Football is the biggest sport, it is the only WC that involves the World!

[quote=jlm8695]Haven't had one of these for a while and I'm bored as shit.

-I think Spiranovic is our best Socceroos defender

Fair call, but IMHO in his absence he's fallen behind the pecking order. Sainsbury is our leading CB now and has been even when Spira fit. Sainsbury in his 1v1s, last man, adjustment and general physical capability, agility and positioning - He doesn't get caught out nearly as much as others, including Spira. Spira has a bad habit which I think is due to his relative lack of pace, where he commits alot of fouls, desperate fouls, because he's beaten by his man or struggling to keep up. He draws cards for this and I swear has even given a penalty or two away in the G&G. He's a quality CB, but I think this slight weakness can catch him out against short, quicker and more agile AFC and WC attackers. Sainsbury on the other-hand is our best CB by miles, in his impressive capability to remain composed and re-adjust when facing quick transitioning opponents who stretch our organisation. Not trying to talk him up too much, but even witnessed it again these last two matches.

Wright hasn't been too bad either, though his distribution needs to improve, be sharper and he needs to be wary of being caught out too and some of his 'Championship-level challenges' at International level too. But for a relatively young man, Bailey Wright has been very impressive and Spira has some work to do to win his place back! In all this, it's great to see such competition at CB for the Socceroos these days.

-Jamie Young is one of the best 3 keepers in the comp with Eugene and Birra and has been better than Sorensen.

He's with one of the A-League's leading teams this season and in his absence Theo has shown mixed form with many calling for Young's return. Pundits more well informed than us have commented on Young's form this season. So agreed, he would have to be.

-Vedran Janjetovic wouldn't start for any other team bar CCM (maybe not so unpopular)

I doubt this is a minority view. ;) He may actually be amongst those he may be facing an uncertain future at SFC too, their squad is due to see a massive overhaul.

- I like the finals series (but understand why we should recognise the 'league' champions as our proper champions rather than the winner of the finals

Not a minority view either - I think many here would advocate that first-past-the-post are, traditionally, the more 'worthy to be recognised' Champions. But it's a good commercial compromise to have both and I'm glad, through the AFC, that both are recognised and the ACL places are awarded in that way.

10 team competition with no promo/relegation is good enough

If the NT were allowed to move to level 3 then I'd back that. Right now it's awful watching games from level 1, even with the seats in.

Some truth in these comments.

agree with all of these

You can follow the A-League and the NRL (no comment on the AFL though ;) )

Additionally:
- Club football is so much more important to me than rep football that I'd prefer the Central Coast Mariners win another Premiership than Australia win the World Cup (You didn't say I had to be realistic :) - about either :) )
- The club I support probably shouldn't have been granted a licence in the first place but I'm really glad it was
- Whoever let Wellington stay in an Asian confederation comp should walk (Perhaps not so controversial?)

Holy shit. You've gone from 'unpopular' to 'completely unreasonable' in 0 moves.

CCM winning the league changes nothing. Australia winning the cup changes everything. I know this thread is a bit of a safe-place-confessional-box right now but FMD, that's just not on mate.

I've no idea which Asian confederation comp you're talking about either.

Wollongong would be an awful place to expand to
Final series should be longer
Wanderers would be a Perth/Adelaide size club if they didn't have an amazing first season
Soccer fans are some of the most easily offended people on this planet

Australia is a member of the Asian Football Confederation.

Which means that the A-League, is a league of the Asian Confederation.

Thus, New Zealand, an Oceania confederation nation, is participating in an Asian confederation competition through the Wellington Phoenix.

I would prefer a 20 team first division with no second division, than 2 divisions of ten teams (regardless of whether or not P&R existed). This is because financially, crowds will be bigger for first division matches, television rights will massively increase for first division matches (especially seeing there would now be 10 a week), and sponsorships for both those reasons would also drastically increase for every club. This extra income that every club would thus receive I feel would raise the standard of football to a far higher level than splitting the clubs between 2 divisions and competing for P&R. The extra money would allow clubs to import better players, keep better Aussie players, and spend more on coaching, facilities and the like (which wouldn't be happening to the same extent over 2 divisions due to reduced money). Having 10 first-division matches every week and 20 first division sides throughout Australia would also provide a saturation level that couldn't be matched, meaning more and more kids will grow up supporting the A-League, more and more articles will be written about the A-League (and thus in time again more money coming in to the clubs through sponsorship, viewers and gates; as well as likely improving our playing stock by encouraging more kids to grow up playing football).

The A-League is an Australian Federation league. The Asian Confederation is just a body representing a collection of federations. By the logic you've offered, we could easily interchange the word and we have: "Whoever let Wellington stay in a FIFA comp should walk".

There are many ways you could do this. I would not be keen to have home and away. There could be a top 8 and use the NRL/AFL method.

