He varies. Sometimes he's good, sometimes he's atrocious. The reason Skjelvik played this match though, is because Stabæk's right wing Ernest Asante is one of the fastest football players in Europe. Skjelvik is also very fast.
Gersbach also played 90 minutes on Wednesday in a cup match.

Edited by teknim: 9.5.2016 09:01:46

Yes, hard to expect a 19 year old to play 90 mins twice a week, especially up against a lightning quick right winger.

Thanks for the info mate!

Pretty sure he only signed a one year deal with Duisburg so will be moving on if they are relegated or not.

Ah, he played 80-ish minutes.

He has improved in the defensive department quite a bit this past season.

Shall we deconstruct what I actually said, inala brah? Rather than continuing the theme of misrepresenting what I said.



Any number. The implication is that a lot of European teams would destroy every opponent in Asia. Is the implication that all European teams would destroy every opponent in Asia? No.

The statement leaves room for the notion that Northern Ireland wouldn't, necessarily, destroy all opponents in Asia.

Let's say Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Holland, England and Portugal would be odds-on favourite to destroy all opposition in Asia. That's eight nations. That, in itself, is a sufficient number of nations to constitute "any number of European teams".

We can throw in nations like Wales, Sweden, Denmark and various others would probably be a good shot at beating every Asian opponent, also.

Thus, we have any number of European teams which would probably destroy any Asian team.

Thus there was never any implication, on my part, that the teams adrtho mentioned would probably beat all Asian opposition.

Basic predicate logic, my friend.

You're right that Northern Ireland would probably make the semi-finals of the Asian Cup if Northern Ireland had the good fortune of being part of the AFC

Edited by quickflick: 9/5/2016 07:42:30 PM

Edited by quickflick: 9/5/2016 07:44:19 PM

Edited by quickflick: 9/5/2016 07:50:06 PM

A little time left but my awards for this season would be.

Aussie abroad of the season: Bailey Wright

Most surprising: Rogic, due to the fact we expected worse due to selection etc.

Most disappointing: The stagnant seasons of Ryan, Langerak, Kruse, Troisi and Juric

Most likely to do well next season: Rogic to excel wherever he is.

Asia appreciation award: Good on Jovanovic for keeping it real.

Krise incredibly unlucky not to have a goal and an assist

i was agreeing with you. my point was that whatever ardtho was trying to say was based on a misrepresentation of what you said. despite that - i personally think the northern island team would expect a top 4 ish finish if it was in the asian cup.

Right at the end of the season, Kruse has shown glimpses of real potential.

I agree that is has been a disappointing from him overall.

I'm not hoping for too much. Let's just hope he keeps getting gametime. He has the talent.

Not sure what the team dynamics are like at Stuttgart for the amount of time he'll feature next season.

inala brah

fair enough then

Northern Ireland would never make the semis of the asian cup lol, but why are we comparing Asia to Europe anyway?

Dude. Northern Ireland are ranked 24 places ahead of Australia.

Their side has a bunch of Premier League players (something we do not).

NB- this isn't an argument to suggest Northern Ireland would definitely beat Australia.

The point is you're saying that a side which, on paper, is arguably better than the Asian Champions would not even make the semi-finals of the Asian Cup if it were part of the AFC. Get a grip.

Why the anti-Europe bias?

Why are we comparing?

Part my fault, part the fault of adrtho.

Edited by quickflick: 9/5/2016 08:34:01 PM

Are you serious are you going on based on the FIFA rankings? :roll:

No offence but Northern Ireland dont have the class of the players that Japan, South Korea i.e Honda, Kagawa, Son, Ki, Nagatomo etc

I think many take Asian football for granted on here

Edited by Barca4life: 9/5/2016 08:54:41 PM

For the most part, I agree that the individual quality of the Japanese and South Korean players is overall higher than that of the individual players from Northern Ireland, but that's not really the issue. Leaving aside the fact that, as a unit perhaps Northern Ireland are a bit stronger than teams like Japan which mightn't be mentally that tough.

The point is that you're arguing that Northern Ireland would no way be good enough to make the semi-finals of the Asian Cup. They're ranked higher than the champions of Asia and they have a handful of players in the Premier League, which we don't.

