Lions FC for our next FFA Cup match - so we should be able to go to the game.

Could have been Adelaide, Perth or Melbourne sides so that is good for us fans.

Best possible result I reckon. Big local derby, no travel, plenty of fans can attend, local QLD club gets to reap the benefits from match day takings.

best of all 5 mins down the highway from my house. i hope it is a sell out. should be fun

...draws ring 5km around Lions FC...getting closer sirhcdobo...getting closer...

Good win today. 

Cyrus worked hard and i was impressed with his runs and general football intelligence BUT in the first half he was nowhere near strong enough, getting pushed around by the lions defence, he was better in the second but wont get that sort of time or space in the a league. has potential but i dont think he is quite a-league quality yet, one to watch though. 

i was impressed with  Akbari, he looks like he has put on a little mass and is taking his game to the next level. I was not so impressed with melusenic he was lost in the first half and for someone with pace to burn, didnt use it. I hope he is just finding his feet at a new club but he has a lot to do to win me over. New signing Olsen was assured with the ball at his feet which bodes well so hopefully he strengthens our defensive line. 

Overall i think the Squad we have is significantly better than last seasons with exciting players but i get nervous at how young/unproven some of our players are. We definitely seem to be the "moneyball" team of the comp. Great if it comes off and all the players end up performing better than their CV's but could be painful if it doesnt come off. 

He was an immensely frustrating player for us for years..
Sort of guy who scores a worldie one week then falls over into an open net without the ball the next.

If memory serves he was a bit more consistent in his last year with us but he is not a consistent match winner but will likely win you a game or two with something special through the year so still a handy signing.

Just don't be surprised if he goes entire matches sometimes without much output.

Good news for those out Ipswitch way this weekend. Tickets $10, kids under 13 free.

It's a funny one this year, we have strengthened upfront in my opinion despite replacing the whole front line. In the midfield we haven't lost any players and added Steinmann so we are definitely stronger and in the backline Gilesphy is a big loss but Trewin is a more than capable replacement so the only question is over the back up's. The only place I think we have gone backwards is in the GK department but we have 2 players with potential so we could be ok there. Overall I think our squad is better than it was last year, but they will need to perform otherwise I think we may completely implode, I think we are missing that core of players who are able to take the game by the scruff of the neck if it is going against us (and that applies to the season as a whole).

I think we are good for 4th to 6th, but realistically we wont challenge City or Sydney.

I think Sydney may struggle. Nincovic and bobo are 36 and Wilkinson is 37, ALF is 34 they are quality players but time is a cruel mistress, the players they have brought in look like squaddies rather than replacements or competition for first team players. particularly as they will have had a short pre-season. time will tell where they sit but i think they may fall back into the pack.

from last season and current recruiting (assuming we dont crash and burn) i think we have done better than CCM. City still look well out of reach of everyone. I think Victory have done enough to jump up into contention, as have Macarthur (though there results will depend on club harmony more than talent). Western, Perth and WSW are all stronger than us on paper. 

Unfortunately for Wellington they look like they will be spooners. i would put Jets, CCM, Adelaide and us in the same tier in terms of quality on paper but i would say that our "moneyball" squad has the potential to be top 4 if everything goes right. 

i think for us
2nd-4th = out perform
5th-8th = average
9th-11th = under perform

Seems that pretty much every season people say this about Wellington. They forget that the club has possibly the best coach in the competition and the recruitment has been consistently outstanding

My take based off squad movements given we have had almost no competitive games.
City - improved, will be hard to stop
Sydney - much the same, probably have 1 more good year if everyone can stay fit
Mariners - gotten worse
Us - improved except for GK
Adelaide - gotten worse, have struggled to dispatch mid table NPL sides
Macarthur - roughly the same
Nix - gone backwards but they underperformed last year imo
WSW - much improved
Glory - about the same but have the Sturridge wildcard, also underperformed last year
Western - big improvers based off squad alone imo
Jets - much the same 
Victory - much improved

top three is a reasonable aim for us, we have a good squad that should be competitive at the very least against every other team, the question is have any of the other teams nailed their recruitment to jump up the ladder.

I'm a little concerned in our defensive depth. We did pick up a SFC player on loan as cover. If the back 3 stay healthy we are fine and one of the best back three in the comp. But if one or two out of our backline get injured we will have problems.

I just want to see more of that visa striker. But looks to be a big season for Akbari. Him and O'Shea will be causing all sorts of problems. Especially now with Steinmann holding the midfield has added that extra class we were missing last season.

I’d normally agree but their squad is very thin and they’re not at home until at least a third of the way through the season. I think people are rightfully tipping them to struggle.

Akbari was ok in general play, but can’t play a final pass to save himself. 3 times in the last 30 minutes he  couldn’t find the right final pass inside the box. Nor can he score. He’s played 46 Games for Roar and Victory combined without a goal or an assist. These stats are ok if he’s playing out and out DM but you’ve got to get a better attacking return than that if he’s playing anywhere else.
Olsen looked a better footballer than Corey Brown.

