The 2017-18 Hyundai A-League Wallpaper Collection is here. For 1920 x 1080 high resolution monitors. Featuring all 10 teams in the competitions.
Showing posts with label hyundai a-league. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hyundai a-league. Show all posts
Adelaide United: 2015-16 A-League Champions
ADELAIDE United has lost its third high-profile player less than a week after its thrilling grand final win over the Wanderers at Adelaide Oval.
The club yesterday announced it had parted ways with Pablo Sanchez — the Spanish super-sub who scored the final goal in the 3-1 win.
He joins club champion Craig Goodwin — who has already flown out to join Dutch club Sparta Rotterdam — and Bruce Kamau who also scored in the grand final and who has signed with Melbourne City.
The 33-year-old Sanchez, who played 25 games this year but only started in eight, said he will always treasure his time at United.
“Scoring in the grand final was the icing on the cake for me and I will always remember this moment,” Sanchez said.
“I will never forget Adelaide and I want to come back one day, to enjoy the club and the people here, that I love.”
It is believed that Adelaide’s desire to maximise the output from their allotted five imports was the reason he wasn’t offered a new contract.
Adelaide will take part in the Asian Champions League next season — where only three non-Asian imports can play — putting more pressure on imported players.
United now must rebuild its squad with an eye on playing in three competitions next season — the A-League, Champions League and FFA Cup.
Reds’ general manager of football Ante Kovacevic said the club needed to increase its depth.
“We do have to plan for that and we need a bigger squad size than we had during the season,” Kovacevic said.
Stopper Dylan McGowan is in discussions to be re-signed, while striker Eli Babalj has been sent back to his parent club AZ for ongoing rehabilitation on a debilitating knee injury. With Mate Dugandzic also off-contract, Kovacevic does have to make some key decisions before the start of the new season.
It’s understood former Birkalla and ex-Newcastle Jet Ryan Kitto could return home while contracted pair Central Coast’s Mitch Austin and Melbourne City’s Ben Garuccio are candidates for Reds contracts.
City’s young striker Marc Marino is also a possibility for Adelaide.
And there is talk of former Reds midfielder Jacob Melling also returning from the Melbourne millionaires.
Melbourne Victory: 2015 FFA Cup Champions
Melbourne Victory have added to the A-League’s biggest trophy collection in grand style, downing Perth Glory 2-0 in the FFA Cup final.
The Victory were dominant in the first half of Saturday night’s decider as they became the first side to concurrently hold all three domestic titles, having won a third A-League premiership-championship double in 2014-15.
The only down-side for them was the disappointing crowd of 15,098, with high ticket prices blamed for a half-full AAMI Park. Melbourne were well deserving of their two-goal halftime lead, following an opening 45 minutes played at a tempo worthy of a cup final.
The home side had the ball in the back of net as early as the 16th minute courtesy of a powerhouse strike by in-firm New Zealand international Kosta Barbarouses, although that effort was correctly disallowed as Victory defender Matthieu Delpierre was clearly offside.
Victory went ahead in the 35th minute, when Oliver Bozanic was on hand to lash the ball home after a good build up down the right from Jason Geria and Barbarouses. Melbourne doubled their advantage seven minutes later. Captain Carl Valeri played a perfect through-ball into the path of striker Besart Berisha, whose first touch took him past the final defender.
The Albanian goal-poacher then fired a brilliant strike across Glory keeper Ante Covic and inside the left post. Glory looked dangerous at times on the counter-attack although Brazilian striker Sidnei Sciola was mostly well held by Delpierre. Perth started the second half brightly and almost halved the deficit within four minutes when Diogo Ferreira slammed a shot into the right-hand upright.
In the 61st minute, Glory captain Richard Garcia’s first-time effort flew over the crossbar. The visitors had most of the best scoring chances in the second half without being able to convert any of them.
Victory were forced to play the last eight minutes with 10 men after Valeri was sent off for a second bookable offence - a heavy foul on Dino Djulbic. The same fate befell Valeri in the A-League grand final against Sydney FC earlier this year, although his team held on to win both matches in comfortable fashion.
Perth were unable to consider several important players due to injury on Saturday night including Chris Harold and import Gyorgy Sandor. The two-goal defeat meant Glory are still to win any silverware in the A-League era, having lost last year’s inaugural FFA Cup final to Adelaide United and the 2011-12 A-League grand final to Brisbane Roar.
Are Melbourne Boys Still Number One?
Victorious and Glorious - Melbourne and Perth set A-League standard
It's hard to remember an A-League season like this one, where the successful teams have so clearly and so quickly broken away from the mediocre ones.
The top five in the competition are already a minimum of two wins ahead of the bottom five, which includes two teams - Western Sydney Wanderers and Newcastle Jets - that have yet to win a match.
In contrast, the five leading sides have lost only seven times in 45 outings, and more than half of those losses - four - can be sheeted home to the Jekyll and Hyde-like fifth-placed Wellington Phoenix.
Perth Glory has been the surprise package of the campaign and leads the way with 22 points, while Melbourne Victory (21 wins) is the only unbeaten side.
Already it is hard not to see the top four - Glory, Victory, the consistent Adelaide and Sydney - not making the finals, while Phoenix should also be thereabouts.
Central Coast Mariners, for so long a benchmark for consistency, are struggling, as are the plutocrats of Melbourne City who, despite the wealth of owners Manchester City, are only just scraping into a finals berth in sixth spot, and that courtesy of a lucky win against Brisbane last week.
And who would have predicted the plight of Western Sydney. Grand finalists in their two seasons in the competition and Asian champions, they are pinned to the foot of the table winless and, with the pay row over their appearance in the World Club Cup garnering them more headlines than their football, look to be in a dreadful state.
This is a league where form reversals have been habitual and a string of good results can see a team shooting up the ladder quickly.
But with the competition moving into the middle part of the campaign the likes of the Mariners, Wanderers, Newcastle, City and defending champions Brisbane - who themselves have endured internal strife and the turmoil of a managerial sacking early in the campaign - need to lift their game considerably unless they are to endure a long, difficult and ultimately fruitless season.
PERTH GLORY
Few would have predicted the glory days would return to Perth so soon after they finished third bottom last season, having won only seven out of 27 games, and firing coach Alistair Edwards mid-season.
Kenny Lowehas recruited well - Andy Keogh, the Republic of Ireland striker has been a particularly shining light - and built a hard-edged, experienced side that now shows the resilience on the road that many former Glory teams did not. They still haven't played either of the Melbourne teams and Victory in particular will give a better idea of their credentials, but it's hard not to see Glory being in the thick of things at season's end. They will be at least aiming to equal previous best performance in 2011-12, when Ian Ferguson and Stuart Munro led the West Australians to a grand final where they lost controversially to Brisbane.
