Teenage sensations star as A-League All Stars give Barcelona almighty fright

Correct. The more of these kinds of "exhibitions" that get put on in Australia, the better for the game. It is salient to point out that association football is both the oldest and most widely played football code in the country, but until the last 20 years, it might as well have not existed for all the coverage there was. Now that we have teams capable of attracting drawcards like Barca and United to our shores, I can only see the sky from here. Plus, who wouldn't want to get out for the chance to see players in person that you otherwise would only get to see through a tv or computer screen?

Australian soccer is now as world-class as it is elsewhere and for anyone to think we are still the outsiders of yesteryear must've been living under a rock for the past 20 years. Especially since we didn't finish the 2008 World Cup in the quarterfinals only going down 1-0 to 4-time champions Italy by being second-rate. Australia is now a regular visitor to world cups and that doesn't come from nothing. No major successes at that level yet but in time, as long as the commitment and pathways to success remain and continue to improve, I have no doubt that one-day Australia will make a grand final. Thanks to the very strong development programs that have been put in place by responsible management decisions over the period backed by solid financial investment, our domestic competition is high-quality enough to compete on equal footing with the giants of European football in clubs like Barca and United, who have toured down under, as well as producing national sides capable of victory over historically much more successful nations like England and Japan. Take Australian teams lightly at your own peril.

absolutely LH, if the football during the finals series was not enough to grab the attention of a few Eurosnobs, then they know nothing about football.. Keep the faith football supporters

Ahhhhh, that game proved the A-League is anything but dead, in fact it proved the opposite. Any plonker who says the A-League is rubbish, any Eurosnob who thumbs their nose at our football is either unconscious or in possession of the the football knowledge of a brick. That game was the biggest advertise ment for our game you can possibly get.

i know someone is going to say it, and with full acknowledgement for the fact that it was a friendly and it was Barcelona (and that's from someone who is so totally over European football), but what an indication of the trajectory of our game. You would have to be a lump of 4x2 or an NRL player not to understand that we are building something. the sheer audacity of a 16 year old who takes on the spanish defence single handedly and almost scores shows our coaches are building fearless, skilled and hungry footballers.

Antonis when he was in u20 he played 5 full matches in 9 days and was all over the park in all of them. Irvine he got a muscle injury in the 5th game. Every youth tournament now has a crowded schedule. What is happening in Adelaide is a mystery, weird drugs, how you cant play more than 10 minutes a week is beyond reason. Along with all these pathetic mysterious excuses about young bodies growing pains etc.

Henry came back to Arsenal wearing the 12 jersey because 14 was taken by Walcott as well as his 40m record which was set when Henry was a lot older though. Henry would have been a great sprinter as well if he ever bothered to over 100m better than Walcott though.

I personally am the same as you. I follow two A League teams because I live here. I have zero connection to any EPL or big league team. No emotional connection whatsover and would never wear a shirt. However, I can celebrate an exhibition of good football. And as a sports fan you take sides. I like how L/Pool play so I want them to win the CL. I would go and see a big team that plays here as long as (1) they play their best players and (2) I enjoy the style of football. But whether they win or lose or not ... meh. I was properly annoyed when Victory got knocked out on the other hand.

Different kinds of injuries though. NRL injuries are typically from tackle impact so the pitch is less of an issue. And yes, they are tough. They have to be tough to get to the NRL. But you also have a smaller sample size. It is well known that young footballers are succesptible to soft tissue injuries just from running around and playing the game. That is, the demands of the game and the environment lead to injuries, as opposed to a particular incident (like a tackle).

Good idea. I'd almost be happy if it was the same team each time. Build a bit of history around what is basically an exhibition. I was very against the All Stars idea, preferred them to play one of the teams, but all told this was done so well (helped that Barca played a good side) that it can only be viewed as a success

It depends what your talking about the A-league isnt struggling in standard, its struggling in terms of media attention in comparison to the previous season, as we saw the quality on display against Barcelona. It also shows what a thick head Arnold is not having Caceres in the Socceroos.

