A-league 09

So the new season kicked off on friday night with the mariners upsetting title favourites Melbourne 2-0 at home and last night Adelide scrapped home 1-0 over a pretty average glory.

today will see the first matches for the new team in the league with the robbie fowler captained North Queensland taking on Sydney.

NQ have had a pretty weak pre season only recording 2 ordinary wins, scoring 5 goals and letting in 15.
thumped 4-0 twice against Brisbane and Sydney, i dont see them having much hope in this first season, thou they do have some great young talent in David Williams.

The Nix taking on the jets away on sunday will be tough, both teams have been written off and are favorites to battle for the spoon, i dont see it happening.

the jets are going with be without Griffiths but they havea team full with ACL experience. the nix, have lost their 2 best performers in Smeltz and Moss, but have picked up some handy players in Diego, Ifill and Greenarce, weather or not they are going to work in the a-league is yet to be known,

The league has now gone to top 6 for the playoffs..

Nix to finish 4th.

bad start to the same saw the boys down 2-0

but have battled back and had the best of the half to bring it back to 2-2 at HT

Sigmound and Greenarce the scorers :>

bring on the 2nd!

weak midfield letting the team down, poor passing and option taking, lucky not to be down at the moment.

really need daniel or diago out there

Ifill was at Crystal Palace last season so I saw him play quite a bit down at Selhurst Park... Extremely inconsistent and his hamstrings are made of cotton.

good to see we got a couple of goals away, even if one was a howler but the keeper

idk Zeniff. 4th? You tend to be fairly over optimistic of the Kingz/Pheonix. Im not convinced we recruited well and Herbert shouldnt really be All Whites coach AND Pheonix ....and will have his distractions this season. Im going to be more of less happy with anything that is JUST missing the play offs/just making it

told you zenny ... i fucken told you!

fuken shane smeltz 4 goals last night against the fury!

quality goals aswell

why oh why did i bench him in fantasy

perth for the nix today, nothing but a win will be expected.

http://eurorivals.net/highlights/gold-coast_v_north-queensland-fury_20090815.html

what a screamer from bertos

great goal from Ifman

defence is still a major worry, and we were very lucky to come away with that win....

ifill rather

Ifill's goal was all class. Better than any of Smeltz's goals.

came away with a 1-1 draw with the roar tonight, grear result as we usually struggle against the roar.

We did struggle....

were you watching the same game?

Nix were quite dominate for 70mins... and were unlucky not to go up a few times in 2nd half once they pushed Ifill up.


Only time Roar were in game were 1st 20mins but dropped off for the rest of the game

Did you watch both halves?

:>


Pretty lackluster first half from the 'Nix both on attack and defense.

In 1st 20mins I would agree, think that was more the heat that got to them IMO

Leveled out, and they were pretty good for the 2nd part of first half and 2nd half.

0-0 at half time with sydney.

have a have a great record against SFC especially at away.

have only caught the match from the 35th

6-0

holy smokes!

2nd half was amazing! great stuff!

Where did you guys watch the biggest win by an NZ team in an Aussie football league ever?

I was watching from the Fever Zone in the Caketin

awesome

great bounce back win from the boys tonight after the disapointment of the Sydney game!

now 6th on the Table.

Perth at home this sunday victory will take us up to 5th or even 4th

That touch from Barbarouses for the Ifill goal was pure class.

What a goal from Dadi... awesome debut

Home playoff game secured, Gold Coast thrashed, eat a dick you Judas cunt Shane Smeltz. Who are ya? Who are ya?

easy on Smeltz, we want him to be on top form in the WC for the AWs

Then he should shut his whore mouth and not mouth off about a team that his beaten his side every time they've played them.

ZOMG how awesome is Paul Ifill , srsly

Penalties!

a bit off topic, but AWs have secured a farewell game with Aussies at MCG on May 24!

who's going?

He was a Crystal Palace player last season and I went to quite a few of their home games, for me it really shows the difference between the A-League and the English. Palace are in the Championship (second tier) and he was nothing more than an average Championship level player every time I saw him play, flashes of occassional brilliance but nothing like he is now. From an average Championship player to arguably the best player in league, certainly the best import and the player who has made the biggest impact. I didn't realise the A-League was such an almight step down until I saw Ifill start tearing it up. TBF his hamstring was a bit dodgey when he was at Palace so only playing one game a week has probably helped him in that regard thus allowing him to play at full fitness.

Massive year for NZ football! 24,000 record crowd as well!

Pity they make no money off play off games... the chch game with a 20 odd thousand would of lined coffers though.