MELBOURNE VICTORY
Close but no cigar last season when narrowly beaten by Brisbane in a semi-final at Suncorp, Kevin Muscat has now fashioned a formidable team characterised not just by the strength of their starting line-up but the depth of their squad.
Signing Besart Berisha was a massive coup, strengthening not just Victory but weaking defending champion Brisbane. The Albanian's work rate and enthusiasm is infectious, and he has brought a real winning mentality to the Victory camp.
Muscat inherited Ange Postecoglou's squad last season and he has tinkered and refined it for his own purposes this time round to, so far, great effect. Carl Valeri has been a good pick up in midfield, while the youngsters are showing the benefits of last season's experience.
ADELAIDE UNITED
Have won plenty of fans this season for their cultured football as the Reds come to grips with the passing and possession mantra of Spanish coach Josep Gombau.
Adelaide has looked slick and effective in almost every game, harnessing the talents of Argentine playmaker Marcelo Carrusca and an array of Latin attackers backed up by the physical presence of target man Bruce Djite.
Gombau has wrought improvement from several squad players, notably Osama Malik,while Isais, the Spanish midfielder, is a key component of the Reds pass and move style as he conducts the tempo sitting in front of the defence. Only lost to Victory so far this season.
SYDNEY FC
Looked ponderous and choppy in their opening half of the season against a spritely Melbourne City in early October but have built on that in almost every subsequent minute of the campaign as Graham Arnold's tactical message and approach to the game gets through to his squad.
Arnold's teams are always tightly focused, organised and hard to break down. This iteration of the Sky Blues are no different. They have been unlucky with injury - losing Corey Gamerio and Ali Abbas for the season are two blows that would have hit any team - but they retain a resilience, determination and capacity to get a result where many others wouldn't.
WELLINGTON PHOENIX
Its all or nothing with Ernie Merrick's men - this season they either win well, or they go down fighting, but they don't draw.
Phoenix have won five out of nine, often very convincingly as the 5-1 and 4-1 home wins over Melbourne City and Newcastle attest, and they have been pretty competitive in every other game they have played, suffering some unlucky and late losses, especially in the 2-1 defeat against Adelaide.
The Kiwis are always traditionally tough to beat at home, but they have improved on the road. Should make the finals, and at home they will be nobody's pushovers.
MELBOURNE CITY
What can you say about the most heavily hyped team in the A-League's 10-year history. The bookies' reaction to the Manchester City takeover was fanciful: making the team that had finished bottom the previous year title favourites was ludicrous on the back of a change of ownership, even if the new owners were among the wealthiest people in the world. This is a salary-capped league with lots of restrictions: you can't simply go and buy talent and stuff your squad with it.
Still, City has been disappointing. The David Villa circus proved a distraction more than a blessing. Robert Koren might retain the ability that made him a Premiership regular for years, but we don't know as we have yet to see him, while Damien Duff has also gone down with injury. It is always a risk signing older players, and City have been burnt before. They will be keeping their fingers crossed about the prospects of the injury-prone Josh Kennedy, due to join in January. Can make the top six, but unlikely to be title contenders unless Koren and Kennedy prove a truly inspirational combination.
BRISBANE ROAR
It's not quite a case of how have the mighty fallen, but it's certainly surprising to see the champions struggle in the fashion that they are this season.
The loss of Besart Berisha to a major competitor was always going to hurt, but few expected the departure of Ivan Franjic to have such an impact as well. And no one would have predicted the injury that put first choice goalkeeper Michael Theo, one of the best in the business, out of action for so long.
Allied to that there has been highly publicised instability in the camp, with title-winning coach Mike Mulveygetting the axe six rounds into the new season. And this week captain Matt Smithbid Brisbane adieu, accepting a deal to join Bangkok Glassin the Thai top division. Stand-in coach Frans Thijssenhas the talent at his disposal to bring about a recovery, but Roar would not want to get too much further behind the leaders.
CENTRAL COAST MARINERS
The club that has made a habit of confounding the doubters is starting to look rather shaky and somewhat directionless as it seeks to compete with bigger, better-funded opponents.
The Mariners' togetherness has helped them achieve so much success against the odds, but their results this season leave plenty to be desired and the decision to shift games away from Gosford to try to build a fan base in Sydney looks doomed to failure.
The Mariners need to concentrate on the basics, make themselves hard to beat and reconnect with the public on the Central Coast if they are to rescue something from a season that is in grave danger of slipping away.
NEWCASTLE JETS
It was never going to be an easy assignment for new boss Phil Stubbins in his first appointment as an A-League head coach: the Jets have never been stable during the Nathan Tinkler era and the off-field issues have always seemed to compromise the club's on-field performance.
Newcastle have not made the finals since the 2009-10 season and it would be a surprise to see them do so this time. Still winless after nine games, they have been competitive through many matches but all too often lack the concentration or discipline to hold onto a lead, surrendering winning positions.
Stubbins is an experienced coach and he will be keen to turn things around. He is all too aware that not many managers get a second chance in this competition.
WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS
Who would have thought it. Tony Popovic's side gained a reputation for their pragmatism, toughness, discipline and structure during two fantastic first seasons in the A-League when they got to the grand final on both occasions only to lose out, first to the Mariners, then to Brisbane.
They went into this season as one of the favourites, but it has all gone hopelessly wrong. The Asian Champions League triumph against the odds was an extraordinary achievement, but its legacy, at domestic level, has been one of failure.
Bottom of the league with no wins in nine matches and a goal difference of minus nine is testimony to the disarray the Wanderers have been in during this nightmare campaign.
Their woes have been exacerbated by the distractions of the World Club Championships in Morocco, where a pay row over appearance money has cast another shadow over the club.
Its folly to write off a champion team, but they look nothing like one at the moment and will be hard pressed to finish any closer than sixth at best on the evidence so far this campaign.
Western Sydney Wanderers: 2014 AFC Champions League Champions
"The Western Sydney Wanderers!", they said!
They've changed the sporting landscape, they said! Their success in beating that team from Saudi Arabia to win the Asian Championship is the harbinger of a new age, they said, where football – yes, FOOTBALL, you knuckle-dragging Neanderthals – is finally going to rise up and take its place at the forefront of the Australian sporting codes!
By any measure, the success of the Wanderers, just a couple of years after being established, is staggering.
I have one thing to say to all you smarty-pants who've been writing such emails to me, you narks, you sharks, you whingers, you whiners, you know-all blow-hards. Just one thing to say:
I think you might be right.
By any measure, the success of the Wanderers, just a couple of years after being established, is staggering.
Firstly, their success in the A-League. For who knew that that comp could be so successful? Not this little black duck, who has uttered sneers for years that soccer would never take off in this country. But you only had to see the crowds at A-League Wanderers matches – whole battalions of them standing on their seats, all in red, and seemingly allsmoking the same thing – to know that something fundamental has changed. Such enthusiasm! Such passion! So many of the boogers!
