Round 15 Predictions

The scores so far:
Drsimmo: 21
Jacob: 20
Tony: 19
Hamish: 17
John: 17

Special congratulations to Tony for predicting Newcastle's win over Melbourne.

John and I are suffering from our dogged loyalty to the Roar. But doggedly loyal I remain! What the Roar need is a special meeting at the base of the Wally Lewis statue outside Suncorp stadium, with Wally Lewis himself there to explain to them, in detail, how and why the statue came to be. It certainly doesn't represent just him, it represents what Queenslanders do when all is apparently lost. Frank Farina would know the story well. Frankly (pathetically enough the pun was intended) I am very comfortable now with the Roar at 7th place on the ladder and four games to go. It is quite clear that we are now ready to come back, and then win the Grand Final.

My predictions:
Adelaide United FC vs Melbourne Victory FC
Adelaide 2:1

Queensland Roar FC vs Perth Glory FC
Queensland 3:1

New Zealand Knights FC vs Newcastle Jets FC
Newcastle 0:2

Central Coast Mariners FC vs Sydney FC
Draw 2:2

Jacob's predictions:
Adelaide United FC vs Melbourne Victory FC
Melbourne 1:2

Queensland Roar FC vs Perth Glory FC
Perth 0:2

New Zealand Knights FC vs Newcastle Jets FC
Newcastle 0:3

Central Coast Mariners FC vs Sydney FC
Draw 1:1

Incidentally, Jacob's team The West End Terrorists won 2:1 last weekend, in a very hard-fought game against 2nd on the ladder The Eagles. The Terrorists were number 7 on the ladder (now 6, of about 10 I think), they were missing two players, and for anyone not familiar with Indoor Soccer it is normally a very high-scoring game. Last week they lost 15:0 to Queensland Roar (4th on the ladder), we really thought we'd lose and I had resorted to the 'just fight to the end and learn from the game' rave - let's call it constructive defeatism. But the boys were brilliant. Due to us missing our main goalie Jacob took the final 10 minutes in goal, and he made several saves to let none through. For posterity, the two Terrorist goals were scored by Jiaan and Stavros, our two best strikers, who also took turns at goal. Brilliant, hard-working defence from Deklan and Morgan kept the Eagle's strikes few and furtive. Jacob normally plays a sort of attacking mid-field role, though in this game everyone is everywhere.

This Saturday the Terrorists play the Newfarm Jets. I am not making a prediction and neither myself nor the coaching staff are speaking to the media before the game.

Finally, for both the A-League and Brisbane's Under 12 Indoor Soccer comp, a prayer to the ineffable infinite: may the best teams win, may sportsmanship overcome egos, and may there be no major injuries (minor scratches and bruises are fine).

Movie Review: Hooligans and Thugs

Movie Review: Hooligans and Thugs - Soccer's most Violent Fan Fights, Umbrella Entertainment

I watched this DVD on the weekend. It was hard to get to the end because it is actually nauseating. Far from being a documentary, it is 58 minutes of non-stop violence, some of it very graphic and horrible, and with no special effects whatsoever. How this manages to be graced with an MA15+ rating is beyond me, as there is no way I would allow a child to watch this in any circumstances, and I am a very liberal parent in that regard.

In the opening minutes of the movie there is a very unconvincing qualifier from narrator Steve Jones (never heard of this tosser but he is described as "the original punk rocker") that 'this is not meant to condone violence but just to document what really happens' or some such. Then it goes on to splice together the violence to hip music and comments like, 'that would have hurt' and 'some people's hooliganism is another's fun'. There is no reports of any game which does not have any violence, and a viewer new to the sport would be more than forgiven for believing that every soccer game ever is coupled with brutal violence.

Meanwhile there are criticisms of the police for being just as thug-like as the thugs. Some of the footage certainly makes this case, but there are no interviews with police or authorities charged with controlling the hooligans and no suggestion of what they are supposed to do about it. So the criticism just comes across as youthful anx.

The video is from an English point of view and is frankly racist, especially toward Turks and South Americans. No interviews with hooligans from these places, just caracatures.

