Roar Guru
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If the inaugural World Cup was held at the commencement of a worldwide economic depression, the subsequent edition came along in the middle of…
This is the first of a 15 part history of the FIFA World Cup, taking us through each iteration from 1930 to 1994. Early…
Actually, this is a good place to point out that the Victory have now equalled the exploits of the very best NSL teams by winning four championships (including the Oceania team of the century):
Sydney City/Hakoah: 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982
Marconi Stallions: 1979, 1988, 1989, 1992–93
South Melbourne: 1984, 1990–91, 1997–98, 1998–99
Melbourne Victory: 2006–07, 2008–09, 2014–15, 2017-18
Forget the VAR controversy, the better team won
The history books will show that a team did win.
Forget the VAR controversy, the better team won
Respecting your history is very important, and no other place in Australia epitomises the history of the game moreso than Newcastle, but if we are truthful, the FFA and A-League were both established upon the foundation stone of complete and utter disrespect for the history of the game.
Also, it might give us a warm, fuzzy feeling to dominate regional cities such as Newcastle, Gosford, maybe Wollongong, Townsville, Queanbeyan and Morwell, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t get you diddlysquat.
Newcastle shows the power of positivity in football
Actually, I’d put it on par with the 2014 squad.
Bert's buying time to figure out his Socceroos strike force
Speaking of young players, it’s Norman Whiteside’s birthday today, the youngest player to ever appear in a WC.
Bert's buying time to figure out his Socceroos strike force
He’d reach the far post with a two metre advantage.
The best thing about the 2017-18 A-League season is that it's over
Listening to David Davutovich today on SEN, learned that Karacic has never set foot in Australia.
It probably means that he has received a very good football education in his short 21 year life (in fact, Lambertus intimated as much in his presser today).
Bert's buying time to figure out his Socceroos strike force
I agree that to finish 3rd in that group would constitute an A (maybe a B+).
We should temper expectations. When two of your players are playing with Millwall, that’s a sure sign that our team is well, well short of quality.
Bert's buying time to figure out his Socceroos strike force
Well, it’s certainly laudable, but I wouldn’t describe it as amazing.
Bert's buying time to figure out his Socceroos strike force
Good assessment. The only thing I wonder about is whether there’s space in the squad for Lambertus to gamble on both Timmy and Arzani (both a gamble for different reasons).
Bert's buying time to figure out his Socceroos strike force
So of the nine spots to be cut in time for the WC, six will be attackers. Sounds about right.
Quote: “The nine are Tomi Juric, Matthew Leckie, Tim Cahill, Daniel Arzani, Jamie Maclaren, Andrew Nabbout, Dimi Petratos, Nikita Rukavytsya and Apostolos Giannou. ”
So if Juric and Leckie are in, only one of the other seven makes it.
Fair assessment.
We can whittle it down even further: Giannou, Ruka and Nabbout won’t be there. Petratos is hanging by a thread, Maclaren with a bit more of a chance, and then both Cahill and Arzani present big risks, being at the polar extremes of their respective careers.
Bert's buying time to figure out his Socceroos strike force
Amongst those most likely to miss:
Langerak
Brillante
Troisi
Ruka
Giannou
Nabbout
They’re the easy ones, and then it’s a matter of selecting three more.
My guess: Lambertus can only take one of Timmy or Arzani, both at opposite ends of their career and both carrying different risks. I understand they have different roles, especially at this stage of Timmy’s career, but you can’t carry that much risk in a 23 man squad.
Out of necessity, he is going to give Karacic every chance to prove he can play at this level, but remains a big if.
I find it hard to believe that Lambertus would be swayed by Meredith’s form with Millwall.
And: Lambertus will have to whittle down the number of defenders. Degenek might make it through because he can also cover at right-back.
Socceroos release 32-man World Cup squad
And Roberto Valeri from Melbourne was running the other line.
The best thing about the 2017-18 A-League season is that it's over
there’s already a thread up
The best thing about the 2017-18 A-League season is that it's over
There is truth in that, but we all know that managers are constantly looking at ways to exploit the rules to their advantage, and that would be just one of many, many (and we can never hope to change that situation).
The best thing about the 2017-18 A-League season is that it's over
The 32-man list is probably in keeping with most expectations, Karacic probably the big bolter.
Unfortunately, about half of this squad is borderline ready to play in a WC.
You look through clubs, in the hope of finding players regularly playing at a high level, and such representation is rare indeed in this list.
For goodness sake, Millwall is represented with two players in the squad. Is this what it’s come to??
Socceroos release 32-man World Cup squad
Just listened to Lambertus’ presser on Fox. He’s worth a try, even if he’s probably not quite ready now (big jump to go from Croatian U21 league to the WC).
Socceroos release 32-man World Cup squad
It’s only half of last year if we are comparing to the penalty shoot-out, which had separate ratings to the main game, that’s not really a fair comparison.
FFA confirms VAR got it wrong
Once the ref blows his whistle and the game starts, the “league” is not involved, whatever happens next, happens. Sometimes it’s a good game, sometimes it’s average, other times it might be a poor game.
For what it’s worth, the 25 minutes which followed the goal were actually quite exciting and entertaining.
Everyone just seems to remember that the Victory successfully closed up shop in the 2nd half and the Jets were not able to offer much from then on.
But it would be incorrect to say the whole 90 minutes were like that.
The best thing about the 2017-18 A-League season is that it's over
As they say, five months is a long time in football.
The best thing about the 2017-18 A-League season is that it's over
But it’s only relevant if Donachie is actually offside.
All teams use the ploy of having players in an offside position during a free kick who is not going to receive the ball, but which puts the defenders in two minds.
The best thing about the 2017-18 A-League season is that it's over
Good post Buddy, agree entirely.
Re the early attacking formations, some might argue this was the pure form of the game before professional pragmatism took over.
You would have noted I’ve tried to be as brief as possible, so there’s plenty I could have gone into. One extra bit I thought about was giving the readers a taste of how good (and attacking) Uruguay was through their Olympic campaigns, often scoring six or seven goals.
Even in the 1930 WC, they defeated Romania 4:0 in the group stage and defeated Yugoslavia 6:1 in the semi final (noting that Yugoslavia was good enough to defeat Brazil in the group stage).
La Coupe du monde - part I
It could all be a case of making promises which are impossible to keep.
Things would perhaps have been better if used sparingly, and only to help clarify line-ball decisions – but where the decision has actually been made, so that it stands if the video evidence is inconclusive.
It could certainly be used in such a way that it would help reduce the glaring errors.
In that scenario, the ref would only go to VAR with the words: I’ve made this call, but just want to check this one thing…. and the VAR would only overturn a decision if it found that that one thing did occur.
The best thing about the 2017-18 A-League season is that it's over
Fadida
A touch of realism and understranding never goes astray.
I agree with the central point that Newcastle represents the cradle of the game within Australia (perhaps even within Australasia).
But before we get too giddy about the FFA and the A-League paying respect to the history of the game, we have to appreciate that the establishment of both the FFA and the A-League, of itself, was an act of complete and utter disrespect for the history of the game in Australia, both in its imagining and the process of establishment.
Newcastle shows the power of positivity in football