isn’t it ironic though. The two players that would’ve made a difference (Nathan Burns and Bruce Djite) were left out. Not for any reason remember, just because Arnie felt like it. His excuse was that they wouldn’t have been able to take the climate. What a pathetic excuse. Now look Graham.. now look at our Olyroos being bundled out because they were utter shit up-front!

We could’ve beaten Serbia and Ivory Coast! I think we could’ve smashed them! But now the Aussies are taking the first Qantas 747 back to Aus. I hope the Aussie media give it to him!!

Olyroos 1 vs 1 Serbia

This was a pathetic excuse for a game! They did terrible with the only thing interesting being Zadkos hairdo. The team did really badly, Topor-Stanley couldn’t settle into the defense, the midfield couldn’t string two passes together and the attack was shameful… but there was good points though. Federici has an awesome game in between the posts not letting anything past him, until the goal which wasn’t his fault. Spiranovic was also a great presence in defense. I played against this guy at high school and he ripped us apart and hes clearly showing his worth for the Olys. Our striking pair of Thompson and Nikita never really got much service, but when they did get the ball they were hashing it and were terrible to watch. The goal was decent, Zadko slotted it away well but besides that it was a very dreary match.

Australia line-up:
1.Adam Federici (gk), 2.Jade North, 4.Mark Milligan (Capt) (16.Billy Celeski 66’), 5.Matthew Spiranovic, 6.Nikolai Topor-Stanley, 8.Stuart Musialik, 10.Archie Thompson (15.Kristian Sarkies 76’), 11.David Carney, 12.Trent McClenahan, 13.Ruben Zadkovich, 17.Nikita Rukavytsya (9.Mark Bridge 88’).

Yellow Cards: Matthew Spiranovic 50’, Trent McClenahan 60’.

Olyroos 0 vs 1 Argentina

Now this was a little better, Coming up against an immense Argentina side featuring players like Messi, Mascherano, Gago, Riquelme, Lavezzi, i must admit i thought we were going to get absolutely owned! But it wasn’t that bad. I mean we put absolutely everyone behind the ball at times and this really frustrated the Argies but we had our chances too. I was very happy with the performance of boys like Celeski, Federici and everyone else in defense as they naturalized the threats. Messi absolutely ran rings around us at times but he couldn’t get a shot off which frustrated them more. This allowed us to play some good football in patches however when it got to Archie Thompson nothing came out of it. Archie needs to start on the bench next game, for an overage player who is supposed to bring us experience, hes becoming a liability (typified when he absolutely hashed a one on one with the keeper). When Arnie chucked on Ruka, a spark was created up front until the Argies scored. Then us sitting back watching them pass the ball round their back four for the duration of the match.

Was a fairly impressive performance after our last game against Serbia but in the end the Argies had too much quality and Prevailed, although we did very well to keep them at 1 goal.. we should be proud.

After the two games it appears that we have a solid defense, a solid midfield but our forward line is shocking. surprise surprise Arnold! If you took your head out of your arse and brought along Djite and Burns (OUR MOST PROMISING YOUNG STRIKERS!) we might have had a chance for a medal, but it looks like we might not be able to get out of the group barring a win against the strong Ivory Coast. Don’t know if we can do it with this forward line.

Oh and Channel 7s Coverage… ABSOLUTELY SHIT! the matches are played delayed as hell, commentators are ridiculous and they cut to 5 minute ads ever 10 minutes. Nobody screws football like seven! get them off!

First of the blocks is Perth Glory, the Oldest team in the League. Perth Glory is the only team that survived from the old NSL (National Soccer League). The Glory were the team to be reckoned with, they absolutely ripped that league apart winning 3 minor Premierships (1st on ladder position) and 2 Grand Finals (including the final NSL title) from 1997 – 2004. However since the inception of the A-League, the western side has been a bit of a shambles coming 2nd last in the past 2 seasons. Crowds have dwindled with the excitement and flare of old has all but gone..

Strengths
With a squad like this the only strengths it can possibly have are the players that have come in over the Off-season (Eugène Dadi, Adrian Trinidad and Amaral). Amaral is the one i am most excited about personally. The Brazilian possesses an impressive list of former clubs, Parma, Benfica, Fiorentina to name just but a few. Amaral brings to the squad what was missing last season and that was quality and experience in the midfield. He will more than compensate for the loss of Simon Colosimo to Sydney FC. The only thing that is a little worrying is his age. Being 35 who knows if he’ll be any good or just a Romario, it remains to be seen. The other players brought in are pretty awesome as well bringing in a bit of talent to a forward-line that failed to impress last season.

Coach David Mitchell looks like he at least looks like he knows what hes doing mixing youth and experience in a team which needs to impress in this season or risk losing its fan base forever.