Javi Lopez has been good in attack playing on his right side, as opposed to the left where he was useless and a mystery what he was doing. You said he played centrally , he was always a right sided player in La Liga shows how much you know. Defence however he would be dead easy to beat if he didnt grab on to players. Even then despite this players like Folami made mince meat of him, and his friend Isaias who is there to grab on if Lopez fails. Isaias back to his usual tactics against Barcelona except they were too strong for him. Grant you said had a woeful season, biggest garbage statement on this forum. Grant has played well this season for everyone, including the Socceroos and All Stars. Your just eyeing his right back spot at the Socceroos.

this is the problem with fan votes, its voted for by fans and voting can easily be skewed by a large fan base (eg sydney) remove the grandfinalist players and look at who the fans chose: Rhyan Grant - woeful season Jason Davidson - very good season Adama Traore - woeful season Daniel Penha - best overall import in the league Anthony Caceres - about the only sydney player to hold his head up high this season Milos Ninkovic - woeful season Beka Mikeltadze - best import forward in the league - didnt play injured Craig Goodwin - best australian attacking player in the league - didnt play injured then look at the rest chosen by dwight yorke, his assistants and Greg O'Rourke. Filip Kurto - woeful season Andrew Redmayne - woeful season Adrian Mariappa - woeful season Scott Neville - solid season Kye Rowles - solid season Alexandar Popovic - great half season, debateable inclusion Jack Rodwell - woeful season Jake Brimmer - great season, best Australian midfielder in the comp - didnt play injured Isaias - solid season Jay O'Shea - solid season Reno Piscopo – debateable inclusion Callum Timmins – debatable inclusion Jason Cummings - great half season Garang Kuol - great half season Nestroy Irankunda - debateable inclusion oliver boumal - debateable inclusion glaring omissions = javi lopez, joe gauci, oli sail, mark birighitti, lewis miller, debatel omissions = josh Rawlins, kai trewin far too many players were selected in the fan vote from teams that didn’t make the 6 and have large supporters bases able to vote (Sydney and wanderers) the list chosen by yorke and o’rourke is equally bad, with a lot of players chosen from teams who performed poorly throughout

They had four games where their defence let them down badly, three scored against in each of those games. That skews the statistic you quote somewhat. Look at their last eight matches when their team was more settled (regards injuries), mostly against 'finals' clubs, seven goals against and six of those in just three of the matches. Roar had a problem at Left back for much of the season with injuries. They experimented and had to make do quite a bit, with a shuffled back line.

Roar bias maybe, but their defensive record throughout the season speaks for itself. Only reason for selecting any of the SFC players was location, certainly not performance.

I agree Grant and Redders shouldn't have been there. Having said that I thought Ryan played really well. Redders continued his poor season. Jamie Young definitely should have been there second half.

thats the joy of opinions. unfortunately the stats wont back that opinion up, brisbane had the 7th best defence - which means that defensively they werent that tight

grant definitely didnt deserve to be there or continually be selected for the soceroos. statistically the best right back in the a league was javi lopez, lewis miller was the neutrals choice for best right back and jason geria also had a much better season than grant. redmayne falls in the same category as grant in terms of shouldn't have been selected, birighitti was the best gk and joe gauci best young player. milos ninkovic also didnt deserve his place, purely was a sentimental pick

One of the pleasing things about the crowd was how they responded with excitement when the All Stars scored or when say Kuol, Caceres or Piscopo displayed some handy skill. It was pleasing to see that even though there were a shedload of Barca shirts, the people recongised quality on both sides. It's not often that I've witnessed this during an exhibition game like this. Maybe a turning point? Just a little?

Absolutely. Part of doing this "right" (in my opinion would be to schedule it yearly and at the same time each year rather than just when the APL needs a pay day. Almost like an end of season rep match. This match is a point of difference to NRL/AFL and something they are simply unable to do themselves.