"Banned in the UK" is proudly displayed on the front of the case. Well you could certainly get a hearty freedom of speech debate going over this one. My own view is that banning this movie just gives it credibility. And it's possible - I doubt it but it's possible - that the ugly, one-sided point of view is even intentional, as it punches the audience in the face with the stupidity of the point of view as well as the reality of violence. Put another way, the implicit question, "Do you really want to be this mindless and stupid?" is louder than the explicit glorification of violence.

But the violence is certainly real, and for me the movie did expose Les Murray's 'there's violence in every sport and soccer is just played a lot' argument as just a little naive. The 'conclusion' of the movie is that violence is not going away but is here to stay and will most likely get worse. Mind you this is a conclusion the movie seemed to celebrate rather than mourn, alongside a petulant, 'get used to it' message for the rest of us. But it should raise real questions about the nature of fandom and team-support and provoke us to watch for directions as well as realities.

The A-League is still pretty small, and the worst we get is some thug-like groups shouting abuse at each other. Harmless enough. At the same time Australia does not escape the attention of this movie as some pretty horrible rioting is shown from a youth world cup (Melbourne? Someone help me out here?) in the 80s. There's no meaningful analysis of course so there's no way to know whether this rioting was local chaps or English and European fans. But the point is crowd violence is so ugly, and so bad for our beautiful sport, that there's no harm in being aware of the possibilities as we form our own fan culture.

My own conclusion might sound a bit namby-pamby self-righteous grandma fluffy, but nevertheless here it is. I'm all for a bit of fun, I'm all for the grand larrikin traditions of irony and taking the piss. But at the same time we should be aware of the logical conclusions of abusing teams just because they are the other team, in a very similar vein as we as a society should be aware of the logical conclusion of abusing people just because they are from another country. I daresay the same tribal instincts, evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago (probably in that context for very good reasons of survival), are at work.

Good sportsmanship, on and off the field, is the sign of maturity and true moral strength. Like all good things it is not something we can just switch on, but something that is a journey for each one of us. But it is a journey with high rewards. The biggest reward is our beautiful game's ability to grow and thrive. If we take to the joys of the dark side of our humanity, we can destroy our game. This movie is compelling evidence of that.

Tips for Round Fourteen

There were some serious points won last round, but none of them by me. Drsimmo has taken the lead and I have gone from 1st to third place. I've had a couple of whiskey's but I think this is right so far:

Drsimmo: 19
Jacob: 18
Hamish: 17
John: 16
Tony: 16

My tips for Round 14:
Sydney FC vs Queensland Roar FC
QLD 0:2

Central Coast Mariners FC vs Adelaide United FC
Adelaide 1:2

Perth Glory FC vs New Zealand Knights
Draw 1:1

Melbourne Victory FC vs Newcastle Jets FC
Melbourne 2:1

Jacob's tips:
Sydney FC vs Queensland Roar FC
Sydney 2:1

Central Coast Mariners FC vs Adelaide United FC
Adelaide 0:2

Perth Glory FC vs New Zealand Knights
Perth 3:1

Melbourne Victory FC vs Newcastle Jets FC
Melbourne 3:1

Unfortunately Tony, the Terrorists were defeated last week, so you got that one wrong. If you really want irony, they played a team rather pretentiously named Queensland Roar.

Reflections from the Rejectory

For months now Jacob and I have had an arrangement that we'd go to one of these Roar games alone - that is, just the two of us - and spend it with the Rejects - the den of hard-core fans behind the goal posts.

"Why do they call themselves the Rejects?" Jacob asks. A fair question. Now, the boy has understood the concept of irony for quite a while, impressively enough, but the subtlety of taking the piss out of yourself is not easy for a proud young chap to grasp. In this case he's not entirely alone. Like a motercycle gang I used to know called 'The No Hopers', who were truly wonderful people but actually were, for various physical and mental reasons, no hopers, it's not clear to me whether irony is intended.

Anyway, somehow after last week in the corporate box, it seems to have somehow properly rounded out our crowd-experience.

It was fun. I mean really, the colour and intense enthusiasm was there - both in direct contrast to last week in the box where there were no Roar colours (and not even a pair of jeans), and very mixed levels of enthusiasm. But we did both decide that from now on it was back with the mass of whoevers for us.

