United, United

UNITED vs. Central Coast.

2006-02-25T17:18:00.000+10:30

I’ve been a slack bastard over the last few days, so it all is:

- Ross Aloisi says the side hasn’t lost confidence since the defeat on Sunday.

- Aloisi also says we're going all out attack.

- John Aloisi(!) is in talks with Adelaide United about a move.

- McKinna expects us to go hard early.

- Kossie wants more goals on Sunday.

- He’s also removed the thought of failure.

- Carl Veart is sick of the fuss being made about his age.

- Paul Agostino(!) has revealed he also wants to come home to Adelaide.

- Kossie thinks we’re due some good karma and good fortune.

- Nando Rech says the Mariners will be feeling the pressure big time.

- Valkanis and Beauchamp are meant to be having mixed feelings about tomorrows game.

- Penalties could decide tomorrows game.

- Finally, football is supposed to be the winner of tomorrows battle of the codes as we go head-to-head with the AFL and cricket.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
PRELIMINARY FINAL

vs.
Sunday, 26th of February, 2006
Kick-Off: 4:30pm (CDT/ GMT +9.39)
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, South Australia
Weather: 23c/Partly Cloudy.

PREVIEW

Coming later.

TABLE

(as of Saturday, 25/02/2006)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 21 13 4 4 33 25 +8 43
2 Sydney FC 21 10 6 5 35 28 +7 36
3 CC Mariners 21 8 8 5 35 28 +7 32
4 Newcastle Utd 21 9 4 8 27 29 -2 31
-------------------------------
5 Perth Glory 21 8 5 8 34 29 +5 29
6 QLD Roar 21 7 7 7 27 22 +5 28
7 Melbourne Vic 21 7 5 9 26 24 +2 26
8 NZ Knights 21 1 3 17 15 47 -32 6

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
LDLDD

SF2: Sydney FC 2-1 Adelaide United (Qu)
SF1: Adelaide United 2-2 Sydney FC (Dodd, Rech)
R21: Sydney FC 2-1 Adelaide United (Qu)
R20: New Zealand Knights 1-1 Adelaide United (Brain)
R19: Adelaide United 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Veart pen)

CENTRAL COAST’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DWDWD

SF2: Central Coast Mariners 1-1 Newcastle United Jets (Heffernan)
SF1: Newcastle United Jets 0-1 Central Coast Mariners (Osman)
R21: Queensland Roar 2-2 Central Coast Mariners (Petrie, O’Sullivan)
R20: Central Coast Mariners 3-1 Melbourne Victory (Spencer [2], Heffernan)
R19: Adelaide United 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Kwasnik)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 4
United Wins: 1
Draws: 2
Mariners Wins: 1

THE TEAM

Squad: 1.Daniel BELTRAME (gk), 2.Richie ALAGICH, 3.Kristian REES, 4.Angelo COSTANZO, 5.Michael VALKANIS, 6.Ross ALOISI, 8.Carl VEART, 10 Fernando RECH, 11.Louis BRAIN, 13.Travis DODD, 17.Adam VAN DOMMELE, 18.Robert CORNTHWAITE, 19.Qu SHENGQING, 20.Robert BAJIC (gk), 21.Jason SPAGNUOLO, 22.Greg OWENS.

In: Nil
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (Groin – Unknown), Chad Bugeja (Back - Unknown), Lucas Pantelis (Knee – Unknown)

PREDICTION

Adelaide United 2-1 Central Coast Mariners aet
Rech, Veart

Tickets.

2006-02-21T21:23:00.000+10:30

Today's lot:

- Ticket sales for Sunday are getting off to a slow start, which comes as no surprise to me. We are going up against an AFL Showdown match between the egg-chasers, as well as the Redbacks making a cricket final for the first time since 26AD. Lucky us.

- Kristian Rees says he is happy to be back into the first-team.

Down for the Count.

2006-02-20T19:52:00.000+10:30

Today's lot:

- Daniel Lato's report from yesterday.

- Kossie described yesterday as our best match of the season. I disagree.

Sydney defeat United.

2006-02-19T20:03:00.000+10:30

SF2: Sydney FC 2-1 Adelaide United
Qu 60’
Aussie Stadium
Sydney, NSW
19/02/2006
Referee: Mark Shield
Attendance: 30,337

Déjà vu. Adelaide United lost to Sydney FC for the third time this season, 2-1, and the tie 4-3. Despite dominating the possession, run of the ball and having so many chances we didn’t know what to do with it Sydney still prevailed and will host the grand-finals two Sundays from now. Sasho Petrovski scored the opening goal from Sydney, and Shengqing Qu replied in kind in the second half. But like so often Sydney scored a winner down at The Cove end, again from a set-piece, this time turned in by Mark Rudan. So frustrating.

Beltrame
Alagich – Rees – Valkanis – van Dommele
Veart – Aloisi – Costanzo – Dodd
Rech – Qu
SUBS: Bajic (GK), Brain, Cornthwaite, Owens, Spagnuolo.

I hate it when United start this way. Pegged back into our own half Sydney blitzed us in the first few minutes, as they controlled the ball and possession over the reshuffled United backline. They almost scored when Carney broke down the right hand side and his cross was just missed by an on-rushing Steve Corica. Nervous stuff at the start for the Reds. Sydney again had another chance when a cross in by Corica went across Beltrame but Petrovski’s touch was put well wide.

United started to venture forward as we worked our way into the game, gaining possession and pushing Sydney back into their own half. Playing on the right, Carl Veart was keeping Alvin Ceccoli deep into his half. The Reds were getting into their stride soon after, and were controlling the midfield. In particular, Ross Aloisi easily had the better of Dwight Yorke, as the latter certainly isn’t known for his ability to defend and tackle like Aloisi and Costanzo are for United.

Long shots from outside the box were of plenty occurrence with Ross Aloisi and Richie Alagich all having pops from outside the area. The only problem was that nothing was on target, and the long-balls were creeping in. Long-balls don’t work against tall centre-backs like Rudan and Fyfe, and noticeably that our forwards were near invisible as they were getting poor service.

And then Sydney scored. After United had the possession for such a long period of time, Sydney score. Sasho Petrovski, who looked offside, was released and he finished with a shot that bounced off Beltrame and it rolled into the net. The second week in a row Sydney scored when the ball had rolled slowly into the net. The tie was pretty much slipping well beyond our grasp by now. We had to win the match.

Travis Dodd was fouled just outside the box by David Carney, who received the first yellow of the game. But Qu’s free-kick mirrored his recent performances: soft, tired and lethargic. It was cleared easily by Sydney. Soon after, after the ball had found its way down our end once again Ross Aloisi crossed it in, and Qu steamed in with the header. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be our day, as the ball crashed into the crossbar.

As the half closed we had two corners. The first one was far better as a flick-on by Rudan is all that stopped Veart having an open net to tap into. But the second was a waste. Qu passed it out to Aloisi, and his scooped shot went over the net. What a waste. We were left with the world to do now; needing to score twice and do something we hadn’t done in two other matches: win in Sydney.

Sydney had the run of the ball in the first half. They had two breaks and a corner but neither went anywhere with it. When we had a chance to get the ball into their box it went nowhere, as we wasted ball after ball. But at least we got Mark Milligan suspended, as he took out Fernando Rech and received a yellow card. That card meant he would be suspended for the grand final if Sydney went to win.

Football is a funny game. Finally, after so many surges forward we got our reward. A counter attack through the middle released Shengqing Qu, and he turned inside the box, shot and fired it into the bottom corner to make it 1-1. We had to score again to at least take it to extra-time providing Sydney scored again. It was 3-3 on aggregate, but we were still out at this stage because of those bastard away goals.

United bossed the game, as Cockerill was saying at this point. We easily controlled the tempo and had Sydney pegged into their own half. Van Dommele broke down the left and his cross went fizzing across the face of goal, and then Qu’s touch went. Another chance came when Rech broke through, but his hard shot was parried by Bolton. We again broke when Qu received the ball outside the box but it was just like before: wrong decisions being made, and the chance was wasted. We had 64% of the ball at this stage.

Sydney’s defence was getting carved up time and time again. The latest came when a succession of passes between Costanzo, Alagich and Rech found an open Aloisi, but like everything else it was utterly wasted. Aloisi’s tame header fell straight to Bolton. When you get possession like this you have to make it count, and one goal from all this really isn’t enough. At least David Carney had been subbed off for Terry McFlynn.

Beltrame made the save of the game when Sydney broke down our left side. Dwight Yorke’s cross fired across the box, but Petrovski’s touch was brilliantly saved by Beltrame. But typically, Sydney scored anyway. Mark Rudan scored from the corner to put Sydney 2-1 up at Aussie Stadium against us – why am I getting a sense of déjà vu from this? Qu came off for Greg Owens minutes after Andrew Packer had a goal ruled offside. Carl Veart went on to miss an absolute sitter.

Greg Owens was proving to be a decent signing when he ran through the middle of the pitch, and his inch perfect released Ross Aloisi. Aloisi’s shot beat Bolton but hit the post, and even the rebound was cleared off the line by Mark Rudan. We had hit the post three times, had one cleared off the line and an absolute sitter missed. What a wrought - a class example of why finals systems suck. Sydney Olympic in 2002 all over again, this.

For the second week running we had a free-kick outside the box into injury time. Result? A waste. Same as usual. Owens, who impressed, had the chance to win it for us when Rech played it back to him, but the new signing fired his shot right over and deep into where the travelling Reds were standing. The whistle went seconds after, and Sydney went into the grand final, somewhat unjustifiably as in my mind we had no one but ourselves to blame for losing this. Eleven more shots, and 55% of the possession, and only scoring one goal? It just isn’t good enough.

Gutted would be a good way of describing how I feel right now. ‘Gutted’ is a good word, because it really does sum up my feelings. How many chances can one team create but not score? And then we only scored when Qu made the goal pretty much himself. We were toothless up front and wasted so many chances they’d be working overtime at Bolivar just to be able to deal with demand. To control the tie and do so little with it is beyond frustrating; it’s ridiculous. Sydney scored four flukey goals in 180 minutes of counter-attacking bollocks, and like so often our defence goes to sleep to let Sydney score twice. It just isn’t good enough.

If they don’t put away the chances they create – especially that amount – then the Mariners will eat us alive, and much like we will only have ourselves to blame.

At least the sponsors will be happy.

Ratings

Beltrame – 8 – third successive week and he has been excellent.
Alagich – 7 – I thought he played really well and kept Zadkovich out of the game.
Rees – 7 – solid if not outstanding.
Valkanis – 7 – improved on last week.
Van Dommele – 6 – did alright.
Veart – 7 – came in and out of the game, I felt.
Aloisi – 7 – pretty good but he should have buried that chance late on.
Costanzo – 8 – adapted well after moving from defence into midfield again.
Dodd – 7 – like many he was decent but didn’t stand out.
Rech – 7 – pretty good performance again, some of his touches are brilliant.
Qu – 7 – is visibly carrying an injury but he did brilliantly to score.

Subs

Bajic – N/A – not used.
Brain – N/A – not used.
Cornthwaite – 6 – didn’t do anything when he came on.
Owens – 7 – came on and did well, and set up what could have been one of many winners.
Spagnuolo – N/A – not used.

Ref

Shield – 5 – as inconsistent as ever.

This weeks votes for the player of the year award goes to Daniel Beltrame. It may seem like a weird choice for man of the match but, really, nobody was outstanding, so I just went with him because I can. He can’t be faulted for the goals again.

1. R. Aloisi
2. G. Owens
3. R. Alagich
4. A. Costanzo
5. D. Beltrame – man of the match.

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after the second semi-final:

45. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
37. M. Valkanis (4)(8)(19)
35. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)(16)
34. C. Veart (1)(15)(21)
31. D. Beltrame (2)(SF2)
31. T. Dodd (11)(13)(SF1)
23. F. Rech (14)(20)
20. R. Alagich (18)
20. R. Aloisi (5)
19. L. Pantelis (17)
15. K. Rees (7)(10)
11. A. van Dommele
10. M. Kemp
6. L. Brain
4. A. Goulding
2. C. Bugeja
2. G. Owens
1. R. Bajic

Sydney vs. UNITED.

2006-02-18T11:28:00.000+10:30

I’m not really up to typing some long thing so I’ll quickly give the links and let you get on with it:

- United will bring its siege mentality to Sydney.

- Carl Veart will be playing in a defensive role tomorrow.

- Sparks are set to fly as Veart plays face-to-face with Alvin Ceccoli, the big giant whimp.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
SEMI-FINAL LEG 2

(2) vs. (2)
Sunday, 19th of February, 2006
Kick-Off: 5:00pm (EDT/ GMT +10)
Aussie Stadium
Sydney, New South Wales
Weather: 27c/Cloudy.

PREVIEW

Coming later.

TABLE

(as of Saturday, 18/02/2006)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 21 13 4 4 33 25 +8 43
2 Sydney FC 21 10 6 5 35 28 +7 36
2 CC Mariners 21 8 8 5 35 28 +7 32
4 Newcastle Utd 21 9 4 8 27 29 -2 31
-------------------------------
5 Perth Glory 21 8 5 8 34 29 +5 29
6 QLD Roar 21 7 7 7 27 22 +5 28
7 Melbourne Vic 21 7 5 9 26 24 +2 26
8 NZ Knights 21 1 3 17 15 47 -32 6

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DLDDW

SF1: Adelaide United 2-2 Sydney FC (Dodd, Rech)
R21: Sydney FC 2-1 Adelaide United (Qu)
R20: New Zealand Knights 1-1 Adelaide United (Brain)
R19: Adelaide United 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Veart pen)
R18: Perth Glory 1-2 Adelaide United (Qu, Aloisi)

SYDNEY’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DWWLD

SF1: Adelaide United 2-2 Sydney FC (Corica, Petrovski)
R21: Sydney FC 2-1 Adelaide United (Yorke pen, Ceccoli)
R20: Perth Glory 1-2 Sydney FC (Rudan, Zadkovich)
R19: Queensland Roar 2-1 Sydney FC (Petrovski)
R18: Sydney FC 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Carney)

KEY PLAYERS

Daniel Beltrame: Beltrame will be needed to continue his great form against Sydney tomorrow.
Travis Dodd: He showed last week how vital his pace was and must use it to his advantage.
Shengqing Qu: Our strikers must stand up and score goals. Realistically we’re going to need three to get through, as I can’t see us keeping them scoreless.
Michael Valkanis: Will need to bounce back from last weeks horror show performance.
Carl Veart: He will be copping a load of abuse from the soft Sydneysiders which might throw him off his game.

Clint Bolton: If he has one of those days where everything gets saved we’re screwed.
David Carney: Once again will be the biggest threat on the pitch from the right-side.
Alvin Ceccoli: He’ll need to not get booked.
Sasho Petrovski: He’ll need to not get booked, and is still a knobhead.
Dwight Yorke: He’ll need to not get booked.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 4
United Wins: 1
Draws: 1
Sydney Wins: 2

THE TEAM

Squad: 1.Daniel BELTRAME (gk), 2.Richie ALAGICH, 3.Kristian REES, 4.Angelo COSTANZO, 5.Michael VALKANIS, 6.Ross ALOISI, 8.Carl VEART, 10.Fernando Rech, 11.Louis BRAIN, 13.Travis DODD, 14.Aaron GOULDING, 15.Michael MATRICCIANI, 17.Adam VAN DOMMELE, 18.Robert CORNTHWAITE, 19.Qu SHENGQING, 20.Robert BAJIC (gk), 21. Greg OWENS, 22. Jason SPAGNUOLO.

In: Aaron Goulding (Promoted), Jason Spagnuolo (New signing), Greg Owens (New signing)
Out: Chad Bugeja (Back – Unknown), Lucas Pantelis (Knee – Unknown)
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (Groin – Unknown), Chad Bugeja (Back – Unknown)

PREDICTION

Sydney FC 1-1 Adelaide United
Veart

Planned Genious.

2006-02-16T19:54:00.000+10:30

Yeah:

- United assistant, Aurelio Vidmar, revealed to The Advertiser of United's plan for Sunday.

- I've no idea what they're on about here, but, yeah.

Stick it up Sydney.

2006-02-15T21:36:00.000+10:30

Yeah:

- Mike Valkanis has been left tormented after his, frankly, dismal attempt at clearing Corica's opening goal on Sunday.

- Pierre Littbarski, being the annoying little ferret that he is, has warned Kossie to be fearful of flying projectiles from the theatre goers in Sydney. Right.

- Sydney's whinging about Carl Veart has been ignored by the FFA.

- Dwight Yorke might end up missing either the Preliminary Final or the Grand Final, or, hopefully, both.

Odds and Ends.

2006-02-14T20:52:00.000+10:30

Yeah:

- The equations for Sunday's second leg as outlined by The Advertiser.

- Sydney are going to do their best to get Carl Veart suspended.

- Travis Dodd talks about his goal scoring prowess.

- Angelo Costanzo's happy family. Yay.

United held by Sydney.

2006-02-13T18:55:00.000+10:30

SF1: Adelaide United 2-2 Sydney FC
Dodd 31’, Rech 33’
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, SA
12/02/2006
Referee: Matthew Breeze
Attendance: 15,104

For the second week running not only did United fail to beat Sydney in the first leg of the semi-finals but I cannot be bothered writing the report myself. Oh well. Anyway, yesterday the visiting Sydney team probably deserved an out-right win. United’s defending was what we saw in the pre-season tournaments with possession continually being turned over. Travis Dodd and Fernando Rech’s goals were cancelled out by an early Corica goal and a Sasho Petrovski header. We travel to Sydney at 2-2, and will need a massive effort to get through automatically.

Beltrame
Cornthwaite – Valkanis – Costanzo – van Dommele
Alagich – Aloisi – Veart – Dodd
Rech – Qu
SUBS: Bajic (GK), Brain, Bugeja, Matricciani, Rees.

Michael Cockerill.

Honours even, but Sydney FC has the edge after escaping from Hindmarsh Stadium with a morale-boosting draw in the first leg of the major semi-final against Adelaide United yesterday.

All four goals were scored in a pacy, lively, first half, while the second half tapered off into a dour stalemate as a litany of niggling fouls interrupted the flow of the game. But the advantage now lies with Sydney, which hosts the second leg at Aussie Stadium on Sunday on the back of its two away goals.

After three epics between these two teams during the regular season, this game threatened more of the same. But it didn't quite live up to the billing, although a near-full house still got value for money. Perhaps it was fatigue, or perhaps there was too much mutual respect.

Either way, there were times during the second half when even Adelaide seemed content to settle for a draw. Sydney, certainly, was.

It was Corica who opened the scoring, silencing a boisterous red-shirted crowd. A surging run in from the left flank by youngster Ruben Zadkovich opened up the space, and his neat pass played Corica into space. A clip over keeper Daniel Beltrame had the ball rolling towards goal, but it seemed Michael Valkanis would clear. But the newly selected Socceroo got his angles wrong, and by the time he was in position, the shot had bounced in off the post. Sydney, and Corica, were ecstatic.

But the delight didn't last long. Two Adelaide goals within two minutes midway through the half turned the game upside down.

The first arrived after a superb deep ball from Carl Veart played Travis Dodd into space down the left, and his pace took him past Mark Milligan before he cut inside past keeper Clint Bolton to finish with composure into an unguarded net. The second came from a set piece, a deep corner from Qu Shengqing finding the head of Fernando Rech at the back post.

Lesser teams might have crumbled, but the visitors refused to panic. A delightful ball from David Carney found Matthew Bingley on the right, and his early cross was a peach. In the middle, Sasho Petrovski escaped the attentions of defender Robert Cornthwaite, and his diving header was too firm for Beltrame. Four goals in a frenetic first half, and there was hardly time to take breath.

As it happened, there was plenty of breath being taken after the break. The pace of the match slowed to a crawl, and a series of hasty, sometimes nasty, tackles destroyed what was left of the tempo. Referee Matthew Breeze issued five yellow cards, there was pushing and shoving and kicking, and Sydney's coach Pierre Littbarski once again had to be restrained by the fourth official.

A draw it was, then, and having regained his composure, Littbarski conceded the obvious after the game. "If I would have known before it would be 2-2, I would have been very happy," he told Fox Sports. "The first half, especially the first 20 minutes, we played very good soccer. The second half, nobody wanted to open up, but I wasn't disappointed with that."

Adelaide counterpart John Kosmina looked less pleased, but the fiercely competitive former Socceroo has no doubt his team can still pull the tie out of the fire. But to do that, he expects his defence to tighten up considerably.

"We leaked a couple of goals, that's for sure," he said. "At times, there was urgency; at times, there wasn't. We have a couple of blokes out of form, and we've got to do something about that."

Ratings

Beltrame – 8 – can’t be faulted for either goal at all.
Cornthwaite – 6 – didn’t like the idea of playing him from the moment it was announced.
Costanzo – 8 – the defensive pairing who showed up. Reliable self.
Valkanis – 4 – worst performance of the season, I don’t know what he was playing at for Sydney’s first goal.
Van Dommele – 6 – it would’ve been nice if he marked Carney at all.
Alagich – 7 – he shouldn’t have been subbed off as he was always providing a threat.
Aloisi – 6 – hot-cold performance … as usual.
Veart – 5 – not good at all, our midfield was bossed by Sydney’s.
Dodd – 9 – magnificent, never stopped running all day and cleaned Milligan up for pace.
Rech – 7 – got plenty of ball and gets an extra point for scoring.
Qu – 7 – not at his best but taking him off was dumb, you’ve always got a chance to score with him on the ball.

Subs

Bajic – N/A – not used.
Brain – 6 – didn’t stand out.
Bugeja – 6 – not used.
Matricciani – N/A – not used.
Rees – 6 – unnoticeable.

Ref

Breeze – 2 – hopeless, just hopeless.

This weeks votes for the player of the year award goes to Travis Dodd. He narrowly beat Angelo Costanzo to it but his goal was a bit of brilliance as he completely skinned Milligan, rounded Bolton and smacked it into the net. Great work.

1. F. Rech
2. R. Alagich
3. D. Beltrame
4. A. Costanzo
5. T. Dodd – man of the match.

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after the first semi-final:

41. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
37. M. Valkanis (4)(8)(19)
35. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)(16)
34. C. Veart (1)(15)(21)
31. T. Dodd (11)(13)(SF1)
26. D. Beltrame (2)
23. F. Rech (14)(20)
19. R. Aloisi (5)
19. L. Pantelis (17)
17. R. Alagich (18)
15. K. Rees (7)(10)
11. A. van Dommele
10. M. Kemp
6. L. Brain
4. A. Goulding
2. C. Bugeja
1. R. Bajic

UNITED vs. Sydney.

2006-02-11T12:21:00.000+10:30

I’m not really up to typing some long thing so I’ll quickly give the links and let you get on with it:

- Dwight Yorke believes that if Sydney don’t win the title their season will be a failure.

- Kosmina says United are back into the ‘groove’ that saw us destroy the league.

- Sydney are expecting a tough, physical battle tomorrow.

- Kosmina says that he’s happy about us being underrated as usual.

