Roar Pro
Joined April 2014
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On 24 December, reports suggested the Board of Control for Cricket in India would back a bid to include cricket in the 2028 Olympic…
Shane Watson made 96 for the Chennai Super Kings yesterday. His first half-century in the IPL this year was another glorious chapter in one…
Bastian Schweinsteiger has told that world that Manchester United will be his last European club. The MLS transfer window does not open until February.…
A loss is a tragic event in this day and age – it garners hours of talkback, inches of journalist speculation, insults on social…
If Saturday night's encounter at AAMI Park was epic theatre, then one performer unquestionably took centre stage – Melbourne Victory's hot-knife-through-butter, Fahid Ben Khalfallah.…
He may be 36 and finally reduced to second banana status due to arrival of Besart Berisha, but a week after being left out…
It might have only been possible for 20 minutes, but in the end the Socceroos scored the only way they seem to know how…
It might have been forgotten in the wake of what happened after half-time, but the Melbourne Victory midfield was bossed around in the first…
If Greg Dyke of the English Football Association has his way, the overseas pathway for young Australian footballers is about to become a lot…
Call it the inevitable response to Friday's column on "Why Adelaide United will win the A-League", but the Reds aren't alone in having an…
It seems Luis Suarez has done it again. Not content with the more obscure cuisines of Serbian (Branislav Ivanovic) and Dutch (Otman Bakkal), Suarez…
Mark Bosnich is unhappy with the A-League's salary cap. A self-described 'one for dynasties', Bozza has expressed his frustration with the fact that Brisbane…
Liverpool's capitulation to Crystal Palace has left their title hopes hanging by the most slender of threads. Realistically, they were never going to win…
Australia Day, 2014 and the Melbourne Victory are in crisis. If losing 5-0 in Wellington the week before was not bad enough, they had…
The arguments that AFL is turning into a different sport are hardly new. There has been the debate that AFL is turning into rugby,…
Agree that its hard to find a guy with his work ethic – there’s been many an A-League import who seemingly expect it all to be rather easier than it is.
And yeah, there’s hundreds of Khalfallahs out there, but as a fan I’m rather fond of watching this Khalfallah and its good to have some regularity in your heroes – one of my great “what ifs?” as a Victory fan is how Fred might have taken the league by storm had he not left after season 2.
Melbourne Victory must re-sign Fahid Ben Khalfallah
Even with the cap I don’t think that’s a massive problem; if Archie retires at the end of the season there’ll be some cap room to play with.
As for a CB… as a former captain Leijer should have been on a decent wage that could be used on a better defender. Or a better defensive coach who knows how to defend set pieces!
Melbourne Victory must re-sign Fahid Ben Khalfallah
Have been hoping for years that an A-League club would eventually sign Djeparov… though for me, the ultimate Asian marquee that I would love to see in the A-League is Japan’s Yasuhito Endo. He’ll never leave Gamba Osaka, but his Riquelme-esque silkiness in the A-League would be a sight to behold.
It’s time the A-League got real about Asia
Big fan of that idea – my only caveat would be that he’s scored many more goals at Docklands. Would love a statue of him celebrating those 5 grand final goals on the concourse from Spencer St.
Archie, we're glad the A-League knew ye
Like the idea of being a legend of the A-League, Daniel – thanks for reading!
Archie, we're glad the A-League knew ye
Well there goes my planned article touting Burns, Djite and Gameiro and Asian Cup bolters…
…jokes aside, the article brings up what is part of the problem, that national team selection demands “a sort of unquestionable quality.” Looking at the squad just named, there’s not many Socceroos out there who really have that, and given recent results and an Asian Cup fast approaching, is it any wonder we’re all searching for bolters?
Why do we build them up? Our hastiness in calling for Socceroo selection
Truly it is time for Rodgers to earn his money….
…though that said, buying half a new team was always going to require a stage of adjustment as the new players adjust to Rodgers’ strategy and alternatively Rodgers has to tailor his strategy somewhat to the new arrivals. The defending is still a worry (though they’ve only conceded 1 more goal than Arsenal, 2 more than ManCity and 1 less than ManUnited) and the lack of potency without Sturridge arguably moreso. But Sturridge will return, at least some of the new signings will gel and should grow in confidence as the season goes on.
In terms of challenging for the title, that’s most certainly gone, but in terms of challenging for the top 4, Liverpool are only 2 points away from 4th spot despite playing some frankly average football, as this article says. The article assumes that United will improve, so why not Liverpool?
So just actually how good are Liverpool?
Completely agree with the second point – take the W-League for example. Sure, its not in the biggest stadiums, but there’s nothing stopping thousands of women leading the charge and packing out those stadiums on a weekly basis and supporting their team. Increased gate receipts will give the sport room to expand into bigger facilities, and in front of these extra people, heroes get their chance to shine, catching the attention of sponsors.
SALLY PEARSON: What’s it going to take to get women’s sport on the map?
I wouldn’t necessarily agree that our centre backs are looking all that assured – there’s still too many errors like Wilkinson playing the Qataris onside for their goal recently, but thats not the sort of error an extra DM would help with.
I do agree with your bewilderment that we do continue to play with 2 DMs – fortune favours the brave and considering we’re playing at home, putting a Mooy alongside Luongo/Bresciano or an extra striker up front might be the sort of daring we need. Back Jedinak in to hold it together.
But on current evidence I don’t see Ange wavering as yet.
Will Milligan be the man for the Asian Cup?