When it comes to religion, it is the fashion these days - and I am a proponent of this fashion - to abandon the church yet maintain the importance of personal spirituality. I think I'm feeling the same way about Roar fandom. There is something rather forced and contrived - even controlling - about the 'official' fans, and although I think the overall crowd experience would be less for their absence, I choose independence.

I'm simply uncomfortable with the notion of booing the other team just because it's the other team. As I try to explain to the kids for their games, when you lose a game, you say, "good on you" to the other team because the implicit message in doing so is, we're actually better than you, so we'll get you next time. To boo the other team when they score a goal is to declare your inadequacy, and the other team hear that declaration. This equation is reinforced for me as it is quite transparently the best opposition players, as they are introduced on the big screen, and especially the goal-scorers, that get the biggest boos. So if I was on the opposition I would be hoping for the biggest boo as it is clearly a compliment and a declaration that the booers are scared shitless of you.

Now at the same time a lot of the stuff is pretty friendly. Brisbane town is just wonderful... Melbourne town stinks, is all harmless banter really and I know it can be taken as silliness. When we were lining up for tickets the Melbourne fans marched in, very organised and militant. Jacob and I had a good laugh when they chanted, you're Dutch, you're Dutch, you don't know very much. The line between humorous banter and advertising your inadequacy is pretty fine I guess, but when I see a good goal I clap, and I don't care which side scored it.

Now a specific critique of the Rejects, and their most signature effort, which happens every time the opposition goalie does a goal kick. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, everyone holds both their arms out in front in a cross between a nazi salute and spirit fingers, building up a roar sound. The crescendo happens, every time, about half a second after the ball is kicked, with the chant, "You're shit, ha!" It took me ages to determine that that was what was being said, not because it wasn't fairly clear, but because it seemed too inane for a regular, signature and otherwise quite impressive and theatrical chant. Now I'm not even referring to the principle in the last paragraph. Let's assume that insulting the other team mindlessly is the height of effective psychological warfare. If that is the case, this chant is still useless, because the moment of impact happens after the opposition goalie's seconds of concentration, and after he has kicked the ball. If anything I can imagine the said-goalie getting quite a positive ritual boost from the experience of the heightening roar behind him, especially as he gets used to the rhythm of it happening every time. Time and time again, when the "You're shit, Ha!" part happens, the entire crowd is already watching successful play occurring at the other end of the field. Irony? Just bloody stupid I reckon.

I am of course getting back to one of the running themes of this blog, and that is that football is a valid spiritual journey. One day I'll elaborate, to all round yawns no doubt, on this theme specifically. Suffice to just point out now that the fact that football clearly has no universal earth-shattering truths hardly detracts from it being a valid spiritual journey. The problem with most religions in my mind is that they think they do have some universal earth-shattering truths behind them, which is very, very dangerous, not to mention arrogant and profoundly hubristic. Ineffability is the only divine or universal attribute I'm interested in. Anything effable can get effed as far as I'm concerned (that's not mine - I got it from either Monty Python or Douglas Adams - but I love it).

Oh my God, I've really gone out on some limb haven't I? The game? Ok, Packer's home goal, which I swear he was aiming straight at me (I flinched in my 3rd row seat) was depressing of course. Bit of a communication problem there. Matty was not his brilliant hard working self (the best thing he did was technically a blatant foul; when a Roar player was injured and Victory clearly should have kicked the ball out but kept playing, Matty shouldered a Victory player away from intercepting the ball going out, with no pretense at all of going for the ball, sprawling the latter, who then looked like he was injured himself; the ref judiciously - and rightly - ignored Mat's foul). Seo was the clear star for the Roar. Reinaldo was once again second-rate, and frankly Zhang should have replaced him rather than Dario.

If anyone wants to read about the game properly, firstly the mainstream A-League and media sites are rubbish. Mike the Football Tragic has already done a good analysis of the Roar's game, and Tony the Round Ball Analyst will no-doubt do his usual excellent wrap up in a couple of days. Scary Monkey also made some light-hearted comment on the game on Girl's Guide to the A-League. She made some further comment about the shower of yellow cards as well.