And then for them to be crowned the kings of all Asia?
A phenomenal achievement, and congratulations to them. Let the record show, the sleeping giant of Australian sport, will likely soon be dancing for the pleasure of hundreds of thousands.
The question is, which other sports is this going to impact on?
My email inbox is filled with predictions that it will finish off rugby union – at least from those generous enough to acknowledge that rugby is not already dead.
I don't think so. Rugby has major problems right now, and it really is under threat from a variety of forces and factors – not least self-mutilation – but the growing of soccer doesn't show up on my radar as one of them. For that to be the case, there would need to have been a migration from the Waratahs and Wallaby support base to soccer and, anecdotally at least, I have no evidence of that. I further note that the one ace-in-the-hole that Australian rugby has is precisely the same one that Australian soccer is so demonstrably benefiting from – the growing global pull of their game. In that sense, soccer and rugby are allies not competitors.
Rugby league then? A bit. The Wanderers are at their strongest in the very heartland of the Parramatta Eels, and though the A-League is a summer comp, it has been hard to miss the fact that Western Sydney seems to be right behind the Wanderers the way they used to be behind the Eels.
Ditto the Western Sydney Giants. In the competition to win the hearts and minds of the people, and turn those into bums on seats, there is no way around the fact that the Giants and Wanderers have come along at much the same time . . . and it is the Wanderers breaking all the records and getting all the headlines, all while the Swans have been making the running in the AFL all the way to the grand final.
But the sport that should be loosening its collar right now is, oddly enough, cricket. Both the A-League and cricket are on at much the same time, and are going after much the same people. Can I put it to you that if you like watching T-20 matches, it is not such a massive leap to go to a Wanderers or Sydney FC match instead, or even pay to watch it on the tube? And all this at a time when Australian cricket is struggling.
So we'll see. How it is all going to play out will become clearer as the summer progresses, but my pound to your peanut says that as the share price of soccer rises, so too will the share price of cricket drop. You heard it here first.
I haven't been wrong before, have I?
Oh, do shut up, Buddy.
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz
Wanderers head into the unknown
Western Sydney goalkeeper Ante Covic has declared the Wanderers won’t be intimidated, even if Al-Hilal fans resort to dirty tricks on and off the field when the team arrives in Riyadh for the second leg of their Asian Champions League decider.
The Wanderers were subjected to disruptive and potentially dangerous behaviour in Guangzhou, China for their ACL quarter-final, when locals deliberately caused car crashes with the team bus and shined laser pointers into players’ faces during training and the match.
Covic had a laser shined directly at him when saving a penalty early in the tie-clinching match against Guangzhou Evergrande, and said he and the Wanderers are expecting similar shenanigans from the passionate Saudi Arabian supporters.
Laser pointers were first used at Saudi venues back in 2006, and King Fahd Stadium with its capacity of 65,000, is known for being a gauntlet for opposition supporters.
The veteran shot-stopper said if Al-Hilal try to disrupt the Wanderers, they will live to regret it.
“We’re not going to be intimidated,” said Covic.
“We’re not going to care what they’re going to throw at us.
“We were in China with 50,000-odd people throwing bottles and yelling at us. We couldn’t even walk off the field without security coming to get us, so that’s not going to faze us.
“They can do what they want.
“We’re going there with the mindset that something probably will happen.
“(But) if they’re thinking of throwing any tricks, they’re going to be doing it to the wrong team.”
In Guangzhou, the Wanderers say they were spurred on by the outrageous tactics of the locals.
From dogs being set loose during training sessions to intruders door-knocking and prank-calling the team hotel at 2am the morning of the match, the Wanderers thought they’d seen it all.
That was until the trip to the ground, where the team bus was hit from the front and rammed from the back, forcing the players to change vehicles.
Then within minutes, two cars suspiciously crashed into each other directly in front of the new bus, attempting to delay the Wanderers’ journey to the ground.
Western Sydney lost 2-1, but the away goal was enough to guarantee their path to the semi-finals.
“It was a very, very suss bus crash. The boys were looking at each other going, `alright, this is what you’ve got for us.’
“It really fired us up more than anything.
“That’s the nature of our team.
“Throw anything at us and we’ll come back at you twice as hard.”
Covic said one thing the players weren’t going to worry about was the officiating.
“That’s out of our hands,” he said.
“The only thing we can be worried about is what we can control.
“If they want to try little things like (50-50 calls going to Al-Hilal), that’s something we have to deal with in a professional manner.
“We’re going to be disciplined on the field and do everything we can do to win the game.”
Morwell City: Insipid as ever.
Former Melbourne Heart boss John Aloisi has bought into the controversy surrounding David Villa, suggesting the Spanish striker may not be happy in the A-League.
Villa leaves Australia after Friday night’s match for Melbourne City against Adelaide United – just four matches into an expected 10-game stint – and City bosses are yet to negotiate his return.
A combination of football, family and marketing reasons are thought to be behind his departure.
Villa’s family has been settling in New York while he plays in Melbourne, with his next club – New York City FC – expecting him to fulfil football and promotional obligations ahead of the US Major League Soccer (MLS) season starting in March.
But no one understands why Villa or Melbourne City have not guaranteed his return.
It’s a delicate situation for the club, not helped by their winless start to the league season.
Aloisi, the man who preceded John van `t Schip as coach of the since-rebadged club, believes something is not quite right.
“If he’s missing his family you would think that they would just fly the family out,” Aloisi told Fox Sports.
“If they’re saying he needs to promote New York City (FC) over there, you would have thought they would have announced that beforehand.
“Reading in between the lines, I think there’s something else.
“I don’t know if he’s totally happy or if they’ve already planned he was only going to be here for four games.”
Aloisi was relieved of his duties as coach of the then Melbourne Heart less than a month before the announcement of the club’s takeover.
The oil-rich Abu Dhabi owners set in train an off-season transformation of the club.
The biggest on-field statement was the arrival of Villa, who as a guest player can play for up to 10 games.
The official announcement of Villa’s arrival from June this year said Villa would play for “a period” of the season.
“Villa … will play, train and contribute to Melbourne City FC’s Hyundai A-League campaign between October and December 2014 prior to the commencement of the MLS season in the United States,” Melbourne City’s statement reads.
With nowhere else to play competitive football between now and the MLS season in March, Villa’s one-way ticket out of Australia is a mystery yet to be solved.
David Villa: The Greatest A-League Scam Since Harry Kewell
“The circus comes to town and then leaves.” So said Scott Munn, the chief executive of the club then known as Melbourne Heart, more than three years ago.
He was referring to Harry Kewell, who at the time had just signed with crosstown rivals Melbourne Victory in one of the biggest coups the A-League had seen.