Weaknesses
Look when a defender is your top-goalscorer you know something is going wrong. I don’t think it was too much the strikers fault as Jamie Harnwell and Nikita Rukavytsya know how to put a ball away. I think it was the midfield…. its just so….light. and now that Leo Bertos and Simon Colosimo have gone… what is there really in the midfield? Perth Glory fans really need to pray that these new players coming in are as good as David Mitchell says they are or Perth is fucked!

Key Player – Nikita Rukavytsya
This is a youngster that needs to put bags of goals away for Perth in season 4. Nikita has the skill, speed and finishing to make any defense in the A-League tremble in their studded boots. With the call up to the Olympic side, the 23 year old will have re-newed confidence in his own abilities and hopefully with renewed supply from the midfield, will be able to put teams to the sword!

Prediction – 6th
This should be a good season for the team in Purple. The team already had a strong back line headed by Nikolai Topor-Stanley and a forward line to be reckoned with, however it was the midfield that needed some serious attention. Dave Mitchell seems to know what hes doing though. These new players brought into the midfield and attack seem to be exactly what the team needed. Id like to see the team use some South American flair and win a lot of games with flair and determination. As many A-League sides found out recently, injecting “older” Brazilians rarely works, but it needs to in this case as this season looks to be the Glory’s last chance to win back those loyal fans!

Garcia vs Carle tonight!
I don’t know how much money is on stake when a team moves up to the prem league but it’s a shit load and the Bristol vs Hull game will have its own aussies connections on both sides of the pitch. Nicky Carle (Bristol) and Richard Garcia (Hull) will be fighting it out toplay in the premier league next season. Im a little biased towards Carle as I want to see a boy whose come from the A-league and made it onto the big stage. He has enourmous talent and I don’t think he deserves another year in the championship. But this is also unfair to Richard as hes been slugging it out in the championship for years and probably deserves this as well. I don’t know too much about the guy so cant comment on his skill but hes stats are pretty crazy. Either way its one more Aussie in the prem and one cant complain about that!

Olyroos 3-1 Ireland
The Australian under 23 team are at it again!. Undefeated in this tournament in Malaysia. Actually they’ve won every game! The latest one was against Ireland with Central Coast’s Matt Simon Banging in an awesome hat-trick! The team were without many of its players as they were called up for the senior side against Ghana. The Aussies now have made the final of the comp which sees them play Nigeria tomorrow. MATCH REPORT

Victory sign Ney Fabiano
Melbourne Victory has completed the signing of Chonburi FC striker Ney Fabiano to a 2 year contract. This is awesome news for all Victory fans out there as he was an absolute handful for Melbournes defence scoring in the away and Home legs. It’s a matter of if you cant beat em…. Get them to join you and for once an A-League side makes a calculated decision when it comes to Brazilian signings. With the 29 year old in the prime of his carrer, I will look forward to seeing him in Aus.

Adelaide United sign Cristiano
Melbourne aren’t the only ones attempting to fill their brazilian quota this season as Adelaide United have signed Willem II’s striker Cristiano. I don’t know a whole lot about this player but he’s got some really good stats in Holland. At 26 I think this is another really good capupture as I can see him actually adding something to this league as aposed to some player in brazil’s 3rd division

Schwarzer to Fulham
Mark Schwarzer has made the move to London signing for Fulham after 11 years at Middlesborough. To the naked eye it seems like a really stupid move. Why the hell would a 35 year old goalie move to a team with lesser quality, away from a team who you’ve stuck by for 11 years. He also had offers coming from Juventus and Bayern!… its not really conceivable but when money, contract lengths and first team football come up in an offer, its always hard to resist… especially for a 35 year old.

Promotion relegation
The Lack of promotion relegation argument has resurfaced as the ACL is reformatting its format. Aparently because we don’t have promotion relegation in our league, they wont rank us as highly at club level… who gives a shit really! I mean its not like theyre going to throw out the Aussies from the ACL. After 3 years, I think its too early for the A-League to even think about promotion relegation. Trust me I would love to see it implemented as it would add another dimension to the games but until we have conistant numbers of fans coming to games week in and week out this will never happen.. I mean how many people would go to a Perth Glory game if they were ever relegated? ARTICLE

Scotty Mcdonald wins SPL title with Celtic
Celtic Scotty Mcdonald’s side has won the SPL for the 3rd time in a row and they probably have him to thank for most of it. The Socceroo banged in 30 something (cant be fucked looking it up) goals for the hoops in an outstanding season! Hes one of my favourite Socceroos and I hope he gets heaps of praise and maybe a bit of champions League glory as well.. absolute legend, lets hope he replicates that form in the Socceroo June madness

Look forward to reading your thoughts

First half, Perth Glory’s Nikita Rukavytsya headed the Roos in front then it was Wellington’s Troy Hearfield and out-of-contract James Troisi to round off the win.