I normally agree but they only have 19 on the books at the moment, are not in Australia, have not locked down an aussie training base yet and have not been able to train as NZ is still under lockdown. they will be so far behind the 8 ball I just cant see them doing well. 


akbari has only had one proper season as a first team player and that was at DM the rest of the 20 or so games he has only been a bit player off the bench so not too worried about his output stats so far. but yes he has to have more output if he plays AM. on the weekend he set up the penalty nicely, put melusenic through 1 on 1 and there were a couple of other very nice balls that were either just cut out or no one was making the run. he also had at least 2 chances for melusenic to pass him the ball unmarked in the penalty area only for melusenic to take the wrong option or completely miss him. 

Akbari is a different player so far this (pre)season.

He is using his body strength and body shape to hold his position, win the ball, and maintain possession where he has been easily bumped off previously.

His history is somewhat irrelevant as the dynamics are completely different for him now, and so far I have been very impressed with him and I think he has a real chance to prove himself this season.

Mileusnic and Ivanovic I think will be good for us this season too. With O'Shea more free to create in attack it opens up more opportunities for anyone fast and hungry enough to make the effort. Both of those players have speed - Ivanovic particularly showed intensity and desire in the previous FFA Cup game.

We are much stronger from the DM forward, and not too much worse in the backline. I don't care about other teams - as we are shaping up in lower level pre-season games I can see us scoring consistently and being a strong defensive block. It will take a few full on aleagues games to show how well that will transfer to the season proper but I like what we are showing at the moment.

Yeah i think Akbari has put on a bit of mass. I saw him early in the year when he was coaching at Bethania and was surprised at how "fine" he was. on the weekend it looked like he had grown a fair bit. I like how he has played so far so hopefully it carries over to the season. 

I am less convinced with melusenic so far he needs to improve but it makes me less nervous that we have Lescano, Ivanovic and Parsons to come in so plenty of options if he is dragging us down. I found it interesting that akbari moved to the left when parsons came on, i would have thought that parsons would play better on the left, maybe a strategy to develop his right more. 

Did anyone make it to the game on the weekend and have a report? how did we go. 2-0 is a good result and an early brace for akbari but then nothing for the rest of the game. did we just think 2 was enough or were the 2 lucky?

I just came on to check the same thing.

I was unable to go and tried tracking the game through Twitter posts - but there were only half a dozen of them for the whole game. They did suggest that the Adelaide keeper made a couple of good saves in the second half at least...

No idea if Adelaide played with a full side or a practice side even. Hopefully the bulk of their main squad at least so we can tick off a successful pre-season game against an aleagues opponent.

adl line up:  1.Delianov (gk); 21.Javi López, 23.Tratt, 3.Timotheou, 27.Cavallo; 10.Isaías, 6.D'Arrigo, 26. Halloran (c); 31.Bernardo, 9.Yengi, 7.Kitto
subs: 33.Ochsenham (gk), 4.Ansell, 11.Goodwin, 17.Toure, 18.Caletti, 19.Dukuly, 22.Jakobsen, 28.Juande

reasonably close to full strength. still have no idea of who started or played for us though. 

Guessing there's no video around but I have serious concerns about our upcoming season and this does nothing to allay my fears

Apparently this was us in the first half at least:
Starting: Freke, Brindell-South, Trewin, Aldred, Neville, Brown, Steinmann, O’Shea, Akbari, Dehmie, Mileusnic
Bench: Holmes (gk), Mumford (GK), Milnaric, Olsen, Daley, Lofthouse, Parsons

Still no Lescano or Ivanovic is a worry for up front. 

Bakeries to take over Oxford United

that is probably a good thing for the roar. gives a path to europe for young players and hopefully get some coming back our way as well. 

Losing 2-0 to that Brisbane XI with a near full strength side is embarrassing.

Most of their team on paper don’t make our XI.

Only works if they get promoted to the Championship though. They are 6th atm so they are definitely in the hunt.

apart from brindel-south and Dehmie that is our first team. Pretty much everyone said the same thing about us last season and we finished 4th guess it is just luck hey?

I see nothing for you to be embarrassed about.

Our defensive structure is as good as anyone's so far and is built around the excellent defensive core we had last season (less Gillesphey but plus Steinmann).

O'Shea has been a quality midfielder all along (assuming he played). Akbari has shown glimpses in previous seasons but was always too weak on the ball - he appears to have fixed that now.

Our attackers are getting better at the pointy end and that was one of the only real weaknesses we had last season.

All up, for you to come second to that team is not such a big thing. We ended up 4th last season without being able to find the net - early days but we may have gotten better in that regard so not unreasonable to lose to us at home in a pre-season game.