On the flipside, he’s also been the anchor for the longest streak without a clean sheet in the competition’s history – the Victory’s winning games but the Socceroos don’t have Besart Berisha, Gui Finkler or Kosta Barbarouses, alas. Granted, the Socceroos have better defenders than Adrian Leijer and a better goalie than Nathan Coe. I’m a Milligan fan and expect him to be picked, but I do wonder if there are better alternatives out there.
Though we could always bring back Archie for a bit of the old magic.
Will Milligan be the man for the Asian Cup?
I can see Finkler and Thompson being subbed for Makarounas and Pain/Nabbout in quite a few games this season
A reshaped Melbourne in pursuit of Victory
Cheers for the feedback so far, everybody.
I’ll freely admit to getting my arrangement of wingbacks wrong – I had intended for Georgievski to be RB, and obviously confused myself when writing it on paper.
And I’ll admit to being a little ignorant of how Galloway’s been travelling – I’ve found him to be a bit small and defensively suspect in the past, but he’s only a young man and will improve. So I’m happy for either him or Murnane really.
A reshaped Melbourne in pursuit of Victory
Manchester United buy a teenage left-back and a midfielder who can’t make the Spain WC squad and they already “can’t be ruled out” for the title after coming 7th?
Hope no-one else has bought anyone….
EPL transfers: Who's gone where and what does it mean?
Going back even further, might want to chuck Haydn Bunton in as well.
Greatest AFL players never to win a premiership
The pundits praising Sanogo obviously didn’t see him play 2 weeks earlier against Boreham Wood FC – by quirk of fate I was at both games (even though I’m not an Arsenal fan), and against the non-leaguers, Sanogo had an absolute shocker. Could hardly control the ball, and when he did, often fluffed his shot or failed to hit the target. Taken off at half time, he looked hardly above non-league quality.
Obviously against Benfica it ended differently, but for the first 25 minutes he again looked like he couldn’t hit the side of a barn. Of course, he then went on to joyously score four. You can praise his positioning (someone’s got to be there to put it in) but the 4 were pretty much all tap-ins, one of which he fell over backwards while scoring. As much as it was great to see, I wouldn’t be putting too much on Sanogo to be creating his own goals against the likes of Chelsea and Man City.
Yaya’s a no-go if Arsenal want to be champions
I personally think the Saints have been quite bold – they were in a grand final only in 2010, came 6th in 2011 and 9th in 2012 before plunging to the bottom, and rather than let their champions play a couple of years because they want to keep them one-club legends, they let Goddard, McEvoy and Dal Santo go whilst keeping Riewoldt, Montagna and Hayes to mentor the next bunch of draft picks.
This is only their second year of bottoming out and they’ve already got Jack Steven and Jack Billings as mids for the future, and through their next couple of years of bottom football they’ll hopefully draft some quality talls to replace Riewoldt. And I agree, some smart pickups from other clubs wouldn’t go astray.
They’re going to need some luck – they’ll want to draft the right kids, hope Alan Richardson and his team are the right group to take them forward, but I think they’ve certainly been bold.
St Kilda need to fast track their development
Maybe just a simpler “No World Cup in the hills of the Congo”?
The “sorry FIFA” strikes an oddly defiant tone, especially for an article on the severe failings of governance that have paralysed the Congo. Very interesting article though.
HOLMES A COURT: Sorry FIFA, there's no World Cup in the Congo
“Biting someone anywhere should result in the same sanction.”
Should it though? I suppose this is the crux of my curiosity – Alex Song elbows Mandzukic in the back and gets a 3 game ban, whilst Tassotti breaks a man’s nose with his elbow and gets 8. Granted, there are 20 years between the incidents, but there still seems a grading for severity. Same with Muscat on Zahra – he wouldn’t have gotten 8 weeks for a nasty challenge that didn’t require Zahra to have surgery.
Discussing this with people, we seem to reach the conclusion that biting is a mix of the unneccessary, but also the insubstantial. It seems harsh to rub a guy out for ages for something that Chiellini won’t be feeling 10 minutes later, but at the same time, its such a bizarre and against-the-spirit-of-the-game act that needs to be severely punished so it doesn’t become commonplace.
And of course Suarez is a repeat offender which makes it all the more bizarre – I like the suggestion of education. But then again, I also like the suggestion that he should wear a mouthguard so that any future nibbles just bounce off the skin.
Thanks for commenting!
Suarez saga: overdone or undercooked?
I can understand that – repeat offending should get a bigger punishment because he obviously doesn’t learn.
Out of interest, what if it was a first offender who had a brainsnap, instead of Suarez – a cleanskin like Philipp Lahm for instance?
Suarez saga: overdone or undercooked?
But Berisha is only leaving Brisbane because they already have Broich as their international marquee, and are unable to pay Berisha enough under the salary cap. Hence where the problem lies for Bozza.
Reforming the A-League salary cap, Mark Bosnich-style
Even though I don’t particularly like the guy, I’ve always thought Frank Lampard would be an ideal A-League marquee – he’s not h quickest guy in the world so the effects of age won’t be massive, he has a cracking (long-range) shot on him, can head the ball and has a terrific goalscoring record in a league with tough defenders in the EPL. His style of play, to me, would transfer better over to the A-League than a lot of continental stars.
The next issue of course being who would buy him…
What next for the next batch of A-League marquees?
Indeed it doesn’t – in fairness to myself I do state that not all teams are moving towards a tiki-taka game plan, indeed some are already acting against it. GWS’s tall timber and how they evolve are a very interesting case in point.
The Barca-fication of the AFL
On current form (though he did come off injured on Saturday night) I’d give Rostyn Griffiths a run ahead of Brattan, though considering we already have Jedinak and Milligan to go in defensive mid it’s probably not necessary to take either.
Postecoglou to introduce four new faces into winning formula