Unfortunatly both Rukavytsya and Hearfield came off with inguries but this allowed James Troisi to come on and ripple the net within minutes to show Kevin Keegan that he shouldnt have been sent away.

Few things to note about this game, Queensland Roar’s Michael Zullo finally got his Olyroo debut, he couldve had a lot more caps under his belt had it not been for injuries, but its good to see him out there as hes a fantastic winger. It’s also interesting that Fulham’s Adrian Leijer didnt get a run out. Id imagine it might be because he hasnt played first team football yet, or he might have an injury. He’s usually the captain so i dont know whats going on there.

All in all the Oly’s played a fantastic match, controlled the tempo against a very good Croatia side.

For those who dont really care about this tournament too much, it just got a whole lot more exciting as Togo’s coach revealed that Arsenal star Emmanuel Adebayor will be coming and will face Australia in the third and final group game. The Togo team will need him to fire as they got torn apart by Chile 5-1 in their group match. It will be interesting to see how the Olyroo defence copes up against a prolific Premier League striker, as its hard to tell how really good a defender is if it only comes up against A-league strikers and strikers under 23.

match report

Australia 3 (Nikita Rukavytsya 19’, Troy Hearfield 52’, James Troisi 74’)
Croatia 0

Australian line-up: Tando Velpahi (gk); Ruben Zadkovich, Nigel Boogaard, Aaron Downes, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Spase Dilevski, James Holland (Adam D’Apuzzo 75’), Mark Bridge, Michael Zullo, Nikita Rukavytsya (Matt Simon 32’), Troy Hearfield (James Troisi 70’)

Cautions: Ruben Zadkovich (90’)

Substitutes Not Used: 12.Dean Bouzanis (gk), 19.Jason Hoffman, 3.Adrian Leijer, 13.Trent McClenahan.

This should provide the boys (minus those playing for Adelaide and Melbourne mid-week in the ACL) with usefull experience in tournament situations and match fitness ahead of the Olympics since most of them havnt been bloody playing for 3 months!

A notable inclusion in the squad for the tournament that runs untill May 25th is Dean Bouzanis. Playing for the Liverpool youth team, Benitez rekons hes the best young goalie in the world. However hes’s also played for the Greek under 23 team as well and given Olyroo coach Graham Arnold a “play me or lose me to Greece” threat. Well it seems as if the coach has given in!

I loath the way he thinks he can influence Arnold’s decisions in team selection like that and think the kid should have his arse ushered back to Greece i don’t care how good he is, but alas its not my decsion to make.

You will also find that Mark Milligan is included in the side. As his ban from the previous post shows, he will be banned untill the game against Ghana… and thats the way uh huh uh huh i LIKE IT!

Olyroos Side – Intercontinental Cup Malaysia
Nigel Boogaard (Central Coast Mariners), Dean Bouzanis (Liverpool FC, England), Mark Bridge (Sydney FC), Adam D’Apuzzo (Newcastle Jets), Spase Dilevski (Universitatae Craiova, Romania), Aaron Downes (Chesterfield, England), Tarek Elrich (Newcastle Jets), Troy Hearfield (Wellington Phoenix), Jason Hoffman (Newcastle Jets), James Holland (Newcastle Jets), Adrian Leijer (Fulham, England), Trent McClenahan (Hereford United, England), Mark Milligan (Uncontracted), Stuart Musialik (Sydney FC), Nikita Rukavysta (Perth Glory), Matt Simon (Central Coast Mariners), Nikolai Topor-Stanley (Perth Glory), James Troisi (Uncontracted), Tando Velaphi (Perth Glory), Ruben Zadkovich (Derby County- England) and Michael Zullo (Queensland Roar).

Bruce Djite heads to Europe
See now this is the way you leave an A-League team Mark Milligan! Bruce Djite (also an Olyroo player) is leaving Adelaide United whilst playing for them and handing the reds a bit of cash through the transfer fees as well. Well done Brucey!

Although it looks like another one of the A-League’s brightest talents is heading to Europe (most likely Turkey)in pursuit of greatness its very much fair play to him. After 2 seasons playing for Adelaide, its clear that the 21 year old striker has learnt all there is to learn from the A-League and has shown enough promse in his performances to suggest he would become a fantastic player if he continued to develop in the european leagues.

This is what i want to see from the league, a young exciting player using the A-League as a platform to Europe… Fantastic!

I could have attached a compilation of all Djite’s goals for Adelaide Utd and the Olyroos, but i thought this would be much funnier! Its a vid of some of the United boys attempting to copy Wayne Rooney hitting the camera off the volley.