A-League thread

[mightytiges]

I went last night. The Victory dominated and had something like 20 shots on goal to 4 but couldn't put the ball in the net  .

Atleast It wasnt a nil all draw on the fights, rioting, flare, and smashed windows front.


Another shameful night for the Victory hooligans

South Melbourne never had any trouble eh. That's why there is a home fan only rule whenever South play Preston in the VPL.

I'm not defending the idiots Ramps but it's odd that there's never any fan trouble when any of the other 8 visiting club fans come down to Melbourne. Only when Sydney plays. The same thing happens at Collingwood games in the AFL. There was no trouble at the ground. One flare was let off in the BWB in the second half.

I thought that all soccer violence in Australia was the result of "efnik" tensions lol, whats the excuse now? Some great clubs got relegated because of the inference to ethnic violence. The A League is quickly falling down and in no time will be on its last legs.

The NSL and Soccer Australia going broke had something to do with the NSL and its clubs getting the flick. Soccer had to broaden its appeal outside the traditional ethnic base at a domestic level.

[one-eyed]

Melbourne after losing to Nth Qld last night slip to second behind Sydney

Nth Qld   1
Victory    0

[one-eyed]

Melbourne just lost 2-3 away at Newcastle

[one-eyed]

Victory   6 ...... Thompson '5, Kruse ('12, '26, '40), Muscat (pen) '81, Hernandez '83
Perth     2 ...... Vargas (og) '23, Sterjovski '52



A-league top 6

Sydney       39  (played 22 out of 27 rounds)
Melbourne   38  (22)
Gold Coast  37  (22)
Newcastle   34  (23)
Wellington  31  (22)
Perth          27  (22)

[one-eyed]

Melbourne back on top of the ladder

Victory     2 ........ T. Pondeljak '2, Muscat (pen) '90
Adelaide  0

[one-eyed]

Victory on top of the ladder with 3 rounds to go before the finals.

Melbourne   4 ....... '17 T. Brown (og), '50 A. Thompson, '66 C. Hernandez, '87 M. Kemp
Wellington   0

[mightytiges]

Here is Melbourne Heart's proposed logo

http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/tmimages/cgi-bin/get_tmi_image.pl?list=1342740.1&resolution=med

Looks like a sign for a medical clinic 

[one-eyed]

Melbourne remains on top of the ladder with the last Home & Away round next week.

Victory   2 ........ Hernandez '35, '66
Nth Qld  0

[mightytiges]

With Gold Coast losing tonight, Melbourne only needs to draw next week against Sydney to finish top of the ladder and win the league plate . In any case a top 2 spot for the finals is sealed.

[mightytiges]

Injuries are really screwing Melbourne at the wrong time of the season  . Half of their best 11 is now missing. The Grand Final is 5 weeks from now so hopefully we get Archie back by then in attack.

[mightytiges]

Major semi-final first leg

Melbourne  2 ....... '16 Mrdja, '40 Hernandez
Sydney      1 ....... '43 Muscat (og)

Victory with their head just in front going into the away leg but lose another forward Mrdja this time thanks to a red card. I wonder where that red card was last week when Kruse had his leg broken by a chopping tackle from behind which by FIFA rules is an automatic send off  .

[mightytiges]

Wohoo the Victory into another home Grand Final thanks to Archie coming off the bench . Even having extra men with the whistle couldn't save Sydney  . I would laugh now if Wellington knock Sydney in straight sets out of the finals next week  .

[mightytiges]

Well done to the FFA for scheduling both finals so far just two days before the Victory's ACL games  . What's even just as ridiculous is the night of the GF Saturday week Melbourne has to rush from Etihad after the game to Tullamarine to catch a plane for Japan. Australian clubs don't have the squads to play 2 games in 2 days  .

[Hellenic Tiger]

They still should be able to get a result at home.
In the age of professionalism 2 days is not enough but 3 days is.
Many big European clubs play on a Sat and then play UCL on Tuesday. If the FFA can't get it right oh well.
Another ACL campaign down the gurglar. No point the FFA trying to be professional when they make amateurish decisions.

[mightytiges]

They still should be able to get a result at home.
In the age of professionalism 2 days is not enough but 3 days is.
Many big European clubs play on a Sat and then play UCL on Tuesday. If the FFA can't get it right oh well.
Another ACL campaign down the gurglar. No point the FFA trying to be professional when they make amateurish decisions.

Agree with the last bit.

Australian squads don't have the scope to cope with 2 games in the space of 48 hours. Muscat didn't play, Kruse was stuffed by half-time, Hernandez and Archie only came on in the second half when Melbourne were already 0-1 down. The Victory's injury woes and playing 30 mins extra-time on Sunday didn't help either. They were flat as a tack.