It may be the case that he was simply one of the top 4 defenders in the CSL last season!

It may be the case that McGowan just isn't very good.

McGowan on the bench again...

:lol: :lol:

Wilkinson starting
Kennedy starting
Nichols on the bench

Wilkinson played a full match (draw)
Kennedy played a full match (win)
Nichols stayed on the bench (win)
Arnie remains winless with Sendai (loss)

Wilkshire starting against Rubin Kazan. A win will take them up to 2nd for the time being.

Edited by playmaker11: 23/3/2014 08:05:49 PM

Not sure if already mentioned.

Neill sat on bench for Watford. No game time.

Lowry and McDonald both played 90 minutes for Millwall.

I like your work moofa, kutgw

Any idea of when Sainsbury is fit again?

The Belgium Pro League's regular season is over as I mentioned with Ryan getting in the team of the regular season. It is not the most simple end of season in Belgium so I thought I would explain it.

The league now splits into 4 groups:
- The championship group (where Brugge is) which has the top 6 teams.
-Europa league play off which has two groups of 4 teams with the winners of each group going into a Europa league play-off
- The relegation group which has the bottom two who will play each other 5 times to see who is relegated, with the other playing a relegation play off vs a second division team.

The Championship group
The championship group is the only one where the points are not reset but they are cut in half (making it so Championship round points are worth double pretty much) and rounded up for teams on odd points. The rounding up doesn't effect anyone this year as everyone in the top 6 finished on an odd amount of points. What is does mean though is Brugge is only 2 points behind Standard Liège and 3 in front of Anderlecht so it is a lot tighter. They will now play the other 5 teams twice.

Going down the Championship group this is how European places will be given out:
- Top spot obviously wins the league and also gets into the Champions league group stage
- Second place gets a champions league 3rd round qualifier (2nd last round of qualifying)
- 3rd, a Europa league third qualifying round
- 4th, a Europa league play-off with the winner of a match between the top two teams of the two Europa league groups. The winner of that game goes into the Europa league second qualifying round.

Also Lokeren who are currently 5th in the league won the cup this morning with is a Europa league play-off spot so they will not go into the play-off if they get 4th.

Hopefully Brugge will win or at least come second and make a group stage next season but all hteir games now on will be tough so it should be a good test for Ryan

Ryan got out the the Pro League's team of the regular season by nieuwsblad.be



http://www.nieuwsblad.be/sportwereld/cnt/dmf20140317_068

Haven't seen as much about Holland lately as I would have liked with his team has changing to using two centre mids instead of just him as a number 6. I don't know how he has necessarily been playing but this week he got his teams most touches (72) and had the best passing completion in the game (91.5%, 43 completed passes 4 not) also in some he is taking more shots, mostly from outside the box and headers from set pieces. If he can add a few goals and plays well in a two he should be at least a good squad player for the World Cup. Also at 25 (by the World Cup) in his position he should really be coming into his prime at the next world cup.

stats from: http://www.laola1.at/de/fussball/bundesliga/saison-2014/28/rd28-admira-austria-nachbericht/page/80164-32-48-48-.html

Babalj may have a slight chance of playing today with AZ expecting to rest a lot of players. Last week the manager Dick Advocaat said he was going to play the B-team because Ajax have the week off because of a Nuclear summit causing a lack of police. AZ play Ajax in the cup semi final on Wednesday which is AZ's biggest game of the season. While the threat of playing the B-team is gone they could still be playing a very weakened side which opens the door slightly for Babalj

Anyone actually seen Aleksandar Jovanović play? He's a 24 year old 1.96 m centre back. Played 24 games for Suwon FC in the K League Challenge (2) last season but is now playing in the K League Classic (1) for Jeju United. Kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win over Seongnam yesterday.

FSV Frankfurt 1899 and Fortuna Düsseldorf played out a dour 0-0 draw. Leckie subbed off in the 67th minute.

Ruka on, 59'. 3 Aussies on the pitch. Halloran doing pretty well now.

Halloran and Leckie battling it out on that side.

Wonderful interplay involving Leckie but he's unable to beat the keeper, still 0:0

Shame Ruka isn't also starting.

Might watch a bit of that one, very interested to see how Halloran's going.

Hmm one would think you need to get on the pitch to have form good or bad? Lets hope the manager hates him and he can get the hell out of there

Only played 3 games so far, so clearly not first choice yet, but only aged 18 and as you say VVV are third at the moment, so really he's in the perfect place to develop.

Irrelevantly, that 3-2 win yesterday was over a team with this logo:

There was talk about the new Brazilian manager not happy bout his form. Think his head is not right caused by the hunt of an European move.

Strayans tonight, Melbourne times:

16:00 Aleksander Jovanović, Jeju United Vs. Seongnam (half time as of this post, Jovanović started)
18:00 Cornthwate vs Luke DeVere, Geongnam Vs Chunnam Dragons
22:35 Daniel McBreen, Hangzhou Vs. Shanghai SIPG
22:35 Adam Hughes, Jiangsu Sainty Vs. Harbin Yiteng
23:45 Schwarzer, Chelsea Vs. Arsenal
23:00 Leckie and Rukavytsya vs Halloran, FSV Frankfurt Vs. Fortuna Düsseldorf
23:00 Erik Paartlu, Songkhla United Vs. Muang Thong United
01:00 Carl Valeri, Ternana Vs. Virtus Lanciano
01:00 Rovert Stambolziev, Nea Salamis Vs. AEK Kouklion
01:30 Langerak, Hannover 96 Vs. Borussia Dortmund
02:00 Jedinak, Newcastle United Vs. Crystal Palace
02:00 Brad Jones, Cardiff City Vs. Liverpool
02:00 Lucas Neill, Wigan Athletic Vs. Watford
02:00 Shan Lowry, Scott McDonald, Leeds United Vs. Millwall
02:00 Luongo, Swindon Town Vs. Preston North End
02:00 James Wesolowski, Oldham Athletic Vs. Crawley Town
02:00 Alex Cisak, Charlton Athletic Vs. Burnley
02:00 Jackson Irvine, Aberdeen Vs. Kilmarnock
02:00 Bradden Inman, Gillingham Vs. Crewe Alexandra
02:30 James Holland, Admira Vs. Austria Wien
04:00 Caleb Patterson-Sewell, Vitória Guimarães Vs. Gil Vicente
05:45 Vidosic, Aarau Vs. Sion

Tomorrow, daytime:
07:00 Andy Rose, Montreal Impact Vs. Seattle Sounders
17:00 Graham Arnold and Danny Vukovic, Omiya Ardija Vs. Vegalta Sendai
17:00 Mitch Nicholls, Kashima Antlers Vs. Cerezo Osaka
17:00 Josh Kennedy, Nagoya Grampus Vs. Vissel Kobe

I think that's about it.

Harry Ascroft is a interesting one, if he continues to play for the VVV Venlo and if they get promoted to the Eredivisie next season and continues to play from there who knows maybe out of the blue he could be a bolted for the Asian Cup next year.

And thats a if...

FSV v Dusseldorf at 11pm AEDT tonight

A resumption of your work would be much appreciated VoR. [-o<

Looks like Harry Ascroft started for VVV-Venlo in a win for his side this morning, played the whole 90mins as well. Good to have a defender and in particular a CB starting in a European league at the age of 18, even if it is second tier. 2018 world cup bolter if he can continue to play first team football and they gain promotion, who knows could even come into camp for AFC 2015.

Had a quick look at the last few pages and the guys are doing a great job keeping up on what some of the lads are doing abroad.

welcome back
miss your updates