- The key to tomorrows game is to not let Sydney score.

- Alvin Ceccoli thinks we’re cocky. I think you’re just a cock.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
SEMI-FINAL FIRST LEG

vs.
Sunday, 12th of February, 2006
Kick-Off: 4:30pm (CDT/ GMT +9.30)
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, South Australia
Weather: 26c/ Clear.

PREVIEW

Coming later.

TABLE

(as of Saturday, 11/02/2006)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 21 13 4 4 33 25 +8 43
2 Sydney FC 21 10 6 5 35 28 +7 36
2 CC Mariners 21 8 8 5 35 28 +7 32
4 Newcastle Utd 21 9 4 8 27 29 -2 31
-------------------------------
5 Perth Glory 21 8 5 8 34 29 +5 29
6 QLD Roar 21 7 7 7 27 22 +5 28
7 Melbourne Vic 21 7 5 9 26 24 +2 26
8 NZ Knights 21 1 3 17 15 47 -32 6

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
LDDWW

R21: Sydney FC 2-1 Adelaide United (Qu)
R20: New Zealand Knights 1-1 Adelaide United (Brain)
R19: Adelaide United 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Veart pen)
R18: Perth Glory 1-2 Adelaide United (Qu, Aloisi)
R17: Adelaide United 1-0 Melbourne Victory (Dodd)

SYDNEY’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WWLDD

R21: Sydney FC 2-1 Adelaide United (Yorke pen, Ceccoli)
R20: Perth Glory 1-2 Sydney FC (Rudan, Zadkovich)
R19: Queensland Roar 2-1 Sydney FC (Petrovski)
R18: Sydney FC 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Carney)
R17: Sydney FC 0-0 Newcastle United Jets

KEY PLAYERS

Angelo Costanzo: Armed with the job of keeping Petrovski quiet, although Petrovski is pretty naff anyway.
Travis Dodd: Sydney’s inability to defend must be exposed by the vacuum left by the forward bombs by Ceccoli.
Shengqing Qu: United’s mercurial Chinese import scored the equaliser at Aussie Stadium and will look to cause mayhem for Sydney’s highly suspect defence.
Carl Veart: The veteran attacker has been the most consistent player this season and his play from midfield.
Michael Valkanis: The leagues best defender has the job of marking Dwight Yorke’s runs from midfield once again.

Clint Bolton: Despite being massively overrated Bolton will be the one entrusted to keep United’s lethal attackers at bay.
David Carney: Carney has been kept almost invisible in the last two matches between the two teams and we’ll need more of the same tomorrow.
Alvin Ceccoli: If he actually defends then Sydney’s defence might improve.
Sasho Petrovski: He’s a knobhead.
Dwight Yorke: Well, duh. Yorke’s got the pedigree, talent and experience and will rise for this game, unfortunately.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 3
United Wins: 1
Draws: 0
Sydney Wins: 2

THE TEAM

Squad: 1.Daniel BELTRAME (gk), 2.Richie ALAGICH, 3.Kristian REES, 4.Angelo COSTANZO, 5.Michael VALKANIS, 6.Ross ALOISI, 7.Lucas PANTELIS, 8.Carl VEART, 10.Fernando Rech, 11.Louis BRAIN, 13.Travis DODD, 17.Adam VAN DOMMELE, 18.Robert CORNTHWAITE, 19.Qu SHENGQING, 20.Robert BAJIC (gk) *One player to be added

In: Nil
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (Groin – Unknown)

PREDICTION

Adelaide United 2-1 Sydney FC
Rech, Veart

Jean Claude van Damme.

2006-02-10T20:18:00.000+10:30

Yeah.

- Adam van Dommele interview with The Advertiser.

- Fyfe can't bear to be suspended, the stupid nonce.

- Sydney might give Ozbey a debut.

Lovely. Just Lovely.

2006-02-09T20:21:00.000+10:30

I'm off to watch Lost soon so I will keep it short today, alrigh'? Lost is too awesome a show to run the risk of missing.

Fernando Rech says that we're the best club he has played for since his days at Palmeiras, the same team which comprised such fantastic players as Marcos, Freddy Rincon, Junior, and above all else the current captain of Brazil: Cafu.

Fernando Rech:
"In Australia (Adelaide United) it is the best team which I have played for so far," Rech said. "Not just because we have a great team on the pitch but because we have fantastic support staff behind us and fantastic supporters."

We love you too, Nando.

The current FFA CEO, John O'Neill, also loves us. But then again, everyone should love United as we are the best in Australia by the length of how overrated Sydney are.

John O'Neill:
"I think in all honesty Adelaide's performance under John Kosmina has been outstanding," he said. "The fact they have been so consistent and streeted the field to come home clearly the Premiers is one of the highlights of the season.

I had a dream we beat Sydney 5-0 on Sunday.

Come on United!

Tickets, Jacquet, and Gordan Pickard.

2006-02-07T19:13:00.000+10:30

Same as usual:

- The Advertiser talks about the four teams in the finals.

- Aime Jacquet is impressed with Australian football, and wants to help out.

- Dwight Yorke praises United.

- A load of tickets were sold today, including yours truly buying some.

- Finally, Gordan Pickard has sold his share of Adelaide United to Nick Bianco.

Sydney defeat United.

2006-02-06T23:51:00.000+10:30

R21: Sydney FC 2–1 Adelaide United
Qu 50’
Aussie Stadium
Sydney, NSW
03/02/2006
Referee: Mark Shield
Attendance: 25,527

This is a belated and short report, as I can’t be bothered writing a full one out due to a combination of illness and injury. So the report below is a copy/pasted one from a newspaper. It’s heavily Sydney biased. United were defeated by Sydney FC 2-1. A highly controversial penalty put the Bling 1-0 up, but almost instantly Shengqing Qu equalised with a wonderful finish after a surging run by Travis Dodd. But a pot-luck free-kick by Alvin Ceccoli decided to game, who would finish, and maybe even the take the first step forward to win the whole damn thing.

Beltrame
Alagich – Valkanis – Costanzo – van Dommele
Dodd – Aloisi – Veart – Pantelis
Rech – Qu
SUBS: Bajic (GK), Brain, Cornthwaite, Rees.

Michael Cockerill.

In their final match of the regular season, Sydney FC last night secured their place in the major semi-final with an epic win over minor premiers Adelaide United before a record crowd of 25,557 at Aussie Stadium. The Reds were presented with the first silverware of the season - the Premiers Plate - by Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy before kick-off, but some of the gloss was taken off by their first defeat in 10 matches.

For Sydney, the victory not only ensures the all-important double chance during the finals, but it means either they or Adelaide will now host the title decider on March 5. The FFA will be relieved by that prospect, given Aussie Stadium has more than double the capacity of Adelaide's 15,000-seat stadium. The biggest turnout of the A-League season last night emphasised the point.

Fittingly, it was Alvin Ceccoli - arguably Sydney's most consistent player - who scored the match winner. A thunderbolt free kick from wide on the right ended Adelaide's stubborn resistance. Ceccoli's first goal of the season was especially timely, with the national coaching staff of Graham Arnold and Johan Neeskens watching from the stands. A Socceroos recall after eight years in the wilderness for this month's Asian Cup qualifier in Bahrain now seems almost certain.

Sydney had to delve deep for a victory that may define their season. After a scoreless first half, the home side went in front within two minutes of the restart. Ross Aloisi was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box, and Dwight Yorke had the irresponsibility of converting the penalty. The audacious chip delighted the gallery and exorcised some demons for Yorke, who missed from the same spot against Central Coast a fortnight ago.

But Adelaide are not minor premiers by default. The Reds responded quickly and decisively. Jacob Timpano gave the ball away in midfield, and Travis Dodd was onto it in a flash. After running hard at a retreating defence, Dodd slipped the ball into the path of Chinese import Shengqing Qu. His finish with the outside of his left boot was of the highest quality.

But ultimately, it was not enough. Sydney were good enough and determined enough to retrieve the win they desperately needed. These two teams could conceivably meet three more times before the title is decided, and on this evidence there is plenty to look forward to. Only Sydney substitute Iain Fyfe, who picked up a yellow card that will have him suspended next week, will be disappointed.

It had been a first half worthy of a finals match, despite the lack of goals. The intensity, passion, and physical commitment reflected the importance of the occasion. Any suggestions that the visitors, who in real terms had nothing to play for, would take their foot off the pedal quickly proved unfounded.

Indeed, it was the Reds who controlled the opening period of the game. Qu almost provided the perfect start, drawing a foul on the edge of the box and then taking the resulting free kick, which only just cleared the crossbar.

Sydney looked surprised by the ferocity of Adelaide's opening salvo, none more so than Yorke. For much of the season opponents have seemed loathe to test him in the tackle. Not on this occasion, though.

Both Carl Veart and Aloisi bit sharply whenever Yorke received the ball. One lunging tackle from Veart dug up the turf, and might have earned a yellow card. Yorke seemed taken aback and complained loudly to referee Mark Shield. Eventually he took the view he would have to take matters into his own hands, and a thundering challenge on Veart just before the break reeked of revenge.

In between times, Sydney clawed their way back into the game. Steve Corica, playing just behind lone striker Sasho Petrovski, went looking for time and space, and found it. On the right flank, David Carney began to get the ball in areas where he could test Reds fullback Adam van Dommele.

The pieces of Pierre Littbarski's game plan gradually came together. Not that the coach looked pleased. As has been the case throughout the season, he patrolled the sideline like a caged lion, waiting to pounce. At one stage his emotions got the better of him and he had to be restrained as he unleashed a torrent of abuse at the fourth official. It took the best efforts of assistant coach Ian Crook to calm him down.

Ratings

Beltrame – 8 – fantastic in his first appearance since Rome was an Empire.
Alagich – 7 – superb given that he was supposed to be one of our weaknesses, according to that wanker Littbarski.
Costanzo – 7 – sound.
Valkanis – 7 – Mickey V was his ever reliable self.
Van Dommele – 7 – superb given that he was supposed to be one of our weaknesses, according to that wanker Littbarski.
Dodd – 7 – not as good as always, but it was a magnificent run to create the goal for Qu.
Aloisi – 7 – hot-cold performance, he did cause both Sydney goals but he wasn’t crap.
Veart – 9 – brilliant performance by Veart.
Pantelis – 7 – came in and out of the game as he and Dodd rotated sides.
Rech – 6 – quiet by his standards.
Qu – 7 – his usual self.

Subs

Bajic – N/A – not used.
Brain – 6 – didn’t stand out.
Cornthwaite – 6 – unnoticeable.
Rees – 6 – unnoticeable.

Ref

Shield – 0 – cunt.

This weeks votes for the player of the year award goes to Carl Veart. He was absolutely brilliant against Sydney and barely gave Sydney, and Dwight Yorke, a sniff all night. Great work by a guy a year out from retirement.

1. R. Aloisi
2. A. van Dommele
3. R. Alagich
4. D. Beltrame
5. C. Veart – man of the match.

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round twenty-one:

37. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
37. M. Valkanis (4)(8)(19)
35. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)(16)
34. C. Veart (1)(15)(21)
26. T. Dodd (11)(13)
22. D. Beltrame (2)
22. F. Rech (14)(20)
19. R. Aloisi (5)
19. L. Pantelis (17)
15. R. Alagich (18)
15. K. Rees (7)(10)
11. A. van Dommele
10. M. Kemp
6. L. Brain
4. A. Goulding
2. C. Bugeja
1. R. Bajic

Sydney vs. UNITED.

2006-02-02T22:02:00.000+10:30

I’m not really up to typing some long thing so I’ll quickly give the links and let you get on with it:

- The Advertiser poke fun at the NZ commentators and Kevin Nelson.

- John Kosmina has the world at his feet.

- There will not be any added seats at Hindmarsh for the play-offs, but there will be a video screen.

- Mark Rudan is back in favour at Sydney. Huzzah.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 20

vs.
Friday, 3rd of February, 2006
Kick-Off: 8:00pm (EDT/ GMT +10)
Aussie Stadium
Sydney, New South Wales
Weather: 27c/ Cloudy.

PREVIEW

Coming later.

TABLE

(as of Thursday, 02/02/2006)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 20 13 4 3 32 23 +9 43
2 Sydney FC 20 9 6 5 33 27 +6 33
3 CC Mariners 20 8 7 5 33 26 +7 31
4 Newcastle Utd 20 9 4 7 26 26 0 31
-------------------------------
5 QLD Roar 20 7 6 7 25 20 +5 27
6 Perth Glory 20 7 5 8 31 28 +3 26
7 Melbourne Vic 20 6 5 9 24 23 +1 23
8 NZ Knights 20 1 3 16 14 45 -31 5

SYDNEY’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WLDDD

R20: Perth Glory 1-2 Sydney FC (Rudan, Zadkovich)
R19: Queensland Roar 2-1 Sydney FC (Petrovski)
R18: Sydney FC 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Carney)
R17: Sydney FC 0-0 Newcastle United Jets
R16: New Zealand Knights 2-2 Sydney FC (Carney, Yorke pen)

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DDWWW

R20: New Zealand Knights 1-1 Adelaide United (Brain)
R19: Adelaide United 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Veart pen)
R18: Perth Glory 1-2 Adelaide United (Qu, Aloisi)
R17: Adelaide United 1-0 Melbourne Victory (Dodd)
R16: Adelaide United 4-2 Queensland Roar (Veart pen, Qu, Rech, Rech)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 2
United Wins: 1
Draws: 0
Sydney Wins: 1

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk); Richie Alagich, Kristian Rees, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi, Lucas Pantelis, Carl Veart, Fernando Rech, Louis Brain, Travis Dodd, Adam van Dommele, Robert Cornthwaite, Qu Shengqing, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Travis Dodd & Carl Veart (return from suspension), Shengqing Qu (return from injury)
Out: Aaron Goulding, Michael Matricciani & Tony Hatzis (all omitted)
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (groin - indefinite))

PREDICTION

Sydney FC 1-1 Adelaide United
Veart.

Yellow, yellow, yellow ...

2006-02-01T20:01:00.000+10:30

Round 21 is the last round of the first season of the Hyundai A-League. It's been a tremendous first season as the league has improved tenfold over old league, the National Soccer League. But with the season finishing the play-offs start. They start next week with the first leg on Friday night.

This is where it gets interesting. Despite yellow cards being cleared after round 21, if a player gets booked this weekend and is involved in the play-offs they will be suspended for the first leg, or in Sasho Petrovski's case, two matches.

Sasho Petrovski:
"I'd love to try and play a normal game and not worry about the card issues," Petrovski said. "The best thing we could do is to be wise about it. But a bit of frustration might creep in and that might let yourself down."

Petrovski is one of many players on the yellow card watch for the finals. Those who can't afford to get booked this week and miss the first leg are: Alvin Ceccoli, Iain Fyfe and David Carney (Sydney FC); Ned Zelic and Ante Millicic (Newcastle Jets); Angelo Costanzo and Michael Valkanis (Adelaide United); Matthew Osman and Andrew Clark (Central Coast Mariners), as well as Sasho Petrovski who sits on six yellow cards. Another yellow would mean a two game ban.

Sasho Petrovski:
"The rewards for not getting a card on Friday night are evident", added Petrovski. "If we (Valkanis and I) get through this last game, the yellow cards get wiped out for the finals series."

Essentially: don't get booked. But that's easier said than done, and Adelaide United has two of its most important players on the cusp of being suspended, namely Angelo Costanzo and Michael Valkanis.

Michael Valkanis:
"I'm not going to be pushing anyone's buttons just to get them a card," Valkanis said. "I know we're both sitting right on the verge of getting cards. It's not the time to be silly about things."

We simply cannot afford for either to be suspended for the first leg of the play-offs. It'd be a disaster and would probably see us beaten. Thankfully we have two bites at the cherry because we finished top two. Nevertheless Kosmina will be playing both players against Sydney on Friday night.

John Kosmina:
"I have enough faith in those two guys. They're experienced, intelligent footballers and they know what to do," Kosmina told AAP.

Sydney are likely to be our opponent for the first round of the play-offs, so this game has several stories within itself. We could quite easily get Petrovski, who has a short fuse, suspended for both. I'm sure Valkanis and Costanzo are smart enough not to get themselves booked, however, considering what's riding on this match.

I'd love it if Petrovski was booked. I can't stand that bastard.

United held by Knights.

2006-01-28T22:05:00.000+10:30

R20: New Zealand Knights 1–1 Adelaide United
Brain 21’
North Harbour Stadium
Auckland, NZ
28/01/2006
Referee: Perry Mur
Attendance: 3,079

A dull performance across the Tasman saw a depleted and weakened Adelaide United team draw against the bottom placed New Zealand Knights. With a result that meant nothing to either team United completely obliterated the Knights in the first half, with thirteen shots on goal. Louis Brain’s header was cancelled out by Chinese midfielder Xiaobin Zhang twenty minutes from time.

Bajic
Cornthwaite – Valkanis – Rees – van Dommele
Alagich – Aloisi – Costanzo – Pantelis
Rech – Brain
SUBS: Beltrame (GK), Goulding, Hatzis, Matricciani.

United dominated the early few minutes of the game, with a misdirected cross going over the top of Glen Moss’ crossbar and out for a goal-kick. New Zealand had their fast chance of the match when Brockie fired from outside the box, Bajic palmed it wide it for a corner to the worst football team this country has ever seen. They had another one when Bright nicked in behind Valkanis but Bajic actually came off his line (I know!) and cleared it into the typically vacant stands.

Our first corner came after a few minutes of topsy-turvey football, with the Knights again having a chance with Jeremy Brockie firing in a shot from outside the box that made Bajic work to save it, but it went wide. Alagich’s corner was missed by all. Then a long throw by van Dommele was agonisingly pushed wide by Fernando Rech, I believe.

It was a pretty uninteresting game, to be honest. Naturally in United fashion we scored not along after. Cole Tinkler lost the ball in the middle and Fernando Rech passed it off to a barnstorming Lucas Pantelis. Pantelis ran down the by-line and his picture perfect cross was looped into the far corner of the net by Louis Brain. 1-0 to the premiers, as easy as you like it.

Long-throws by Alagich and van Dommele (how Bolton of us) were causing all sorts of problems for the Knights. One chance to score for United came when the ball bobbled out to Alagich, and his rocket shot was blocked by the Knights defence. We had several others to score, including a Louis Brain header that barely went wide.

As were our corners. We had had several corners in the early goings, with several just missing heads and going out for a goal-kick. The latest one included a corner after a Louis Brain cross that was turned wide, and Angelo Costanzo missed the header. We had another chance pumped in that was knocked down by van Dommele, and Valkanis’ thunder of a header was just cleared off the line by Hickey. To be fair the Knights had about four players on the goal-line, so it was no surprise it was turned away.

At this stage it was pretty pointless. United had so much dominance that we didn’t know what to do with it, with chances barrelling in on goal (pun fully intended for those playing at home). The latest chance was a storming run by Ross Aloisi as he won the ball in his own half, passed it to Pantelis who in turn passed it to Rech. The Brazilian’s touch was heavy but he held off the Knights defender and released it to Alagich. By now Aloisi had made about an eighty metre sprint and just missed Alagich’s combination cross and shot. It was a miracle we weren’t 2-0 up.

Richie Alagich then went off injured briefly. As he waited for the ball to come down Noah Hickey leaped over him and smashed Richie in the forehead, leaving him with a sizeable cut and a lot of blood pissing out everywhere. Ross Aloisi took the ensuring free-kick, and his whipping cross went just wide of the post after Fernando Rech fooled the Knights defence by ducking under the ball as it came to him, but the bounce forced it wide.

How it wasn’t 2-0 or more to us I don’t know. We had that many chances to score it was ridiculous. We had this great one just before half-time where a dazzling piece of skill by Fernando Rech saw him spin in the middle of the park and release a wonderful ball to Pantelis. The speedy winger beat his marker and his buzzing shot was hot superbly, but like most of the half there was something in his way: this time the far post. Frustrating. We closed out the half with thirteen shots at goal. They had four.

The second half was pretty dull. I had lost a lot of interest in the match and was looking at something else, namely pictures of Daniela Hantuchova. There was a chance for us when the ball was worked in and Fernando Rech fired off a shot but it was blocked by the Knights, and went out for a throw-in. The Knights had a couple of chances to score with some free-kicks but like everything with that club they were shite

It’s amazing how bad the Knights defence is at times. A nothing cross by Pantelis was sent in and the New Zealand keeper completely missed it, and it bobbled about for a few seconds before it was cleared out …

… and then New Zealand went up the other end and scored. Something happened, I forget what, and then at the far post their Chinese player Xiaobin Zhang headed it in, with the ball coming off the crossbar. 1-1, but who cares? This match meant nothing to us, as we were confirmed as premiers.

Louis Brain came off for Michael Matricciani. As this was a pointless match all the youngsters came on. Costanzo went off for Hatzis and Pantelis made way for Goulding, meaning we saw the return of the horrible idea of two left-backs interchanging on the wing with each other. My feelings about that have been more than made known.

Given that I paid very little attention to the second half I’ve not got much of an idea what happened, hence the rather small report for it. We had plenty of chances to win about 9-0 but didn’t, and the Knights equalised, and it finished a dull and disappointing 1-1. Goody gum drops and all that.

Ratings

Bajic – 8 – had very little to do all match.
Cornthwaite – 7 – did the job.
Rees – 7 – defensively sound in his first start in … awhile.
Valkanis – 7 – Mickey V was his ever reliable self.
Van Dommele – 8 – pretty good once again.
Alagich – 7 – worked his arse off thought the night.
Aloisi – 8 – very good.
Costanzo – 7 – did the job.
Pantelis – 8 – lively and involved, as usual. Nice assist.
Rech – 8 – good performance given he was playing as the target man, which is not his preferred role.
Brain – 7 – scored the goal, so yeah.

Subs

Beltrame – N/A – not used.
Goulding – 6 – unnoticeable.
Hatzis – 6 – unnoticeable, but good to see him get a run.
Matricciani – 6 – unnoticeable.

Ref

Mur – 8 – top draw, for a ref.

This weeks votes for the player of the year award goes to Fernando Rech. In what was a pretty dull performance Rech was superb, displaying some wonderful touches and passes. He just beat out Lucas Pantelis to claim his second man of the match award.

1. R. Bajic
2. A. van Dommele
3. R. Aloisi
4. L. Pantelis
5. F. Rech – man of the match.

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round twenty:

37. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
37. M. Valkanis (4)(8)(19)
35. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)(16)
29. C. Veart (1)(15)
26. T. Dodd (11)(13)
22. F. Rech (14)(20)
19. L. Pantelis (17)
18. R. Aloisi (5)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
15. K. Rees (7)(10)
12. R. Alagich (18)
10. M. Kemp
9. A. van Dommele
6. L. Brain
4. A. Goulding
2. C. Bugeja
1. R. Bajic

New Zealand vs. UNITED.

