Friday 8th December 2023

• Central Coast Mariners vs Western United
  Industree Group Stadium
  Kick-off: 19:45
  Broadcast: P+
• Perth Glory vs Melbourne City FC
  HBF Park
  Kick-off: 18:45 (WA time) / 21:45 (Eastcoast time)
  Broadcast: P+

Saturday 9th December 2023

• Wellington Phoenix vs Newcastle Jets
  Sky Stadium
  Kick-off: 19:30 (Kiwi time) / 17:30 (Eastcoast time)
  Broadcast: P+
• Sydney FC vs Macarthur FC
  Allianz Stadium
  Kick-off: 19:45
  Broadcast: 10 Bold / 10 Play / P+

Sunday 10th December 2023

• Adelaide United vs Brisbane Roar
  Coopers Stadium
  Kick-off: 14:30 (SA time) / 14:00 (QLD time) / 15:00 (Eastcoast time)
  Broadcast: 10 Bold / 10 Play / P+
  
• Western Sydney Wanderers vs Melbourne Victory
  Commbank Stadium
  Kick-off: 17:00
  Broadcast: P+

Interesting games.

Mariners and WU will both fancy themselves to get their season on the move. I think the Mariners will get their act together tonight.

Glory need this to get back to the pack, and City will be desperate to get in top 6 contention before it slips away. Tough trip to Perth or I would lean towards City - but I think it will end up a draw. City just aren't clicking yet but close and Glory with the home advantage will lift.

Nix v Jets in NZ should go with Nix, but I am thinking Jets are going to pull one of their tree lopping games out and take the points.

SFC and Macarthur I think will also go to a draw in a fiercely balanced game.

Sunday is a fantastic mix of games. Adelaide will have to fancy themselves on form and at home - but I am counting on my Roar to get up (orange blindness perhaps).

Wanderers and Victory will be a tough game with skill and physicality on show. Victory will win because I still hate Rudan's 'professional' mentality and that is all the reason I need.

Definitely looking forward to Sunday's clashes but I think both games tonight will be good entertainment.

I reckon the CCM vs WU game will be a good one. Although both teams haven't had the results, they aren't necessarily playing badly. Both teams creating plenty of chances, just not getting the results. A bit more refinement up front and WU would have taken the 3 points against Nix last week.

Big win for the Mariners on the back of an amateur team performance from WU. WU are playing without focus or drive and I am reminded of the Roar playing under John Aloisi - going through the motions either expecting a result to just happen or having no ambition or urgency as a team. Time and again they sat back and let Mariners pass the ball around the backline when they were behind on the scoreboard and there was absolutely no urgency or pressure applied to cause a turnover. It is mind blowing to be goals down and defending from halfway only. Skill is not the problem as such - the players just don't seem to run with any idea about how to proceed collectively - especially if they fail to score from early raids. 

Mariners, on the other hand, showed fire and enthusiasm with Nisbet having a magic game in midfield. They were wasteful with shooting opportunities but still clinical enough and well drilled from corners. Their defence was skilled and robust and while WU could have scored goals if they had been better at shooting, Mariners defensive effort is a real pleasure to watch.

One thing I did note was how Farrell and Theohaurus both appear desperate to the point of wastefulness to score a goal. They can both play fantastic football with the ball at their feet and maybe the competition between them to be first choice makes them think they have to score to get ahead. The look of almost disgust on Farrell's face when his shot hit the crossbar, bounced straight down, and was tapped in by Kuol spoke volumes about his disappointment and he looked like he thought Kuol had stolen his goal. Both Farrell and Theohaurus sent balls way off target without pressure when they had better options. Maybe I am reading too much into it.

WU need something to electrify the team and make the players lift and based on past efforts I do not think John Aloisi can do that. The team is a mile better than their performance.

It is an eiriely accurate match for JA at Brisbane. 

Finally got to watch the replay of Glory and Melb City.

Both sides have great players that need time to work properly together.

