Soccer Thread : 2004-05 (7 Viewers)

[Ris]

Cisse's injury will leave benitez with striker problems who will partner baros? kewell? $14million out 4 the year (well what doctors think) how cruel 4 liverpool.
what happened 2 Arsenal last night? i didnt get to see the game but from reviews it looks like Southampton all most had them at highbury... Portsmouth Deserved there win aganist united from what i saw. and Chelsea's stars had to beat west brom. now atm the title is equal!!!

 

[LMF^^]

Gee didn't know that missin Van Nistelrooy would hurt that much considerin there's Smith to replace him. But all those missed chances got us owned at the end. One positive is that it's only just 9 points, instead of 11.

Many expected Arsenal to take their anger and hammer Southhampton again. Damn that's close.

And Cisse, I'm feelin his pain.

 

[timbk2]

thats so bad for liverpool... the exact same fixture at blackburn last year saw baros and carragah break their legs in the same game... blardy hell.

i reckon kewell or garcia will play as a forward. .. or benitez will go back to 4-5-1 formation... if baros picks up an injury.. we're screwed.

 

[Benny_]

Liverpool striker situation:

Current squad:

Baros- fit and firing
Pongolle- minor injury, will be back in a few weeks
Mellor- rubbish against Milwall, doubt we'll see a lot of him since he plays up front where Baros likes to play
Cisse- leg snapped into 3 pieces, won't be back for the season

In the short term, Kewell or Garcia will play a Bergkampesque role until Pongolle returns to be given a go. In the long term...

Rumoured target strikers:

Mista: Just signed a new contract tying him to Valencia till 2010 :S- won't happen
Morientes: Says he's happy at Madrid, Madrid says they don't do January deals- unlikely

I think Liverpool's best bet is to bring Anelka or Fowler back from Man City. Both proven EPL scorers and Man City have a 63 million pound debt (not sure, but I think that's pretty close to the figure that killed Leeds). Might as well nick off with Shaun Wright-Phillips as well while we're there.

 

[Boom Selecta]

I bet your wishing that Owen wasn't sold now. It will work out for liverpool. I would play Harry at striker with baros.

 

[Constip8edSkunk]

i think thwy can play with just the lone striker up front as benitez did in the beginning ....

 

[...]

yea, esp when u have luis garcia and kewell (both are flankers), its very likely its gonna be a one striker system..

fark Man Utd...we seriously lack one influential midfielder..i say we bid for gerrad!!

hmm..Owen is firing atm..

 

[Shmacka]

Kewell should be paired with Baros. Its so simple. We now have a left side to count on as Traore, although he looked abit amateurish and had no balance sometimes, he looked solid from set pieces and was able to keep them out mostly.

Riise is also firing on the left, very pacing and with a good left foot. His right foot cost us again i think. Man its only for standing on.

Having the Baros-Kewell partnership is awesome, allows for Kewell to have a good run in goalscoring/confidence building positions, hes a forward rather than the striker that Baros is so he can set up and terrorise and score all at once. Plus we only need to remember his Leeds days to know his brilliance.

Also on Cisses injury, anyone see Larssons one a few years back at Celtic? Nasty. Exactly what Cisse did.

 

[Shmacka]

New league

New Aussie league looking excellent after this release http://wwiii.sbs.com.au/home/index.php3?id=51357

What are the thoughts on the name? "A-League" as opposed to the APL we thought it would be


Looks like a season pass to Sydney FC coming my way

 

[Seraph]

Hmmm

Me thinks Van persie is going to get alot more game-time

 

[braad]

A-League, a rip off the J-League ???

hope it goes well, im sick of shit soccer comps, if they can get the big comp down pat, then hopefully they can eventually get our levels of comps proper too i only wish...

 

[LMF^^]

A-League K-League J-League
Prob a sign of closer ties wit the AFC in the near future. Maybe even joining the Asian Champions League LoL. But it's kinda hard to travel all the way to the Arab nations.

 

[timbk2]

they had some shit with someone else owning the naming rights of "australian premier league", so they called it the A-league.
Doesnt bother me that much.. u could also say APL is a rip off of the EPL..

i like the new logo but. I wana see what the jerseys look like.. i remember them saying they will all be nike jerseys. Cant wait till it kicks off.. i'll definately go and see the first sydney game.

 

[timbk2]

would be good if the top 2 teams went into the Asian Champions league. Would def. provide as an incentive to alot of the players .. and would make more people follow the comp. to see their team compete in an 'elite'(well.. better) competition.

 

[LMF^^]

Just watched the John O'Neill interview on SBS, it does seem like ASA wants closer ties with Asia. It'll be real nice if that can happen, watchin Aussie teams against other Asian teams.

 

[Shmacka]

Yeah Oneills really pushing for the Asia link. He also wants a sort of Ashes series with England.

 

[HeCtic]

New Aussie league looking excellent after this release http://wwiii.sbs.com.au/home/index.php3?id=51357

What are the thoughts on the name? "A-League" as opposed to the APL we thought it would be


Looks like a season pass to Sydney FC coming my way

Depends where it is being played I'l prolly go to every game. I used to go to every Northern Spirit home game back in Year 10/11 when they were at North Sydney. It'd be a dream come true if Sydney FC were at North Sydney or even SFS. I'd be able to get pissed before and after the game and just jump on a bus home

Although most people believe it'll be at Parra as a lot of the football fans are located that way so they'd better improve the parking facilities there as they were atrocious when I went to Parra Power games. Either way having every game shown on Fox and having the Rupert Murdoch media with an active interest in the league can only be a good thing.

EDIT: Oh wait it's at Aussie Stadium which is awesome news. Hopefuly we can get 10k to 15k crowds for the majortiy of the games.

 

[superbird]

1.5mil is a pretty shit cap tho dont u think?

 

[HeCtic]

1.5mil is a pretty shit cap tho dont u think?

Considering half the NSL clubs couldnt afford to pay it's players before and with 5 tottally new entities in the League, ie no historical suport,fanbase, rivalries 1.5 is pretty smart as long as there is corporate support to keep the clubs operating for the first few years.

With all the media attention we should be able to get through Murdoch, Foxtel and all his papers we might be able to establish a solid League in 5ish years? Maybe then they can raise the cap.

 

[reno2004]

1.5mil is a pretty shit cap tho dont u think?

$1.5million is pretty good considering the amount of income the clubs will be getting. Dont forget with the current format, the A-league is equivalent of about the old 2nd division in England (called 1st div now). And they dont pay their players very much. You cant expect a club to pay a player $500,000/yr when they only get crowds of 10,000.

I think the idea of closer asian links is a good one. You could have the top team entering the asian champions league and second place playing in the Asian equivalent of the UEFA Cup (cant remember the name right now). It will definately raise the level of our soccer faster, and allow clubs to generate greater incomes.

If things go well, i reckon in 5yrs they could have a strong 10 or 12 team competion. Though they should really try and limit the number of teams per city to 2, otherwise we will end up in the same position as before.