2006-01-27T21:31:00.000+10:30

I’m not really up to typing some long thing so I’ll quickly give the links and let you get on with it:

- Robert Cornthwaite is set to make his United starting debut.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 20

vs.
Saturday, 28th of January, 2006
Kick-Off: 8:00pm (NZDT/ GMT +12)
North Harbour Stadium
Auckland, New Zealand
Weather: 26c/Mostly Cloud.

PREVIEW

Coming later.

TABLE

(as of Friday, 28/01/2006)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 19 13 3 3 31 22 +9 42
2 CC Mariners 20 8 7 5 33 26 +7 31
3 Newcastle Utd 20 9 4 7 26 26 0 31
4 Sydney FC 19 8 6 5 31 26 +5 31
-------------------------------
5 QLD Roar 20 7 6 7 25 20 +5 26
6 Perth Glory 19 7 5 7 30 26 +4 26
7 Melbourne Vic 20 6 5 9 24 23 +1 23
8 NZ Knights 19 1 2 16 13 44 -31 5

NEW ZEALAND’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
LLLDD

R19: New Zealand Knights 1-4 Perth Glory (Emblen)
R18: Newcastle United Jets 3-0 New Zealand Knights
R17: Central Coast Mariners 1-0 New Zealand Knights
R16: New Zealand Knights 2-2 Sydney FC (Devine pen, Brockie)
R15: Queensland Roar 1-1 New Zealand Knights (Yeo)

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DWWWW

R19: Adelaide United 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Veart pen)
R18: Perth Glory 1-2 Adelaide United (Qu, Aloisi)
R17: Adelaide United 1-0 Melbourne Victory (Dodd)
R16: Adelaide United 4-2 Queensland Roar (Veart pen, Qu, Rech, Rech)
R15: Newcastle United Jets 1-2 Adelaide United (Veart, Brain)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 2
United Wins: 2
Draws: 0
Knights Wins: 0

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk); Richie Alagich, Kristian Rees, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi, Lucas Pantelis, Fernando Rech, Louis Brain, Aaron Goulding, Michael Matricciani, Tony Hatzis, Adam van Dommele, Robert Cornthwaite, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Tony Hatzis, Aaron Goulding & Michael Matricciani (all promoted)
Out: Carl Veart & Travis Dodd (both suspended – 1 week), Qu Shengqing (general soreness – 1 week)
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (groin - indefinite)

PREDICTION

New Zealand 0-2 Adelaide United
Rech, Valkanis.

A bit of everything.

2006-01-26T21:46:00.000+10:30

Once again, cannot be bothered:

- Let's all laugh at Vaughan Coveny.

- Hatzis, Cornthwaite and Matricciani called up to the Olyroo squad.

- Qu, Veart and Dodd to be rested/suspended for Saturday's match in Auckland.

- Finals preparations have begun.

United's coming home ...

2006-01-25T21:47:00.000+10:30

Can not be bothered typing it out as usual, so I'll be quick to the point:

- United will probably be playing the first leg at home.

- FFA are prepared to take the financial loss from this.

Go team.

United held by Mariners.

2006-01-21T19:42:00.000+10:30

R19: Adelaide United 1-1 Central Coast Mariners
Veart 50’ pen
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, SA
20/01/2006
Referee: Mark Shield
Attendance: 13,008

United’s run of seven victories in succession came to an end at a sweltering hot Hindmarsh Stadium last night, drawing 1-1 with the Central Coast Mariners. A classic game of two halves saw both sides score within five minutes of each other. Carl Veart scored from the spot again to put the Reds 1-0 up, but an Adam Kwasnik tap-in allowed the Mariners to equalise. It was a fair result for both sides.

Bajic
Alagich – Valkanis – Costanzo – van Dommele
Dodd – Aloisi – Veart – Pantelis
Rech – Qu
SUBS: Beltrame (GK), Brain, Cornthwaite, Rees.

It was stinking hot last night, as it had been for the last few days with the temperature going beyond forty. The weather made the entire evening uncomfortable for everyone. My United kit had a line of sweat down the back before we had even got there, as it was still above forty by 7:00. I just couldn’t believe that I saw some people wearing winter type clothing – the hell is wrong with you people?

United went for it early on. Playing similar to how they defeated the Perth Glory the week before they started the match at furore playing with a high tempo that would probably take its toll later on in the match, not that it matters for us anyway since we’re already premiers and can’t be knocked off top spot!

Our first chance fell to Shengqing Qu. Carl Veart and Lucas Pantelis combined well in the middle of the park, allowing Pantelis to dash onto it. He made it before it went over the by-line and sent in a cross, but Qu couldn’t connect with his head to knock in what would have been an easy tap-in, but there would be plenty more chances for United in the first-half as we easily controlled the game during the opening forty-five.

Fernando Rech returned from injury this week, after being dropped for last week with a slight tweak in his hamstring. He was determined to get on the scoresheet (but didn’t) early on and was playing magnificently as a plethora of chances fell to his feet, but he didn’t take any of them and score. His first came when Richie Alagich’s cross from the tip of our half fell perfectly to him, and the Brazilian knocked it down with chest into a scoring spot but he mistimed his shot and it sprayed wide off the side of his boot and into the baking hot crowd.

The next chance to fall United’s way went to Michael Valkanis. Early on the superstar defender (who is inline for a call up to the Australia squad to face Bahrain) was hovering around at the wrong end of the pitch making a nuisance of himself. Again it was an Alagich cross sent in from a central position, and Valkanis had drifted off of the back of Andrew Clark’s shoulders. However his header was blocked and was sent over the top of the bar by Danny Vukovic, much to my dismay.

Another chance fell to Rech shortly after Valkanis’ missed header. Rech wasted his second chance of the opening stages when the Brazilian striker cleverly collected Travis Dodd's through-ball but wildly slashed his effort high and wide after getting the better of Mariners defender Andrew Clark. He was getting closer to scoring, you can always tell, so I held hope that he would score soon as the heat was beginning to become too much.

Due to the extreme heat the match was basically shortened to four quarters, with a drinks break every twenty-two minutes. There had to be one as playing in that heat is simply unsafe, and a serious risk to a player’s safety. Following the drinks break Rech came even closer to breaking the deadlock. Pantelis split a gaping Mariners backline with a pinpoint pass but the Brazilian struck the right-hand post with a delicate lob over the advancing Vukovic. It was hit perfectly, and all it took was a few centre metres to the right and it would have gone in. So close.

After the break United broke through. What seemed like a completely wasted Carl Veart cross was found by Ross Aloisi on the edge of the box, as he went to turn he had his shirt tugged by Andre Gumprecht. The penalty was given straight away by Mark Shield, and as usual Carl Veart stepped up to take it. Veart sent Vukovic the wrong way from the spot for his third penalty of the season, and what I think is his seventh goal of the season.

Gumprecht, though, made immediate amends. Just moments after going behind, the German timed a perfect run through the Reds' defence and his centre was slid home by Kwasnik for his second goal of the campaign. Then, as the game started to turn in the visitors' favour, the same players combined but Kwasnik's effort was scratched for a marginal offside. Petrie replaced the injured Kwasnik soon after.

The Mariners had plenty of chances to score in the second-half but the heat had taken its toll on the players, and they played out the last few minutes simply because they had to. It was a muted ending, and we all went home dripping in our own sweat. The first thing I did at Hungry Jacks was pretty much drink my entire cup of coke!

Ratings

Bajic – 7 – no massive errors that I noticed.
Alagich – 8 – sent in several good crosses and was his usual consistent self.
Costanzo – 8 – narrowly missed out on MOTM to Valkanis, but he was still tops.
Valkanis – 8 – my man of the match, just edging out Costanzo in a top performance as per usual.
Van Dommele – 8 – gets better with every week which is a positive.
Dodd – 7 – worked his arse off last night.
Aloisi – 7 – the usual inconsistency returned last night but he did win the penalty.
Veart – 7 – scored the penalty and did his usual work in the middle.
Pantelis – 7 – lively and involved, he played a great through ball for Rech’s lob.
Rech – 8 – fantastic in the first-half considering he was returning from injury.
Qu – 7 – not at his brilliant best, and I think he might need a week off.

Subs

Beltrame – N/A – not used.
Brain – 6 – can’t remember him doing all that much.
Cornthwaite – 6 – unnoticeable.
Rees – 6 – unnoticeable.

Ref

Breeze – 6 – pretty good for Shield.

This weeks votes for the player of the year award goes to Michael Valkanis. It’s been a bit of a break between drinks for Mickey V but he fully deserved it as his form has been brilliant over the last few weeks, so much so he’s getting an Australia call up.

1. R. Alagich
2. A. van Dommele
3. F. Rech
4. A. Costanzo
5. M. Valkanis – man of the match.

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round nineteen:

37. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
37. M. Valkanis (4)(8)(19)
35. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)(16)
29. C. Veart (1)(15)
26. T. Dodd (11)(13)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
17. F. Rech (14)
15. R. Aloisi (5)
15. L. Pantelis (17)
15. K. Rees (7)(10)
12. R. Alagich (18)
10. M. Kemp
7. A. van Dommele
6. L. Brain
4. A. Goulding
2. C. Bugeja

UNITED vs. Central Coast.

2006-01-19T20:45:00.000+10:30

It’s fucking hot here and I’m not really up to typing some long thing so I’ll quickly give the links and let you get on with it:

- Carl Veart spoke to the Advertiser today and stuff. Yeah.

Did I mention that it’s fucking hot?

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 18

vs.
Friday, 12th of January, 2006
Kick-Off: 7:30pm (CDT/ GMT +9.30)
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, South Australia
Weather: 35c/Overcast.

PREVIEW

Coming later.

TABLE

(as of Thursday, 19/01/2006)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 18 13 2 3 30 21 +9 41
2 Sydney FC 18 8 6 4 30 24 +6 30
3 Newcastle Utd 18 8 4 6 25 21 +4 28
4 CC Mariners 18 7 6 5 29 24 +5 27
-------------------------------
5 Perth Glory 19 7 5 7 30 26 +4 26
6 Melbourne Vic 18 6 5 7 23 19 +4 23
7 QLD Roar 18 5 6 7 18 19 -1 20
8 NZ Knights 19 1 2 16 13 44 -31 5

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WWWWW

R18: Perth Glory 1-2 Adelaide United (Qu, Aloisi)
R17: Adelaide United 1-0 Melbourne Victory (Dodd)
R16: Adelaide United 4-2 Queensland Roar (Veart pen, Qu, Rech, Rech)
R15: Newcastle United Jets 1-2 Adelaide United (Veart, Brain)
R14: Adelaide United 3-2 Sydney FC (Rech, Veart, Rech)

CENTRAL COAST’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DDWWD

R18: Sydney FC 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Pondeljak)
R17: Central Coast Mariners 1-0 New Zealand Knights (Heffernan)
R16: Central Coast Mariners 4-1 Newcastle United Jets (Gumprecht, Brown, Hutchison [2])
R15: Perth Glory 2-2 Central Coast Mariners (Petrie, Hutchison)
R14: Central Coast Mariners 2-2 Queensland Roar (Osman, Heffernan)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 3
United Wins: 1
Draws: 1
Mariners Wins: 1

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk); Richie Alagich, Kristian Rees, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi, Lucas Pantelis, Carl Veart, Fernando Rech, Louis Brain, Travis Dodd, Michael Matricciani, Adam van Dommele, Robert Cornthwaite, Qu Shengqing, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Fernando Rech (returns from injury)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (groin - indefinite)

PREDICTION

Adelaide United 2-1 Central Coast Mariners
Qu, Valkanis

United defeat Glory.

2006-01-13T16:24:00.000+10:30

R18: Perth Glory 1-2 Adelaide United
Qu 4’, Aloisi 70’
Members Equity Stadium
Perth, WA
25/01/2006
Referee: Matthew Breeze
Attendance: 5,033

Seven victories in a row were stitched up last night as Adelaide United completed their magnificent seven with a 2-1 win over the Perth Glory. A fourth minute goal by Shengqing Qu was doubled by Ross Aloisi’s piledriver shot after a Qu corner. Controversy surrounded Members Equity earlier in the piece when a Valkanis header was wrongly not given, but it didn’t matter as Nick Ward’s late goal was but a consolation goal as United ran out 2-1 winners once again.

Bajic
Alagich – Valkanis – Costanzo – van Dommele
Dodd – Aloisi – Veart – Pantelis
Brain – Qu
SUBS: Beltrame (GK), Cornthwaite, Matricciani, Rees.

Right from the kick-off we went for an early goal. The torrid conditions, more than likely the remnants of the cyclone that swept across Western Australia earlier in the week, played into our hands. The Reds have had the unfortunate experience of playing in wet weather including the water polo match in Auckland.

Our adventurous beginning was about as much attacking as we would do all night. Content to sit back and let the Glory run the show, with a win not exactly necessary, United sprung an early surprise on the injury ridden former champions. A Lucas Pantelis touch released Shengqing Qu wide on the left. Qu caught Coyne napping with a lot of space in front, and ran forward toward the edge of the box and cut in on Simon Colosimo onto his right foot and unleashed a curling shot right into the top corner of the net to put us 1-0 up inside four minutes!

But from there on it were slim pickings for United. As has been the common tactic over the last few weeks we got our goal and were content to sit back, absorb the attacks and occasionally make a surge forward on the counter attack and look for a second goal, but it was a goal we didn’t desperately need: once we’re 1-0 up that’s it. The only time United have lost after going ahead was against Sydney, and we all know they buy the refs off.

That’s not to say we didn’t have our chances to add to our lead. Twice runners from midfield were released from one of the dozen or so corners the Glory had, but neither chance went anywhere as United continually turned the ball over. Louis Brain had a wonderful chance to score his third of the season when he was released on goal, with only Harnwell to contend with, but his effort was blocked by Harnwell and calmly cleared by Jason Petkovic.

At the other end Stuart Young was causing all sorts of problems for United, with more than a few shots fizzling over the bar. Young was making his first appearance of the season and played fantastically in the first half – I thought he was going to score any minute every time he went near the blasted thing. Another hairy moment came when Bajic once again hesitated to claim a ball, and Damian Mori, ever the poaching bastard, nearly nicked it off an annoyed Valkanis to score.

Speaking of Valkanis, the main sticking point of the game occurred when he scored, or rather, didn’t score, thanks to the simply woeful officiating in this league. Qu sprayed a ball out wide to Aloisi, and his swinging cross met the head of Valkanis and his header had clearly crossed the line by a good half a metre, yet Breeze didn’t give the goal. Even Bobby Despotovski said it was a goal. Obviously Jason Petkovic’s out stretched arm and body shielded it from the view of the linesmen, but it’s a classic case of why this new goal line technology is needed in football.

Thankfully we got our second, and ultimately winning goal, after the break. The topsy-turvy form of Ross Aloisi showed its other face last night as his thunderbolt of a shot won the game and effectively the premiership for us. A corner resulted in Shengqing Qu sending in a floating ball over the box towards Carl Veart, the veteran then used his chest to knock it down for Aloisi to rocket into the net for 2-0 and wrap up the points for United.

A hairy moment came at the end when Nick Ward scored from outside the box. Substitute and new signing – the ex New Zealand Knights captain – Danny Hay came on and as usual caused a problem up front. Hay knocked a cross down to Nick Ward, and the youngster (potential Socceroo by all accounts) slid it across the floor and passed Bajic, but it was to be of no avail as United held on to win 2-1.

It was a good three points to get. This means that a draw next week – providing the Mariners don’t beat or draw with Sydney tomorrow – will clinch first spot. Anything other than a Sydney win means we do have to wait a week, but if the Mariners can do us a favour it could be all over and done with by 9:30pm tomorrow night, and we begin to rest players like Shengqing Qu.

Ratings

Bajic – 4 – bring back Beltrame.
Alagich – 8 – excellent, he didn’t give Fa’arodo a sniff down their left hand side all night.
Costanzo – 7 – I didn’t really notice him that much, but I wasn’t exactly paying total attention to the game anyway.
Valkanis – 7 – he’s what’s standing between Bajic and disaster.
Van Dommele – 8 – great performance I thought.
Dodd – 6 – not great but certainly not bad at all.
Aloisi – 8 – much, much, much better by Ross, he is getting better and better.
Veart – 6 – he looks tired and is one of the players most in need of a rest, having played every minute of the season.
Pantelis – 6 – much quieter than last week but like Dodd he was only used as a counter-attacking outlet.
Brain – 6 – thought he was pretty rubbish, a lot of the turnovers in midfield seem to come from him.
Qu – 7 – scored a peach of a goal and crossed in the corner for Aloisi’s, is there a better player in the league right now? I doubt it.

Subs

Beltrame – N/A – not used.
Cornthwaite – 6 – unnoticeable.
Matricciani – 7 – did pretty well and it’s good to see him get 25 minutes of playing time.
Rees – 6 – unnoticeable.

Ref

Breeze – 2 – it’s just not good enough and the FFA have to be looking at it.

This weeks votes for the player of the year award goes to Richie Alagich. It’s the first time 2003/04 player of the year Alagich has won man of the match, but he stood out best in what was a large defensive performance by United.

1. M. Valkanis
2. A. van Dommele
3. Q. Shengqing
4. R. Aloisi
5. R. Alagich – man of the match.

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round eighteen:

35. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)(16)
33. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
32. M. Valkanis (4)(8)
29. C. Veart (1)(15)
26. T. Dodd (11)(13)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
15. R. Aloisi (5)
15. L. Pantelis (17)
15. F. Rech (14)
15. K. Rees (7)(10)
11. R. Alagich (18)
10. M. Kemp
6. L. Brain
5. A. van Dommele
4. A. Goulding
2. C. Bugeja

Perth vs. UNITED

2006-01-11T22:12:00.000+10:30

I’m not really up to typing some long thing so I’ll quickly give the links and let you get on with it:

- John Taylor at The Advertiser is calling for more imports into the A-League.

- Michael Valkanis could be one of the A-League players called up to the Australian squad for the Asian Cup qualifier in Bahrain in February.

- John Kosmina is trying new mental preparation tricks ahead of our match in Perth.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 18

vs.
Thursday, 12th of January, 2006
Kick-Off: 7:30pm (WDT/ GMT +8)
Members Equity Stadium
Perth, Western Australia
Weather: 22c/Rain.

PREVIEW

Coming later.

TABLE

(as of Wednesday, 11/01/2006)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 17 12 2 3 28 20 +8 38
2 Sydney FC 17 8 5 4 29 23 +6 29
3 CC Mariners 17 7 5 5 27 23 +4 26
4 Newcastle Utd 16 7 4 6 22 21 +1 25
-------------------------------
5 Perth Glory 17 6 5 6 25 23 +2 22
6 QLD Roar 17 5 6 6 18 18 0 20
7 Melbourne Vic 17 5 5 7 22 19 +3 20
8 NZ Knights 17 1 2 14 12 37 -25 5

PERTH’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DLDDL

R17: Perth Glory 0-2 Queensland Roar
R16: Melbourne Victory 2-2 Perth Glory (Mori, Ward)
R15: Perth Glory 2-2 Central Coast Mariners (Ward, Ishida)
R14: Perth Glory 0-1 Newcastle United Jets
R13: Sydney FC 0-0 Perth Glory

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WWWWW

R17: Adelaide United 1-0 Melbourne Victory (Dodd)
R16: Adelaide United 4-2 Queensland Roar (Veart pen, Qu, Rech, Rech)
R15: Newcastle United Jets 1-2 Adelaide United (Veart, Brain)
R14: Adelaide United 3-2 Sydney FC (Rech, Veart, Rech)
R13: Adelaide United 1-0 New Zealand Knights (Qu)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 6
United Wins: 1
Draws: 1
Glory Wins: 4

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk); Richie Alagich, Kristian Rees, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi, Lucas Pantelis, Carl Veart, Fernando Rech, Louis Brain, Chad Bugeja, Travis Dodd, Michael Matricciani, Adam van Dommele, Qu Shengqing, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Nil
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (groin - indefinite)

PREDICTION

Perth Glory 1-1 Adelaide United
Veart.

A Bigger Hindmarsh.

2006-01-08T18:50:00.000+10:30

There was something in the Sunday Mail about us needing to make Hindmarsh Stadium larger. I can't be bothered writing something long out.

United defeat Victory (again!)

2006-01-06T19:02:00.000+10:30

R17: Adelaide United 1-0 Melbourne Victory
Dodd 14’
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, SA
05/01/2006
Referee: Mark Shield
Attendance: 13,427

Once again Adelaide United reigned triumphant over the hapless Melbourne Victory, winning 1-0 again, this time the goal from winger Travis Dodd. The Victory were overpowered once again by a hard working United team who did just enough to keep the struggling Victorian side at bay, never really getting out of second gear as they cruised to record their sixth straight victory.

Bajic
Alagich – Valkanis – Costanzo – van Dommele
Dodd – Aloisi – Veart – Pantelis
Rech – Qu
SUBS: Beltrame (GK), Brain, Matricciani, Rees.

Similar to weeks gone by, such as the Queensland match just a mere four days ago, United were sluggish from the start, being put on the back foot by an energy charged Victory team. United, rather Bajic, almost made a complete mess of things in the third minute when he delayed on clearing a ball, and allowed Danny “Duddy” Allsopp to get a deflection that narrowly missed the goal.

Melbourne often controlled the play in the early moments as we were unable to keep the ball for extended periods of time with the Victory often hustling us out of possession, and with other needless turnovers in the middle that often left the Victory with scoring chances, including a volley hit by Allsopp that went wide. If Melbourne wanted to score they were going to do it now, as they had a heap of chances to finally stick one in our net after so many minutes of failing to do so.

It was only inevitable we’d score soon, though. United began to work their way into the game, getting on top of the Victory in the middle and on the wings with Lucas Pantelis proving to be a huge menace for gun defender Daniel Piorkowski, winning several balls and getting in some decent crosses from the left hand side of the pitch.

United scored the only goal of the game after Travis Dodd was disposed in midfield. Simon Storey’s interception, however, fell to Carl Veart and the veteran played one of the best balls of the season. Dodd had continued his run down the wing, and Veart’s killer ball had released the magic hat wearer clean in goal. Dodd had a simple finish as he tucked the ball under Michael Theoklitos’ arm and into the net for 1-0 and the only goal of the game, pretty much against the run of play as the Victory were well on top for most of the opening stages of the game.

Fernando Rech went off injured on the half-hour mark. It was later revealed to be a hamstring injury. With United obviously likely to win the league championship there is no point in rushing the Brazilian back. Hopefully he can return before the finals.

The Victory had a dozen chances to equalise as United played in second gear throughout the game. Archie Thompson had plenty of chances to score himself, the best of them was probably a moment where the speedy PSV-bound Thompson beat United’s offside trap only to have his shot saved by Robbie Bajic. The spilled ball fell to Kristian Sarkies, but the hyped youngster again missed as Bajic smothered the shot, injuring himself in the process.

Archie Thompson again missed a chance to score when he turned around the United defence inside his own box. A lot of the Victory fans thought he had scored; as did many United fans, but Thompson hit the side netting despite pretty much having the entire goal to shoot at.