Your argument is an extremely tenuous.

As for taking Asian football for granted...

we take it for what it is.

There's some raw talent, as with just about everywhere else in the world. Japan has a good system for producing talent.

But overall, the AFC is one of the weakest confederations, as demonstrated in the last World Cup.

That's taking Asian football for what it is, not taking it for granted.

Edited by quickflick: 9/5/2016 09:11:56 PM

They also have a handful players in the scottish league, which we don't

Our best and most gifted player since Harry Kewell is in the Scottish Premier League. One of the other most promising players we have, who might well be bossing our defensive midfield in Russia (assuming we qualify), is also playing in Scotland.

What's your point?

up is down, black is white, 2+2 =5

you're not going to compare Celtic to dundee, kilmarnock and hamilton academical are you ? oh dear.

I don't think you can read too much into the results from one World Cup. If you go back to 2010 both South Korea and Japan made it past the group stage, and Australia only missed out on goal difference.

That's not necessarily to say Asian teams are at that level; only that tournament results can be misleading. They probably aren't as good as 2010 suggested, nor are they anywhere near as bad as their 2014 results.


Edited by OldCodger: 9/5/2016 10:46:01 PM

I agree that you can't put too much weight into one tournament. But I don't think looking at more tournaments, which I've done, weakens my assertion particularly.

My assertion is that the AFC is one of the weaker confederation and I feel this has been evidenced at the past three world cups (even though Japan and South Korea made it out of the group in South Africa).

In South Africa, Ghana made it to the quarter-finals (further than any Asian nation). In that tournament, Asia didn't emerge stronger than Africa, on the whole. Not much between it, but certainly not stronger. Meanwhile, Mexico and the States both also qualified for the round of 16. So that means that that world cup, CONCACAF nations did at least as well as AFC nations. Better, in fact, given they had fewer teams. So that means that, at that world cup, there wasn't much separating the AFC, CONCACAF and Africa.

That means that, for ages and to the present; UEFA and South America have been stronger than Asia.

A few years ago, Asia was no better than COCACAF or Africa, arguably not as good. And now the AFC almost certainly isn't as good as those confederations.

As such, the AFC is one of the weakest confederations.

Corr, aren't you bright. I'm not the one suggesting the Scottish Premier League is great. It's probably better than the A-League.

But that's not a particularly great achievement by any stretch of the imagination (at least at this stage). When we compared a whole heap of leagues, like the MLS, the Allsvenskan and others, we found the A-League was probably the weakest (at least technically, perhaps not tactically).

I'm simply stating a fairly reasonable and commonly-agreed upon thesis; Australia's most gifted senior player plays in the Scottish Premier League and one of our most encouraging other players who will hopefully be a key midfielder in Russia also plays in Scotland.

That's all there is to it.

Go and whinge about that make up math fallacies as much as you like.

FFS take it elsewhere. Stop ruining this thread.

Beitar Jerusalem play today...

Albeit at a club that's well above said league

i didn't do it :p

Northern Ireland NT about same as China NT

so all those overseas aussie players playing in CSL, can rest in knowing there a chinese Aaron Hughes playing in some team of CSL

this is just your bias feeling ....and you have giving us 500 words on your bias feelings :p

lets ask the Mr Computer, who doesn't care or have a bias feeling

1. CONMEBOL (need to be top 7 teams in the world to Qual for world cup)
2. UEFA (need to be top 23 team in world to to Qual for world cup
3. CONCACAF (need to be in top 37 teams in world to Qual for world cup)
4. AFC (need to be in top 38 teams in world to Qual for world cup)
5. CAF (need to be in top 50 teams in world to Qual for world cup)
6 Ocean 11

Thank you Mr Computer



Edited by adrtho: 10/5/2016 03:19:59 AM

Seriously over this spam ruining this thread all the time. Please mods finally do something about this, it happens way to regularly.

who are you a multi of?

I used to enjoy reading and contributing to Aussies Abroad, it was my favourite thread; before the source of this spam you mention came here.

Unfortunately it came to a point where I just had to give up, and I'm truly sorry for that.

I don't really check this thread anymore, and instead subscribe to @Germanroo107's tweets, without question the most informed source of information on Aussies Abroad.