2013 A League Champions.
I know there is a few a league fans here. More than half way through the season now who do you think will take it out. Personally I think it will be the victory. I think they are just ahead of Adelaide. Perth seem to be gone off the boil. They were poor yesterday, lacked a bit going forward and seem to be missing a bit in midfield. Had to play thawite centre mid. Nebo has a great delivery but drops in and out of games. Adelaide are the best footballing team on their day but are a bit inconsistent to win it I think. Victory just seem to be the better around package. Arnold have Sydney in a better place than last year but are conceding too many goals and will probably finish in 4th or 5th so will have to do it the hard way.
Loko, welcome.
Iâd agree about Victory, theyâre the team with the most depth and despite their utter cunt of a manager, play good football and will probably win the minor premiership. Itâs the least youâd expect though from the largest and richest club in the league. theyâve done poorly in recent years but I think their new signings this year, especially Guy Finkler, Fahid Ben Khalfallah, Berisha have all been good. Archie gets younger by the day and keeps scoring and Kosta Barbarouses is a stunningly skilful player. Thereâs a tough spine there too with mark Milligan and Adrain Leijer. Canât see anyone getting close to them really in the finals.
Adelaide do play attractive football, but when will they start scoring? bruce Djite is a very good player, but they really need a Berisha type figure up there. In saying, I love watching Awil Mabil, brilliant prospect he is.
Perth have obviously taken everyone by surprise, but when you think about it, they quietly went about signing some very good players in the close season and Kenny Lowe, despite looking like something from On The Buses, is clearly a thinking man when it comes to football. They donât look as convincing at the moment as they did earlier in the season, but itâs inevitable that theyâd dip. I think theyâll be a huge threat in the finals and could well be the only ones to challenge Victory.
Sydney are brilliant one game, not great the next. Arnie is the right man for this job, but heâs probably 2 years away from the squad he wants, theyâll have a say in proceedings, but early days for a man who likeâs to build squads in his image.
After that, well take your pick. Brisbane had a horror start after winning it all last year, then selling half their squad, sacking their manager (harsh) but have come good recently under Frans Thijssen. Frans fucking thijssen. I couldnât believe that, I can clearly remember him playing for Ipswich in 1981 and then a short sojourn at my beloved Forest. Theyâre coming good, but have left it too late, next season will be good for them, IF they buy some players, as i think Broich might well leave after this season.
Wellington have gottne off to a cracker, inspired by my former hero and Celtic favourite Michael McGlinchy. Theyâve been shit recently though.
Biggest disappointment of the season - Melbourne Citeh. David Villa - he came, he saw, he lounged around for a few weeks and scored a few goals and then poof, gone like Kaiser Sose. Damien Duff has been brilliant, but season (and career?) ending injury twio weeks ago out an end to that (thankfully not before i got to see him live, got him to sign one of my Ireland shirts and got a selfie with him). In short, theyâve been shit.
I wonât talk about my beloved Mariners now, except to say itâs been a fucking disaster.
One bright note is the continued collapse of newcastle.
Western Sydney Wanderers won the Asian Champions league. they currently languish bottom of the A League, with 1 win in 16 games. Go figure.
brisbane are the only decent A league club
No where this season mate.
Finkler has been there a few years I think. Def there last year but had a very bad knee injury. Class player, bit short on pace, thatâs why he probably didnât make it in Europe. Khalfallah has been a great signing. Slow enough start but has been great since. I think Milligan is their most important player. Was excellent for Australia when Jedinak got injured. He provides a lot of cover for a back four that I donât think are great. Donât rate that Leijer fella at all.
City have been awful alright and in fairness any game I seen Duffer he was very good and certainly not just there for the pay cheque but he has very little support. Apart from Mooy who has been very good the rest are pretty poor. Koren is probably playing out of position but he has been poor.
Some interesting games this weekend. Sydney derby should be good even if Wanderers are very poor, they will surely lift it for this one. Jets and CCM another local derby. If it was on two weeks ago I would have said CCM, but Jets have been better last 2 weeks. Should have went 3 up against Phoenix when they were 2 up, if that had went in it would have been all over. Are CCM playing the second leg in China this week? Not a great betting week anyway, thatâs for sure. Find it hard to pick a winner in the rest of the games.