Thanks largely to the hardball tactics of agent Bernie Mandic, it was the competition’s first proper transfer saga. Victory’s courtship of Kewell went for an eternity as Mandic and the number-crunchers at both the club and FFA tried to come up with a contract that suited all parties. When it happened, there was as much relief as celebration.
No part of this “circus” impressed Munn, who scoffed at it all, but those prophetic words came back to haunt him. Two years later, the big top rolled back into Melbourne, Kewell was wearing red and white, and the Heart was scrambling after performing a backflip that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Cirque du Soleil.
Yesterday, we learned the David Villa circus has just two weeks left before it packs up and moves to New York City. Assuming he does not return after next weekend’s home clash against Adelaide United – and, let’s face it, suggestions that he might come back feel like a Larry David-style empty gesture – Villa will leave having played the same number of A-League games as Romario.
It’s disappointing to say the least. New York City, the club which owns his contract, can do what they like. Football is a business, and after seeing their other prized recruit Frank Lampard stretchered off against Tottenham while playing for Manchester City at the weekend, you could forgive them for wanting to wrap their star Spaniard in cotton wool until the new MLS season kicks off.
Melbourne City are powerless, which says much about their ranking in the City Football Group food chain.
Fans have a right to feel disappointed, and they have a right to ask questions. And not just Melbourne City fans. When a club brings a big name to the A-League, they have a responsibility to share the love.
Sydney FC away games over the last two years became events purely because of the presence of Alessandro Del Piero. He gave the competition a lift, and so has Villa, only nobody expected him to bail so soon. It’s not a good look.
While loan deals are cancelled prematurely as a matter of course in football, this is not your ordinary loan. For one, Melbourne and New York share 80 per cent of the same corporate DNA. And it’s not like Villa is going back to his parent club to play games, or even train – pre-season doesn’t start until late January, and NYC won’t play their first game until March. That’s why the full quota of games were expected from him – what else was he going to do with himself until then? The calendars matched up perfectly in a rare win-win.
Thus he became the first face of Melbourne City. It was not by accident that the club announced his guest stint at the exact same time as they unveiled their new name, logo and colours. Villa has been their leverage, the human realisation of the petrodollars that now power them.
That’s no disrespect to Damien Duff, but as I wrote two weeks ago, he’s not a headline act. Neither is Robi Koren, who has clearly been struck by the same unfortunate injury curse as Orlando Engelaar. Memberships and merchandise have been sold on the premise that Villa would be playing 10 games in the A-League.
That any ‘promotional’ work in New York is considered more important to the City Football Group than building a fan-base in Melbourne feels a little disrespectful. There is more money to be made in New York, but there is more work to do in Melbourne. The stench of the Heart still lingers with every game City dominates and fails to win. Everyone wants this reborn club to stick the landing, and having Villa on deck until Christmas would go a long way to ensuring that.
Just four games? Not enough. Villa is entitled to go back and check on his family, if that’s what he wants to do – and man, it must be tough settling into a place like New York on a World Cup winner’s wage. However, if the Melbourne arm of the sky blue empire knew all along that he would go back this early, even if it’s only temporary, they should have been clear and let their fans know it was on the cards.
Honesty is always the best policy, and in this instance, it would have placed an even greater importance upon each of his appearances. By holding this information back, by speaking in maybes and possibilities, the club has used up some of its goodwill, and many fans have been left with a bad taste in their mouths.
In the meantime, Munn will be crossing his fingers, hoping the circus comes back into town once more.
Must Be The Victory Coming...
Nine seasons ago, the match between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory was the talking point of round one as a new state-based rivalry was born. But as the Wanderers fans filed into the stadium to fill their allocation, there was a feeling that this fixture might become the biggest in the competition. The colour and the noise that these two clubs generate reverberates around the country.
The first goal came inside 10 minutes, the second within 20 and the third before the half-hour mark. Melbourne Victory, who haven’t won an opening game since 2006, could hardly have hoped for a better start.
With Matthew Spiranovic and Nikolai Topor-Stanley out of action for Wanderers, there was always going to be questions over the visitors’ threadbare back-line, and it was a horror start for the stand-in centre-half pairing of Antony Golec and Brendan Hammill. If the Wanderers are the masters at parking the bus, this was more reminiscent of Otto at the steering wheel after a few too many brekky bongs.
But while the Wanderers were awful, the Victory were clinical in front of goal with a new look front three featuring Kosta Barbarouses, Archie Thompson and marquee man Besart Berisha. On this evidence alone, Kevin Muscat looks to be onto a winner with his new formation.
Gui Finkler and Barbarouses combined well down the right, and the Wanderers stand-in left back Shannon Cole was under enormous pressure from the very start. Indeed the first goal came after just eight minutes after some tidy build up play between Finkler and Barberouses. New Victory signing Matthieu Delpierre found himself free just six yards out, and there was little Ante Covic could do in the Wanderers goal.
On 19 minutes, Golec handled the ball in the box, and up stepped Berisha. In his first A-League game for the Victory, he was never going to disappoint. A quick look up to pick his spot, a no nonsense run up and Berisha was soon saluting the fans.
Confidence was sky-high for the home side, and even the humble Leigh Broxham wanted to get in on the action. After a couple of attempts from range, Broxham popped up for the Victory’s third goal on 28 minutes. Again it was Barbarouses who bamboozled Cole down the right channel in the build up, and after his shot was blocked, Broxham blazed the ball through the crowded defence into the back of the net.
Mark Bridge pulled one back for the visitors before half-time, but it meant little in the context of the match. The Wanderers, who have built their game around defensive cohesion, looked dazed and confused.
Perhaps this was best summed up by Victory’s fourth and final goal. Under no pressure at all, Golec gave away possession cheaply, and with the defence woefully out of position, Berisha fed Thompson who made no mistake in front of goal.
The Wanderers might put this uncharacteristic performance down to missing players and the distraction of their Asian Champions League commitments, but regardless, the rest of the competition are on notice. This Victory side looks balanced, creative and menacing.
Who Do We Sing For!? We Sing For Wanderers!!!
Western Sydney Wanderers are going to great lengths to ensure their supporters can travel to Saudi Arabia for the final of the Asian Champions League but there is no guarantee female and Jewish supporters will be granted entry visas.
The Wanderers face Al-Hilal in Riyadh on November 1 in the second leg of the continental decider but a section of their supporters may be denied a chance to witness a potential Asian title due to their gender, race or religious background.
The club is in the process of arranging travel packages with the support of Al-Hilal and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation but it will not be known until the end of the week whether unaccompanied females and Jewish supporters will be able to travel due to the strict laws of the nation.
The club has received over 200 enquiries for away tickets and is finalising the travel package – which will cater for match tickets, travel, accommodation and visas – with the blessing of relevant authorities. It is hoped the tour will allow for female supporters to attend but there is still no indication it will be sufficient enough to allow entry for supporters of Jewish background.