Cheers. I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

A-League Predictions, Round 13

I'm not going to make a prediction for the game between Australia and Ghana in the morning. For that game, I will just look to the infinite and ask that every one of the players on the field play their best, that the best team win, and that there are no serious injuries. Go the Socceroos. This ain't gonna be easy.

Meanwhile, though I'm making these predictions earlier in the week than usual, to make it a bit fairer on the other players, I'm not going to add any comment, as I've got to get up at half past bloody five to watch.

Scores so far:
Hamish: 17
Jacob: 16
Drsimmo: 15
John: 11 (I gave you a point, in case you want to keep playing - didn't get much time last week)
Tony: 10

My call:
Queensland vs Melbourne
Queensland 3:2

Perth vs Newcastle
Newcastle 0:2

New Zealand vs Central Coast
Draw 1:1

Sydney vs Adelaide
Draw 2:2

Jacob's call:
Queensland vs Melbourne
Melbourne 1:3

Perth vs Newcastle
Newcastle 1:2

New Zealand vs Central Coast
Central Coast 0:1

Sydney vs Adelaide
Adelaide 1:2

When I watch the greats playing - especially the South Americans - I almost envy them their Catholicism as they make their little prayers and cross themselves before taking kicks and the like. The connection with the sacred, however it is concieved or expressed, most certainly does no harm, and I suspect it does good, though probably for relatively mundane reasons to do with the way our brains have evolved. We do, whether we like it or not, have to live every day alongside an incomprehensible and infinite reality after all. So it is that ineffable Everything to which I once again gaze and humbly ask for good sportsmanship, good entertainment and no serious injuries this weekend.

Cheers, and good night.

Book Review: The World's Game

Book Review: Bill Murray, The World's Game - A History of Soccer, University of Illinois Press, 1996.

Before I get to the book I am going to be typically and completely distracted. Really, I probably should be blogging about Miron Bleiberg's resignation. Just briefly, Miron might have made mistakes, but he managed in my view to snatch a personal and spiritual victory from the clutches of failure. Football, as I say probably far too much, is a spiritual battle, every step of the way. When I watched Craig Foster interview Ange Postecoglou on SBS on Sunday afternoon, I saw a failure far worse than losing a footie match. Bleiberg has avoided this, and has not only maintained his integrity and the admiration of his friends and fans, but he has quite possibly, with apparent selflessness, given the Roar precisely the correct message to make a further go of it this season.

Meanwhile, if the players in Roar are anything like myself, they will look confidently to Farina, because Miron said so, and I still trust him. I hope they employ Farina over the other applicants, because of this vote of confidence from the single best authority on the matter, and also because Farina is a Queenslander.

Now, I'm supposed to be reviewing a book...

Bill Murray's book is in an academic tradition and, without meaning to patronise anyone, will just not be easy to read for the casual reader. The first couple of chapters, dealing with the origins of the various codes in England and the politics between them, was a bit of a wade for me frankly, and a couple of times I could have just put the book down and moved onto another football biography.

But once I was into it and used to the style of prose, it got me. In brief it is a detailed, referenced account of football's colonisation of the planet from its inception up to the World Cup in the USA in 1994. Clearly it was written with the post-Cup US audience in mind, as despite its global sweep it is structured (or at least briefly topped and tailed) around this event. Frankly I'm glad I've read a couple of football biographies first, as I found it helpful as the narrative progressed to have some familiarity with the organisations and players involved, so I do not recommend it as a first football book. But I do, in the final analysis very heartilly, recommend it.

The 20th Century was a truly tumultous, infinitely interesting and dangerous time. I've read heaps about the 20th Century incidentally, as before being a football tragic I was an unashamed history and politics tragic. I'm broadly familiar with the 20th Century's wars, revolutions, political ruptures, economic upsets and social carnage. The history of football is a layer of this history of which I knew nothing six months ago, and truly, the whole thing now makes more sense.