[QUOTE=âLoko Cove, post: 1096794, member: 3010â]Finkler has been there a few years I think. Def there last year but had a very bad knee injury. Class player, bit short on pace, thatâs why he probably didnât make it in Europe. Khalfallah has been a great signing. Slow enough start but has been great since. I think Milligan is their most important player. Was excellent for Australia when Jedinak got injured. He provides a lot of cover for a back four that I donât think are great. Donât rate that Leijer fella at all.
City have been awful alright and in fairness any game I seen Duffer he was very good and certainly not just there for the pay cheque but he has very little support. Apart from Mooy who has been very good the rest are pretty poor. Koren is probably playing out of position but he has been poor.
Some interesting games this weekend. Sydney derby should be good even if Wanderers are very poor, they will surely lift it for this one. Jets and CCM another local derby. If it was on two weeks ago I would have said CCM, but Jets have been better last 2 weeks. Should have went 3 up against Phoenix when they were 2 up, if that had went in it would have been all over. Are CCM playing the second leg in China this week? Not a great betting week anyway, thatâs for sure. Find it hard to pick a winner in the rest of the games.[/QUOTE]
No, that was a one off qualifier for CCM last week, so weâre out of the ACL.
Iâll go with the following for this weekend:
Melbourne Citeh V Adelaide - 2-2 draw, could be a highly entertaining game this one
Scum V Mariners - Mariners to win 4-2
Western Sydney V Sydney - Sydney to win 2-0
Perth Glory V Brisbane Roar - Perth to win 2-0
Melbourne Victory V Phoenix - Victory to be victorious 4-0
Wanderers and Roar both have ACL games tomorrow and will suffer, as Wanderers have to come back from Japan and Roar then have to travel to Perth. Popovic will rest a lot of players for the Sydney game (he couldnât give a shit about the A League at this stage) and Roar just donât have the strength in depth. Perth have a point to prove after recent wobbles.
After our best performance of the season, where we actually realised we were allowed to go forward with the ball and it wasnât compulsory to pass it back to the keeper, despite going down 4-2 to Sydney, Iâm hoping it will have inspired our boys to be fearless and attack. We have nothing to lose, we wonât make the finals and if youâre ever going to score goals, who better than against the scum? Hopefully that cunt Eddy Bosnar wonât be playing again.
One game knock out! thatâs ridiculous.
Agree with most of them. Canât see to many goals in city/Adelaide though. No way wanderers have the squad to go to Japan on a Wednesday and be ready for Sydney on Saturday evening, like wise for Roar. Didnât see them against ye but thought they were awful against Newcastle. Broich looks yards off his best since coming back and they never seem to go anywhere but side to side unless he gets the ball. They had endless amounts of possession in the first half against the jets but had only one shot on goal, which was a goal that came from a set piece. What is the story with Hersi for Perth. Is he injured? Donât see why they donât start that McClearn more, I think heâs a good player.
Victory should account for Phoenix with 2 to spare. Il put up my predictions and bet towards the end of the week when the squads are announced.
@Loko Cove you watching this? Great game here with citeh and Adelaide
No missed it fitz was out for dinner. Great game by all accounts. Didnât think city had that in them. Isaias must have been a big loss for Adelaide.
You going to the hunter tonight? Both teams have spent the week spicing it up. Regan had a fair cut at them on Wednesday I think it was. Should be a fiery affair.
Some day of sport. Autumn carnival getting under in caulifield, F3 derby, Sydney derby and Australia/NZ aswell.
No not going, too much on but iâll watch it on the telly. Regan is a wanker, thinks hes hard, heâs as soft as shit. Weâll hammer them.
We didnt hammer them, that was an embarrassment, utterly shit game between two utterly shit teams. We are fucking hopeless.
On the other hand there is a mad game going on in Parramatta right now with Sydney 3-1 up against the Wanderers after 35 mins. Marc Janko having a field day, but the defending on both sides is shocking.
Fucking hell, this is good stuff, 3-0 down a few minutes ago, Wanderers have pulled two back and its still the first half.
Didnât watch all the CCM game, turned it on and couldnât stick it. Horrible. What did it finish 0-0?
Some game are alright. Decent atmosphere aswell in parra. Wanderers finding it hard to cope with jankos power. Thought they were dead and buried but fair play to them. Where is spiranovic?
Yeah nil all, terrible.
I think heâs resting Spiranovic, theyâre fucked wirhout him. Apparently they have never won without him.
Doesnât surprise me. Golec is useless and Stanley looks ordinary without spiranovic
Strike!!!
Where did this lad come from
Topor-stanley has really regressed this season.