The second-half saw a visibly tired Adelaide United content to sit back and hang on to their 1-0 lead. Usually I hate this tactic but I could tell we weren’t likely to score again, but I also knew the Victory had so little confidence the result was a mere formality. The Victory did spend most of the half attacking us, but it was never going to go in.

Case in point: United would have scored the opportunities that Danny Allsopp had, such as when he hit the side netting from fifteen metres out. And his miss with a free header in the 83rd minute simply underlined why the Victory has slumped to its six loss in the past nine games to slip from a top-two spot to sixth. That reason is pretty simple: clinical finishing. There’s no use in having a dozen chances and playing the prettiest brands of football if you can’t convert them, it’s why they and the Roar find themselves in sixth and seventh respectively: neither team can finish.

Anyway, United held on and won 1-0 once again. It was the third 1-0 win over the Victory in a row, and they still haven’t scored against us after six matches, and a lot of football. This now sets us up to pretty much clinch the league championship either next week or the week after, etching our names into history.

Ratings

Bajic – 6 – some decent saves but sometimes he just shits me. He needs to learn to come off his line and make decisions, because it will cost us at some stage.
Alagich – 7 – lots of good attacking movements by Richie as he got forward in support of Travis Dodd, and did have something to do with the goal, from memory.
Costanzo – 8 – the defence worked pretty hard, but he was often beaten in the air by Allsopp, despite having a very good game.
Valkanis – 8 – awesome in defence considering the pounding he took from the Victory players time and time again.
Van Dommele – 7 – decent by his standards.
Dodd – 8 – scored a goal and worked his arse off for the cause, great performance again.
Aloisi – 7 – improved performance by Aloisi; he was heavily involved and played some decent balls from midfield.
Veart – 7 – excellent once again but it did look like he was running out of legs in the second half, having not missed a minute of action all season..
Pantelis – 9 – brilliant performance. He was up for everything, made several great runs with some excellent crosses into the box. He probably should have scored too.
Rech – 6 – went off injured early.
Qu – 7 – not his best, often isolated up front on his own against two defenders.

Subs

Beltrame – N/A – not used.
Brain – 6 – did his job.
Matricciani – 6 – wasn’t on long enough to make an impression.
Rees – 7 – did his job up front.

Ref

Shield – 5 – same old, same old from Shield: crap.

This weeks votes for the player of the year award goes to Lucas Pantelis. Pantelis was involved in almost everything good for United last night, except the goal. He gave Piorkowski a tough time on the left, winning balls and running very hard. Great performance by him.

1. C. Veart
2. A. Costanzo
3. T. Dodd
4. M. Valkanis
5. L. Pantelis – man of the match.

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round seventeen:

33. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
32. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)(16)
31. M. Valkanis (4)(8)
29. C. Veart (1)(15)
26. T. Dodd (11)(13)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
15. L. Pantelis (17)
15. F. Rech (14)
15. K. Rees (7)(10)
11. R. Aloisi (5)
10. M. Kemp
6. R. Alagich
6. L. Brain
4. A. Goulding
3. A. van Dommele
2. C. Bugeja

UNITED vs. Melbourne.

2006-01-04T19:18:00.000+10:30

Once again, I can’t be bothered typing some massive thingo again, so I’ll just give the link to a story about the goalkeeping battle between Daniel Beltrame and Robbie Bajic at Adelaide United.

Huzzah.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 16

vs.
Sunday, 5th of January, 2006
Kick-Off: 7:30pm (CDT/ GMT +9.30)
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, South Australia
Weather: 28c/Partly Cloudy.

PREVIEW

Coming later.

TABLE

(as of Wednesday, 04/01/2006)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 16 11 2 3 27 20 +7 35
2 Sydney FC 16 8 4 4 29 23 +6 28
3 Newcastle Utd 16 7 3 6 22 21 +1 24
4 CC Mariners 16 6 5 5 26 23 +3 23
-------------------------------
5 Perth Glory 16 6 5 5 25 21 +4 22
6 Melbourne Vic 16 5 5 6 22 18 +4 20
7 QLD Roar 16 4 6 6 16 18 -2 18
8 NZ Knights 15 1 2 13 12 36 -24 5

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WWWWW

R16: Adelaide United 4-2 Queensland Roar (Veart pen, Qu, Rech, Rech)
R15: Newcastle United Jets 1-2 Adelaide United (Veart, Brain)
R14: Adelaide United 3-2 Sydney FC (Rech, Veart, Rech)
R13: Adelaide United 1-0 New Zealand Knights (Qu)
R12: Central Coast Mariners 1-2 Adelaide United (Dodd, Rech)
R11: Adelaide United 2-4 Perth Glory (Veart pen, Rees)

MELBOURNE’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DLWLD

R16: Melbourne Victory 2-2 Perth Glory (Thompson, Allsopp)
R15: Sydney FC 2-1 Melbourne Victory (Allsopp)
R14: New Zealand Knights 2-3 Melbourne Victory (Muscat, Kitzbichler [2])
R13: Melbourne Victory 0-2 Central Coast Mariners
R12: Melbourne Victory 0-0 Newcastle United Jets

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 5
United Wins: 2
Draws: 3
Victory Wins: 0

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk); Richie Alagich, Kristian Rees, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi, Lucas Pantelis, Carl Veart, Fernando Rech, Louis Brain, Chad Bugeja, Travis Dodd, Adam van Dommele, Qu Shengqing, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Nil
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (groin - indefinite)

PREDICTION

Adelaide United 1-0 Melbourne Victory
Rech.

United sink Roar.

2006-01-01T23:33:00.000+10:30

R16: Adelaide United 4-2 Queensland Roar
Veart 29’ pen, Qu 30’, Rech 40’, 63’
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, SA
01/01/2006
Referee: Matthew Breeze
Attendance: 8,426

United began 2006 with a resounding win over the ailing Queensland Roar, scoring four goals and letting in two at either end. Alex Brosque’s early goal was made irrelevant when in the space of eleven minutes Carl Veart, Shengqing Qu and Fernando Rech added their names to the scorecard. A second for Rech put it beyond doubt, and substitute Michael Baird’s late goal mattered not as United cruised to a fifth successive win.

Bajic
Alagich – Valkanis – Costanzo – van Dommele
Dodd – Aloisi – Veart – Pantelis
Rech – Qu
SUBS: Beltrame (GK), Brain, Bugeja, Rees.

Like many of the other seven Hyundai A-League clubs it took United awhile to click into gear after not playing for twenty-nine days. It was sluggish and quite frankly awful play from the Reds in the opening minutes of the game. Unable to keep the ball for longer than a few passes we continually turned the ball over to the speedy Queensland team, and gave away a series of corners from lackadaisical defending by Alagich, in particular.

A costly turnover in midfield where, I think, the ball hit one of our boys (possibly Carl Veart, playing his 450th game) on the foot and rebounded the wrong way (ed: it was actually a flick-on by Reinaldo), it set Alex Brosque through in on goal and the former Marconi and Westerlo player slotted it into the net. Bajic made a terrible attempt at saving it; he basically just fell over and didn’t read the ball’s flight at all. It was probably a deserving lead for Queensland, but it wasn’t an indication of them improving. No, it was more an indication of our crapness making the Roar look good in comparison.

The Reds began to work themselves into the game after Brosque’s early goal. We began to link passes together and actually went further than the centre-circle in our own half. Amazing. An early chance fell to us when Travis Dodd was put clean through in on Tom Willis’ goal, but Dodd’s touch was far too heavy and as speedy as he is he wasn’t quick enough to deny Willis from claiming the ball.

Several more openings fell to United. From what I can remember there was a chance for Qu but he chose to pass (to Veart, from memory) instead of shooting. Dodd had one more chance and Lucas Pantelis was put through several times, but Remo Buess was cutting out his attempted crosses each and every time. We were getting closer and closer to drawing level, as the tides had been turned on Queensland completely. They dominated the first twenty, but we were definitely getting on top of them at this stage.

But the break through came eventually. Shengqing Qu was put in on goal by a series of passes by Carl Veart, the lively Travis Dodd and the ever influential Brazilian Fernando Rech. Qu’s first touch was heavy but not heavy enough for him to race in to collect it again. As he went to fire off his shot Tom Willis upended the former Chinese international and Matthew Breeze had no problems pointing to the penalty spot.

Carl Veart stepped up to take the kick. Having taken the other two we had been given this season (against Perth and Newcastle, missing one after having to re-take it and sticking the former one in) I was confident he’d put it away, even though he always goes to the left. Willis saved it, but Veart converted the follow up to put us back on level terms with the visitors from the north.

Unbelievably, just a minute later, we were ahead. Seconds after the kick-off Carl Veart took the ball away from Massimo Murdocca with a meaty challenge that left the Victorian born midfielder on the deck. Rech and Pantelis brought it forward, and one of them released it into Qu. Qu took it forward and elegantly chipped it over an onrushing Willis into the net. Willis had no chance of saving it, and within the space of sixty seconds we were in front of the Roar.

There was no looking back after that. Queensland was clearly rattled by the two goal blitz, and now looked much like we did earlier: unable to even trap a ball. Qu was instrumental in the third goal. He took the ball on the left after a deep cross (from memory) from the middle of the park, ran with it and sent a zipping cross across the goal mouth. Willis, Gibson and Buess all missed it and Fernando Rech had the easiest of easy goals to score as he tapped in our third to put us 3-1 up.

The second half was rather dull, so I won’t spend too much time dwelling on it. The crowd was pretty flat, and up my end we were more interested in what was happening with some guy as he was talking to the police. He was kicked out, probably for throwing streamers onto the pitch.

Rech scored his second of the game to kill it off entirely. A Richie Alagich cross from just inside the right-hand corner of the 18 metre box was headed home by from close range by Rech, to put us 4-1 up. In our history we have only scored four goals one other time, against the Melbourne Knights nearly two years ago in February of 2004.

Michael Baird’s late goal didn’t mean much. Reinaldo passed the ball to him somewhere outside our box, and his curling shot beat Bajic as he once again misjudged the flight of the ball, and it went into the net to make it 4-2. It didn’t matter, though, as United comfortably cruised to a 4-2 win. For once it was nice to be on the winning side of a 4-2 scoreline, rather than the successive home defeats we had to Newcastle and Perth awhile ago of the same scoreline.

Hopefully 2006 can be as good to us as 2005 was. Come on you Reds – Melbourne next week and a chance to not only officially be the first team to make it into the finals, but to kill their season off completely.

Ratings

Bajic – 6 – both Queensland goals were saveable. Bajic completely misjudged the flight of both, and I thought his attempt at saving the Brosque one was crap. He also nearly cost us another goal, but he did improve as the game went on.
Alagich – 7 – solid, if not spectacular. Basically he just did his job, and kept Brosque relatively quiet for large chunks of the game.
Costanzo – 7 – pretty good game from Costanzo, but not spectacular like some of his performances have been.
Valkanis – 8 – took control of the defence as we worked our way into the game. I agreed with what Alby Kidd said on the radio.
Van Dommele – 6 – didn’t really stand out.
Dodd – 8 – very good performance from Dodd. He was giving the Queensland left side a torrid time, and was involved several times in the build up play.
Aloisi – 6 – his performance mirrored ours. He was awful early on but got better as the game went on, nearly scored too.
Veart – 8 – played well but he should stop taking penalties because that’s twice now he’s had them saved.
Pantelis – 7 – was involved in several of our attacks during our best spells of the game, and the loud clap he received as he was subbed off tells the story of his game.
Rech – 8 – I thought he controlled a lot of our play, and his role of playing behind Qu is killing many teams. Like Alby Kidd said: influential, if not spectacular.
Qu – 9 – a goal, two assists and a won the penalty. What else can you ask for? He’s possibly the leagues best striker, especially now Thompson is gone to PSV.

Subs

Beltrame – N/A – not used.
Brain – 6 – did alright as he swapped positions with Veart and Rech.
Bugeja – 7 – he should have scored to put us 5-1 up, but oh well.
Rees – 6 – did his job, and allowed Ange to go into the middle.

Ref

Breeze – 4 – pretty rubbish.

This weeks votes for the player of the year award goes to Shengqing Qu. Qu was instrumental in our win over the Roar, scoring a fantastic goal (his fourth of the season), and setting up two others all the while winning a penalty. Very deserving of the award

1. M. Valkanis
2. T. Dodd
3. C. Veart
4. F. Rech
5. Q. Shengqing – man of the match.

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round sixteen:

32. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)(16)
31. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
28. C. Veart (1)(15)
27. M. Valkanis (4)(8)
23. T. Dodd (11)(13)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
15. F. Rech (14)
15. K. Rees (7)(10)
11. R. Aloisi (5)
10. M. Kemp
10. L. Pantelis
6. R. Alagich
6. L. Brain
4. A. Goulding
3. A. van Dommele
2. C. Bugeja

UNITED vs. Queensland.

2005-12-31T14:09:00.000+10:30

I can’t be bothered typing some massive thingo again, so I’ll just give the link to a funny story in The Advertiser where John Kosmina continues his feud with Miron Bleiberg.

Huzzah.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 16

vs.
Sunday, 1st of January, 2006
Kick-Off: 6:30pm (CDT/ GMT +9.30)
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, South Australia
Weather: 25c/Wet.

PREVIEW

Adelaide United is set to bring in 2006 with a twilight game at Hindmarsh Stadium against the Queensland Roar. The United fans have waited a long time to see our men in action again; indeed it was about five weeks when we recorded that historic win over Sydney in round fourteen.

The long running battle between Miron Bleiberg and John Kosmina will be played out for a third (fourth if you include the friendly up at Coffs Harbour in early August). The two simply don’t like each other, and their feud will probably become one of the highlights of the league in years to come.

In team news Matthew Kemp is (obviously) the only casualty for a rather full strength United. I’d imagine the same team who played against Sydney will take the park. Possibly with Kristian Rees being dropped to the bench with Angelo Costanzo moving back into defence, or Lucas Pantelis dropped to the bench (again) with Carl Veart going on the left. My stance on that tactic has been well published on this site, and it’s certainly one I’ve never agreed with.

Anyway, the last thing I want to talk about is the weather as I really can’t be bothered writing an extensive preview. The weather over the last few days has been completely fucked up. It was 42 yesterday, in the range of 40 today, and tomorrow? 25, and humid with several late afternoon showers, which will, of course, drop an already low expected attendance by a few more thousand. The weather hates us, I’m sure of it.

TABLE

(as of Saturday, 31/12/2005)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 15 10 2 3 23 18 +5 32
2 Sydney FC 16 8 4 4 29 23 +6 28
3 Newcastle Utd 16 7 3 6 22 21 +1 24
4 CC Mariners 16 6 5 5 26 23 +3 23
-------------------------------
5 Perth Glory 16 6 5 5 25 21 +4 22
6 Melbourne Vic 16 5 5 6 22 18 +4 20
7 QLD Roar 15 4 6 5 14 14 +0 18
8 NZ Knights 16 1 2 13 12 36 -24 5

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
LWWWW

R15: Newcastle United Jets 1-2 Adelaide United (Veart, Brain)
R14: Adelaide United 3-2 Sydney FC (Rech, Veart, Rech)
R13: Adelaide United 1-0 New Zealand Knights (Qu)
R12: Central Coast Mariners 1-2 Adelaide United (Dodd, Rech)
R11: Adelaide United 2-4 Perth Glory (Veart pen, Rees)

QUEENSLAND’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WLLDD

R15: Queensland Roar 1-1 New Zealand Knights (Brownlie)
R14: Central Coast Mariners 2-2 Queensland Roar (Osman, Heffernan)
R13: Queensland Roar 0-1 Newcastle United Jets
R12: Sydney FC 1-0 Queensland Roar
R11: Melbourne Victory 0-1 Queensland Roar (McKay

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 3
United Wins: 2
Draws: 1
Roar Wins: 0

THE TEAM

Squad: 1.Daniel BELTRAME (gk), 2.Richie ALAGICH, 3.Kristian REES, 4.Angelo COSTANZO, 5.Michael VALKANIS, 6.Ross ALOISI, 7.Lucas PANTELIS, 8.Carl VEART, 10.Fernando Rech, 11.Louis BRAIN, 12.Chad BUGEJA, 13.Travis DODD, 14.Aaron GOULDING, 17.Adam VAN DOMMELE, 19.Qu SHENGQING, 20.Robert BAJIC (gk).*One to be omitted

In: Ross Aloisi (return from suspension), Shengqing Qu (return from suspension).
Out: Michael Matricciani (omitted), Robert Cornthwaite (omitted).
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (Groin-unknown).

PREDICTION

Adelaide United 2-1 Queensland Roar
Dodd, Rech.

Attraction.

2005-12-30T16:35:00.000+10:30

Miron Bleiberg is a complete nutcase. There, I said it. But he's good value for the A-League, and the league does need coaches who put themselves out there like Bleiberg does, rather than recluses like the fallen Glory coach Steve McMahon. His ideas to 'improve' football are hilariously stupid.

Sunday's game is a re-match for the Israeli against his verbal foe, the Australian coach in the A-League; John Kosmina. Last time their verbal battle (click to download) after United's at-the-death winner at Suncorp Stadium. This time, however, Bleiberg has threatened to not even speak to John Kosmina. I bet he'll fail.

Miron Bleiberg:
"Win, lose or draw I will not say anything to him."

Rubbish. As well as that Louis Brain is playing against many former team-mates. Brain of course spent the final season of the National Soccer League at the defunct Brisbane Strikers, and was team-mates with Matt McKay, Josh McCloughlan and Warren Moon, among others.

Louis Brain:
"While we're on the park there is not much of a friendship," Brain said. "We'll go out there and kick each other if we have to and do what we have to do for our team to get the points."

Fernando Rech is also playing former team-mates. The Brazilian spent three seasons at the Brisbane Strikers, before moving to money bags Parramatta Power in the last season of the National Soccer League. Fernando recently went to Brazil during the break, and apparently they've been talking about us a fair bit, what with us playing them in the World Cup and all.

Fernando Rech:
"On my holidays when I'm going back to Brazil everyone is always asking me how many Brazilians are playing in the league," Rech said.

It'd be great if more Brazilians came to Australia to play. Australians have a particular affinity for Brazilians, and for the most part have a massive amount of respect for their football. For years now people have been crowing about wanting to be more 'Brazilian' and less 'English'.

Fernando Rech:
"Australia is a really good country to live in with a good lifestyle similar to Brazil."

That's what we have working for us if we want to convince more Brazilians to come to Australia and play. Weather. Our climate is similar to theirs. Both countries are southern hemisphere nations with changing climate. Our clubs can (probably) offer more money too when the cap is made bigger as well.

Last of all, there is now a three way dogfight between Adelaide, Gosford and Perth to host the Asian Cup qualifiers next year. I'd love it if we could get it here, as I'd be there in a flash.

Thousand thousands.

2005-12-27T14:31:00.000+10:30

Three clubs have cracked the 100,000 attendance barrier this season. They're also the same three clubs who lead the overall attendance standings: Sydney FC, Queensland Roar, Melbourne Victory. In the NSL we would have been among this lot, as we led the way for attendance in our first and the NSL's final season.

Dom Rinaldo:
"We were the leaders last year as far as attendances go," Rinaldo said. "This season we want to prove that we can get up there again."

We aren't. Fact is that in the first cycle of the season (rounds one through to seven) we had some shocking crowds, including 8,785 against Melbourne and an even worse 7,013 agains the Mariners two weeks later. Those two have been our worst crowds this season.

Dom Rinaldo:
"If we can break the 100,000 barrier with a shortened season it will prove to the Eastern states that we still have the best supporters in the country."

That's all good and well but I'm not getting my hopes up. We are currently 25,388, and while that's certainly obtainable (needing just 8,462 from each game to crack it) you'll struggle to get that when you have two of the worst scheduled games of the season, and have had an abysmal amount of promotion by the media.

Firstly there is a game on New Years Day, which was always a stupid idea as plenty of people will be in a "can't be arsed" mood and the game against the Victory is on a Thursday night. People will be working, or shopping as Thursday evenings is traditionally the time when people do grocery shopping in Adelaide.

I've said it all season long: Thursday is a crap night for football and football shouldn't be played on the 31st of December and the 1st of January in this country. It will only be those of us who have paid for a seasons worth of games who will be there, I can guarantee it. I won't be gloating when I'm right when there is an awful attendance.

In other news, John Kosmina's been calling for a youth league again. He's been asking for one for awhile now, and I think it'll happen the season after next, with the idea of making it a mixed reserves and youth league whose games are played before the first team matches, as a curtain raiser of some kind.

Also, this is a must read article about the strife that Uruguayan club football is in. As a lover of South American football I'm not sure what to say, but I dearly hope they can somehow improve the mess that it's in over there.

Trivia: Would you believe that Clwb Pêl-droed Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch isn't the longest club name in football? Neither can I.

Brazilistralia

2005-12-23T19:28:00.000+10:30

Brazilian football is held in very high regard in this country. For such a long time Australians have been moaning about the 'Englishness' of the game here and wish it was more Brazilian (which is ridiculous because nobody can imitate the Brazilians). Anyway, yesterday Fernando Rech spoke to The Advertiser about Australia's chances against Brazil.

Fernando Rech:
"I'm going to follow Brazil because it is my country," Rech said. "I just love Brazilian soccer."

Who doesn't? I happen to enjoy it to the point of beyond fascination. One day I want to attend matches at the Maracana, Moroumbi, pretty much anywhere. But the same goes for Argentina, Uruguay, and so on.

Fernando Rech:
"But I hope Australia can qualify for the Round of 16 and I think they have a good chance. They play Japan in the first game and if they want to qualify they really have to beat Japan."

The key game for us is definitely the one against the Japanese on the 12th. If we lose that one we will, in all likelihood, finish bottom of the group. I remain confident that we'll be too strong for the Japanese and pick up three points, though. I'd love it if we made it out of the group. Just love it.

Yesterday there was a bit o' biff at training involving Angelo Costanzo and Robert Bajic. From what I've read Costanzo had a go at Bajic during the three-team-thingy they do at training, and it was blown out of proportion by the media.

Angelo Costanzo:
"It got a little bit fiery, but that's part of the game and it happens. It wasn't so much me, I'm a lover more than a fighter," Costanzo joked.

Exactly. It's not like a training ground bust up is new in the game. It happens everywhere, even at crunch occaisions like the World Cup.

John Kosmina:
"We're training Boxing Day because we've got no choice. The boys get the weekend off with their families and then it is back to business because we have a game on next weekend. Hopefully coming back on Boxing Day instead of generally sitting around eating more food and drinking things they shouldn't, they'll be out on the paddock."

That's probably a good idea. We play last in round sixteen so we've got that bit of extra time to plan properly. Perhaps training like this will help simulate the much talked about home ground curse that's been floating around the A-League clubs.

Angelo Costanzo:
"Everyone is refreshed and looking good and sharp at training at the moment," he said. "A few of us had a few injuries and we've gotten over them. We had a good run-in before the break and everyone is looking forward to New Year's Day."

Particularly Ross Aloisi is one who must get over their injury problems. Ross has been carrying an ankle injury since round six and it's been seriously effecting his performances, hence why he's getting so few votes in the player of the year award compared to Costanzo, Qu and Valkanis.