Glory had plenty of chances but were wasteful in front of goals. Their quality play was regular but not frequent enough to put consistent pressure on City - who had plenty of the ball and constructed attacks all game. Taggart was working hard to manufacture opportunities and he had a very good game - other than not putting away more of the chances that he had. His reactive play is fast and effective - receiving, controlling and shooting very quickly several times. One of those 'on another day' sort of matches for him but he was far from an idle poacher waiting to be fed.

City held the balance of play pretty much all game without being anywhere near as sharp as I expect them to be - but from the hour mark they started to show more of the cohesion, skill and pressure that we have come to know them for and ran the game out with strength.

Glory got a sniff near the end and finally piled some pressure on too little and too late.

City almost looking like they are coming into their own and Glory showing patches that promise much better results in time.

Nisbet is a very underrated player as is his midfield partner Balard.WU looked lost,clueless and directionless.Botic and Wales well marshalled by Kaltak and Hall.

To think, one of these teams is leading the competition. It is to laugh.

C'mon the Jets!!! I think the Kiwis thought that they would just turn up and win, so did their biased commentators. Sucked in to the thug Rufer for finally getting a yellow, after smashing Piscapo repeatedly 

A very entertaining and accomplished half from Jets. They are honestly playing the game (as in hard work) and fighting to regain the ball in numbers - supporting each other with a willingness that means any Nix player who dwells on the ball or stands back on their heels waiting for the ball to come to them is losing it.

In possession, Jets are passing accurately and most often clinically with several players standing out (but they all look the same to me so I can't name them). Piscopo is having a big impact, as is Taylor. Stamatelopolous (we know what answer his parents got when they asked if they could buy a vowel) is ever dangerous and capable. Mauragis is playing one of the most effective games I can remember from him. He is always fast and dangerous breaking into space but his decision making and the way he is cutting inside is an eye-opener for me today. Plenty of others are stepping up for the Jets - well worth watching.

On to another of my most disliked players...Rufer. How the f**k does a player make 6 professional fouls with 4 of them hacks before the ref goes over and says "no more"? I just cannot understand how he gets away with his hacks and fouls every game - yet other players get done for their first cynical professional foul week in week out. I really mean it - I cannot understand it.

Jets are playing a really good brand of football and Nix are struggling to string their passes together. But I attribute that entirely to the Jets strong performance and not to Nix being off their game.

For their part, Nix are stringing passes together but losing direction on longer passes - probably due to the strong wind. Pennington has had a few shots on goal early and on another day one of them might have gone in with the keeper unsighted until the last moment. Barbarouses is always dangerous but with Jets defending as a team and working so hard for each other there are numbers around to stifle whatever danger presents.

Hope Jets can continue without flagging in the second half.

Really good win for Jets. Deserved.

And then we have that...

I have never seen a team less interested and less capable of maintaining possession - let alone when they have 11 against 10. Macarthur inexplicably gave the ball to Sydney (or let Sydney take it off them) the whole game. I don't care that they have a resilient and sometimes just plain lucky defensive setup - it is almost unwatchable seeing a player on a team with a one player advantage trying to beat 3 and 4 opposition players rather than simply passing round them. It is such stupid football.

Redmayne's handball and red card send off was no worse and really quite identical in nature to the two handball claims waved away in the Roar's last game. Just ridiculous that there is such inconsistency.

Sydney, as always, hard in on the one hand yet dropping in agony with every contact from the opposition, while Talay maintains the Corica form of silence when his own team flops with soft contact then cries out in disbelief when the opposition get an identical call their way.

That said, Sydney played magnificently and heroically to try and get something out of the game and were denied by pure luck and desperate defence time and again.

Not a game I enjoyed - but a battle all night all the same.

Clayton taylor is growing on me

flying under the raider and only 19

classy finish from holman

Yeah I agree, Taylor looks like a good player. Apostolos S has scored 6 in 6 games now & looks like a different player since he went OS. Holman is underrated. The Bulls have a hell of a good team now - reckon they'll give it a shake this season 

Holman and Velupillay are two unassuming Olyroos who've really done well in making it count. While we've got an abundance of talent I hope they can forge solid careers and put their names in the hat for the national team one day. 