Due to conservative legislation, women face difficulties in obtaining tourist visas for Saudi Arabia while those of Jewish heritage, Israelis or even those who have visited Israel, are not permitted entry.
While AFC regulations state a club's fans must be allowed access without prejudice, their stature does not overrule state legislation.
"There needs to be an invitation. We are working with the FFA [Football Federation of Australia], AFC [Asian Football Confederation], the Saudi Arabian Football Federation and Al-Hilal to obtain an invitation for our supporters to travel," a Wanderers spokesman said.
Single women must be in the company of a male relative or their husband and travel with marriage certificates to obtain a tourist visa, or must be escorted at all times as part of a supervised tourism group.
Saudi football has a long history of banning women from attending games. The nation allowed females to attend matches only last year, and under harsh restricitions.
Only selected stadiums cater for segregated sections, which prevent male and female supporters standing next to each other. Under pressure from international organisations, the Saudi Arabian domestic league allowed a number of women to attend the games in reserved sections of the stadium, as per the custom of many public events.
There are also concerns that should female Wanderers fans be granted visas, they will also be seggregated once within King Fahd Stadium. One of the proposed options for the tour is to station supporters in a nearby Gulf nation before the match and fly them into Riyadh for game day, to ensure a safe passage to and from the stadium and in and out of Saudi Arabia.
The club has not yet received any advice for homosexual Wanderers supporters wishing to travel to the second leg, but the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trading states: "Homosexual activity is illegal and penalties include the death penalty."
It is understood Wanderers are working with the AFC to arrange a way for their chairman, Paul Lederer to attend the match under arrangements often reserved for diplomats.
Lederer, who is Jewish, is understood to be keen to attend the match, but faces difficulty in obtaining a visa.
The club hopes Lederer can bypass those laws under unspecified arrangements as an invited special guest of the AFC. Competition regulations state: "Hosting Club and its National Association must guarantee and ensure that access to the stadium will be granted to the AFC delegation, officials and players of the visiting club, sponsors, travelling fans and media without any discrimination of gender, race or nationality."
More articles on the Melbourne Victory treble
From the Age. (Wahey!)
It's sweet Victory after drama Michael Lynch March 1, 2009
MELBOURNE Victory became the first A-League club to win the championship twice when it edged out a defiant Adelaide United 1-0 thanks to a second-half Tommy Pondeljak goal in a bruising clash in front of more than 53,000 fans at Telstra Dome last night.Both teams finished the game with 10 men, but the Reds had to play for 80 minutes a man down after Cristiano was given his marching orders in the 10th minute after clashing with Rody Vargas.
Victory striker Daniel Allsopp followed suit in the 65th minute after he clashed with Adelaide defender Robert Cornthwaite in a penalty-area melee, but by then Melbourne was a goal to the good and had had the advantage of playing with an extra man for 55 minutes.
Anyone who thought this was going to be a pushover —as the bookmakers' markets suggested — was sadly mistaken. Adelaide had been humiliated, as a team and a club here a fortnight ago when it lost 4-0 in the second leg of the major semi-final, and it was determined to ensure that there would be no such repeat.
That was a defeat that sparked a huge internal review after coach Aurelio Vidmar's attack on every aspect of the club, and the soul searching paid dividends last week when the Reds were able to get over Queensland Roar in the preliminary final.
Last night the Reds played with a grit, commitment and passion that had been lacking a fortnight earlier and matched the Victory in many facets of the game. With an ounce of luck they might have taken this match into extra-time, but as has been the case all season when they faced Melbourne, Victory was able to see off their challenge and take the spoils.
This was not a vintage performance by the Victory, but it was enough to etch its name in the record books. The Victory had goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos to thank on more than one occasion and there were no heroics from Archie Thompson or Carlos Hernandez, the pair expected to set this game ablaze. For Adelaide, goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic produced a number of fine saves, and although the South Australians were defeated they regained much of the pride that they had lost here two weeks ago.
The game turned on a harsh decision taken by referee Matthew Breeze in the 10th minute when he sent off Cristiano.
The Brazilian leapt in an aerial tussle with Victory centre-back Rody Vargas and Breeze, after consultation with assistant referee Matthew Cream, ruled that he had hit Vargas in the head with an elbow and produced a straight red card as Vargas lay on the ground clutching his blood-streaked face.
The wound looked ugly, but television replays showed Vargas also had his arms out as he leapt in the challenge.
As a result the entire dynamic of the A-League's showpiece game changed.
Aurelio Vidmar, the Adelaide coach, had joked earlier in the week about not just "parking the bus" in front of the Reds' goal, but sticking a train and a taxi there too. Vidmar had to refine what had, before the Cristiano send-off, been a surprisingly enterprising approach to this game.
Hernandez had been brilliant in the major semi-final when he scored one and set up three Melbourne goals, but he was nowhere near as influential last night as he got nothing like the time and space to play in that he was afforded on that occasion.
His 15th-minute effort, when he forced Galekovic to block near the post, was the closest he came in the opening stanza.
The Reds were rocked for a 15-minute period when Billy Celeski and Matthew Kemp shot wide and then Allsopp, who fastened on to a long clearance went close.
Allsopp was then set up by Muscat but was denied by a tremendous Galekovic reflex save.
Thompson, who terrorised Adelaide in the grand final two years ago when he scored five goals, was much more subdued last night and was getting little change out of Daniel Mullen.
Any suggestion that Melbourne would swamp a tiring Adelaide in the second period was short-lived as the Reds took the game to the favourite in a dynamic opening spell. Mullen's run down the right and cross found Scott Jamieson, whose side-foot effort was only kept out by a smart reflex save by Theoklitos.
But Melbourne finally capitalised on its numerical advantage in the 60th minute when Pondeljak, set up by a smart reverse pass from Celeski, fired home a powerful curling shot from outside the box that gave Galekovic no chance.
A-LEAGUE GRAND FINAL
MELBOURNE 1 ADELAIDE UNITED 0Pondeljak (60)
SCORER:
LINE-UPS — MELBOURNE: Michael Theoklitos, Matthew Kemp, Kevin Muscat (c), Rodrigo Vargas, Sebastian Ryall, Carlos Hernandez, Billy Celeski, Nick Ward (Evan Berger 56', Jose Luis Lopez 89'), Tom Pondeljak (Grant Brebner 83'), Archie Thompson, Danny Allsopp (red card 65'). Subs not used: Mitchell Langerak (gk), Ney Fabiano.
ADELAIDE UNITED: Eugene Galekovic, Scott Jamieson (Cassio 73'), Robert Cornthwaite, Sasa Ognenovski, Daniel Mullen, Jonas Salley, Fabian Barbiero, Paul Reid, Lucas Pantelis (Paul Agostino 63'), Travis Dodd (c), Cristiano (red card 10'). Subs not used: Mark Birghitti (gk), Rostyn Griffiths, Michael Marrone.