Hitting the straps.

2005-12-20T15:28:00.000+10:30

Training is well and truly back at Holden Street now, with heavy track work beginning yesterday (I bet they enjoyed the heat today) now that all players have returned from their vacations, including Rech and Qu. Aurelio Vidmar told The Advertiser of how all the players returned in good condition, not showing any effects of the break thankfully.

Matthew Kemp may yet figure late on in the season as he surprised many by returning to very light jogging this morning. Kemp tore the groin muscle away from the bone against the Knights in late November. He was expected to be out for, at the minimum, two months and probably meaning he was unavailable for playoffs action. He might yet make it in turn, who knows?

Meanwhile, across the state border over in Melbourne, Archie Thompson says that the Victory players must take the blame for their massive form slump, and the A-League website has published some useless statistical information regarding the keepers of the league.

That's all for today.

Immigrants.

2005-12-18T21:05:00.000+10:30

Something in the rags today about a foreigner limit implemented by Sepp Blatter. Doesn't really effect us much - we only have two.

All I want for christmas ...

2005-12-16T14:37:00.000+10:30

... is a championship. Or so said Ross Aloisi in an interview with The Advertiser. United returned to training today after a ten day long break from football. Travis Dodd and Michael Valkanis went to the Gold Coast, Ross Aloisi went to Singapore (thankfully he wasn't smuggling drugs) and our two imports went home to China and Brazil for their break.

Ross Aloisi:
"I just want a championship," Adelaide United captain Ross Aloisi says. "You can get me what you like for Christmas, but all I want is a championship."

With the players absent for the last week and a bit I've done very little blogging. Not much to say when most of them are off in other parts of the world, or are just lounging about the house and doing some gardening. Hopefully with the players back there'll be a bit of news to report for a change.

And now they're back, it's been announced that there will be a special testimonial dinner for retired skipper and now assistant Aurelio Vidmar. The same article also mentions that a major TV network, not exactly known for its pro-football agenda, wants to purchase A-League TV rights. Obviously that rules out SBS. I just hope it isn't the Seven Network, the same network who helped kill the NSL.

Player of the Month: November 2005.

2005-12-13T14:25:00.000+10:30

The player of the month for November, and the one game we played in December (unlike the rest of the league we resume in January), is Travis Dodd. It was a brilliant month for Doddsy as he collected a massive nineteen points that saw him shoot up to fifth in the standings for the player of the year award.

Dodd's ranking after the five games played in came off the back of some excellent performances, scoring the crucial equaliser against the Central Coast and creating two goals himself. He scored nineteen points from a possible twenty last/this month, and I hope he continues it in the new year.

In A-League news, Melbourne Victory captain Kevin Muscat has been suspended for three games after a tribual hearing last night. He'll miss the home game against Perth and away trips to Adelaide and Queensland.

Brilliant.

World Cup: The Groups.

2005-12-10T21:41:00.000+10:30

It was done earlier today.

GROUP A
Germany
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador

GROUP B
England
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden

GROUP C
Argentina
Côte d’Ivoire
Serbia & Montenegro
Netherlands

GROUP D
Mexico
Iran
Angola
Portugal

GROUP E
Italy
Ghana
United States
Czech Republic

GROUP F
Brazil
Croatia
Australia
Japan

GROUP G
France
Switzerland
South Korea
Togo

GROUP H
Spain
Ukraine
Tunisia
Saudi Arabia

The complete schedule is here. I can't wait!

World Cup: Mock Draw.

2005-12-08T17:06:00.000+10:30

I did my mock draw with a certain formula. I used dice. I rolled two six-sided die, using numbers one through eight. If it came up with a number higher than eight I rolled again once the spots for Groups 7 and 8 were full I only used one die.

First of all I allocated the first pot teams (list given yesterday), with the die representing a letter. One was 'A', two 'B', and so forth except for Germany who are automatically in Group A - I think.

I then allocated a group for Serbia & Montenegro, who were given 'special' status due to the number of European nations. After they were allocated into a group containing Brazil, Mexico or Argentina I went through the order given below.

Here are the results of todays mock draw:

GROUP A
Germany
Ghana
Switzerland
Trinidad & Tobago

GROUP B
Argentina
Portugal
Serbia & Montenegro
Tunisia

GROUP C
Croatia
Iran
Italy
Paraguay

GROUP D
Ecuador
Poland
South Korea
Spain

GROUP E
Australia
France
Japan
Ukraine

GROUP F
Mexico
Saudi Arabia
Sweden
Togo

GROUP G
Côte d’Ivoire
Czech Republic
England
United States

GROUP H
Angola
Brazil
Costa Rica
Netherlands

The proper draw is Saturday, December 10th at 5:45am Adelaide time.

World Cup: Draw Seeds.

2005-12-07T17:13:00.000+10:30

Pot 1 - Seeded Nations
1. Germany 2. Brazil 3. England 4. Spain 5. Mexico 6. France 7. Argentina 8. Italy

Pot 2 - Africa & South America & Oceania
1. Angola 2. Côte d’Ivoire 3. Ghana 4. Togo 5. Tunisia 6. Ecuador 7. Paraguay 8. Australia

Pot 3 - Europe
1. Croatia 2. Czech Republic 3. Netherlands 4. Poland 5. Portugal 6. Sweden 7. Switzerland 8. Ukraine

Pot 4 - Asia & North, Central America and the Caribbean
1. Iran 2. Japan 3. Korea Republic 4. Saudi Arabia 5. Costa Rica 6. USA 7. Trinidad and Tobago

Pot 5 - Special Pot
1. Serbia and Montenegro

Tomorrow I will do a mock draw as I have nothing better to do with my endless amount of time.

The best in the land (part 3)

2005-12-04T15:43:00.000+10:30

That's right. It's time to drag out the o'l "the best in the land" title again. Hey, let's face it, nobody is better than us right now. Only one team has scored more goals than us and we have a pretty good goal difference - at least, for this leagues standards. Most people are taking us seriously now, and our title aspirations are firmly on show for all to see.

Out east they were saying we were going to finish last. Strugglers, and definites for the bottom two. I always knew we could play better than what we did in the Club World Championship qualification play-offs in May, where we often struggled and were often left wanting creatively. Sometimes our play up front can be frustrating, granted, but we're a hundred times better than what we were six months ago.

And now the lads are on a well deserved two week break. It'd be stupid to say that it wasn't deserved because they've been busting their arses off for the last fifteen weeks with some pressure cooker, high tempo physical matches and several in more than trying conditions.

John Kosmina:
"They (United's squad) need a freshener," Kosmina said. "They've been super committed and they've delivered."

I hope when they come back they're fit and firing for the tail end of the season. With a five point break on Sydney and eight on Newcastle, we're pretty much there. Surely wins over Queensland on the 1st of January and the Victory on the 5th would all but guarantee finals qualification for the Reds?

John Kosmina:
"Ross, Mickey (Valkanis) and Travis (Dodd) are going up to the Gold Coast to spend time with their families," Kosmina said."

Can't wait till we play again. It seems so long away.

United stun Jets.

2005-12-02T22:43:00.000+10:30

> R15: Newcastle United Jets 1–2 Adelaide United
Veart 76', Brain 80'
EnergyAustralia Stadium
Newcastle, NSW
02/12/2005
Referee: Simon Przydacz
Attendance: 10,132

A tired and lethargic Adelaide United once again stunned the league with two late goals as it overcame Newcastle in torrential rain on the north coast of New South Wales. Falling behind to a Richard Johnson diving header after having a re-taken penalty saved by Liam Reddy, the Reds gathered to score two late goals through Carl Veart and substitute Louis Brain.

Bajic
Alagich – Valkanis – Rees – Goulding
Dodd – Costanzo – Veart – Pantelis
Bugeja – Rech
SUBS: Beltrame (GK), Brain, Cornthwaite, Matricciani.

It was a timid opening to the game with both sides opened the game just feeling each other out. With the surface of EnergyAustralia Stadium looking more like a BMX track rather than a football pitch. A couple of simple errors by players at both ends of the pitch saw Newcastle break into a counter, and Fernando Rech fouled Johnson. Matt Thompson fired wide of the post to register the first shot of the game.

Newcastle were enjoying a lot of freedom as they switched the ball from left-to-right, using Vaughan Coveny as an outlet. They soon won a corner from Costanzo, but United cleared the ball. Right about now it was all Newcastle, and it seemed as though we were struggling to come to terms with the pitch, and the pace of Newcastle’s play. Newcastle got the ball into the box again, and Thompson’s hesitation allowed Rees to block it for a corner, but Thompson’s deep corner went over everyone’s heads and out for a goal-kick.

Kristian Rees stood tall in defence from a free-kick won by Coveny. Jets fans thought they’d scored when Johnson drove home a shot, but the whistle went well before that after Picken fouled Rees. We enjoyed a brief bit of the ball after that foul, winning a corner but the breeze blew the ball well off course.

The pitch was causing havoc, making it almost impossible to play a decent ball. About the only decent thing we were doing was clearing our lines from the balls Newcastle were sending into the box every split second – was this the same United that beat Sydney last week? Hardly. United looked lethargic, and were complete unable to come to grips with the terrible pitch.

Rain had forced a referee change with Matthew Breeze being caught in a thunderstorm in Canberra. That rain – some of which I’m sure we had in Adelaide today – completely engulfed the home of the Newcastle Knights in the NRL. It was even worse than what we experienced in Auckland! We had a succession of corners, but neither went anywhere. About the only bright sparke for the Reds was that Chad Bugeja was having a really good starting debut. Foxtel then lost picture, as I’d the storm up there has damaged more than a few powerlines, so I don’t know what happened from the time it went out until about half-time.

When pictures came back we had a penalty. Veart’s first penalty was fine, and smashed high and hard into the top corner, but for some reason Przydacz forced Veart to take it again, and, of course, Reddy saved it. Typical. Our golden chance to win the game was wrongly taken away from us by Przydacz. Half-time sounded just after that.

It was Newcastle’s best chance to score when Carle fed Thompson in, and his deft touch allowed Ante Millicic to fire it against the woodwork. You can just get the feeling Newcastle were going to score. After Millicic went off at the referee for not giving him a free-kick with some clear obstruction by Valkanis, Travis Dodd had an excellent chance to score with a well created effort on the half-volley.

And then Newcastle scored. Millicic put in Thompson, and his cross across the face of the goal was headed straight in with a diving header by Richie Johnson. It’s not like they hadn’t been undeserving of a goal, but it’s still complete bullshit. It should have been 1-1 if not for that wanker Przydacz disallowing a perfectly legit penalty.

Louis Brain came on for Lucas Pantelis, and immediately Newcastle went back into attack. Carle played Millicic in, but Bajic blocked it with his outstretched foot. Thompson’s follow up went skying over the crossbar. A little while later, Travis Dodd hit the post. Him and Bugeja were the only ones playing well in a tired and disinterested United team.

And then? Carl Veart scores from a deflected Travis Dodd cross across the face of the game. It really should’ve been our second of the game, but, you know, eastern state referees and all. Given the way we were playing, I would’ve taken 1-1 if you offered it to me.

You wouldn’t think it was possible, would you?

Shockingly we took the lead. Somehow. Richie Alagich won the ball in the middle of the pitch was headed back to Carl Veart, Veart’s deft touch put Louis Brain in on the goal, and Lou slotted it in passed Liam Reddy. Somehow, United had gone ahead only to be denied, and then fell behind again, got level, and in the space of mere minutes fought their way to the front with a brilliantly well worked team goal.

United ran the clock down brilliantly in the last fifteen minutes of the game, denying Newcastle any chance to get anything moving. Was it deserved? Probably not. But the fact is we deserved our lead, and had it not been for Przydacz we would have, therefore, won 3-1, despite Newcastle having the run of the ball. We had two excellent chances created by team work and skill, and even if it was a tired, labouring and lethargic performance I don’t care. We are now eight points clear of Sydney and Newcastle.

And I love it.

Ratings

Bajic – 8 – great save from Millicic, and there was nothing he could do to save Newcastle’s goal. Good performance by Robby.
Alagich – 7 – started off terribly but worked his way into the game, started one of the goals. I think it was Brain’s.
Rees – 8 – a rock in the first half with some great blocks and defensive headers.
Valkanis – 6 – had a rather difficult game I thought, and gave away some unnecessary fouls. Picked up a card.
Goulding – 6 – didn’t really stand out.
Dodd – 8 – another excellent performance by Trav Dodd, created the equaliser with a great run and a great cross and went to close to scoring twice.
Costanzo – 8 – won the midfield battle, provided plenty of balls for the attackers to run onto, all around very solid.
Veart – 9 – his best of the season for me. Despite the crap second penalty, he technically scored twice.
Pantelis – 6 – struggled with the conditions; North had him well covered in my view.
Rech – 7 – frustrating performance for him, often isolated from the play. Definitely better behind the strikers and in deep, and not up on his own.
Bugeja – 8 – tried very hard and showed great pace for someone who hasn’t played for ninety minutes for quite awhile.

Subs

Beltrame – N/A – not used.
Brain – 7 – great finish to win the game for us.
Cornthwaite – N/A – not used.
Matricciani – N/A – not used.

Ref

Przydacz – 5 – not great, disallowed a perfectly good penalty.

This weeks votes for the Player of the Year award goes to Carl Veart, for the second time. He took his goal so well, worked very hard and provided some great passes for the others to run onto. A deserving winner of this weeks award is Veartinho.

1. K. Rees
2. C. Bugeja
3. A. Costanzo
4. T. Dodd
5. C. Veart – man of the match

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round fourteen:

31. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
27. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)
26. M. Valkanis (4)(8)
25. C. Veart (1)(15)
21. T. Dodd (11)(13)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
15. K. Rees (7)(10)
11. R. Aloisi (5)
11. F. Rech (14)
10. M. Kemp
10. L. Pantelis
6. R. Alagich
6. L. Brain
4. A. Goulding
3. A. van Dommele
2. C. Bugeja

Newcastle vs. UNITED.

2005-12-01T21:58:00.000+10:30

Next year begins the qualification process for the 2007 Asian Cup. As of midnight on the 1st of January we – Australia – will officially be in the Asian Football Confederation. Because of this, and in turn the qualifiers in Australia, there’ll be a race to host the games held in Australia and Adelaide wants to be in on the action. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be allowed to host it – Hindmarsh is Australia’s best pure football facility.

So now there’s been a petition created by people at The Advertiser, the FFSA and Adelaide United FC with the support of Socceroos John Aloisi and Tony Vidmar – both are, of course, the younger brothers of ex-United captain Aurelio Vidmar and current United captain Ross Aloisi. I’ve already signed it twice.

Tony Vidmar:
"I want all South Australians to get behind the The Advertiser's campaign to get us into Adelaide next year," Vidmar said from the Netherlands yesterday.

It’d be huge to have it here. We’re not exactly going to be getting an easy ride in the qualifiers, since we’re debutants we’re in the third pot along with such football powers as Yemen, Singapore and Lebanon. I think that if, it was held here, we’d get a great crowd, especially if we played one of the four superpowers of Asian football: Japan, South Korea, Iran or Saudi Arabia. It’s very possible.

Michael Petrillo:
"We're setting up a promotional street crew who are taking the The Advertiser Adelaide United petitions across Adelaide," Petrillo said.

I’ll be sure to sign it when I see it. Twice. And I’ll definitely be at the game – I’d have to be comatose for someone to stop from going to it, although I’m sure there’ll be plenty of other Johnny Come Lately’s trying to snap up tickets since football has taken up a lot of spotlight since Aloisi converted that penalty.

There was something about Newcastle #1 Liam Reddy in today’s rag. Reddy spoke about the fond memories he has of Adelaide from his year at SASI, and how much he rates us. From the quote below you can tell he’s a man with good taste.

Liam Reddy:
"Adelaide have been the most consistent team all year and they deserve to be five points clear. They've been the most consistent and have played some good soccer."

There’s also something else about how Ryan Fitzgerald and Matthew Primus pretty much killed our mascot, Big Red, last week during half-time. Both of those two played in the celebrity game I completely missed last week. I don’t even know who won.

Carl Veart also plays his 450th game this weekend. Congrats, Carl, but somehow I doubt you’ll get to 500.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 15

vs.
Friday, 2nd of December, 2005
Kick-Off: 8:00pm (EDT/ GMT +10)
EnergyAustralia Stadium
Newcastle, New South Wales
Weather: 19c/Showers.

PREVIEW

If you thought last week was big, then this week is … just as big. Heh. We have built ourselves a nice little gap over the chasing pack over the last month and a bit, and now sit five points clear of our closest rivals: Sydney and the Jets. While a loss won’t knock us off our perch it certainly wouldn’t be welcome, since nobody likes to lose. Especially me.

Having Ross Aloisi, and more importantly, Shengqing Qu suspended for this game hardly makes the cause easier. Both picked up their fourth yellow card last week in the win against Sydney, meaning we’ll be re-shaping our lineup with Lou Brain likely to come in for Qu, and Kristian Rees will probably move back into defence and Costanzo to go back in the holding role. We’re lucky to have so many versatile players.

Injury wise we’re all set. No worries with it. Every player, except Kemp, is injury free now that Matricciani is back, which is great. Kemp is likely to be out for the season so I won’t be surprised if we sign a player on-loan – whether that be a right back or not – for the rest of the season. Maybe even Sarranti Parissos.

We have to score early, in my opinion. The Jets are a hard-working team who can grind a goal out of nowhere as we all saw last week. An early goal would make it really hard for them to get an out-right winner, as, despite their awesome attacking power of Millicic, Carle, Thompson and now Coveny, they haven’t been the highest of scorers lately. Scoring four against New Zealand is irrelevant, they haven’t scored more than one in awhile now.

We have a firing and inform Fernando Rech now. When we last played Newcastle they completely dominated us, and despite us scoring twice, we never looked like winning. It’s concerning if you get dominated easily at home – but, that said, we controlled the game at their place in round one.

It’s going to be a very tough, physical encounter. Obviously the team will be set out to stack the midfield that worked so well against the Victory, Roar and Mariners, but without Shengqing Qu playing with his back to goal it won’t be easy.

I’m sure we can do it. Go boys.

TABLE

(as of Thursday, 01/12/2005)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 14 9 2 3 21 17 +4 29
2 Sydney FC 14 7 3 4 25 20 +5 24
3 Newcastle Utd 14 7 3 4 20 15 +5 24
4 Perth Glory 14 6 3 5 21 17 +4 21
-------------------------------
5 Melbourne Vic 14 5 4 5 19 14 +5 19
6 CC Mariners 14 5 4 5 21 20 +1 19
7 QLD Roar 15 4 6 5 14 14 +0 18
8 NZ Knights 15 1 1 13 10 34 -24 4

NEWCASTLE’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DWDWW

R14: Perth Glory 0-1 Newcastle United Jets (Coveny)
R13: Queensland Roar 0-1 Newcastle United Jets (Thompson)
R12: Melbourne Victory 0-0 Newcastle United Jets
R11: New Zealand Knights 2-4 Newcastle United Jets (Millicic, Thompson, Millicic, Millicic)
R10: Sydney FC 1-1 Newcastle United Jets (Millicic)

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WLWWW

R14: Adelaide United 3-2 Sydney FC (Rech, Veart, Rech)
R13: Adelaide United 1-0 New Zealand Knights (Qu)
R12: Central Coast Mariners 1-2 Adelaide United (Dodd, Rech)
R11: Adelaide United 2-4 Perth Glory (Veart pen, Rees)
R10: Melbourne Victory 0-1 Adelaide United (Veart)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 4
United Wins: 2
Draws: 1
Jets Wins: 1

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk); Richie Alagich, Kristian Rees, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Lucas Pantelis, Carl Veart, Fernando Rech, Louis Brain, Chad Bugeja, Travis Dodd, Aaron Goulding, Michael Matricciani, Adam van Dommele, Robert Cornthwaite, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Adam van Dommele (return from suspension), Chad Bugeja (promoted)
Out: Ross Aloisi & Qu Shengqing (both suspended – 1 match)
Unavailable: Matthew Kemp (groin - indefinite)

PREDICTION

Newcastle United Jets 0-1 Adelaide United
Dodd.

Reching Brilliant.

2005-11-29T17:25:00.000+10:30

Following his enormous effort yesterday, Fernando Rech spoke to The Advertiser today about his efforts on the weekend. In the interview, the Brazilian superstar spoke about the one thing that everyone in this game loves most: goals.

Fernando Rech:
"I'm really happy I'm scoring goals because everyone was expecting it from me," Rech said. "I had a pretty slow start in the first three or four weeks, my mind was still not up to the pace."

That's no secret. Fernando was pretty disappointing in his first few games, often off the pace (hard to think that we're playing a quicker style of football than they do in Brazil) and out of tune with his team-mates but over the last month and a bit his partnership with Qu, Dodd and Pantelis has been getting better with every game.

For two people who spoke Mandarin and Portuguese it's amazing how quickly Qu and Nando have come together, after having no pre-season whatsoever together.

Fernando Rech:
"When I scored the goal I was tired, by that stage of the game I was completely tired," he said. "I couldn't even move after I scored. But the atmosphere was fantastic with everyone so loud. You could see the excitement from everyone, everyone trying to push hard on the pitch and the crowd was just fantastic, just unbelievable."

I loved his celebration as much as I loved Marco Bresciano's goal against Uruguay. I love it when players don't run off doing stupid things. Standing there, soaking up the atmosphere. It looks brilliant ... until you're mobbed by team-mates in a sea of celebrations.

Fernando Rech:
"We're going to miss Ross and Qu for that game, but we have a strong squad. We have players who can come in to the game and do the job as well as Ross and Qu. I expect a hard time in Newcastle but we're top of the table so any point we can grab from now is going to be really important for us."

I'll be very happy with a point. Newcastle are the only team in better form than us, and seven weeks ago they slammed four passed us at home. We know they're not mugs and the likes of Carle and Millicic can kill a side on their own. A point is fine by me.

United get revenge on Sydney.

2005-11-28T21:08:00.000+10:30

R14: Adelaide United 3-2 Sydney FC
Rech 4’, Veart 14’, Rech 84’
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, SA
27/11/2005
Referee: Mark Shield
Attendance: 14,068

In what has been described as the best match ever to be played on Australian soil by some people, Adelaide United overcame title contenders Sydney FC at Hindmarsh on Sunday afternoon. Early goals by Fernando Rech and Carl Veart sent Hindmarsh in delirium, but Japanese superstar/grandpa Kazu Miura levelled the game with two superb finishes only for United to propelled to top of the table with a pulsating shot by the Brazilian superstar, Fernando Rech.

Bajic
Alagich – Valkanis – Costanzo – Goulding
Dodd – Aloisi – Veart – Pantelis
Qu – Rech
SUBS: Beltrame (GK), Brain, Matricciani, Rees

The intentions of the Reds were on show within minutes of the start as we went forward in search of an early goal, but Sydney quickly prevented that as Lucas Pantelis’ cross was easily cut out by Iain Fyfe. Sydney went forward down the left through the out-of-position Ufuk Talay who won a foul off Pantelis, a ball forward by Iain Fyfe saw Dwight Yorke disposs a retrieving Richie Alagich and win a free-kick.