They could scrap the finals and the npl finals and let 6 teams join the 10 A-League teams for the "Australian Championship".
I would not let NNSW in and ACT could play Tas in a playoff. Again you could have a draw, for knock out games or even include NT. The point is to get 6 teams from the NPL.

Then put them into a draw

the winner of (1 v NPL) vs (8 v 9)
plays (4 v NPL) vs (5 v NPL)

to go the final against
the winner of (2 v NPL) vs (7 v 10)
and (3 v NPL) v (6 v NPL)

with the teams who finished the highest in the A-League always getting the home game. I would have that if an NPL team did beat an A-League team they get their number.

There are many different things you could do. I am more interested in trying to get 4 spots in ACL. Hopefully such a model would achieve it. This model gives you 11 Finals (cup) games instead of the 5 there is now. You could even have 4 matches one week and 4 the next in the first round. So you get 5 weeks of finals.

NPL clubs would know 6 months before that they were going to play in this and recruit accordingly. If they make it past the first round, they can play their NPL game later in their season once the finals are finished.

I guess a draw would have to determine which NPL club plays which number. This can be part of the final round A-League show. When all of the matches are shown at the same kick off time :d and the premiers celebrate. We can cross to a draw and show the clubs getting to see which number they drew. #finaldaydrama

You could have 7 NPL teams and have the team that finishes last in A-League not eligible. If the A-League ever expanded just have a playoff for 4 teams(or bottom 2 ineligible etc etc)


Edited by scott21: 7/4/2016 01:47:59 AM

Jade North was more unfairly vilified than Brett Holman and if he had been at the last World Cup in place of McGowan Australia would have conceded far fewer goals.

Jet fuel can't melt steel beams.

Fuck Leicester

Between this and the preference for CCM over the socceroos for the most outrageous belief to hold.

Some people are seriously oxygen thieves =;

Yeah. Wolfsburg just went 2-0 up against Real after 25 minutes and Im not on their bandwagon either.

Check your thread privilege bro



Edited by scott21: 7/4/2016 05:13:19 AM

We were robbed of 50,000 fully funded stickers

The salary cap has been a major positive factor in the improvement of playing standards in the A-League as demonstrated by the continual rise in competitiveness of Austalian sides in the ACL.

The standard of the A-league is no better than League One.....

The Dutch League is better than the A-League......

I believe Indigenous people who have been living in remote areas for thousands of years, due to their cultural, religious and ancestral attachment to these lands are simply making a Lifestyle Choice

i'm undecided about how many teams would be a good idea, but i mostly agree with this.

A competition with P/R with 10 or so teams in each will always see the lower league struggle. Being in Australia you will almost certainly see that lower league struggle to death because honestly, who would actually give a fuck about that 2nd division league? Seriously. Who would be following these teams and keeping it alive, let alone making it successful? Even if the lower league survived long enough to see those teams promoted to the top flight, they will just bring down the overall quality of the top league.

I'd rather just focus on developing and creating a very strong, very popular 18-20 team league and then working on things like P/R. Like working from the top, down. Instead of struggling from the ground, up and never quite achieving what we want.

He completely fucked up with our best ever national team and the olyroos, puts his teams out to play shit football and blames everyone else when things don't go his way. I honestly try my best to like him as he is a legend as a player and was a huge influence as the assistant manager of the Roos but you can't complain if people think he's an arsehole after growing tired of his stupid "mind games."

Here's 2.

Football fans should support Australian teams in the ACL.

Arnie is a good guy who's just misunderstood.

Here a few more:

The A-League standard stacks up well with the rest of the world including Europe
Our league needs more games not less
Arnie is a good coach but doesnt handle losing very well
The FFA NC is not a dutch coaching manuel like some think it to be

Edited by Barca4life: 7/4/2016 11:39:09 AM

- Luis Suarez going to Barca was the death of Brendan Rogers' managerial career at Liverpool
- The Self-loathing "invasion day" crowd are the opposite end of the spectrum to the "Fuck off we're full" Southern Cross tattooed bogan flag cape brigade- but they are just as prejudiced and dismissive of anybody who doesn't share their views
- The people calling for CCM to be relegated are the same people who have death-ridden CCM since day 1
- Having a finals series in domestic football is like having pineapple on a pizza. It's a bogan addition to something that already worked perfectly fine as it was, and suggests that Aussies are unable to get their heads around a traditional league system which rewards the best team overall. In football, there are too many variables in one game that can influence the result and to deem a side 'Champions' of the season from just one match is ridiculous. I believe it'll take the side who come 6th beating the team who came 1st or 2nd in the GF for more people to understand how absurd the current top 6, sudden-death finals format is
- Arnie deserves another chance to rectify the situation he finds himself in, regardless of his antics of late

One more:

Finals football is a great way to finish the season even if the Premiership is more highly rated by some (or all).

It seems those against finals football are worried that their team, should they win the premiership but lose the final, won't be recognised as 'champions'.