Bill Murray is obliged to background us in politics along the way to make sense of the development of football. Governments latch on to football, totalitarian governments the most, and exploit it for political gain. Players struggle to maintain their rights over their own skills and effort in the face of profit-hungry individuals and organisations. Wars are postponed for the sake of big matches. Stadiums are built to win elections. A fundamental coal-face for the universal struggle against racism is in international (and increasingly club-level) football. Murray accounts this for us, in a scholarly, matter-of-fact way.

I used to see Rock and Roll as a great social force for change. I'm quite serious and I'm not just talking of California in the 60s. It was a big part of the youth rebellion in the Eastern Bloc in the late 80s and is today a big part of any hope at the grass-roots in Islamic-fundamentalist states like Iran. But now I firmly have a partner for music, and it is football.

Inside the sports stadiums, however, fans found one of the few areas where they could voice their discontent with the regime. Signs that the regime might be softening can be found in a decree of 1994 that allows women to attend soccer matches.

The example is from Iran, but truly there are examples parallel to this throughout this history of soccer, in South America especially where dictators have had to contend with the overwhelming popularity of football, requiring it politically whilst having to tolerate the profound de-alienating mobilisation of society that goes with it. Fascinating stuff, and Murray does it proper justice.

That's enough of a taste for anyone who might be tempted to read the book for themselves. This afternoon on the train from work I completed the book, reading the bibliographical essay, which has opened my eyes to what's available for me to read. I do mean to review - or more accurately make some comment upon - every football book I read, and I have a few (Les Murray's and Pele's biographies, as well as Football for Dummies) on the backburner. Meanwhile I've just started Andrew Jenning's Foul! We are getting to the nitty gritty!

Cheers, and good night.

The Queensland Meow

The unique aspect to my experience at Suncorp Stadium last night was that I spent it in a corporate box. I don't think the people who invited me - parents of Stavros, one of Jacob's Terrorist mates - even know I blog, so I don't feel I should name the company, but needless to say I appreciated the opportunity to experience the game from the vantage point of the privileged. Even better when the boys, with Stavros' mother, were also able to be invited up as a few of the clients had failed to show up.

I had virtually premeditated this blog as a comparison of the experiences. I was ready to talk about how I so much prefer the course banter and smells in the main stands, screaming, swearing and drinking beer out of plastic cups. But I must be perfectly honest here. The corporate box was brilliant.

The food was brilliant, drinking proper beer out of glasses was brilliant, the bird's eye view from pretty-much the centre of the pitch - although distant - was brilliant. Even the company - even aside from my friends who invited me - was jovial and fun. A couple of the clients were knowledgable football buffs, but most weren't, but they were interested and there to enjoy.

I did feel privileged. Hell, I was privileged. No pretence otherwise. But I will not miss it when I'm back with the plebians. Because I still love the smells, the language, the course heckling humour, and the beer from plastic cups.

The night itself was beautiful. The West End Terrorists had beaten the Hogz that morning at Indoor Soccer 8 points to 4, which aided the high to begin with. Even the football was enjoyable to watch, especially in the first half.

What the hell is wrong with the Roar? Now I should prelude this with the fact that I pretty much expected Adelaide to win. But I expected them to win by outplaying the Roar. Once again, a deja vu from Round 5, the Roar dominated completely. Just by watching the play, watching the midfielders repeatedly stealing possession and beautifully passing it around and up the field, there was no question who should have won the game.

So I'm no longer blaming the midfield and the loss of Massimo. Frankly Matty, Seo and Packer are purring. Sassa didn't have his best game, and made a few silly mistakes, but overall the defence was also tight and fluid. The ineffectual meow is in the strikers, and especially Reinaldo.

I'm going back through my memorys of the Brazilian. The first I saw him was in Round 4 against the kiwis and he appeared to have a few good chances there, and I put it down to luck that he didn't score from play. He did score from a penalty though. It wasn't clear that it was his penalty to kick, but he had the ball in his hands and there was clearly to be no discussion or consultation about it, and here is where I'm beginning to piece together a problem of psychology. He took the kick, got the goal, and did the most ostentatious celebration of the evening.

Now I loved his cartwheel and double backflip, and said so at the time. Don't get me wrong there. But perhaps a little bell should have rung when a couple of weeks later he boasted about how he was going to surprise the Roar fans with more celebratory acrobatics next time he played here. This guy really likes himself. The name on the back of the jersey is more important to him than the one on the front, to paraphrase the coach in Goal!

