Tipping the Final Curtain

Tony was the only one to get a point last week, which was not enough to put him in contention. Noone can beat Jacob now in fact, though if the cards fall perfectly John may equalise.

Here are our scores:

Jacob: 39
John: 36
Hamish: 35
Tony: 35
Dave: 34
Drsimmo: 33

And now for the final act, which is promising to be a cracker betwen two great teams.

I'm tipping Adelaide to beat Melbourne 3:2.

Jacob's tip:
Melbourne 2:1

Incidentally, The West End Terrorists beat Sickaz last week 2 nil in a tightly fought match of Indoor Soccer. But the winter soccer is all getting organised and the boys start training for that this week. Jacob keeps saying now that he can't wait for 'real soccer' to start. To which I reply, "Me too."

To the ineffable universal, may the Grand Final be a cracker, may the best team win, may there be good sportsmanship on and off the field, and may there be no serious injuries.

Cheers.

Tipping Adelaide vs Newcastle

It's 3am. I'm writing this rather psyched up to go into town to watch Australia play Denmark, strangely detached this time from the whole winning/losing thing, but excited and anxious nevertheless.

Jacob is still asleep. I'll wake him at around 4.45 so we can catch the 5.12 into town to go to the Pig n' Whistle. My own alarm was due to go off in another half an hour but stuff it I can never sleep once I've woken up so I'm using the time to get a bit of stuff done, including this post.

Well the tippers have less points to go for each time now, as the A-League contenders whittle to three and the weeks to two. Here are our scores:

Jacob: 39
John: 36
Hamish: 35
Tony: 34
Dave: 34
Drsimmo: 33

We're only just beginning to be sorted out ourselves, with Drsimmo needing all six remaining points to just draw with Jacob. With a three point lead over second place, Jacob is looking a bit like Melbourne in mid-season. If he keeps his tipping form for this weekend, I'm going to owe him a dinner. Quite convenient for me really.

Note a new ad hoc ruling: I'm only giving points for the full time result. If you predict a draw, by all means say who you think will win a penalty shoot-out, but there's no bonuses.

My tip:
Adelaide United FC vs Newcastle Jets FC
Newcastle 1:2

Jacob's tip:
Adelaide United FC vs Newcastle Jets FC
Newcastle 1:2

May the best team win, may there be a glorious, sporting crowd at Hindmarsh, brilliant and entertaining football and no serious injuries.

And meanwhile... Go the Socceroos!

Roar vs Adelaide

I'm going to start with the evening's minutia, because it's easier. One reason I like blogging is that the minutia can be prominent, as contrary to with the MSM.

First, it's great that our tickets to the game are also train tickets, and myself, my son Jacob, his mate Max, and my mate Sean, took off for Southbank Station at about 6.30pm. The kids, like last week, went straight for the drink machines and bought hot chocolates. Unlike last week however, the hot chocolates were really weak. Can someone work on that please? Southbank station drink machines: up the chocolate!

Second minutia. When we got to the game, stocked up with beer, drinks and chips, and sat down, I once again (like last week) thought it was really cool to watch the kids' teams (under 7's or 8's I'm guessing) play. It must be a complete thrill for them to play in front of 10,000 people or so (it was over 16,000 for the actual game). Someone is thinking about the long term development of the game, and it's great.

Ok, enough minutia.

What can I say? Queensland was dominant, increasingly, and by the end overwhelmingly, but just couldn't score. Are the Roar back to last season's curse? I bloody well hope not.

Robert Bajic, the Adelaide goalkeeper, will never forget this game. He had so much pressure on him, so constantly, and increasingly until it became a minute by minute push at his goal. He made a couple of errors, but not when it counted. My hat is off to him.

The man of the Roar side was Hyuk-Su Seo, in almost constant mid-fielding action to maintain and extend Queensland possession. It's certainly not his fault that the strikers just didn't connect.

They didn't. They all had decent chances, but just kept missing. On the few occasions they were on target, Bajic came through.

The best chances for Queensland were after Yuning Zhang and young Dario Vidosic came on in the last quarter. Dario played beautifully and set up some lovely chances, including two from corners. "Zhang stuffed it," as my son Jacob eloquently puts it. But due credit has to go to a staunch, determined Adelaide defence. At that stage, with one man off the field, Adelaide was not even attempting to mount an attack.

Frankly, this does not bode well for Roar. If they can't beat Adelaide, Melbourne will be a serious uphill challenge for them. Sydney? Bah! Sydney are crap at the moment, and in my view don't pose serious opposition any more than New Zealand or North Coast Mariners. But at this stage, despite a dream beginning, Queensland can confidently only say that they are in the top four.

Whiskey and beer. Good night!