Fyfe missed the header and Sasho Petrovski tried to put a touch on it be he missed, and the ball went out for a goal-kick. From the goal-kick we won our first free-kick of the game for a foul on Veart by Adelaide-born Iain Fyfe.

Robbie Bajic then sent the ball up the pitch from the goal-kick, and Carl Veart won the free-kick thanks to a foul by Jacob “Basketball” Timpano. The ball soon found its way over to the western touchline, and Richie Alagich stepped up with a long throw. The throw fell for Qu who touched the ball back to Rech, the Brazilian then fired off a shot on the outside of his boot but it hit the crossbar, but it seemed as though Lady Luck was smiling on United already as the ball fell back for Rech, and he guided the ball into the roof of the net just on four minutes. 1-0 already!

It took us just ten minutes to double our lead. The second goal was one of the scrappiest you’ll ever see on a football pitch – and that’s saying something. Shengqing Qu took the corner on the left hand side of the pitch. Clint Bolton, the Sydney keeper, went to claim but so did about three other players. It bobbled up in the air before Travis Dodd pretty much rammed his in through the pack of players, Angelo Costanzo stabbed at it but showing his attacking prowess he missed completely, and, somehow, it fell to a stationary Carl Veart – all the big #8 had to do was tap it into an open Sydney net. 2-0 to Adelaide before the quarter hour! Hindmarsh was rocking, and Lady Luck was definitely on our side on Sunday.

On the twentieth minute Shengqing Qu sled in late on Sydney left-back Alvin Ceccoli and received a yellow card. While the tackle wasn’t malicious, and he did get the ball, the subsequent card from it means that Qu is banned for this weeks match against the form team of the league, the Newcastle Jets. An extended break may do him so good, however, as he has been battered from pillar to post these last few weeks. We won up there without him on round one.

As so typical in football, when a side is playing another top side but has taken an early lead, it was then put on the back foot. Sydney gradually worked their way back into the game and started the search for their own goal. Yorke and David Carney were proving to be the menaces that they normally are, with several balls sent into United’s box.

Costanzo and Valkanis were standing tall and cutting out everything tried, and we were showing glimpses of our counter-attacking power every time Sydney went forward and the defence cleared it out. There was one instance when a David Carney cross went dangerously close to being easily tapped in but Costanzo rushed in and sent it over the bar. The problem with Bajic compared to Beltrame is that Danny will come for balls that are sent in like that. Bajic is almost glued to his line sometimes.

Unfortunately the law of averages dictate that eventually they’ll get something through you; and they did, just after the half-hour. Dwight Yorke ran at the defence, and he held off on releasing the ball long enough for Kazu Miura to ghost in behind Alagich and Valkanis. The Japanese legend/grandpa fired off a low shot across Bajic that went cruising into the net to get Sydney back into the game. You can tell this guy was some player in his heyday, because at 38 he looked very sharp and quick.

Sydney thought they were level when Carney, ever a pain in the arse, zigged and zagged through the United box, went to the by-line and crossed over to Kazu and Petrovski. The latter tapped it in (does this guy do anything outside of the six-yard box?) but the linesman signalled for offside, which was a correct decision after seeing the replays. Half-time was whistled for not long after with United taking a deserved lead.

The visitors started the second half better and soon won a corner on the left-hand side of the pitch. Taken by McFlynn, Yorke rose to meet the ball but his free header went agonisingly close to bouncing in inauspiciously at the far post – it was a let off, and the boys knew it too.

Knowing that we had to do something to break the tide of Sydney attackers, United went forward in search of a third goal. Ross Aloisi nearly scored on 60 minutes when he dispossessed the Sydney defence only to see Bolton take two attempts to stop his powerful drive from the edge of the box. He could not have hit the shot any harder, and Bolton spilled his save but he was lucky that our players were high enough on the box not to rush in for a tap-in. We went looking for another goal a few more times, but they all fizzled out nice and quietly into oblivion.

And it was from one of our attacking forays that Sydney scored. We lost the ball at the end we were attacking when Lou Brain sent in a weak cross that was easily cut out by Timpano, and in the blink of an eye a long ball from Ceccoli found its way to Carney who tricked his way through two United players, then to Petrovski who, with a simple touch, put Kazu in on goal. Miura went around a diving Bajic and slotted the ball into the net despite the efforts of a lunging Valkanis. 2-2.

Everyone thought we had put ourselves back in front again when a pass by Travis Dodd across field was fired at Bolton’s goal by the Brazilian at pace, unfortunately it swerved in the wind and just went wide. Literally, had he shot it from about a further metre away it would have gone in since Bolton was stranded on the spot. Rech was so close. And then, not long after, Shengqing Qu took a free-kick after Timpano fouled Travis Dodd. Qu’s free-kick was hit so well, but Bolton plucked it out of mid-air, needing three grabs at it to make sure an on-rushing United didn’t score again.

But just minutes later Rech put the Reds back in front. Goulding crossed into the box but Fyfe headed it out, only for Rech to collect it and thunder in a shot from a long way out. He hit it with such pace that Bolton spilled it into the goal as the ball skidded along the Hindmarsh surface, completely dumb-founding the most overrated keeper in the country. Rech’s celebration after the goal will be remembered by a lot of fans.

Travis Dodd had a great game. There’s no point in saying otherwise, he gave Ceccoli and Milligan an absolute bath on both sides (since he was switching sides with Pantelis). Toward the end of the game he dispossessed Milligan (I think) and ran to the by-line, his telling cross was met with full force by an on charging Shengqing Qu. Unfortunately Qu’s connection wasn’t great, and the ball skyed over the crossbar and into the massive netting behind the goals. We nearly won a game 4-2 instead of losing one for once.

With full-time closing in on them the players let their passion for the game boil over, four minutes from time players from both sides wrestled in the United box awaiting a Sydney corner, resulting in yellow cards to Iain Fyfe and Michael Valkanis. Another round of handbags happened when Sasho Petrovski aimed a kick at Robbie Bajic as he collected the ball, but soon after Mark Shield called for time.

This win put the mighty Reds a further three points clear of Sydney and the Jets, and now seven ahead of the resurgent Glory. Surely now we can start to talk about finals?

Ratings

Bajic – 7 – needs to come off his line quicker, it’s the one area where Beltrame has him covered in completely. Other than that he was pretty good.
Alagich – 7 – another solid performance by the fan favourite.
Costanzo – 7 – business as usual for Big Ange, almost got on the scoresheet too!
Valkanis – 7 – very solid at the back, he showed his quality when he cut out a particularly menacing ball in the second half.
Goulding – 7 – played out of his skin to keep Carney as quiet as humanely possible, good performance considering he hasn’t played ninety minutes in awhile.
Dodd – 8 – great game by Dodd, nearly set up Rech’s almost goal and had several great runs down the wing. He made the second goal by, well, ramming into them.
Aloisi – 7 – had several shots at goal and is slowly getting back to his brilliant best. Same as last week, he needs this break.
Veart – 7 – normal solid performance by Veart, good to see him on the scoresheet again.
Pantelis – 7 – Pantsy was pretty good as usual, he and Doddsy enjoyed the amount of space Sydney’s wings leave players..
Rech – 10 – beyond brilliant. Ran his heart out, and probably should have had a hat-trick.
Qu – 8 – worked his arse off, and was battered from pillar to post by Fyfe, Timpano and McFlynn.

Subs

Beltrame – N/A – not used.
Brain – 6 – not near match fit yet, it was his weak cross that basically created Sydney’s second goal..
Matricciani – N/A – not used.
Rees – 6 – did what he was supposed to do.

Ref

Shield – 7 – pretty good by his standards.

This weeks votes for the Player of the Year award goes to Fernando Rech, for the first time. Two unbelievably important goals by the Brazilian, both created by his own initiative. Outsiders won’t understand how important his brace will be in a few weeks time.

1. M. Valkanis
2. A. Goulding
3. Q. Shengqing
4. T. Dodd
5. F. Rech – man of the match

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round fourteen:

28. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
27. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)
26. M. Valkanis (4)(8)
20. C. Veart (1)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
17. T. Dodd (11)(13)
14. K. Rees (7)(10)
12. F. Rech (14)
11. R. Aloisi (5)
10. M. Kemp
9. L. Pantelis
6. R. Alagich
6. L. Brain
3. A. Goulding
3. A. van Dommele

UNITED vs. Sydney.

2005-11-26T15:07:00.000+10:30

George Best: 1946-2005

Firstly, I want to pay respects to the greatest footballer ever produced in Britain. George Best, aged 59, died last night at London’s Cromwell Hospital due to implications caused by internal bleeding. Vale, wee Georgie, vale. We will miss you.

LINKS: Advertiser, Sky, Telegraph, Times, Guardian, Age, Independent.

With that sad news out of the way there’s a bit in the rags before tomorrows match against Gimmick FC. Kossie spoke to the ABC about Dwight Yorke yesterday (obviously the media ban is well and truly over with these days then) and how we won’t be changing our formation and shape to accommodate his presence in the game tomorrow.

John Kosmina:
"They've seen him often enough now. I'm a firm believer in we get our house in order. If we start having to change things for them then what do we do the week after that?"

He makes a good point. Yorke is easily the most gifted player in the league but there’s no use in changing everything just for him – such as changing to a three-man defence, or playing five across the back. If we were contemplating going to a three-man defence last week would have been the game to do it in, since we were only playing the pathetic Knights. It’d be like starting all over again for next week, another tough match against the Jets up in Newcastle.

John Kosmina:
"I'm a firm believer of getting our house in order," Kosmina said. "If we start having to change things for Sydney, then what do we do then the week after for Newcastle?”

Exactly. Yorke is only one player. Sydney have enough quality in their team that if you solely concentrate on Yorke, they’ll kill you with everyone else they’ve got. Carney is going to be a real headache tomorrow. He gave Goulds a bath at Aussie Stadium two months ago. There’s no point in changing anything, keeping our shape is certainly the best thing to do.

A lot of people talk about Sydney’s glamour imports, but nobody really mentions how good our two are getting each and every time they play each other. Qu and Rech are working very well together. Rech’s proving a good signing. A lot of defenders get drawn to him when he drops in deep (which is what he did so well for the Strikers in the old league) which leaves Dodd, Pantelis and even Carl Veart to go forward into space. It’s working very well.

Fernando Rech:
"As soon as the ball kicks off, we understand the language of soccer," Rech said. "Outside the pitch has been funny, because Qu's a funny guy and everyone likes to talk with him."

Sydney can have their gimmicks and their ‘guest’ players – I’m very happy with our two boys. The Chinaman and the Brazilian are excellent players and Sydney’s suspect defence are going to be in for a torrid time tomorrow, especially considering Milligan hasn’t played a game this season, and Ceccoli hasn’t quite grasped what the ‘back’ of full-back means. It’ll be even better if Bingley plays, since Jacob “hand of god” Timpano isn’t fit yet.

Like I said earlier, we have to pay no added attention to Yorke. Richie shares my opinion, in an interview he gave with The Advertiser today.

Richie Alagich:
"We're not approaching this any differently," he said. "It is a cliche, but it is just another game. If you start getting caught up in the hype of who is playing, you get yourself into trouble.”

I think this is what happened against Newcastle and Perth. Against the Glory we were definitely caught up in the hype of Mori playing, and we were far too concerned about Millicic that we left Carle on his own one too many times, and were burned for it.

Richie Alagich:
"Especially in this league, if you put together three or four wins in a row, that can create a big gap," Alagich said. "Conversely, if you lose three or four in a row, as Melbourne did, all of a sudden you are second-bottom."

That said, I will be more than happy with a draw tomorrow. A draw would still leave us with a two game break on Sydney, and a game clear of the Jets, who won last night, over in Perth. I will be more than happy with a point in both of our next two games because I fully expect us to beat the Roar on New Years Day.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 14

vs.
Sunday, 27th of November, 2005
Kick-Off: 4:30pm (CDT/ GMT +9.30)
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, South Australia
Weather: 20c/Clear.

PREVIEW

It’s the game of the round tomorrow. I’ve pretty much covered everything above, so I will keep this nice and short. Rejoice.

We are definitely without Matthew Kemp, and will likely be until the last few weeks of the season. Last week against the Knights Kemp was injured, having a tendon come away from the bone in his groin. That’s definitely got to be painful.

He’s expected to be out for two months but I’d imagine it’ll take longer than that. That’s effective his season over since there is only eight league games left, and we are hardly likely to throw an underdone player into the mixer come finals time, given the amount of options we have on the right side: Dodd, Brain and Veart; Pantelis, Qu and Rech are other options for the right side of midfield. So it’s not a massive loss in the wider scheme of things when you think about it.

That’s about it, really. I’ve said everything that needs to be said above. There is going to be a “celebrity” match tomorrow before the game. Here are the teams:

1. Kym Dillon (GK) – Mix102.3
2. Kane Cornes - Port Power
3. Darren Jarmen – North Adelaide FC
4. Rachael Sporn – Former Opal
5. Lehmo - SAFM
6. Jullian Schiller –NOVA
7. Emma Rebellatto NOVA
8. Robbie Slater - FOX Sports
9. Tom Rehn - Channel 7
10. Jodie Blewett – Channel 10
11. Brett Tucker – McLeod’s Daughters
12. Val Migliaccio – Sunday Mail
13. Steve Rowe –Mix 102.3
14. Kevin Brooks – 36ers
15. Daniel Marotti – Prize Winner

1. Corey Wingard – Channel 10
2. Andrew Jarman
3. Matthew Primus – Port Power
4. Mark Aiston – Channel 10
5. Guido Hatzis - NOVA
6. Ryan“Fitzy”Fitzgerald - NOVA
7. Neil Evans – FOX Sports
8. Ali Carle Mix 102.3
9. Tyson Edwards – Crows
10. Brett Maher – 36ers
11. Daniel Lato – The Advertiser
12. Genevieve Meegan – The Advertiser
13. Garry Moretti – Socceroos Team Manager
14. Chris Dzelde – Mix 102.3
15. Andrew Orphanou – Prize Winner

Go you Reds.

TABLE

(as of Saturday, 26/11/2005)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide Utd 13 8 2 3 18 15 +3 26
2 Sydney FC 13 7 3 3 23 17 +6 24
3 Newcastle Utd 14 7 3 4 20 15 +5 24
4 Perth Glory 14 6 3 5 21 17 +4 21
-------------------------------
5 Melbourne Vic 14 5 4 5 19 14 +5 19
6 CC Mariners 14 5 4 5 21 20 +1 19
7 QLD Roar 14 4 5 5 13 13 +0 17
8 NZ Knights 14 1 0 12 9 33 -24 3

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WWLWW

R13: Adelaide United 1-0 New Zealand Knights (Qu)
R12: Central Coast Mariners 1-2 Adelaide United (Dodd, Rech)
R11: Adelaide United 2-4 Perth Glory (Veart pen, Rees)
R10: Melbourne Victory 0-1 Adelaide United (Veart)
R09: Queensland Roar 1-2 Adelaide United (Rech, Pantelis)

SYDNEY’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WDWWD

R13: Sydney FC 0-0 Perth Glory
R12: Sydney FC 1-0 Queensland Roar (Zdrillic)
R11: Central Coast Mariners 1-5 Sydney FC (Yorke pen, Talay, Petrovski, Petrovski, Petrovski)
R10: Sydney FC 1-1 Newcastle United Jets (Carney)
R09: Sydney FC 2-0 New Zealand Knights (Petrovski, Carney)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 1
United Wins: 0
Draws: 0
Sydney Wins: 1

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk), Richie Alagich, Kristian Rees, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi, Lucas Pantelis, Carl Veart, Fernando Rech, Louis Brain, Chad Bugeja, Travis Dodd, Aaron Goulding, Michael Matricciani, Qu Shengqing, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Michael Matricciani, Aaron Goulding (both promoted)
Out: Matthew Kemp (groin – 8 weeks), Adam van Dommele (suspended – 1 match)
Unavailable: Nil

PREDICTION

Adelaide United 1-1 Sydney FC
Veart

A lost gem? Rubbish.

2005-11-24T18:01:00.000+10:30

There was something in the 'tiser today about Sydney FC defender Iain Fyfe and the supposed missed opportunity United had to sign him earlier this year. The whole thing is a load of rubbish if you ask me - it makes Fyfe out to be the second coming of Franco Baresi.

Iain Fyfe:
"But they (United) never gave me a call about coming back to Adelaide."

I think a lot of it would have had to do with him wanting to be a first-team regular. We can't offer that for a centre-back. Michael Valkanis will always be our numero uno defender, and then we have Kristian Rees who is no worse than Fyfe. There's also Angelo Costanzo who played for Marconi as a defender.

Iain Fyfe:
"I thought they might have been interested. To be honest I thought they would have got in touch personally. I missed my family and mates. It would have been nice to come home."

As I said, the thing really does paint Fyfe to be as good as Baresi. He isn't. He's no better than Rees or Valkanis or Costanzo. And considering he's been in the heart of one of the shakier A-League defences this season, we aren't missing out on much.

Meanwhile, Richie spoke to www.a-league.com.au earlier today about Sunday's match. It's a massive game on Sunday, and really sets up the season for whoever wins. After this game we're off to Newcastle in another massive top four match.

Richie Alagich:
"I think the importance can't be understated especially with the break coming up," he said. "If you can get a result in these next two games you can really put a break between the other teams and that could very well set us up for the finals."

Personally I think it'll be a draw. But a draw wouldn't be a bad result for us. I've already partly mapped out the rest of our season:

Sydney [h] = 1
Newcastle [a] = 1
**break**
Queensland [h] = 3
Melbourne [h] = 3
Perth [a] = 0
Central Coast [h] = 3
New Zealand [a] = 3
Sydney [a] = 1

TOTAL: 41 points

Richie Alagich:
"In particular against Central Coast and last week, the way we've played it's some of the best football we've played all year and that's what we aim to do," he said. "And through that we've created a lot of chances and also pleasingly we're starting to hit the target but unfortunately every keeper that comes here has a blinder."

And I mapped out Sydney's remaining games:

Adelaide [a] = 1
Melbourne [h] = 3
**break**
New Zealand [a] = 3
Newcastle [h] = 1
Central Coast [h] = 3
Quensland [a] = 3
Perth [a] = 1
Adelaide [a] = 1

TOTAL: 37 points

Of course it's just a matter of opinion. I've fully shown throughout this season my ability to predict football results is about as lethal as a Danny Allsopp led attack.

Changes.

2005-11-23T20:32:00.000+10:30

Long-term injured player Michael Matricciani could be in line to get a place on the bench for Sunday's match against Sydney FC. Matrich has been injured since the World Youth Cup earlier in the year, and had an operation on his knee.

It'd be good to see him get some game time. The article also mentions we might draft Kevin Nelson in but that'd be pointless since we have several of our own players to call upon.

Basel Scarsella talks about the A-League here.

United trundle passed Knights.

2005-11-21T16:56:00.000+10:30

R13: Adelaide United 1-0 New Zealand Knights
Qu 38’
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, SA
13/11/2005
Referee: Angelo Nardi
Attendance: 9,676

Adelaide United overcame the hapless New Zealand Knights yesterday in a tepidly boring contest at Hindmarsh Stadium by the single goal, scored by Chinese striker Shengqing Qu. It was a sunny afternoon at Hindmarsh, but a frustrating one for the near 10,000 strong crowd (I swear it looked bigger than that) on hand to witness.

Bajic
Alagich – Valkanis – Costanzo – van Dommele
Kemp – Aloisi – Veart – Pantelis
Qu – Rech
SUBS: Beltrame (GK), Brain, Dodd, Rees

It was typical United from the get-go against the poor Knights outfit. As per the norm we started very quickly, and had a few early chances to score. The first one came when we moved it up from the back with a long ball from Bajic, Rech won the header and knocked it down for himself and then passed to Qu who did a neat flick up, and Rech’s volley was saved by the most worked keeper in the league, former Leeds man Danny Milosevic.

It was a rather boring game. Our complete dominance was not rewarding us with a goal that we deserved. It wouldn’t be Adelaide United if our balls into the box and so forth went nowhere, would it? We had complete control of the ball, dictated the pace and even dictated whether or not New Zealand would be able to play with it or not. We were forced into a change when Travis Dodd came on for the injured Matthew Kemp. The United winger appeared to have injured his groin or hamstring, and departed after just seven minutes on the pitch.

Danny Milosevic was keeping the Knights in the game as we had a further three chances. Rech had another one, then Qu had one and then defender and equal leading scorer Michael Valkanis had one, but Milosevic kept it out of the Knights net. It just would not go in for the Reds.

In general it was a lethargic performance by the Reds. They did not have the tenacity that they displayed against the Mariners a week ago, and basically looked like they had said to themselves “we know we don’t have to try, we’ll still win anyway.” That was partly true, because despite them putting in 50% of the effort we were still comfortably destroying the Knights everywhere except where it counts: the scoreboard. Travis Dodd was having a field day down the right hand side as he took fill-in left-back Josh Rose to the cleaners time and time again. We were threatening to score, but we just couldn’t get it to go into the back of the net.

The introduction of Dodd proved to be a winner. A long ball from the left-back spot was drilled up the pitch by Veart, and Dodd ran onto it, easily skinning a stranded Rose. Dodd fired in the cross from the by-line and all Shengqing Qu had to do was stand there. It went in off the Chinaman’s noggin’ for a very much deserved 1-0 lead to the mighty Reds.

And that was pretty much it. We attacked heaps in the second half, but I can’t be bothered writing about it. It went nowhere really. We battered them beyond belief but still couldn’t find a way passed them. New Zealand did have one chance to grab an undeserved goal when Devine shot late on, but Robbie Bajic saved from close-range to deny the former Exeter striker.

We calmly wrapped up the points. United were very lethargic and lazy against the Knights. It was almost like they were saving themselves next week against a travelling Sydney team who had to work pretty hard to keep the rampaging Glory at bay. We were almost shot ourselves in the foot when Devine nearly scored – a better striker, and a better team, would have taken complete advantage of our laziness across the pitch and stolen some points.

Against Sydney I expect we’ll put in at least 50% more of the effort than we did against the crappy Knights. Sydney have their injury worries, and we don’t, so hopefully we can get some revenge for last time when we were screwed over by the referee.

Ratings

Bajic – 7 – had nothing to do all day but came up trumps with an excellent save at the end. Didn’t make me shit myself either.
Alagich – 8 – very good performance from Richie, his best of the season by a long way.
Costanzo – 7 – had stuff all to do all day, and when he had something to do he easily got rid of it.
Valkanis – 7 – like Ange he had nothing to do; spent more time attacking if anything.
Van Dommele – 6 – no real comment.
Kemp – 6 – injured after seven minutes.
Aloisi – 7 – had several shots at goal and is slowly getting back to his brilliant best.
Veart – 7 – normal solid performance by Veart, not much to write home about.
Pantelis – 8 – had a field day with a makeshift right-back in Brockie.
Rech – 7 – showed some great touches and deserved a goal, considering he hit the crossbar and two other chances saved.
Qu – 7 – took the goal well and worked hard as always.

