtic legend Michael McGlinchy returns to play for Phoenix against us. I do hope none of my fellow Mariners supporters boo him and show him the respect he deserves after being such a top player for so many seasons for us.
Adelaide take on Victory, that should be tasty.
Sydney play WSW, which will be massive, as Sydney are no longer a complete and utter joke and WSW’s minds are elsewhere with the ACL final
Melbourne Citeh will have a handy training run out against the Scum, hopefully the Duffer can get on the scoresheet
Brisbane travel to Perth for a game they should win handily, if they’ve woken up yet.
This season has also seen the introduction of the FFA Cup, which has been a great success so far. Our beloved Mariners are in the semi’s, but a number of A League teams have been knocked out by semi pro opposition from the state Premier leagues. It’s realisitically the only chance we’ll have of silverware this season, as can be seen by Phil Moss picking a bizarre team for the A League game against the Scum and then 4 days later playing a full strength team against some semi pro boys from the Gold Coast. We won 5-0 (Matt Sim 4 goals in 30 minutes).
@caoimhaoin[/USER] are you going to any games? [USER=80]@The Selfish Giant have you been able to watch any of it?
[QUOTE=“Fitzy, post: 1031733, member: 236”]Results from last weekend:
Melbourne Victory 4 - WSW 1
Central Coast Mariners 1 - Newcastle Scum 0
Sydney FC 1 - Melbourne Citeh 1 :rolleyes:
Perth Glory 2 - Wellington Phoenix 1 :rolleyes:
Brisbane Roar 1 - Adelaide United 2
The Mariners / Scum game was gash, but Dukey sealed it at the end with a John o’Shea like winner in the 94th minute. The Scum were sickened, so good times.
Huge win for Victory, they have a very potent strike force led by Berisha who was outstanding.
Adelaide laid down a marker, Brisbane looked tired.
David Villa scored a couple of minutes after coming on as a sub for Citeh. But the real story of that game was Damien Duff who has received universal praise for his MOTM performance, setting up Villa’s goal (which in fairness he took very well) and marauding up and down the right wing throughout.
It was great to be back at Fortress Bluetongue to watch our beloved Mariners in our picturesque setting beside the water as the sun set. We’re home again this weekend to Wellington, which will be interesting, as former Celtic legend Michael McGlinchy returns to play for Phoenix against us. I do hope none of my fellow Mariners supporters boo him and show him the respect he deserves after being such a top player for so many seasons for us.
Adelaide take on Victory, that should be tasty.
Sydney play WSW, which will be massive, as Sydney are no longer a complete and utter joke and WSW’s minds are elsewhere with the ACL final
Melbourne Citeh will have a handy training run out against the Scum, hopefully the Duffer can get on the scoresheet
Brisbane travel to Perth for a game they should win handily, if they’ve woken up yet.
This season has also seen the introduction of the FFA Cup, which has been a great success so far. Our beloved Mariners are in the semi’s, but a number of A League teams have been knocked out by semi pro opposition from the state Premier leagues. It’s realisitically the only chance we’ll have of silverware this season, as can be seen by Phil Moss picking a bizarre team for the A League game against the Scum and then 4 days later playing a full strength team against some semi pro boys from the Gold Coast. We won 5-0 (Matt Sim 4 goals in 30 minutes).
@caoimhaoin[/USER] are you going to any games? [USER=80]@The Selfish Giant have you been able to watch any of it?[/QUOTE]
Will try and get glory and Melbourne in if they are over this side before I go.
Obviously passed his best, but Villa is some pick up. He could score 40-50 goals in this league.
[QUOTE=“The Selfish Giant, post: 1031784, member: 80”]havent been able to watch any of it but will be proudly wearing my roar jersey at 5 a side tonight
who is brisbane marquee player this year?[/QUOTE]
Broich is still the marquee, they haven’t brought anyone in from what I can see other than an Albanian bloke called Kurtishi or something. They’ve lost Berisha of course and probably more concerning, Ivan Franjic. But they still have a very good squad. In saying that, they’ll get this season max out of them, they seriously need to sign players.
[QUOTE=“caoimhaoin, post: 1031852, member: 273”]Will try and get glory and Melbourne in if they are over this side before I go.
Obviously passed his best, but Villa is some pick up. He could score 40-50 goals in this league.[/QUOTE]
Villa’s only here for 10 games Kev, as he actually plays for New York Citeh, Manchester Citeh’s American club, he’s on loan to their Australian franchise Melbourne Citeh. But he’ll score goals and lift the profile. Unfortunately I won’t see him, but I think Duff will have more impact on the field. He seems very hungry to make it work here, saying he’s not here for a holiday and wants to win silverware.
Can’t see Perth doing anything this season, especially with the depressing pommy git Kenny Lowe in charge,
[QUOTE=“Fitzy, post: 1032259, member: 236”]Villa’s only here for 10 games Kev, as he actually plays for New York Citeh, Manchester Citeh’s American club, he’s on loan to their Australian franchise Melbourne Citeh. But he’ll score goals and lift the profile. Unfortunately I won’t see him, but I think Duff will have more impact on the field. He seems very hungry to make it work here, saying he’s not here for a holiday and wants to win silverware.
Can’t see Perth doing anything this season, especially with the depressing pommy git Kenny Lowe in charge,[/QUOTE]
Soccer here is completely driven by the English, they control everything. They do a lot of good in fairness and seem to be extremely well organised from grassroots to semi-pro. After that you have a load of lads who wouldn’t be let near teams back home (England that is). They have a lot of copycat wannabes at the higher levels.
@Fitzy[/USER], Roy O’Donovan is set to sign for Central Coast Mariners. What a coup. [USER=2812]@Chucks Nwoko[/USER] and [USER=3010]@Loko Cove will be jealously seething if this deal goes through.
Sydney/Spurs ko in 15 minutes. Hard to gauge the capacity in the 80k stadium. Reporter just asked Poch if playing in front of these huge crowds would benefit the team. They’re expecting 70k apparently.
Spurs with kane, eriksen, lamela, vertonghen all starting. I’ll go with a 4-2 spurs win.
[QUOTE=“The Selfish Giant, post: 1150934, member: 80”]when shitty english teams come over and the ex pats go to watch them in numbers is a terrible reflection on australian sports
this end of season tour by the hotspurs is a terrible reflection on them[/QUOTE]
+1, mate. They’ll be whining about player fatigue and too many fixtures half way through next season. Hypocritical gimps.