YELLOW CARDS — ADELAIDE UNITED: Ognenovski (37), Jamieson (56), Barbiero (64), Cornthwaite (81), Dodd (90).
REFEREE: Matthew Breeze.
CROWD: 53,273 at Telstra Dome.
Victory's tough road to title Michael Lynch March 1, 2009
MELBOURNE Victory's dual championship-winning coach Ernie Merrick last night declared he never had any doubt that his team could break down a gallant Adelaide United, who defended desperately for much of the game after its striker Cristiano was sent off in the 10th minute for elbowing Melbourne defender Roddy Vargas.Tom Pondeljak's stunning 60th-minute strike proved the difference between the two sides, but this grand final was far from the walk in the park that most fans were expecting it to be. It was also nothing like the humiliation two years ago, when Victory struck six past a 10-man Adelaide as the visitors disintegrated in the face of an Archie Thompson onslaught. Melbourne also finished last night's match a man short after its forward, Danny Allsopp, was ordered off for headbutting Robert Cornthwaite in the 65th minute.
"I always felt confident with this team, that they could cope with just about anything, and they did," Merrick said. "You're never going to win by a large margin, especially in a final, every time you play."
Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar, whose stunning outburst a fortnight ago helped turn round a season that looked to be crumbling just at its climactic point, could only rue the decision to send off Cristiano so early and praised his players for their fantastic commitment and the "unbelievable belief" they showed in themselves as they faced such daunting odds.
They might not have gained the revenge they wanted after being humbled at the Telstra Dome a fortnight ago, but they had regained their pride and that of the club, the city and the state, he said.
"I am really gutted for the players. We deserved something more than pride. I certainly thought we had the upper hand, but when you go down to 10 men it changes your game plan and it made it very difficult for the players tonight, but I couldn't be any prouder of the players.
"It was a fantastic effort and they really wore their hearts on their sleeves.
"I am proud, they did the state proud, themselves proud … there was a lot of passion and pride tonight but sometimes it doesn't go your way. You can't fault anyone tonight. It was a magnificent effort and we certainly deserved a lot more."
Victory skipper Kevin Muscat held the championship trophy aloft a second time, and said that Victory's success was driven by its relentless approach to the game.
"I don't think that we're miles better than anyone in the competition, but what we have got is a determined group and a very mentally strong group, and then after that we've got a lot of talent."
Vidmar questioned the sending off, and suggested it might be time for technology to be introduced to determine such decision. "I am a traditionalist, but something so significant that has a massive impact, probably you should (introduce technology)."
Merrick said the title was the culmination of a fantastic season.
"From the pre-season cup, the premier's plate and now this one it's just been a great year for Melbourne Victory Football Club, for these players (and) our fantastic supporters. To get 53,000 here and the game's gone out to 85 million households worldwide, it's just great for Australian football.
"They pushed us all the way in the league championship. They pushed us all the way tonight. They were tough competitors, but the bottom line is we've had a great year and we've thoroughly enjoyed it, but certainly it was a tough game tonight.
"It was one of those games that probably wasn't pretty. It was an edgy sort of game. It was a tough game. We probably could have gone ahead early if Eugene Galekovic hadn't pulled off a couple of terrific saves.
"When they went down to 10 men they were very hard to break down. The bus was firmly there in front of the 18-yard box, and they were breaking well, but our boys hung in there — Tommy (Pondeljak) scored a fantastic goal — and we gutsed it out right until the end. I guess that's a sign of a championship team.
"They made the game very tough in our attacking third, where they defended in numbers … so it was like threading a needle. I have to say I never had doubts about tonight at any stage. I had my most relaxed day and I'm going to stay longer than 20 minutes at the after-party tonight."
Jai Ho, Melbourne
There is a famous British film out in theaters called "Slumdog Millionaire." Many of you probably are familiar with this movie.
If not, I'll provide it to you in a nutshell: it is the heartening tale of Jamal Malik, a man from Mumbai who, out of the depths of poverty, is able to use his experience from meeting the faces of adversity to win the game show of his life.
This year, "Slumdog Millionaire" scored a coup at the Kodak Theatre on Feb. 22, winning eight Academy Awards. One of those is for Best Original Song.
That song is "Jai Ho," penned by A.R. Rahman and Gulzan. "Jai Ho," in Hindi, means "Be Victorious."
On Feb. 28, at the Telstra Dome, the Melbourne Victory, the dominant force throughout the pre-season and regular season, had the persevering spirit typical of Malik.
Ernie Merrick's club overcame injuries, a red card, and solid defending from a spirited Adelaide United side to win 1-0 in the 2008-09 Hyundai A-League Grand Final.
Tom Pondeljak, acquired from the Central Coast Mariners, was the hero for the Victory. His goal in the 59th minute, a low shot from 20 yards out, eluded Eugene Galekovic (once the backup keeper to Michael Theoklitos, and who frustrated the Melbourne counterattacking scheme for the bulk of the match) and found the net.
For his effort, Pondeljak would receive the Joe Marston Medal, becoming the second Victory player (the first being Archie Thompson) to win it.
With the win, the Victory not only become the first team to win two A-League Championships, but also the first team to win the Australian Treble: the Preseason Cup, the Premiership Plate, and the Championship Ring, all in the same year.
The 1-0 scoreline, on paper, may look like a merciful change from the 6-0 onslaught two years ago.
But on the pitch, the emotions, the fouls and the officiating were anything BUT merciful.
Match official Matthew Breeze, who works as a local police officer, cuffed Cristiano of Adelaide in the 10th minute for an elbow which saw blood pour from Rodrigo Vargas's head.
Adelaide manager Aurelio Vidmar, in his striped red, white and black tie, could only watch helplessly as he walked to the showers. Robbie Slater of Fox Sports deemed the match "ruined" soon after.
Vargas had to spend the rest of the second half wearing a large bandage around his head before being treated to in the locker room at halftime.
In the 65th minute, the playing field became level when Victory's Danny Allsopp was entangled in a melee with a number of Adelaide players, and subsequently given his marching orders by Breeze.
And yellow cards were dished out left and right. Adelaide had four, while Melbourne had two.
Even the most unusual of substitutions came to fruition. Evan Berger, who substituted for Nick Ward in the 56th minute, was substituted by Jose Luis Lopez in the 89th minute for an ambitious airborne attempt to gain possession.
No doubt that one of the future stars for the Big V will look back at this game as a learning experience.
Theoklitos, who has been linked to see action in Europe later this year, was able to garner a couple of key saves: a free kick from Scott Jamieson from distance, and a close tap from United marquis player Paul Agostino.