Subs

Beltrame – N/A – not used.
Brain – 6 – good to see him back in the team for the first time since Sydney.
Dodd – 9 – excellent when he came on for Kemp. Set up the goal for Qu with a great cross.
Rees – N/A – not used.

Ref

Nardi – 9 – let the game go and didn’t make a dick of himself like two other certain referees do.

This weeks votes for the Player of the Year award goes to Travis Dodd for the second time. Dodd was excellent when he came on, and provided a serious target out-wide. Had we been less wasteful we could have scored four or five, and a lot of it came through him. He wears a magic hat, you know.

1. F. Rech
2. Q. Shengqing
3. R. Alagich
4. L. Pantelis
5. T. Dodd – man of the match

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round thirteen:

28. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
25. M. Valkanis (4)(8)
24. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)
20. C. Veart (1)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
14. K. Rees (7)(10)
13. T. Dodd (11)(13)
11. R. Aloisi (5)
10. M. Kemp
9. L. Pantelis
7. F. Rech
6. R. Alagich
6. L. Brain
3. A. van Dommele
2. A. Goulding

UNITED vs. New Zealand.

2005-11-19T20:25:00.000+10:30

Buenos nochos, señors and señoritas. Hasn’t been much about in the papers about the mighty Reds since Australia’s triumphant performance on Wednesday (I was going to do a match review but couldn’t be arsed at the end) so here’s an excerpt from one of the few things that has been said about us in the last week.

Ross Aloisi:
"It is a real pressure game for us, even though New Zealand have only won one game."

Sure is.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 13

vs.
Sunday, 20th of November, 2005
Kick-Off: 4:30pm (CDT/ GMT +9.30)
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, South Australia
Weather: 22c/Sunny.

PREVIEW

Ironically, the easiest game of the seven week cycle the A-League teams play, has turned into a rather must win encounter. Tomorrow, we play the quite simply pathetic New Zealand Knights – at home. We should be expected to annihilate them, but given our recent home form (back-to-back 4-2 defeats at Hindmarsh) we really cannot take the Knights as lightly as they should be.

As well as that we have the added bonus of being able to go into the game knowing that our nearest tabular rivals drew against each other tonight. We play Sydney next week. If we win we’ll be two clear of Sydney, and five clear of the Glory. Ten clear of the V*****y, if you’re keeping score at home, by the way.

The last, and so far only, time we played the losers from New Zealand was the infamous ‘pool’ match in Auckland, where it rained so badly there were literally puddles of water on the pitch so deep the ball was floating on the pitch. We won 2-1.

There’s not much in the way of team news on www.a-league.com.au. One would assume Kristian Rees will be back in the team after his suspension, and Louis Brain is fit again following his six week lay off with a knee injury. Nothing has been announced but it’s my own opinion Rees will be back in the team and Costanzo will go back to his defensive midfield role. I’d bet on Travis Dodd starting again too.

It’s the opposite for the Knights. They’ve taken every fit player over the Tasman, and are giving starts to Frank van Eijs (who?) and Sean Devine. Devine is one of the worst players I’ve seen so hopefully he won’t score. They won’t start Brockie, since he won’t last more than half an hour at this tempo.

Other than that, not much else to say. Go the Reds.

TABLE

(as of Saturday, 19/11/2005)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Sydney FC 13 7 3 3 23 17 +6 24
2 Adelaide Utd 12 7 2 3 17 14 +3 23
3 Perth Glory 13 6 2 5 21 16 +5 21
4 Newcastle Utd 12 5 3 4 18 15 +3 18
-------------------------------
5 CC Mariners 13 5 3 5 19 18 +1 16
6 Melbourne Vic 13 4 4 5 16 12 +4 16
7 QLD Roar 12 4 4 4 11 10 +1 16
8 NZ Knights 12 1 0 11 7 29 -22 3

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
LWWLW

R12: Central Coast Mariners 1-2 Adelaide United (Dodd, Rech)
R11: Adelaide United 2-4 Perth Glory (Veart pen, Rees)
R10: Melbourne Victory 0-1 Adelaide United (Veart)
R09: Queensland Roar 1-2 Adelaide United (Rech, Pantelis)
R08: Adelaide United 2-4 Newcastle United Jets (Valkanis, Corbo og)

NEW ZEALAND’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
LLLLL

R12: Perth Glory 3-0 New Zealand Knights
R11: New Zealand Knights 2-4 Newcastle United Jets (Brockie, Brockie)
R10: New Zealand Knights 1-3 Central Coast Mariners (Yeo pen)
R09: Sydney FC 2-0 New Zealand Knights
R08: New Zealand Knights 0-2 Queensland Roar

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 1
United Wins: 1
Draws: 0
Glory Wins: 0

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk), Richie Alagich, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi, Lucas Pantelis, Carl Veart, Matthew Kemp, Fernando Rech, Chad Bugeja, Travis Dodd, Aaron Goulding, Adam van Dommele, Qu Shengqing, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Nil
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Michael Matricciani (knee – 2 weeks)

PREDICTION

Adelaide United 3-0 New Zealand Knights
Qu [2], Veart

We did it.

2005-11-17T22:03:00.000+10:30

We fucking did it.

Australia are going to the World Cup!!!

Kristian Rees faces a long wait to see if he is playing Sunday, and Kossie made fun of Big Ange yesterday at training.

Travis Dodd is Magic.

2005-11-15T20:45:00.000+10:30

It's true, you know. The man who wears number thirteen does indeed wear a magic hat. Today the Doddster spoke about how he wanted more of a role in the team, or something along those lines.

Travis Dodd:
"I was obviously disappointed that I was on the bench, I've been starting (matches) and to be put back to the bench is never good," Dodd said.

Ohhh, Travis Dodd is magic!
He wears a magic hat!
And when he saw our Hindmarsh,
He said "I Fancy that!"
He didn’t go to Sydney,
Or Melbourne 'cos they’re shite!
He came and played for Adelaide,
'Cos Adelaide’s dynamite!

Travis Dodd:
"It was good to be able to get a couple of touches and get some crosses in to get the confidence up and it was good for me to be able to get the goal."

Of course, it was Travis Dodd's strike (click here to download the goal) that propelled us to victory. It was excellently taken, and was driven hard and flat. Vukovic had no chance to save it. Some of our attackers should watch it closely because that's how you take a shot. You have to get it off the ground.

Travis Dodd:
"We don't want to give up, we're at the top of the table and we want to stay there," he said. "We're a pretty fit side and we're able to run the matches out well."

I'm pretty confident we're going to win Sunday, so I don't think it's a matter of 'if'. Instead I think it's more about how many goals we score. We have to get more than three to boost our goal difference, because at the moment Sydney have us by four goals.

Travis Dodd:
"If we do well in these next few of matches we could have a top four position sewn up," he said. "That would be a bonus for us and we'd be able to go into the break fairly comfortable, have a good recharge with the time off to have a final assault on top spot."

I'm going to assume we'll draw with them in two weeks time, so we a healthier goal difference would be nice. The eight goals we shifted against the Jets and the Glory may come back to bite us in the arse because I want the damn minor premiership as well.

United stun Mariners.

2005-11-14T19:57:00.000+10:30

R12: Central Coast Mariners 1-2 Adelaide United
Dodd 85’, Rech 90’
Express Advocate Stadium
Gosford, NSW
13/11/2005
Referee: Peter O’Leary
Attendance: 5,467

Missing: One roof, last seen atop the Stag Hotel, corner East Tce and Rundle St, Adelaide. Reported missing at approximately 4:26pm, local time.

What a day Sunday was. With me and my mate Sean getting up at 5:45am and heading off to the Stag Hotel in town to watch the Australia game in Montevideo, we were pretty much wrecked by the time the United game started. The ending woke me back up. Fernando Rech’ ninety-first minute thunderbolt of a goal propelled United from taking one point from Gosford just minutes after it looked like we were heading for a second straight defeat. United defeated the Mariners 2-1 thanks to goals from Travis Dodd and the aforesaid Rech strike.

Beltrame
Alagich – Valkanis – Costanzo – van Dommele
Kemp – Aloisi – Veart – Pantelis
Qu – Rech
SUBS: Bajic (GK), Bugeja, Dodd, Goulding

Like a typical United performance the Reds started the game at one hundred milers per hour looking for an early goal, but the Mariners were also getting some decent possession. Carl Veart was particularly lively at the beginning; he had the first shot of the game for United when a piercing shot from outside the box just went wide of Vukovic’s net for a goal-kick.

With much of the possession going back-and-forth between the two teams the Mariners took the early just after the twelfth minute. Petrie won a foul twenty-five metres from goal and with Adelaide's defence napping, Andre Gumprecht quickly slid a pass through to John Hutchinson, and he calmly slid the ball into the ball into the net. The defence went to sleep and an obvious set-play tactic paid off for the Mariners when Hutchinson scored. The annoying thing is apparently our boys had been practicing this all week in training, but they still fell for it.

Despite this, Angelo Costanzo was absolutely huge at the back. It’s no surprise. He filled in for Rees wonderfully. Costanzo, of course, played the last five seasons of the NSL as a sweeper for the Marconi Stallions but reverted to the defensive midfield role he played for Adelaide City in his younger days.

The match was definitely a fifty-fifty contest as both sides went in search of a first and second goal respectively. Brown shot wide of the goal when they went for the quick free-kick once again, and then Ross Aloisi had a chance to score from the first corner of the game. It was knocked back down into his path but the skippers shot went wide of the post after he hit with the outside of his boot. Close, but no cigar. Another chance fell to Aloisi but the impressive Vukovic saved his shot and managed to turn an on-rushing Richie Alagich’s follow up shot wide for yet another United corner.

The Reds were very lucky not to go two-down six minutes before half-time. John Hutchinson headed the ball past Beltrame from an Andre Gumprecht cross but it was ruled out for offside. It was actually as onside as the first one. Hutchinson was definitely level. Despite ruling the roost for the most part in the first-half we were unlucky not to go down two goals, but at the same time were unlucky not to have scored one or two ourselves as we had several chances to put something passed Danny Vukovic.

We pretty much owned the second half. Daniel Beltrame made one very crucial and excellent save from a shot by Stewart Petrie (I think), but that was it basically from the Mariners. They were on the back foot and like at the start we were coming at them one hundred miles per hour. And then some. We were creating a serious amount of chances throughout the half. With another two attacking players on – Dodd and Bugeja – we were going for it. Matty Kemp, who was playing a really good game both attackingly and defensively, had a header at the far post from a van Dommele cross but it went wide, like many of our shots did throughout the afternoon (twelve were off target) up on the sunny central coast.

Shengqing Qu worked very hard throughout the game and looked dangerous several times. Earlier in the game one of his free-kick attempts dipped into the goal mouth but a reactionary save by Danny Vukovic (who was excellent) pushed it over. In the second-half Kosmina wanted a more attacking thrust from Qu, and he delivered, well, almost. He toe-poked a close range but it just went wide of the post. Qu then received a pass from Veart, but his hard shot while holding off Andrew Clark was fired into the up-right. At this stage we couldn’t even buy a goal if we tried. Not long after Qu had another shot that went sailing over the bar.

With mounting pressure United started shooting from distance. The newly subbed on Chad Bugeja gathered the ball but his shot was skyrocketed northwards of the goal and somewhere into the Pacific Ocean. Adam van Dommele attempted one, and much like his all around performance, it was dreadful. But we were getting closer to scoring, and when Richie Alagich collected the ball from a spilled corner he fired into the heart of the box, his shot harmlessly crashed into Michael Valkanis but Travis Dodd pounced, shot, and scored: 1-1, and the Stag Hotel went ballistic as United deservedly drew level with the besieged Mariners.

Ross Aloisi said after the game that John Kosmina bellowed to the players after Dodd’s equaliser that we could win this, and we did – in very spectacular fashion. Fernando Rech mistimed his attempted knock down to Carl Veart after a long clearance by Beltrame, but the Brazilian pounced on it with menace and drove a pulsating shot into the roof of Danny Vukovic’s net from outside the area. If the first goal sent the Stag ballistic the second sent it into delirium.

It was a deserved win for Adelaide United since we had so much of the ball and so many shots on goal while the Mariners simply didn’t. With us hosting the quite simply pathetic Knights next week we’re looking in decent shape as our finals push surges on.

Personally I think we’ll beat the Knights so badly that Adshead will indeed get the sack after next weeks tenth successive defeat. At least I hope so!

Ratings

Beltrame – 7 – excellent when he had to do something, but for vast periods of the game he was standing there not doing a terrible lot.
Kemp – 8 – brilliant performance from Matty. Very solid defensively and in provided something in attack, I just wish he’d get on the scoreboard.
Costanzo – 9 – huge in defence as I said, I just hope the injury he went off with at the end is not serious.
Valkanis – 7 – possibly over-shadowed by Costanzo’s performance but as per usual Mickey was class at the back.
Van Dommele – 5 – woeful. Gave the ball away too much and nothing he did went anywhere.
Alagich – 7 – good performance from Richie, it’s the first time he has started since the last time the Mariners were here, I think.
Aloisi – 7 – good enough in his natural role. I still think he is underdone and if there’s one player looking forward to the break in December, it’s him.
Veart – 8 – great performance, played some excellent balls and really had a go. His runs from deep were really good.
Pantelis – 6 – okay performance. Not as good as he is coming off the bench it seems.
Rech – 8 – huge goal at the end. Some excellent touches and one-two’s between Qu and Rech, their partnership is coming together nicely.
Qu – 8 – battled hard and has to be the best dead-ball specialist not to mention back-to-goal player in the league. Allsopp is shit.

Subs

Bugeja – 6 – came on and tried his luck but didn’t really get anywhere with his shots.
Dodd – 8 – excellent when he came on for Lucas; great goal.
Goulding – 6 – didn’t actually notice him once.

Ref

O’Leary – 7 – surprised he didn’t screw us over somehow.

This weeks votes for the Player of the Year award goes to Angelo Costanzo for the second time. Absolutely immense in defence was our brilliant number four. He was rock solid at the back alongside Michael Valkanis. A couple of players were unlucky not to get a vote, namely Rech and Beltrame. Maybe next week when we kill the Knights.

1. T. Dodd
2. M. Kemp
3. Q. Shengqing
4. C. Veart
5. A. Costanzo – man of the match

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round twelve:

28. A. Costanzo (3)(12)
25. M. Valkanis (4)(8)
22. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)
20. C. Veart (1)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
14. K. Rees (7)(10)
11. R. Aloisi (5)
10. M. Kemp
8. T. Dodd (11)
6. L. Brain
6. F. Rech
5. L. Pantelis
3. R. Alagich
3. A. van Dommele
2. A. Goulding

Central Coast vs. UNITED.

2005-11-12T15:37:00.000+10:30

United and the A-League as a whole have taken a backseat to Australia’s adventure into the unknown in the cauldron of intense hate of the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, the capital city of the small country known as Uruguay – or U R Gay, according to Homer Simpson, anyway.

According to The Advertiser during our media ban this week (some media ban) Kosmina and the rest of the coaching staff have reverted to ‘going back to the basics’. If the basics are bothering to mark opponents when the ball is being played into the box, then, we should we bloody well think so! The defending against the Glory last week was a joke, if it weren’t for that shambles of a performance we probably would have won.

John Kosmina:
"We had a few mental lapses that we got punished for and we don't want to make those mistakes again. It's been a good week, it's been a quiet week and the guys have got their heads down and worked at their game."

The thing is these mental lapses have been happening a lot more than just once. It happened against the Mariners, it happened against Sydney, and it happened against Newcastle, as well. Ball-watching and not allowing the ball to be turned over in midfield. Nick Carle had a field day against us because he basically dictated the game when he wanted to, because there was no presence in the middle. It’s obvious Ross Aloisi is struggling big-time with injury and fitness.

John Kosmina:
"When they become a little bit doubtful in their own ability or question their self-belief or their belief in their team-mates you get little issues. After a loss like last week, we have to get back to basics and say 'Hang on, we're good enough to do this'."

United have the best away record in the league. We’ve won five of our six away games, taking a possible fifteen points from eighteen available. One of the reasons is that we suffocate the life out of teams at the back, and sit back a lot more. Simply put we can extinguish anything the home team tries to start while killing them on the counter.

Carl Veart:
"They (the Mariners) are a very tough physical side and they play a very similar style to us. I suppose it is going to come down to the 11 players who want to win more. Hopefully we can go there this week and want it and have the hunger more than they have."

We don’t do that at home, or, rather, have not been doing it, hence why we have only taken a whopping five points from our five home games. It’s just not good enough.

Best of luck to the Socceroos tomorrow morning.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 12

vs.
Sunday, 13th of November, 2005
Kick-Off: 3:00pm (EDT/ GMT +10)
Express Advocate Stadium
Gosford, New South Wales
Weather: 25c/Sunny.

PREVIEW

This is the first time United have really felt the wrath of the suspension of injury side of the season. Kristian Rees is an integral part of the first-team but he is suspended for tomorrows match after picking up his fourth yellow card for the season against the Glory. Ross Aloisi, Carl Veart and Adam van Dommele are all on three. Ideally if they're going to get booked in the next few weeks we'd want it to be tomorrow, so they only miss the Knights, who we should steam roll anyway. We've got Sydney after that.

With Rees suspended Aaron Goulding has been drafted into the squad taken up to Gosford. Robert Cornthwaite is already in the squad as it is so it does make one wonder who would partner Michael Valkanis in the middle of the defence.

Angelo Costanzo can also play there, because he played for Marconi as a central defender. If that happened then Ross Aloisi would play the defensive midfield role he played in the NSL, with Fernando Rech playing in the middle, Carl Veart playing up front with Qu and Lucas Pantelis getting a much deserved start. Or something like that.

Regardless of that, the Mariners have their own problems with injuries and suspensions. Michael Beauchamp is suspended after getting red carded last week. Their injury list is horrific, though. Tom Pondeljak, Nick Mrdja, Nigel Boogaard and Paul O’Grady on the long-term injury list. Louis Brain, expected back any week now, and Michael Matricciani are the only injured players we have. Excluding Ross Aloisi.

Last time we played there we got done 4-0. This was back in May in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup Qualification, when everything went wrong. Nick Mrdja scored a hat-trick (the first unofficial hat-trick in A-League history). The Mariners went on to lose to Sydney FC in the final, but the loss still exposed where we weak. We’ve since improved tenfold from then – but we just have to win.

We have to win. We can’t lose. We have to win this week and then destroy the Knights next week to make sure we’re not going to be in trouble when we face Sydney FC in two weeks time.

TABLE

(as of Saturday, 12/11/2005)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Sydney FC 11 6 2 3 22 17 +5 20
2 Perth Glory 12 6 2 4 21 16 +5 20
3 Adelaide Utd 11 6 2 3 15 14 +2 20
4 Newcastle Utd 12 5 3 4 18 15 +3 18
-------------------------------
5 Melbourne Vic 12 4 4 4 16 10 +6 16
6 QLD Roar 11 4 4 3 11 9 +2 16
7 CC Mariners 11 4 3 4 16 16 0 15
8 NZ Knights 12 1 0 11 7 29 -22 3

CENTRAL COAST’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
DWLWL

R11: Central Coast Mariners 1-5 Sydney FC (Hutchinson)
R10: New Zealand Knights 1-3 Central Coast Mariners (Heffernen, Petrie, Petrie pen)
R09: Newcastle United Jets 1-0 Central Coast Mariners
R08: Central Coast Mariners 4-0 Perth Glory (Petrie, Petrie, Heffernen, Spencer)
R07: Queensland Roar 1-1 Central Coast Mariners (Spencer)

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
LLWWL

R11: Adelaide United 2-4 Perth Glory (Veart pen, Rees)
R10: Melbourne Victory 0-1 Adelaide United (Veart)
R09: Queensland Roar 1-2 Adelaide United (Rech, Pantelis)
R08: Adelaide United 2-4 Newcastle United Jets (Valkanis, Corbo og)
R07: Sydney FC 2-1 Adelaide United (Valkanis)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 2
United Wins: 0
Draws: 1
Glory Wins: 1

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk), Richie Alagich, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi, Lucas Pantelis, Carl Veart, Matthew Kemp, Fernando Rech, Travis Dodd, Aaron Goulding, Adam van Dommele, Robert Cornthwaite, Qu Shengqing, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Aaron Goulding (promoted)
Out: Kristian Rees (suspended – 1 match)
Unavailable: Louis Brain (knee – 1 week), Michael Matricciani (knee – 3 weeks)

PREDICTION

Central Coast Mariners 1-1 Adelaide United
Rech

Media Ban - Finito!

2005-11-11T21:13:00.000+10:30

As I reported the other day there's been a media ban on the Adelaide United players since we were thumped by Perf 4-2 last Sunday. Today was the final day of the said ban. Now it's all about the Mariners on Sunday, 100% complete focus.

Aurelio Vidmar:
"We've had some good press lately and some players are probably reading a little bit too much into what the press are saying," Vidmar said. "That's why Kossie thought after the loss last week we would just let it go for a week and let everyone focus and concentrate on the game coming up."

So they should, I guess. We were very complacent against Perth, and allowed Damian Mori, who is lethal when he has a shoebox' amount of space to score, the world of space to score in. Hardly surprising that a striker of his quality scored a hat-trick.

Aurelio Vidmar:
"We watched the video to try to clarify a few things and what mistakes we did make in conceding the goals," he said. "Then we had a reasonably good hit-out on the track."

Doesn't take a genius to work out where it went wrong. In the last two home games the defence and midfield has no marked their men and ball-watched the whole time. It all goes back to the Mariners game when Ange didn't mark Kwasnik. When they're away from Hindmarsh they mark so tightly they suffocate the game out of the opposition, but at Hindmarsh they're lazy and careless in defence and it MUST be erradicated, or we face the single greatest humilation in Australian football: defeat by the Knights!

John Kosmina:
"We get away and we are in a bubble, we got on that plane and it's just us, and no one bothers us," he said. And I'm not saying that you guys bother us but you read stuff in the paper, you've got your friends, your family, the bloke at the shopping centre - it's all these little things that distract you. This is the first year that they have been professional players, they haven't had a professional league in Australia before - not like this."

Well, there are ways to cure it. Simple. Other teams have done it before to cure home form woes - stay in hotels before the game, and not with friends and family and supporters and the media around to bother you. Other teams in Europe, and in other codes of sport, have done it. Maybe Kossie should look into it because we can not lose to the Knights.

Carl Veart:
"It's a Catch 22 - we want the media interest so that we can get a lot more people to the game - I suppose you have to experienced enough not to read too much into it," he said. "Me personally, I don't really watch too much TV or read the paper too much so I don't really get sucked into it. I suppose we were brought back to earth with a pretty big bang on Sunday so we've had a good look at ourselves this week."

