Very underrated player. Plus left-sided CBs are hard to find. Wish we had him at CCM for when Zwaanswijk retires.

What shirt number did Fyfe get?

Shirt 22. Would have preferred he get his #4 shirt back from McKain...

Cheers

Keep Boogaard and perhaps Dilevski, rest can go.
I think Levchenko has been a bit unlucky but at his age it is not worth another contract.

Does this mean he will play, or at least be available to play, against Gamba?

Yep seems about right. Depends how bad Dilevski's injury is and whether he still has the game to play RB. I think we have enough DMs in our squad.

I think trading in those 3 defensive players for the attacking has already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread (e.g. playmaker, quick striker) will be handy.

Now who was the guy who said to me here that djite and djkes bigger bodies will be nothing in the acl because Asian teams are just as big ? Humble pie ? Like I said very much smaller so far and gambas defenders looked like 12 yr olds so happy for the team where has this been the whole year top of the group woooo

Edited by liverpoolfan2010: 21/3/2012 02:40:25 AM

It might have been me and I am more than happy to repeat my comment. We didn't win because we were bigger. We won because we were better. We played great football. Looking at the teams before the game Gamba were at least as big as us - especially their back-line against our attacking players. Adelaide are not a tall team. For Gamba, they only had one or two smallish players and the two attacking subs they made late in the game were small players. Bruce is not that big. He's bloody strong, and last night he played to his strengths wonderfully well. Serg only played a few minutes. Mullen's goals came from poor Gamba marking and great positioning and opportunism - not extreme height. And he took them brilliantly.

The reason I made a comment (among others who agreed) was that there always seems to be an assumption that 'Asian' teams are small. The Japanese and Koreans are anything but. Their fitness, discipline, training regimes and lower-body strength is often phenomenal. That AU managed to beat Gamba is testament not to physicality but to smart management and bloody good play. Size matters - but not as much as skill. Ask Cassio.

But it doesn't really matter. I'm happy we won and it was a great night at the 'Marsh. I'm happy to disagree. But humble pie....not this time. :d I'm too busy being happy.

What will it take and how long will it take to get the fans back to Hindmarsh do you boys reckon?

A decent ACL run and some press and hope for some positive stories before next season though a good run?

It saddens me a great deal. Cheers Rini

I don't just mean last night's crowd btw because a decent ACL crowd in early group stages has only ever been 7.5k anyway

Anyone who came last night will come back. That's the problem. We have the rusted on fans (like us) who will be there whatever but so many who have become disillusioned by the heartless stuff we were dished up in the first part of the season.

Beating Gamba will help people believe again but it's fragile. If we lose the next two at home.....? But each new season people will give the team a chance and if we look good again at the start of next season we'll build back to 10-12k each game. If we have a good season it'll be back up to 13-14k every home game. The change of team and ownership has an impact each time. Flores probably brought 2k people on his own. We need stability, a sense that the team loves the fans and a run of wins. Mostly the latter.

Last night was pretty low considering it was a beautiful night to watch football. But rain had been predicted so many possibly heard that and it was enough to keep them at home. Of course there were 2-3k school kids & parents that weren't there because it was Tuesday night.

It's a rebuilding phase now. We really can't afford another series of blunders like we had this year. If we keep playing like last night this discussion will be irrelevant. Who wouldn't pay to see that!?

front and back page Advertiser coverage always makes a difference too. We get that when we win big.

Edited by jessesdad: 21/3/2012 12:21:30 PM

I would of loved to been there but ATM money for me is tight want to go to as many as I can though gave me chills seeying hindmarsh packed with a see of read from 2008 in the pre game

Something I really enjoyed last night (other than the win!) was being in the Western stand when they were responding to the game. The Western stand can make so much more noise than anywhere else thanks to that roof and the knowledge that pretty much the entire stand has been sold for all 3 of our home games in the AFCCL gives me great hope for the atmosphere that people jumping on will experience.

Also how nice is it being 4 points from almost certain qualification for the next round :D

Red Terrace should move to Western Stand :P

When I saw the forecast I wondered about sitting in the blue! Turned out fine.
But where are you getting the info about the sales? The WS looked pretty sparse last night. If people have bought the seats they didn't turn up. Still, getting handle on sales has always seemed pretty difficult in Adelaide.