Last night you could see it in his movement and almost feel his one-track desire to put the ball in the net, at the expense of any good play. There were several times he could have fed it to Lynch and just didn't. He called for the ball virtually every time anyone else had it, without apparently reading the game around him at all. Lynch on the other hand was more coherent, and several times did get it to Reinaldo, but the show pony, in nervous egoistic excitement, couldn't deliver. That's what I'm seeing; it's an interpretation, but it's been growing on me for a few weeks now.

It seems wrong to scapegoat one player, and there were other mistakes on the field, but overall the Roar looked like a very effective machine. Something is wrong. That something appears to be up front. I'm making my call now: that something is a Brazilian with an ego bigger than Miron Bleiberg's.

I'd like to see a start next week against Melbourne with Zhang and Lynch up front. For so many reasons the Roar can beat Melbourne. Whether we will or not depends entirely upon what happens up front.

Cheers.

Should the Knights Bugger Off?

No, they should not.

Surely after The Knights' win against the Roar last weekend, Les Murray and Frank Farina have some words to eat.

When I first read Les Murray's article (It's time to bone the Knights) a month ago I was a bit shocked. Calling on coaches to be sacked is pretty serious stuff and it has become clear to me that this is part of the game. And obviously pointing fingers at management, players or even fitness coordinators is all fair game, so to speak. But to call for the sacking of a club is very serious indeed, and in my mind should only be contemplated in the case of a serious corruption scandal or something.

The Knights' main crime was to be the worst team in the A-League. Needless to say someone has to bear that burden.

Now to the personal dimension of this. The Roar are still stinging after being held to an embarrasing defeat last weekend. Are we to be denied the opportunity - indeed the right - to vengeance? All of a sudden, not only have the Knights redeemed themselves (certainly in the eyes of their own fans) but we have a brand new dynamic derby between these two clubs. I was there at Suncorp in Round 4 when the Roar whipped them 5 nil. The Roar's defeat last week was classically the burden of hubris. We will meet again, and it will be a corker (Round 18 on their turf).

There is that other crime. The Knights have not been drawing large crowds. Once again, that is the burden of lowest-ranking teams the world over. Winning teams, it seems to me, need the losing teams, and if necessary, darn right they should be subsidised financially. And let's see if a few more kiwis aren't showing an interest now. On that front Jeremy Brockie is probably making the most constructive suggestion: employ some kiwis to play for the kiwis. This will not only give the fans more reason to support the team but will give the team some of that tribal spirit that brings out the best in players. I'll only add, teach them the Haka.

My quite simple, self-evident point is that to sack the Knights is to reduce the base of support for the A-League itself. To replace it with, say, North Queensland would largely be to split the possible support in Queensland for the League as a whole. We can't take our eyes off the fact that the A-League doesn't have an overwhelming following anywhere yet. Sure we can talk about crowd numbers in Melbourne, the dominant team, and that's great, but I suggest that even in Victoria if you went to your local - choose one packed with people - on the night of a Victory game, you would be flat out finding a table of people keen to watch the game on Fox. In Brisbane that is most certainly the case. Scapegoating New Zealand, the weakest team (so far) in the comp for low crowd numbers is just bad taste in my opinion.

Finally, can someone please tell me if there is an independent Knights-supporting blogger out there? James over at Confessions of an A-League Junkie referenced an article which actually referred to such creatures, but as he pointed out, it remains a mystery as to who they are.

Predictions for Round 12

I feel a little inadequate as a football blogger being reduced to this weekly post, but nevertheless it is the minimum from which I can do better, so it will continue. I do promise that in the coming weeks I'll at least throw in a review or something in between.

Needless to say last week was a morale blow to all the Roarophiles from the north, and perhaps that partly explains me not blogging until now. We did have it coming, and frankly, from the time we lost Murdocca to injury, Miron has been struggling to rebuild the engine (his metaphor) in midfield. So far, it hasn't happened. At the same time the Knights had their day coming, and they had it. Well done Knights. It might have been crap for the Roar, but it was a good result for the League.