Carl also has the added experience of playing in England, where the entire sporting media is nothing but football. He knows what it's all about. He knows your every move is scrutinised by the media tenfold. Same goes for Dwight Yorke - he's used to media attention. A lot of players in this league simply are not. Maybe it's been playing into their mind and maybe they believe they're better what they really are.

Finally, as I touched on the other day: signing Damian Mori is going to prove to be a right pain in the arse for Perth Glory, or any other A-League club. They'll have Bob D'Ottavi to deal with, and the fee he's asking for clubs to sign Mori, at thirty-five, on a permanent basis is ridiculous. Hardly surprising, though, D'Ottavi always was a knob.

Damian Mori.

2005-11-09T15:27:00.000+10:30

So much for the media ban, then. In todays Advertiser Kossie served up a telling interview regarding the man on everyone's lips right now: Damian Mori. Despite yesterday saying that there would be a media ban on United players and officials until Friday. In this interview Kossie and club CEO Michael Petrillo talk about Damian Mori's situation with United and why he didn't sign, as well as his commitments with Adelaide City and other various topics.

John Kosmina:
"There's too much dirty water under the bridge to take Damian," Kosmina said. "There's a whole lot of innuendos going around about why we never signed him. The truth is that he played politics at the time. And now I'd have to shaft a player to get him into the squad."

From what you can tell from the interviews in the newspaper and on television I get the impression Kossie and Mori don't particularly like each other a whole lot. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it traces back to Mori's loyalty to Bob D'Ottavi and Adelaide City, who in turn aren't exactly our greatest fans since we took their place in the defunct NSL.

John Kosmina:
"It was a Sunday just before the pre-season cup kicked off," Kosmina said. "I've got the phone bill to prove it. I tried to meet with him but he said that too many people would see us. And he said something along the lines that he wouldn't be too fussed about playing A-League or not."

I think another contributing factor to it is that Mori has never wanted to play full-time in the A-League. He doesn't play full-time with Perth both because of his business and his prior commitments to City as a player/coach.

I don't think Mori is our greatest fan either. He's Adelaide City to the bone. I can remember the Glory coming here when he was playing with them and playing City, and he wouldn't celebrate if he scored. He could hardly contain his excitement when he scored against us both in the NSL and last week. I've always thought his statements on the news over the last few days were a load of shit and that he wasn't telling the truth.

Michael Petrillo:
"We have a copy of the contract which was tabled to Damian," Petrillo said. "He said at the time that he was committed to Adelaide City and we had to move on. There's nothing else to it."

As well as that - we've had our squad finalised, bar the additions of Hatzis and recently Rech, since March or so. Obviously the SAPL season has started by then, and Mori had signed a five year deal with City. He was not prepared to dump them and his coaching, and playing, commitments to come to training with United, which, I guess, is fair enough. I think that might have put a sour taste in his and Kosmina's mouth, though.

As I said earlier, Damian Mori is fiercely loyal to Adelaide City and Bob D'Ottavi. I don't think matters were helped when, supposedly, City and D'Ottavi asked for a very large transfer fee for Mori to sign for us. I'm positive that United were immensely put off by this.

Kosmina stated way back into last year when he was putting the squad together that he wanted 100% commitments from his players, and, obviously, Mori could not bring that to the table, and relations between the two parties obviously have become sour since. It's no surprise that the idea of signing Mori following the retirement of Aurelio Vidmar was quickly extinguished by John Kosmina and Adelaide United. It's a bit of a pity that we didn't sign Mori earlier on because a team of Rech, Qu and Mori would be lethal.

Oh well.

Media Ban.

2005-11-08T19:57:00.000+10:30

God dammit. John Kosmina has ordered a media ban on all players and officials connected with Adelaide United Football Club. Obviously this ban directly effects me and this blog, meaning I basically have fuck and all to talk about for the next week or so. Joy.

John Kosmina:
"When you get back to the comfort of home and you read about yourself in the paper it has got to have some psychological effect," Kosmina said. "It takes players a little bit of time to gain enough experience to not let that interfere with how they prepare themselves."

In other words we won't be hearing from United until Friday, when the club has its weekly press conference after the mornings training session at Hindmarsh Stadium. Also in the same article Kossie talks about Daniel Beltrame's monstrous blunder on the weekend.

John Kosmina:
"Daniel's a typical goalkeeper," he said. "He is one of those brilliant keepers who will win you four or five games and he'll probably cost you one. If it is only one that he costs, you probably have to build that into your budget for the season. His confidence is fine, the boys were in a pretty good mood at training and we had a chat about how we needed to approach this week mentally."

I'd agree with that. Daniel reminds me of Jens Lehmann, actually. Explosive keepers who can pull off fine saves but you know that despite being rock solid for eighty nine minutes they still have a minute in a game where the heart rate climbs dramatically.

United robbed by Glory.

2005-11-06T22:22:00.000+10:30

R11: Adelaide United 2-4 Perth Glory
Veart 13’ pen, Rees 53’
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, SA
06/11/2005
Referee: Ben Williams
Attendance: 10,868

I really hate Damian Mori. I mean, really, really, really have an intense dislike for him. Of course on his return to Hindmarsh that smarmy Adelaide City fucker would score not once, but twice, but three times, as United capitulated in the first half with Perth scoring four goals in forty five minutes. Truly, a crappy afternoon with United going down 4-2 for the second consecutive home game. That’s just ignoring the swimming pools of rain that fell on us in the second half.

Beltrame
Kemp – Valkanis – Rees – van Dommele
Dodd – Aloisi – Costanzo – Veart
Qu – Rech
SUBS: Bajic (GK), Alagich, Cornthwaite, Pantelis

As per usual United started very brightly. From the get-go we were went at the Glory with full force in the opening minutes. We surged forward and immediately won a corner. Qu’s corner was floated but headed out by the Glory defence (Horsley is a wanker), I think it was Aloisi who headed it back in to the feet of Kristian Rees. The big centre half turned and fired a shot off at Petkovic’s net – of course, it had to hit the post to deny Rees what would have been a pretty damn good goal. On the way back in the car I said that if Rees had have converted that we would have won.

It’s only natural that Damian Mori would score at Hindmarsh. His first of three (how funny is it that for ten weeks we had no hat-trick but this round we have had three in the space of three days – football is a funny game) came when he was allowed enough space to fire off a shot but Beltrame parried it to the feet of Bobby “KKK” Despotovski to cross back over to Mori – all Mori had to do was tap it in, and in it went. Right into the roof of the net. 1-0 to the Glory.

Four minutes passed and we equalised. Fernando Rech, who was everywhere in the first half, worked the ball back and forth with Shengqing Qu and darted into the box. Harnwell dragged him down and Williams pointed to the spot. Carl Veart converted our first penalty of the season to drag us level. We should have never been behind to begin with, because it was piss poor marking that allowed Mori to score – the same story against Newcastle. Why are we so crap at home?

After that saw Perth score three of the most undeserving goals I have ever seen in fifteen of the shittiest minutes of football we have played this season. It was a catastrophe when Mori netted for the second time when Beltrame misjudged the pace of the ball being played back to him – it was barely moving, but Bellas charged outside his box but realised he couldn’t touch it, and Mori shot between his legs and into an open net.

Ben Williams decided the fate of the game with two of the most insane decisions yet so far – and that’s saying something given the efforts of Mark Shield over the last month. First Nick Ward clearly elbowed Adam van Dommele in the face, VD was spewing blood all over his hands, yet Williams not only booked the wrong player (Celeski), but gave a free-kick to Perth. From the free-kick our night was done. Slobby Bobby “KKK” Despotovski ran to a loose ball with Ross Aloisi close behind, and when the ball ran out Williams ended our night: he gave a penalty to Perth. Despotovski scored, and we were pretty much toast for the rest of the game.

You know how those infomercial guys often say “but wait! There’s more!”? There was more. A fourth goal and a third to Damian Mori. Naum Sekulovski crossed the ball to Mori, and he made no mistake from ten metres out. We were in deep poo at this stage.

At half-time the stadium basically emptied. With the weather getting worse by the second and United looking at a distinctly hard-to-come-back-from 4-1 defect it’s hardly surprising they went home. I would have but, hey, I pay for that damn seat. The most annoying thing about that half was that we were all over them for the entire thing, creating chance-after-chance but we sat 4-1 down thanks to four of the most undeserving goals in the history of football.

Even though Kristian Rees grabbed one back just after half-time when we had five successive corners – poking home to get one back. It’s just after that we went nowhere. By now the rain was falling so heavily that the hood on my jumper was falling down under the weight of water over my eyes. If we went anymore forward we would have knocked over the West End plant. The only problem is that we ran into stern resistance from Petkovic, Harnwell, Horsley and Colosimo who cut everything out, and sent it flying back up the other end of the pitch. It was like watching a game on a monotonous replay button, because it was so repetitive.

United had numerous chances to score. There were at least four or five close ones, especially when Carl Veart hit the post and a diving Jason Petkovic just saved an effort from the very good Travis Dodd. But no matter how hard we tried we just went nowhere, and with time ticking we all gave up. Well, we didn’t really. The fans in the southern stand who were all standing got louder and louder the longer it went – despite the dire situation on the scoreboard we were all mostly enjoying ourselves, unlike it seems the lads from Perth who remained as loud as the deaf ward of a hospital.

Game over, thank god. And I’m still cold from the rain.

Ratings

Beltrame – 5 – he was okay. I only docked him a point because of his monumental howler that pretty much began the slide into the abyss.
Kemp – 7 – played fairly well actually. He wasn’t one at fault for any of the goals and ran constantly. Can’t fault him.
Rees – 7 – none of the defence deserve a high rating but his goal gets him another one.
Valkanis – 6 – had absolutely nothing to do. The non-existent marking in the first half didn’t help, but Mickey spent the majority of the second half standing still.
Van Dommele – 6 – like the rest, didn’t do much. Went off early care of Nick Ward, who should have been sent off.
Dodd – 8 – my man of the match. Ran everywhere, and should have brought us to 4-3 with his long ranger. Seemed to be the only one wanting to play on the ground and not into the air.
Aloisi – 6 – didn’t do much. Often left Ange to pick up his mess, and, again, went off in the middle of the second half.
Costanzo – 7 – did enough, as usual a typically solid performance from the man with the long locks.
Veart – 7 – ran heaps, and like Doddsy, actually tried something other than hoisting it into the air.
Rech – 7 – Fernando was huge in the first half
Qu – 7 – battled hard, but wasn’t his usual explosive self.

Subs

Pantelis – 7 – tried very hard to create when he came on, and sent in some tantalising balls. Just a pity we did nothing with it.
Alagich – 6 – did his job well enough I guess.
Cornthwaite – 6 – the Peter Crouch tactics of throwing a tall centre half up front = crap.

Ref

Williams – -5 – knob.

This weeks votes for the Player of the Year award goes to Travis Dodd for the first time. Doddsy hadn’t scored a man of the match award yet, but he deserved it the most.

1. F. Rech
2. M. Kemp
3. A. Costanzo
4. C. Veart
5. T. Dodd – man of the match

Player of the Year award leaderboard, after round eleven:

25. M. Valkanis (4)(8)
23. A. Costanzo (3)
19. Q. Shengqing (6)(9)
18. D. Beltrame (2)
16. C. Veart (1)
14. K. Rees (7)(10)
11. R. Aloisi (5)
8. M. Kemp
7. T. Dodd (11)
6. L. Brain
6. F. Rech
5. L. Pantelis
3. R. Alagich
3. A. van Dommele
2. A. Goulding

Johnny Warren
1943 - 2004.

UNITED vs. Perth.

2005-11-05T22:11:00.000+10:30

There’s only one relative piece of news ahead of tomorrow’s match against the Glory. Ross Aloisi was interviewed by The Advertiser today. The Captain talked about playing against Perth, staying on top of the league and his own personal fitness problems. Ross’ problems with injury have been rather prevalent for awhile now – having not completed a full game in just over a month.

Ross Aloisi:
"It is all about keeping your feet on the ground and being humble," Aloisi said. "A good winner is a humble winner."

That’s pretty much it, really. Not much, as I said, was in todays paper. At least on the online version anyway. Last night saw some interesting results. Newcastle expectedly destroyed the pathetic Knights 4-2 in Auckland, but the Victory fell to their third successive defeat, this time to Queensland when Matt McKay scored in the fifteenth minute. Kevin Muscat and Geoffrey Claeys were sent off as well.

Ross Aloisi:
"It'll be nice to get through the 90 minutes again. It's been so long since I have," he said. "The main thing is that the team wins, whether I play 70, 80 or 90 minutes. However long I'm on the field, I've got to run my hardest and do my best."

I’ve purposely left this preview late. Since we’re the only game on tomorrow, with the round completed, I’ve waited until the other game in Gosford has finished. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite the result I was hoping with Sydney winning 5-1; Sasho Petrovski scored a hat-trick just a day after Ante Millicic scored the leagues first hat-trick. It’s funny how we didn’t have a hat-trick for ten rounds but then get two in two days.

Ross Aloisi:
"Perth is always a good side," he said. "They are always a dangerous team. They've got a lot of good players and they've started to hit form, so it is going to be a tough game."

Michael Beauchamp was sent off nine minutes and Sydney went on the rampage after that – scoring three times inside fifteen minutes. Beauchamp being sent off is good news for us because we have the Mariners away next week, and they’ll be without their best defender. They’re already missing Nick Mrdja (who destroyed us in May) and Tom Pondeljak through serious injury, as well as defender Paul O’Grady. So it’s fair to say the Mariners are rather up shit creek, injury-wise.

As a side-note, the main site that goes with this blog is (slowly) being developed. I have already created the templates for match reports and player profiles. Eventually I'll buy the .com.

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE
ROUND 11

vs.
Sunday, 6th of November, 2005
Kick-Off: 4:30pm (CDT/ GMT +9.3)
Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide, South Australia
Weather: 22c/Rain Developing.

PREVIEW

One of the bonuses of playing after everyone else is that we can stand back and look at the table and survey where abouts we’ll be if we lose. With Sydney and Newcastle winning there is some added pressure on the Reds now. Sydney has us on goal difference and are actually level on points right now, so if we lose we drop to second. We have a game over the Jets. I doubt we’ll lose to the Glory but I can see us drawing, but a point is a point nonetheless.

There really is nothing in it in this league. It’s absolutely tight beyond belief, with only two wins separating now joint leaders Adelaide and Sydney from seventh placed Perth. The Knights really are just fodder now, and probably will be routinely smashed each week now, because teams will be desperate for the points and the Knights provide an excellent source to win them. We’ve got them at home in two weeks.

All the away teams have won so far in round eleven – I just hope we don't make it an even four again. It happened a few weeks ago. I think it was the week we lost at home to Newcastle.

There isn’t much to talk about in regards to team news. Why fix it if isn’t broken? There’s been no changes to the squads that have beaten Queensland and Melbourne, so I’m happy to see continuity kept and the same players playing. Although I am still not a fan of Veart on the left wing but, hey, it seems to have brought results over the last few weeks. It was better than the idea of playing van Dommele and Goulding together.

Tomorrow’s match also brings us home. For the last five weeks we have been on the road, except one game at Hindmarsh against the Jets. It’ll be good to be back at Australia’s best football stadium as we begin a gluttony of home games, with only away trips to Gosford and Newcastle from now until well into January. It’s good to be home.

Rain is expected in the morning or later in the night, I can’t remember which. The bad news is that it may hamper the attendance, but I hope not as I hope we can get another crowd over 10,000. We have had rotten luck with rain. The game against the Jets was the only one I can remember where there wasn’t expected to be rain, which sucks. Regardless of the rain, I pay $120 for that seat and you can be rest as-fucken-sured that my arse is going to be sitting in it come 4:30pm tomorrow afternoon.

I really can’t add much more. If they do what we have been doing over the last two weeks and all should be fine – I hope.

TABLE

(as of Saturday, 05/11/2005)
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Sydney FC 11 6 2 3 22 17 +5 20
2 Adelaide Utd 10 6 2 2 13 10 +3 20
3 Newcastle Utd 11 5 2 4 18 15 +3 17
4 QLD Roar 11 4 4 3 11 9 +2 16
-------------------------------
5 Melbourne Vic 11 4 3 4 16 10 +6 15
6 CC Mariners 11 4 3 4 16 16 0 15
7 Perth Glory 10 4 2 4 14 14 0 14
8 NZ Knights 11 1 0 10 7 26 -19 3

UNITED’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
WLLWW

R10: Melbourne Victory 0-1 Adelaide United (Veart)
R09: Queensland Roar 1-2 Adelaide United (Rech, Pantelis)
R08: Adelaide United 2-4 Newcastle United Jets (Valkanis, Corbo og)
R07: Sydney FC 2-1 Adelaide United (Valkanis)
R06: New Zealand Knights 1-2 Adelaide United (Dodd, Qu)

MELBOURNE’S FORM/LAST 5 A-LEAGUE RESULTS
LWLWD

R10: Queensland Roar 0-0 Perth Glory
R09: Perth Glory 2-1 Melbourne Victory (Deane, Sekulovski)
R08: Central Coast Mariners 4-0 Perth Glory
R07: Newcastle United Jets 1-5 Perth Glory (Mori, Harnwell, Despotovski, Mori, Sekulovski)
R06: Perth Glory 1-2 Sydney FC (Despotovski)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Played: 5
United Wins: 1
Draws: 1
Glory Wins: 3

THE TEAM

Squad: Daniel Beltrame (gk), Richie Alagich, Kristian Rees, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi, Lucas Pantelis, Carl Veart, Matthew Kemp, Fernando Rech, Travis Dodd, Adam van Dommele, Robert Cornthwaite, Qu Shengqing, Robert Bajic (gk)

In: Unchanged
Out: Unchanged
Unavailable: Louis Brain (knee – 1 week),Michael Matricciani (knee – 3 weeks)

PREDICTION

Adelaide United 2-1 Perth Glory
Qu, Valkanis

The aura of Hindmarsh.

2005-11-04T14:23:00.000+10:30

Again, I'm a bit busy so I'll have to simply list what's on today:

- Kossie wants Hindmarsh to have an more special aura about it on matchday.

- Kossie is also more worried about Hiroyuki Ishida than Mori or Despotovski.

- Scott Miller expects to be fit for Sunday.

Ciao.

This and That.

2005-11-02T15:30:00.000+10:30

No, I really couldn't think of a better title. It's not easy coming up with these somewhat witty (okay that's a lie) titles every day. But I suppose today's is a bit fitting - there's a bit of this and that about with the news today.

Firstly, Damian Mori returns to Adelaide once again. Mori spent the bulk of his career in the NSL playing for Adelaide City, and was born here from memory, and still lives here since he's player-coach with Adelaide City in the SAPL nowadays. Still a very good players, though, and has proven he's still up to the task in the A-League since he's been playing excellently for Perth once more.

Damian Mori:
"I want to score in any game and not just against Adelaide United," Mori said. "Playing at Hindmarsh is always special."

He'll probably score against us like he always does. Mickey Valkanis might have a say in that, however. That's a link to an interview MV5 did with A-League.com.au. It's a pretty good read, actually. I didn't know he had played in Greece as long as he had until now.

Finally, stand up if you love Gordon Pickard. Gordon Pickard is a lot like Roman Abramovich. Both are rich and both men enjoy their sport. The only difference between Pickard and Abramovich is that Mr. Pickard not only loves the club he owns, he loves his supporters. With tiny ticket prices, Mr. Pickard personally pays out of his own pocket for dozens and dozens of United fans to travel across

Australia

supporting the Reds - all for the price of a matchday ticket.

Does Roman Abramovich do that? Nope. He still charges fans the equivalent of $130AU to go to one Chelsea match. Pickard charges me $120AU for an entire seasons worth of games. We love Gordon Pickard and everything he's done for SA football.

Player of the Month: October 2005.

2005-11-01T18:05:00.000+10:30

Shengqing Qu wins the player of the month award for Octoberr 2005, after scoring the most points in the "Angelo Costanzo Sliding Tackle Player of the Year" award at the end of October, scoring nineteen points.

The best in the land (part 2)

2005-10-31T14:11:00.000+10:30

We're awesome. No point in me saying otherwise because we without doubt awesome. In fact, watching the mighty Reds in action is an awe inspiring thing that will stay with you for the rest of your life. No, really. It does. Trust me.

Seriously, though, as I said yesterday the feeling around the club right now is mega. After enduring back-to-back defeats (we should've drawn one of those ...) at the hands of Sydney and Newcastle the club have responded magnificently by recording two away wins against Queensland and Melbourne. Team spirit is very high at Hindmarsh once again.

John Kosmina:
"I was personally happy to get the win, but hearing the boys sing the team song afterwards was the best part about it," he said. "It just showed how much camaraderie has developed in the side. The guys really want to play for each other and win for each other. There are no individuals."

Yesterday, the highly overrated and overhyped Sydney FC drew with the Newcastle United Jets 1-1 at Aussie Stadium. It was a result that easily favoured us as we now sit all on our lonesome at the top once again by a three point margain from Sydney. Below the hype is a logjam of teams all level or a point or two behind each other with the Victory and Mariners on fifteen, the Jets and Glory on fourteen and the Roar on thirteen. The New Zealand Knights are, of course, still on the bottom.

Kristian Rees:
"To be top and then to come off top spot for a couple of weeks was tough for us," Rees said. "I think we matured a little bit and now that we've got back up there we really want to stay there. I think we are more determined to stay up there."

There's a pretty good article in The Age today regarding the ridiculous affair at MembersEquity Stadium two weeks ago with the whole Damian Mori ring incident with our supposed head referee Mark Shield that was a complete embarrassment on the league in general.

There is also a rather neat article about Shengqing Qu on the traditionally shit publication known as TribalFootball, but this one doesn't stink of made up rumours. That's about it from me for today. I'll post October's player of the month tomorrow, when it's November!

United we stand.

2005-10-30T14:13:00.000+10:30

Friday nights 1-0 victory over the Victory (I just love saying that) was huge for the club. It was probably our most satisfying victory thus far in the Hyundai A-League, if not just as satisfying as the one back in round three was. To be undefeated against our nearest rivals after five matches is incredible, and to have them fail to score in every match is amazing.

The spirit at the club is high. Kossie spoke about it to the ABC yesterday. It's hardly surprising since we're in such winning form. I've been down to training a few times but you can clearly see that the boys are enjoying their football and are having a good time. Winning does that to you. I'd hate to be a player for the Knights right now. They've lost seven consecutive games, or something like that.

John Kosmina:
"Our guys have got a fantastic attitude and they mix exceptionally well and when we get together, especially on a trip, it's fun and I think that makes the game a lot easier to play," he told ABC Sport.

Ange, one of the cult favourites of most Reds, agrees with Kossie on the team spirit and team bonding between the players. Definitely the club motto - united we stand - has some bearing on the team spirit as a whole.

Angelo Costanzo:
"We are a very close group of players," Costanzo said. "I have never been in an atmosphere this good. Team bonding has played a very important part in achieving our results. It's (coach John Kosmina's) Kossies' style. He's a player's coach and he sticks up for us when the pressure is on. We're all good mates. But we're still a long way from achieving our goal which was to make the final this season."

Hard to disagree with that.