Four positives from Adelaide United’s 4-0 defeat
Roar Guru By dasilva, 16 Feb 2009 dasilva is a Roar Guru
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- ACL, Adelaide United, football, grand final, Kevin Muscat, Melbourne Victory, Queensland Roar
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Adelaide United lost 4-0 to Melbourne Victory and 6-0 on aggregate. We had Cassio, a key player, sent off and we have to play a red-hot Queensland Roar to qualify for the ACL 2010 and force a rematch with Melbourne Victory in the grand final.
Things are looking very grim for Adelaide United fans but before we start to fret, I will be an optimist and try to find four positives gained from the 4-0 thrashing.
Firstly, we learn that Adelaide United is a very charitable side. Despite the tense rivalry between Melbourne and Adelaide, we don’t take this rivalry to the extreme.
Victoria is now suffering a terrible disaster with the bushfires. Morale is low and a Melbourne victory may bring some sort of solace or happiness to the people in Victoria similar to how the West Indies winning the Champions Trophy in cricket brought some happiness to the islands suffering from Hurricanes Ivan or the Iraq football team bought a moment of happiness to the people in a war-torn country by winning the Asia Cup.
That was the reason for the poor performance, isn’t it Viddie?
Secondly, we are actually the best side in Australia. It’s only the tough schedule due to the ACL and the Club World Championship that’s causing this drop of form.
It doesn’t matter if we lose against Queensland or that we will suffer a 10-0 hammering in the A-league final. We have a ready-made excuse to explain any poor performance. We were the first Australian team to reach the ACL final, we finish fifth in the Club World Championship. Therefore, we are the 2nd best side in Asia, 5th best side in the world and hence we are the best team in Australia. It’s irrefutable logic.
So whenever we fail to close down a player, misplace a pass, selection mistakes, missing an open goal or have a player like Cassio getting sent off, we can just say that it was all due to the tough schedule as in reality, we are the best team in Australia.
Thirdly, Kevin Muscat fouled Scott Jamieson and then needlessly stepped on him repeatedly. The referee conveniently missed it again. You see, we have a villain and a scapegoat for all our problems. Whenever we lose to Melbourne Victory, we can just keep on complaining that Muskie is a thug and should have been sent off.
The last reason to remain positive about this defeat is that it’s not over yet and we are only two victories away from winning the Championship.
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February 17th 2009 @ 1:07pm
Pippinu said | February 17th 2009 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
I rather like the idea – it’s a neat solution to what was inevitably going to become a problem as the comp expanded. They have simply done it one year earlier than the 12 team comp.
We don’t have to compare anything to anything – these are the facts:
1. top team wins the premiership and automatic entry into the ACL – a big deal in anyone’s language;
2. we then have an intense 4 week period of finals to determine the Champion (and as we’ve seen, this isn’t for the meek and mild, it’s high pressure all the way). Whichever team is left standing deserves the toilet seat, and to be honets – who cares how many teams participate in this? 4, 6 or 8, it doesn’t matter!
Under the proposed system, possies 1 and 2 get a big advantage, and that’s proper. Positions 3 to 6 give their fans a bit of hope for some glory – maybe even making it through to the grand final (where that on its own might be enough to get you ACL entry in most years).
February 17th 2009 @ 1:10pm
Slippery Jim said | February 17th 2009 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
“I rather like the idea”
The one about removing the crossbar?
February 17th 2009 @ 1:17pm
Pippinu said | February 17th 2009 @ 1:17pm | Report comment
Don’t remove it entirely, but maybe make it one metre higher – now that would be interesting!
February 17th 2009 @ 1:21pm
Kazama said | February 17th 2009 @ 1:21pm | Report comment
Well, why not throw all ten teams into the hat for the finals. Maybe we can have a situation like in the VFL where a team (Fitzroy, I think, during WWI) won the spoon and the flag in the same season.
Or, maybe we could have a finals series with a degree of credibility where only the best sides over 27 games get to play off for the toilet seat.
I always thought the finals were about showcasing the top teams, not giving the average ones a chance to steal in at the last minute.
Maybe next they’ll bring in Powerplays, where outfield players can use their hands for a five minute period.
February 17th 2009 @ 1:39pm
Pippinu said | February 17th 2009 @ 1:39pm | Report comment
Kaz
can’t throw in all the teams – 10 is too hard a number!
But in a 16 team comp, you could have first plays 16th, knock out all the way, right down to the last two – why not?
The advantage comes from finishing top following the regular season (for which we have already given some silverware).
After that, you prove yourself again in the cut throat, high pressure, winner takes all knock out finals – only the very best survive that – only very occasionally will a team emerge outside of the top 4 or 5 who will sneak home with the ultimate prize – and if that happens – good on them!
February 17th 2009 @ 1:48pm
Kazama said | February 17th 2009 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
In all seriousness, how is the new system going to work? Are we going to have 1st play second over two legs while in one-offs 3rd plays 6th and 4th plays 5th then the two winners play off the following week for the right to face the loser of 1st vs 2nd in the prelim and the winner meets the winner of 1st vs 2nd in the grand final?