As usual, for proper reviews of the games last week I refer people to the efforts of The Round Ball Analyst.

To this very prestigious competition then...

The scores so far:
Hamish: 16
Jacob: 13
Drsimmo: 13
Tony, my favourite analyst, got zero points, so he is on 9.
John: 10

A reminder that the correct score attracts 3 points and a correct result but the wrong score attracts 1 point.

In true amateurism, I have while composing this post realised that the Melbourne vs Perth game is already in progress, and whilst it is still nil all in its 8th minute I really can't count that one. For the record I reckon Melbourne will win 3:1 and Jacob reckons the same.

For points though, my tips:

Sydney vs New Zealand:
New Zealand 0:1

Queensland vs Adelaide:
Draw 1:1

Newcastle vs Central Coast:
Newcastle 3:2

Jacob:
Sydney vs New Zealand
Sydney 3:0

Queensland vs Adelaide:
Adelaide 0:2

Newcastle vs Central Coast:
Newcastle 2:0

And a prayer to the infinite, please no serious injuries, and some good sportsmanship all round.

Predictions for Round 11 (Updated)

Once again my apologies for completely missing out on the Round 10 predictions. I think I was still in shock from the Roar's loss vs Newcastle.

Round 9 gave myself and Jacob only an extra 2 points, and Drsimmo also an extra 2 points, which includes a bonus point for making a swag of predictions about the games. So so far it is:

Me: 14
Jacob: 12
Drsimmo: 9

Please correct me if I've stuffed something up.

My Tips for Round 11:
Melbourne Victory FC vs Central Coast Mariners FC
Draw 0:0

Newcastle Jets FC vs Sydney FC
Newcastle 2:1

Adelaide United FC vs Perth Glory FC
Adelaide 2:1

New Zealand Knights FC vs Queensland Roar FC
Queensland 1:3

Jacob's Tips:
Melbourne Victory FC vs Central Coast Mariners FC
Melbourne 2:0

Newcastle Jets FC vs Sydney FC
Newcastle 2:0

Adelaide United FC vs Perth Glory FC
Adelaide 1:0

New Zealand Knights FC vs Queensland Roar FC
Queenland 1:4

I suppose the only controversial call I've made is the goalless draw between Melbourne and Central Coast. I think Melbourne has peaked and plateaued, nore-or-less. Sure they have won their last two games, the last against New Zealand and the one before against a very shaky looking Sydney. Only another week before was their first big humiliation. Central Coast on the other hand are still on an upward curve in my view, very strong in defence and dangerous enough in attack to keep Melbourne from getting too cocky up front. We'll know how wrong I am in less than 24 hours, but I can only envision a hard-fought, increasingly defensive, slog to a stalemate.

Newcastle and Adelaide are also on a roll, and Perth too have been fighting hard. In general this is a brilliant competition, where only a slight change in form, an injury or a single clever tweaking in tactics could influence the fates either way between most of these teams. That's exciting, and for a Roar supporter, precariously enjoying second place, bloody nerve-wracking.

I'm not prepared to be too cocky about the Roar vs New Zealand game either. Queensland peaked early, which in all sporting codes is uncharacteristic and frankly not a good sign. Queensland is used to coming from behind, so in the rugby league for example, we're much more comfortable if the score is, say, 28:4 against us at half-time. Then we know we'll flog the southerners in the last 10 minutes. So peaking early is not necessarilly good. On the other hand, football is moreso a tacticians game, and Miron is a clever bugger. I reckon after the present plateau the Roar has another upward curve in form in front of it. But if New Zealand can find its feet right now, and Queensland believe its own propaganda too much, there really could be an upset.

Just one other note on the Roar/NZ game. I don't see how Miron can put Buess on the field at the same time (like possibly within 24 hours) that he's negotiating a contract with the Knights. Conflict of interest? "Do I get a bonus for a home-goal?"

I'm reluctant to make any silly prayers to the football saints because last time I did that Jason Petkovic broke his leg, a blow to the whole League. But blaming myself would be far too arrogant. To whoever out there, let's have some high quality sportsmanship this weekend, in skill and in spirit, and no serious injuries please.

Cheers.