As for Adelaide, the pain and frustration of being unable to win any piece of silverware continues to linger.
For the thousands who donned red and yellow from the land of the pie floater, the familiar sight of being on the short end of the stick beckoned.
But for the majority of the 53,273 at the Telstra Dome who witnessed the historic moment, the strains of that Best Original Song could not have been more true.
Jai Ho, Melbourne. Jai Ho.
For your Victory, once again, are the kings of Australian football.
On the road toward the A-League Grand Final
In a few hours, the Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United Football Clubs will converge at the Telstra Dome for the 2009 Hyundai A-League Grand Final. In these types of one-off matches, it's all or nothing. Here, I will post a few srticles on the match.
Applied science
Michael Lynch
February 27, 2009Ernie Merrick has copped his fair share of flak for his lack of joy when his team scores a goal or does something good.
Photo: Getty ImagesIT'S all about logic, not emotion. Ernie Merrick — the closest thing in Australian soccer coaching ranks to a computer geek — likes to take the passion out of the game whenever he can.
He once remarked: "I hate it when people say they are passionate about the game. They think it gives them the excuse to say anything they like and just criticise and attack people."
Give him the choice of function, process and cool detachment over spontaneity and spur-of-the-moment inspiration and he invariably will opt for the former.
It's all about controlling things as much as possible. If a team can stamp its system, style and structure on a match, not panic and believe in its processes and tactical stratagems, it will win, more often than not.
Merrick has copped his fair share of flak for his lack of joy when his team scores a goal or does something good.
After Melbourne's 6-0 grand final win over Adelaide two years ago he barely raised a smile, evoking comments that compared his capacity for emotional engagement with an Easter Island statue. The truth is that he is a person who finds it easiest to operate in an environment where he takes emotion out of the equation.
That doesn't mean he avoids players with flair, after all, he has employed the A-League's most dangerous player, Archie Thompson, for four years and signed Carlos Hernandez, the charismatic Costa Rican, two years ago.
Both players have been crucial during Melbourne's run to the premiership plate and Hernandez in particular was outstanding in the 4-0 humiliation of Adelaide two weeks ago in the major semi-final.
He has also put his trust for all of his A-League coaching career in the most passionate player to have donned a Victory shirt in captain Kevin Muscat. It is almost as though the coach singles out for critical roles players who are the antithesis of his own character.
His assistant coach, Aaron Healey, yesterday revealed that so well thought out is the Merrick regime that sessions and training plans are worked out up to a year in advance.
"We're getting into the sports science here," Healey said. "It's just basically planning throughout the year. We know weeks, months — even 12 months — in advance what our training schedule is going to be, what we're doing, where we're headed, so it's just basically a good solid plan where you'd like to go throughout the season.
"You're always going to have individual differences within that, but you've got to structure a plan in place and you work to that."
Merrick came to coach Victory after more than a decade at the Victoria Institute of Sport. There he mixed with leading coaches from other disciplines and absorbed plenty of lessons.
Healey, who was at the Victorian Institute of Sport with Merrick, shares the coach's philosophy and belief in a collaborative approach and calm detachment.
"Sports medicine, sports science, strength and conditioning, everyone has an input," Healey said. "So it's been a group effort all the way through, not only the 16 players in the squad, but it's important to acknowledge the six players who miss out as well.
"Everyone has had an input to where we are at the moment and everyone has played a major part in getting us here. It's a collaboration."
Anita Pedrana, the club's sports scientist, is another who spent five years working with Merrick at the VIS.
"Ernie trusts us and gives us the flexibility to be able to assess all the players individually, pull them out when they need a rest and make recommendations individually," Pedrana said yesterday.
"Collectively we sit down at the start of the season. Each of us in our three areas — myself, Adam Basil, strength and conditioning, and Dan Jones, our physio — put together a program that we think will suit the way we will play throughout the year and have them (the players) tailored so we peak at the right time. We present that and discuss it with the coaches, they have their feedback and we work it out.
"Ernie is a fantastic coach to have because he lets us do our job and appreciates how important our input is.
"It's very much a consensual approach. He doesn't tell us what to do, we don't tell him what to do."
Merrick has kept a low profile in the lead-up to Saturday's grand final at the Telstra Dome, speaking to television and radio this week but refusing to be interviewed for this article.
Merrick did, however, offer a window to his approach on the ABC program Stateline in an interview to be screened this evening in which he outlined how he approaches his role.
"I think the days of stick your hands up in the air and rah rah rah and that short term inspirational stuff is long gone.
"Because of the consistency of having been there for four years now and having the freedom to get on with my job I think that consistency has been a great benefit for us.
"We're not chopping and changing staff or profiles of players we have or the way we develop players. The players know what is expected of them and it's developed really well over a period of time."
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/02/26/1235237834125.html
How Melbourne Victory can be denied
Michael Lynch
February 28, 2009
MELBOURNE Victory has the evil eye on Adelaide United.Game on: Adelaide has nothing to lose against the Victory.
Photo: Digitally altered: Phil SmithThe fans know it and the media never stops mentioning it. It would hardly be surprising if even the players and coaches of both teams didn't believe it, such is the recent run of success that Victory has enjoyed over the Reds.
Five times these teams have met this season and five times Melbourne has come out on top, most recently by a 6-0 aggregate in the two legged major semi-final.
But soccer, as we are so often reminded from luminaries such as Alex Ferguson down to the bloke directing traffic at the local club's car park, can be a funny game.
A grand final is a one-off fixture where history can count for nothing. It's 90 minutes (plus extra-time and penalties if necessary) and when referee Matthew Breeze blows his whistle to start proceedings at Telstra Dome tonight, both sides begin on level terms and the soccer gods of fate and chance may yet decide to have their sport.
Victory goes into the match as overwhelming favourite - Sportsbet Australia has Victory at $1.75 to lift the championship trophy after 90 minutes while Adelaide is at $4.35 - but the gap between the two teams may not be as large as those prices suggest.
Melbourne can be beaten - it actually lost seven of the 21 games it played during the regular season. The Newcastle Jets, coached by last year's coach-of-the-season Gary Van Egmond, and Perth Glory, headed by David Mitchell, each beat Victory twice this season, with Perth twice scoring three goals against it and Newcastle bagging four in one of its wins.
Gold Coast United comes into the league next year and its outspoken boss Miron Bleiberg has already been doing his homework on to how to take apart Ernie Merrick's side in the 2009-10 campaign.
The trio explain how Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar can tackle Melbourne's psychological dominance, shuffle the players at his disposal and refine his tactics to pull off an unexpected triumph this evening.
PERSONNEL:
MIRON BLEIBERG: I will give Adelaide a 45-55 chance in this match.I think the best way to win is to stick to the same line-up and system that they played against the Roar (when they won last week's preliminary final 1-0).