How Redmayne got sent off last night is beyond bizarre.

As everyone knows I'm usually here sticking up for refs but that was one of the dumbest decisions I've seen. As soon as he called him over I knew he was going.

Beyond bizarre? He stuck his arm out instinctively as a keeper and blckef the ball. The only bizarre thing was WHY he was where he was in the first place. Dumb and not needed.

Go through the considerations for deliberate handball. Distance from kick, arm in natural position, not making his silhouette bigger, ball to hand not hand to ball. I'm NEVER giving that in a thousand years. Ridiculous.

Where in God's name could he have put his arms? It ticks almost none of the boxes. If that was an outfield player are you really giving handball there. He's blasted it into the top of his arm while his arms are practically by his side.

Ball to hand, no sanction, play on.

I'm assuming he was sent off for DOGSO via handball - but in watching that incident now in isolation (didn't watch any games this weekend), I'm inclined to agree that this is not really DOGSO considering distance and players around.

Adelaide should be losing this 4 or 5 nil.

A really great effort from the Roar.

Adelaide piled on the pressure from the start and created opportunity after opportunity - only the Roar defence held solid when it had to. After absorbing a good 30-35 minutes of pressure, with a little luck and a lot of well timed intervention, we started applying our own pressure and the game opened up a lot more as we went into the break with positive momentum.

Two injuries out of nothing in the first part of the game and we had only half time and one other substitution window to call on if we tired. Not a good position to be in obviously.

Second half and we continued for once in the form we had ended the first half. A close but offside goal disallowed for Gomulka set the scene then two good goals (aren't they all) to get ahead. We kept up the pressure and in an odd turn of fate, Mo Toure went down and off with a quad tear/strain after Veart had used all his subs - dropping Adelaide to 10. Shattering for Toure whose career seems to be gaining momentum.

Irankunda had been subbed off around the hour mark as a frustrated Veart looked to pick up the intensity again to first half levels and he was clearly upset about it. I think the pressure of his football is weighing on him out of proportion and Adelaide will be doing all they can to help him through it.

O'Shea is just great for us going forward and despite having no uninjured left back to call on and Longbottom off injured, Aldred, Trewin, Hingert and Zabala did a fantastic job with Freke really backing them up when he is called on. A very strong team performance with plenty of quality showing through the team. I have to admit that I had once again noted Lofthouse's inconsistent touch - great one moment and dodgy the next - when he buried the ball in the net.

We deserved the win, and as Muz said we had two one-on-ones with Gaucci as well as other chances, and we stuffed them up. I don't care now that the game is over though strangely enough...

Adelaide used up so much in that first half hour trying to score first - I think that cost them when they lost steam later. Roar resolute to begin then piled the pressure back on Adelaide in an unusual flow of a game for us.

Was at AU vs BR
Lofthouse is a real classy player, as was no. 10 for Bris.

Fornaroli on fire.

Game on. 4 - 1 at the near the 90 mark 4 - 3 with 3 minutes of injury time to go.

Pearler of a free kick.

Season is very short so irankunda doesn’t have a lot of time to adjust to the transition from super sub to starter

Lofthouse can be bundled off the ball with his slight frame, and his touch does let him down sometimes, but you can see what he brings when he gets it right.

Nikola Mileusnic is our number 10. Ex-Adelaide player so had a lot to play for today. He has always been a wide flyer with an often misplaced final pass/shot - but for the Roar last season and continuing this season he has improved his decision making and accuracy to the extent that he is now an effective and critical part of our front line - although he is effective the full length of the pitch and not just in the final third.

I think he's booked his ticket to the Asian Cup now 

5 teams away from home winning this round, it shows how wildly unpredictable this league as anyone can beat any other in any given day.

If Fornaroli isnt in the Asian Cup then I would be shocked, he's too in form and no other Australian forward is performing better at the moment.

Whats going on with the crowds?

CCM
Wellington
Perth 

All deplorable crowds. What has happened to the Glory in particular?