So week one would be: 2nd vs 1st (Major semi final 1st leg); 3rd vs 6th (elimination final 1); 4th vs 5th (elimination final 2)
week two: 1st vs 2nd (Major semi final 2nd leg); 3rd/6th vs 4th/5th (minor semi final)
week three: loser major semi vs winner minor semi (preliminary final)
week four: winner major semi vs winner preliminary final (grand final)
February 17th 2009 @ 1:54pm
Pippinu said | February 17th 2009 @ 1:54pm | Report comment
When one dismantles this whole business about:
1. how you determine the best team; and
2. if it is to be done by finals, how best to do that,
one quickly discovers that there is no stand out way, there is no right or wrong way, rather, there are a myriad of possibilities, each with strenghts and weaknesses.
Now the purists will say that first past the post after everyone has played each other twice is the way to go.
Maybe it is – but when I dismantle this seemingly logical and intuitively appealing method, I ask myself the following:
1. Should the championship be decdided after 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 2 years or even 4 years?
2. Why only play each other twice? Why not 4 or 6 times, or even 10 times. Why is playing each twice necessarily the magical number?
3. The fact that everyone playing each other twice home and away being the fairest system, can be a bit of an illusion at times. Teams play each other facing different circumstances throughout a 10 month season, in other words, 3 points earned is not always necessarily the equal of another 3 points earned (in terms of the circumstances facing particular sides at a given moment during the season).
4. It’s human nature, in a tight traditional championship race, to focus solely on what happens in that last round of matches, i.e. almost treating the last round of matches as quasi-finals – absolutely ignoring what’s happened in the remainder of the season.
So I repeat, first past the post is a very good system – but it’s wrong to think it’s the only viable option – it’s not. The fastest man on Earth is whoeve wins the 100m at the Olympics, a one off race – it’s just as legitimate determining the football champion from a one off match.
Back to our question in our local context – if we already have a major piece of silverware for finishing first (which we do), then what’s it matter how many teams enter the finals after the home and away season to battle it out for the 2nd major piece of silverware?
February 17th 2009 @ 1:57pm
Pippinu said | February 17th 2009 @ 1:57pm | Report comment
Kaz
I think that’s precisely how it’s going to work. First and 2nd get two shots at each other, while 3rd to 6th reduce to one over the course of the two weeks.
So you get 3 finals in week one, two in week two and one in each of the final weeks.
I think it’s a very neat system, and a neat solution to moving away from a top 4 which was always going to need a creative solution – I think they have found it.
Well done FFA.
February 17th 2009 @ 2:13pm
Towser said | February 17th 2009 @ 2:13pm | Report comment
Pippinu
You asked many questions there of the first past the post system.Like many aspects of life you can pose the question why this why that no doubt.
However I ask you one simple question re FPTP “Why in its traditional format has it been so succesful ?”.
When I was growing up on English Football the First Division was much more even in terms of who won. A far cry from the EPL where as you know its generally a 4 horse race week in week out. Yet crowds are not affected by this.
The reason it has been so succesful is because its what you grew up with. The same as the finals system in Australia(which by the way I am perfectly comfortable with & would not accept the FPTP system here).
So in either case FPTP or FS I agree that tinkering with the format is irrelevant,its what you grow up with ,come to expect that determines interest not formats
February 17th 2009 @ 2:20pm
Pippinu said | February 17th 2009 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
Kaz
congrats on picking up a job in the MLS – Sacromento was it? and are you still doing the UAE gig – how are they going.
I imagine the more you come across unfamiliar names, the harder the game gets because you have to check each player out carefully one at a time.
I’m about mid way through my 3rd season and I’m desperately trying to keep up with CCM to win my first ever premiership. Absolutely every game has me stressed out of my mind!
Would you believe that the other night I won the ACL, and I came up against the Roar of all teams and won 1-0 on aggregate! So tonight I think I’m in the WCC which should be exciting. It wasn’t all that difficult progressing through the rounds, my toughest encounter was in the semis agaisnt Suwon – that was a really stressful tie!
As the Nix manager, we won the pre-season cup – our first ever silverware! We’re actually going ok, sitting in 3rd behind CCM and the Victory, so I’m hoping I can at least do one better than our 4th place finish last season.
One thing I’ve noticed into my 3rd season is that there are stacks of 17 year old kids with mega skills! I imagine they’re all machine generated, but there are some pretty good young players to pick up if you look hard enough.
Another thing that I did, I sold John McKain to Zenit for a small fortune, and I weaved in the clause about arranging a friendly. Anyway, I forgot all about it, and then they organise this friendly in between a stack of friendlies I already had organised, with two days either side.
They absolutely thrached me 5-0, my biggest defeat ever – but it was interesting playing them because they used a formation I had never seen (in the A-League, you basically only ever see the same formations over and over, with some minor variations), whereas these guys came up with something completely different – I’ve pinched it, but it clearly only works when you have the upper hand in playing strength – it’s a very attack minded formation, almost looks like an arrow head!