When they lost 4-0 against Melbourne they played Cassio, Alemao, and Lucas Pantelis in the midfield. None of them are renowned for their defensive work.
They allowed Carlos Hernandez and his mates to terrorise the midfield. Fabian Barbiero is a much better athlete than Hernandez and with him and Jonas Salley in there they will fill the space in the midfield defensively much better.
GARY VAN EGMOND: I don't think either side will change much although I would utilise Travis Dodd more centrally and use his pace to run off and move Kevin Muscat around. When Muscat has to concentrate more on defensive work it prevents him stepping into midfield and stops him organising and marshalling the back half, which he does very well and is very important for Melbourne.
DAVID MITCHELL: I would think Adelaide would not change that much. They got the result last week and played better with a different line-up.
PSYCHOLOGICALLY:
MITCHELL: From a mentality point of view everyone thinks Melbourne is going to win, so that's a big tick in Adelaide's box.The fact that everything looks to be in Melbourne's favour - that they have beaten them regularly, that they are playing at home in front of a big crowd, that they have had a week off - it all takes the pressure off Adelaide.
There are no expectations. I would be telling the players that the past does not dictate the future. What happened has happened. This game will be totally different. There's a different referee, different circumstances, there could be three or four players who are different this time.
History and patterns are not always predictive and this is a different game. I would remind the players of their previous achievements. Their wins, the successful record of this club, their performances in the Asian Champions League.
I would tell them that at the end of the day it's the two best teams who are in the final and they are there because they are the most consistent.
VAN EGMOND: It's a difficult one. The most important thing is for the Adelaide team to know what it means for them individually. It's something the Adelaide side needs to share with each other.
For us last year Jado (Jets skipper Jade North, who led Newcastle to grand final victory after it had lost the major semi-final to Central Coast Mariners) got all the boys together before we played the Mariners in the final and asked them what it meant to them.
It got quite emotional and it achieved a hell of a lot. As outspoken as Viddy was the week before (when he blasted his team after the horrific loss to Melbourne) it was probably the best thing he did.
Losing in the major semi-final helped us. We would never have beaten the Mariners in the grand final if we had gone straight through.
After that loss we needed a few home truths to be spoken about. I think it was a positive for Adelaide to have a cleansing process and now there's no reason why they can't win.
BLEIBERG: You tell them that every one expects you to lose. But you tell your players that they are much better players than the last time they played Melbourne and lost 4-0, and that this is a different team.
You tell them that they must go out and enjoy the match, the occasion, the game, and do their work as professionals.
You tell them you trust them to do it. You tell them that every statistic or record is there to be broken and today is your day.
You remind them that Melbourne is not invincible, you show them that Melbourne lost seven games during the regular season, two more than you, and that they conceded a lot more goals than you did.
TACTICS
VAN EGMOND: Essentially Melbourne play counter-attacking football. They don't really press and Archie (Thompson) is not usually one to track back and pick up runners. He cheats a bit, so does Carlos Hernandez.You have to try and move Hernandez about and keep changing the point of the attack. Your two defensive midfielders and two centre-backs have to be comfortable on the ball and play to switch it to the full-backs to drag them around.
Melbourne are the most narrow team in the league. They play a 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2 and they switch around. If they play a back three, I like to play three up front against them and drag them around.
It's also imperative to keep the ball. Hernandez won't try to chase. (Billy) Celeski is nice on the ball, but it would be smart to try and run him around defensively, to not let him play with any comfort.
We would stay compact and not chase lost causes.
Parking the bus (stacking the defence) is the last thing you would want to do. You don't want to drop off too much and give them easy possession because they will play around you if you give them too much time.
It's really important to keep the ball, to stretch their midfielders and disrupt the triangle at the heart of their defence — Muskat, (Rody) Vargas and Celeski. You have to go wide because a lot of their good play comes through the middle. When they have it you try to make them play down one side.
Archie and (Danny) Allsopp will go wide to try and draw your centre-backs, so you have to be wary of that.
Melbourne will hurt you if you can't keep possession and frustrate them, and if you don't close it down, frustrate them and keep possession, they will get a chance to play.
Adelaide needs to slow everything down, take the crowd out of things. Walk to free kicks, walk to corners, take the pace and heat out of the game.
Adelaide has another big advantage on set pieces. There's a lot more height in the Adelaide side, they have two big central defenders and other tall players. They do have every chance of causing an upset because it's a one-off game.
MITCHELL: I don't think Melbourne will change much about the way they play. They play a little bit narrow, they play a lot of long balls.
Their two strikers are often a handful and they defend with numbers and rely on getting quick service to the two strikers and for them to cause havoc with the midfielders getting up and forward to support them. Adelaide may defend a bit deeper and not let Melbourne in behind them and then hit Melbourne on the break. If Adelaide open up too much Melbourne might get a lot of room to play in.
I think you can attack Melbourne out in wide areas and have success there. We (Perth Glory) also attacked them from set pieces and scored off a couple. Adelaide have got some big lads who can create a lot of trouble from free kicks and corners.
BLEIBERG: It worked much better for them last week because they brought in Jonas Salley and Barbiero and had energy in the midfield, and it's important to try and get on top there. Paul Reid is important for Adelaide to control the midfield. If they can cut the supply line, prevent Melbourne playing through to their strikers through the middle, then they have a chance. Even Napoleon could not conquer Russia when his supply line was cut.
Also they have a chance if they break at speed. The Victory defence is not the most mobile or fastest in the league. We saw how Michael Zullo and Tahj Minniecon caused them so many problems when Queensland Roar came down and won 2-0 here earlier in the season. If Melbourne are shut down in the midfield and have to resort to the long ball, that will be music to the ears of Robert Cornthwaite and Sasa Ognenovski.
If Adelaide score first Vidmar should have a player like Angelo Costanzo on the bench because they would need to close the game down by taking off a striker or attacking midfielder and bringing him in and using him to bolster the defence. If they are in front they will have to retain possession and try to frustrate Melbourne, and there's no better player in defence for doing that than Costanzo.
If they go 1-0 down in the first half, try to keep the score at that until half-time. In the second half they will have to change things up by adding another striker. If it's scoreless at half-time and Melbourne score in the second period, then you change things immediately, move Lucas Pantelis and Dodd out to the wings and (Paul) Agostino and Cristiano up front, because it is a grand final, there is no other game, and you have to try and get something out of it. I would probably go three at the back in this situation, take Daniel Mullen off.
The more it gets closer to extra-time or into extra-time, if there is no score or it is level, it all depends on the confidence of the coach and how he feels the game is going. If Vidmar is feeling he is getting the upper hand, then he may try to win the game. If not, then he may want to try and shut the match down and play for penalties. At least that gives them a 50-50 chance, which is better than how I think they are starting at 45-55.
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/02/27/1235237923507.html
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