None at all? I would have guessed it would follow standard football cup rules where both teams split the gate receipts 50/50.

Nope, Football Federation Australia runs all playoff matches

Tthink quoted as saying;

" it pays for everything, takes the risk, and keeps the revenue"

No prize money for winning comp either

Even if they don't get money from the ticket sales they'll still be benefiting from it. All those people purchasing their Phoenix shirts and merchandise to wear at the games etc has gotta help.

gloryhunters aren't a benefit

Depends vadz, if they're hometown glory hunters and have such a good time they buy a season ticket next season then they are helping the club.

Sold out a week beforehand, great news.

And a 10 year licence extension, no doubt influenced by the Phoenix having the biggest playoff crowd in the first week, which looks like continuing next weekend.

Has not been finalised yet... just recommended to Fifa... should hopefully be approved unless asia keeps having tantys

The fact the Aussie are willing to back us and fight for the club to stay against the Asian Confederation (AFC) is crucial though. FIFA are supportive of us as well as they recognise that we have professional league here and ultimately they want football to be stronger in every country. It's only the AFC that's opposed, well in reality we only know the president is opposed as he has said so openly. But the fact that FFA are willing to stand up to them and FIFA are willing to back us puts us in a very good position.

bloody amazing game of football, 1-1 after 90 minutes and then 3-1

we had so many chance to put it off, credit to Newcastle they hung in and could have had more than one goal themselves

gripping and epic, right down to the wire (minus PK)

bring on next week

think i lost my voice yelling too much at Fox's

go Nix!

Amazing?



gc.

Was definitely a stunning game. So much happened in what everyone expected to be a boring grind. Needs more football watching to develop a full appreciation, SMF <:

yes what else would you call it?

this is coming from a loyal Chelsea fan

Great finish, for sure. Didn't make the whole game interesting by any stretch. I nearly nodded off a couple of times even!



gc.

Newcastle's counter attack game meant it was fairly end to end with a lot of chances, tense as fuck... If you didn't enjoy that then I suspect football just isn't for you bro.

Just because he wanted them to beat your dross doesn't make him a loyal fan, you seem to be struggling with the fact that no one like Manchester United... No one.

Well, that was the first game of football I have ever been to, and it seems I picked a good one.
Definitely a convert; the cherry has been popped. Best sports crowd atmosphere I have ever been a part of.
Chur.

For a team that everyone in Aussie (and some people in NZ) written off, I thought they did really well.

Flithy Aussie cunt bastards! Fuck them and cheating BS! They always do it, fucking convict cunts!

Yeah they cheated but that doesn't change the fact that they were undeniably the best team out there last night.

Well yes but the beauty of football is that thwe best team often doesn't win, 1-1 at half time makes for a completely different game especially as both of their second half goals were scored on the counter attack when we had to commit players forward.

Was thinking about this whole: should the player own up? discussion that Chris Rattue and others have dismissed.

It seems odd that in many team sports it is considered fair game and basically the ref's fault if a player cheats or tried to do something bad and it is missed. But in many individual sports you see players saying sorry or conceding points/goals all the time - knowing that (esp with TV replays etc) they will look like a one-man-band of bad sportsmanship if they don't fess up on the obvious calls at least.

Yet in soccer it seems like cheating is totally fine - encouraged basically - as long as you can do it out of the ref's view. I can't fathom how Payne and others can celebrate with so much effort when they know they have broken one of the set rules of the sport.

Ricki Herbert is totally correct in questioning Payne's ethics and professionalism. It probably didn't alter the outcome of the match but that's not the point here. Soccer players are simply taught that cheating is totally fine - you might even get lucky and the ref will miss it...

Bit unfair to single out football Rob, in rugby you'll often find the team who can get away the most cheating at the ruck and maul does better, in cricket players appeal when they know there's no way the player is out or don't walk when they know they are. In NRL the Melbourne Storm are undoubtedly the most successful team of recent times and yet every season a new dangerous tackle that they invent is made illegal

Funnily enough Chris Payne's wiki page is locked.

As I said, 'many team sports' above that. The next point was just about soccer, not implying rugby is any better.

I wonder if a factor in it is that a team as a whole generally doesn't get tarnished for the unsporting actions of one player (unless it's routine) so the penalty (publicity/sanction) for doing it is usually less than it would be in a sport like tennis, triathlon or golf.

I mean, really, who would argue that it is better for a soccer match to be played where major rules are ignored simply because the ref was too slow, looking at the wrong thing etc? Or, worse yet, leaving it up to the integrity of the players which, in overall sporting terms, soccer players seem too often to be at the very bottom of the heap (diving, faking injuries included).