Sydney FC outclassed by EPL's Newcastle

Well done Al good stuff..

Got my SFC membership today and I cant wait for the season to start

Things are getting pretty close to a done deal from what I'm reading on Austrian media.

@Arto Trust me on this one. Janko is still in the peak of his career. The only reason he hasn't had much of a look-in at Trabzonspor is down to in house stuff. He's top pedigree and a goal machine. His CV speaks for itself.

For days during the last pre-season Perth were talking about unveiling an 'Italian marquee' which most assumed was an Italian footballer who would act as their foreign marquee for the season. Instead they announced an Italian shirt maker as their official sponsor. Some found it funny. I didn't.

What was the Italian Marquee story?

AZ the Glory aren't surface snobs the place they have to train at here in Perth isn't exactly Melwood so there is obviously more to it than meets the eye.

No worries Arto, I'm from Sydney myself and was very disappointed with the performance against Newcastle. Yes, there were plenty of excuses, mitigating circumstances and Arnold is playing around with formations and selections, but there was some very worrying things and bottom line is the team is not playing any attractive football that would make me spend money and travel with the family all the way into East Sydney to watch them. To be honest, my mate has just about talked me into jumping ship and following the Wanderers instead. I have an interest in both Sydney teams at the moment.

Wasn't able to make it to Campbelltown tonight for WSW v Macarthur. 1-0 win to WSW in the end. We used 24 different players i think including half a dozen or so teenagers and our recent acquisition Vitor Saba. Goal came from Santalab with a shot from outside the box. Off to Canberra next week. Really, tonight was more about our fallen brother, Jack O'Brien. We'll go into the new season with great sadness in our hearts.

I guess its good for the player to further their career overseas, but I'd like Franjic to stay, he is good value for the Roar and the A-League and why would you go to Russia now anyway? He's sown up a Socceroos starting spot, so he doesn't need to go overseas, especially with an Asian Cup coming up. The Asian Cup is not a FIFA sanctioned tournament and Russian clubs are notorious for not releasing their players.

@ Brian Orange: Not meaning to pick on you (as I've argued against your view in some other threads), but it seems we have quite a different view of things football! :-) All the talk from Arnold before this game was that he's not interested in the result and he's just working on the structure of the side and the progress he wants made from that perspective. Of course a win is better than a loss and I'm not going to use the mitigating circumstances as an excuse as you are somewhat right (IMO) regarding SFC having previous for imploding when things don't work out (although that was more so under the time of Ian Crook & Frank Farina than during other periods). My main point is, there is still another 3 wks until the FFA Cup game (against arguably an equally unknown quantity in MC) and then another TWO MONTHS AFTER that before HAL Season 10 kicks off so this result like any 1 off game will have very little to do with how we go this season. I didn't get excited about the 5-1 result vs Macarthur Rams (who WSW beat 2-0 this evening) last week & I'm not gettig down about 0-4 vs Newcastle United this week.

As far as I'm aware there are a number of other fields surrounding Belmore Showground which may be of a lower quality but still can't be too bad for a warm up. I wonder if Perth will provide anymore explanation or just wait til it dies down. Not as bad as the 'Italian marquee' incident from last pre-season.

Since Cantebury Bulldogs NRL team moved their home ground to ANZ, Belmore Oval has had a million dollar upgrade and a nice practice pitch, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Even if they had a 10 minute warm up on the main pitch before kickoff. Seems strange that they not play at all.

@ AZ_RBB: I think the midfield of SFC will be ok this year... A fully fit Antonis having improved over the past 2 years hopefully takes further steps and can dominate the HAL. Triantis or Grant are 2 good young DM's who can act as the shield needed in front of the Back 4, Dimitrijevic has shown he's a class act in the HAL (look at SFC's performances when he's on the pitch contra those when he's not!), so that 3-man midfield has enough balance & potential tosuceed, IMO. Plus, there's Abbas, Carle, & Gligor there as back-up so I think Arnold will have enough options there to win the midfield battle in most games (if the players play their best!) ;-) In general, though, it will be interesting to see how the team takes to life after ADP! @ The Minister: I think Brosque will be a good signing for SFC and he's always been a good finisher from crosses, so I'm more interested in whether Janko is on par with Despotovic (IMO, an ok target-man, but nothing special)? Or whether he's more like Sergio van Dijk was in his glory days (arguably the most successful target-man in the HAL).

Well that's different.Im not sure how big the area behind the goal is at Olympics ground but generally its not big enough for an u 9's team to properly prepare let alone an A-League team.If Perth Glory's coaching staff or the players themsleves didn't feel they could properly warm up for the game they made the right decision and any team in the A_league would do the same. The big mystery is what agreements were made prior and I doubt we'll get any answers there.

@ The Minister: Glad to hear your optimism as a fellow SFC fan! :-) I am a bit worried though that he may have his best years behind him - the last 2 seasons don't seem much to shout about (although playing in both Portugal & Turkey is no easy thing, I must admit). I'm tending to side with AZ_RBB on this one - and the other names Arnold has mentioned also make me worried ("Shola Ameobi, Guillaume Hoarau, Bobby Zamora, Louis Saha, Eduardo") as they are all a fews on from their glory days...

What an embarassment. Its a practice match for goodness sake get your head out of your a$$es. Perth Glory - what are you thinking.

+1! I agree 100% with you on this one, @ AZ_RBB... :-)

@ AZ_RBB: Arnold has publicly stated he wants 2 players for every position, hence why he's going for another striker after signing Brosque, Ibini & Smeltz. I was also thinking they had enough, but they've also cut a lot of players from last year's side who Arnold obviously didn't rate - Chianese, Despotovic & Malia to name just the forwards. There's still Gameiro there, but it's hard to see him getting much game time if those 3 mentioned above plus a "marquee" forward are all available to play. Given what SFC have said regarding finding a marquee player, I'm expecting them to play a 4-3-3 although I'm not sure what Arnold's favoured formation is - from memory CCM have tended to play a similar type of game to WSW just without the likes of Hersi or Ono who added a bit more flair to the style of play... My starting XI so far: (4-3-3) GK: Janjetovic DF: Bojic, Ognenovski, Petokovic, Gersbach/Jurman MD: Triantis/Grant, Dimitrijevic, Antonis AT: Ibini, "Marquee", Brosque If those guys play to their potential, then that's a Top 4 side for me as there's still Carle, Smeltz, Ryall & Abbas (as well as the non-selected alternative in my XI) on the bench to push the starters for their place in the side.

God bless Perth Glory. Bringing the pre season lolz since 1999.