Wasn't last night BRILLIANT!

Edited by jessesdad: 21/3/2012 02:03:17 PM

When I went and purchased my three match family pass I was selecting my seats, at the time I was able to look at all the sections in the WS to figure out where we were going to sit (we are in the bleachers, a spot I quite like actually) and most of the WS is full or has limited seating available for sale. How much of that though is blocked out for sponsors etc is hard to determine though.

Yeah, maybe they were still keeping some membership seats available too? Who knows.
Hopefully it'll be full for the next game.

Fantastic game last night, wish i was Adelaide for it!

Another J-League team crossed off :)

This. The fans will come back. Rini ripped the unique Adelaide United soul and character out of our club. Now, Kossie has returned at the perfect time to revive it. If our Asian campaign continues the way it started, I'm more than happy for him to get the full time gig with a two year contract, minimum. He does need to go and get that A-licence though. That should be a condition of any contract he signs.

So guys has it been brought up yet ? what do you think of the new kits

im unsure about the white stripes but in saying that i do believe you should have your emblem colors on your kit and we have white in our emblem so one and two.

Better then the plain home kit we have now bit more style about it but i think i would like the white stripes to be yellow or even black.


also coincidence or is it great to finally see a good defense for us

mullen mckain boogs cassio

best line up we have has back there all season with malik just in front i wished we had it all season stupid injuries and now fyfe to come into the team to our defense has gone from shiat to shiat yea.

Edited by liverpoolfan2010: 21/3/2012 07:22:37 PM

See this is an issue that I just don't care about.
The players could wear pink sacks with their number and names written in texta for all I care as long as they score more goals than the opposition I'm happy.

I know it's an age thing, and I recall my days as a striker - my job was to put the ball in the back of the net, and if I did that I regarded the shift as a good one, then I'd shower & change my clothes at the end of the game.

Edited by redcup: 21/3/2012 07:30:42 PM

I agree JD. Their CB was easily as tall as Mullen. He, McKain, Boogard, Bruce were aided by their defence which was really bad , and it was easily muscled aside & a keeper who was FFSA Premier league standard, at best.
I predict Gamba will come bottom of the group, and will struggle in the J-League ( it's still got 5 starters who were in the team AU faced 4 years ago! ), but I also think that such a rich club will do some signing and/or promoting.

Edited by redcup: 21/3/2012 07:49:19 PM

This is not helped by Tiketek, when I bought my tix a lot of seats that were empty on the night were, according to Tiketek not available, and surely there couldn't be that many non-shows ( it must have been approaching 15% ), but then maybe it's just my dislike of a ticketing agency that seems to be devoid of any knowledge re: Hindmarsh

Edited by redcup: 21/3/2012 08:04:34 PM

That's what I saw, there was very little available - almost every seat sold according to their system.

Gamba defiantly not the team we faced 4 years ago
but our team we saw play last night was even better then our team in my opinion in the 2 finals matches we played to.
i always thought in 2008 we started dropping off performance wise towards the end of the acl and in the final games had out worst 2 games
and then with the a-league start picked it right back up and only lost 1-0 at the club world cup against them.

Yea but the team is not going to be the only people wearing the kit.
supporters do not want to wear a kit with a picture of a fairy as the mascott to say lol
You would want the kit to look decent to make sure you can get sales from it is my point.
I dont care what they wear on the field but if im to buy it i want it to look good or i will buy a older version or keep my older 3 yr old kit instead. I get you point about whhat your saying but it is not just about what they are wearing game day.

Regarding the AFCCL kit, all I have to say is that any kit we win games in is a good kit to me. I actually like it's clean lines and approve the better fit. I didn't mind the colour of the kit either, was a better red than my green tinged feed from Tashkent would have led me to believe. Oh and did I mention that we are not only undefeated but with a 100% win record in it :)

At the end of the day this is what will more than likely make me buy a strip

I quite like it anyways to be honest :-$

Needs more Coopers though

Everything is better after Coopers (or six ;))

I wish the next game would just start already ><