Much better...if you guys pinch him, I'm going to be seriously pissed at 2 lots of people. My club for not offering him a decent marquee type contract for 3-5 years, and you lot(MLS) for treating us like a bloody feeder league again Irrational I know, but one hates to see our best player and #1 in assists player leave, just as our team seemed to be coming together.
It's been more than a week now, and I still haven't gotten around to doing the match ratings for the Gold Coast game... is there even any need? I don't see much point, since I've left it so long. I might finally do that Coolen tactical comparison at some point, but I'm really busy with both doing an overseas coaching license (because God knows they're better than what's currently available here, even though I've already done those) and preparing a move overseas (doing a Summer coaching camp for kids in the Maldives, hurrah). Also, don't get your knickers in such a knot, Cap'n. It would be a big profit for the club, we could just sign another player to fill to spot and Flores wouldn't be a marquee, anyway. It's not us being a 'feeder club', it's us being a long term successful club and earning enough money to continue growing to the point that we have both amazing players AND amazing facilities. Don't be so negative about something that can be so positive. Hell, look at FC Porto. They're what you would call a feeder club, and they're the biggest club in Portugal (and currently runaway leaders). It's not all doom and gloom to be happy to sell players if a good enough offer comes by. We shouldn't prevent people from doing what they want. If he wants to go, let him, or he won't be performing well for us.
It's been on the cards for a couple of years now. You don't think Aurelio signed him on such a long contract just for the sake of it, do you?
The Bass0r d'Or (Based on player/MOTM ratings starting from the first Melbourne Victory match) Goalkeeper of the year: Mark Birighitti Defender of the year: Cássio José de Abreu Oliveira Midfielder of the year: Adam Hughes Striker of the year: Serginho van Dijk Player of the year: Serginho van Dijk (4 MOTM ratings) Goal of the year: Marcos Flores (vs. Newcastle Jets) Miss of the year: Serginho van Dijk (vs. Brisbane Roar) Game of the year: 4-1 vs. Melbourne Victory (AAMI Park) Off-the-Pitch Player of the year: Marcos Abel Flores Benard Signing of the season: Francisco Usucar
Can we get a special mention for assassination of the year? My nomination, Jai Bednall's complete slamming of Andy Slory as the sole reason why United failed to win Silverware this season after a bright and promising start...what a prawn, fancy singling out a single player in a team sport for that sort of garbage reporting, not to mention his terrible grammar in the article, mis-using their, they're and there...what an indictment on the Advertiser's journalistic standards
But that would assume The Advertiser has journalistic standards. I've kept it exclusively to the players and focusing on the positives... apart from miss of the year, because there had to be something to provide a little jest. I would've put in a worst player of the year award, but after tallying up the ratings I found there were three or four players all on equal votes, so I just left it out. I basically did it +1 for a MOTM and -1 for a weakest player rating (which is also why Adam Hughes came out over Flores, despite tieing with Usucar, so I made an executive decision, just like Birra).
The Advertiser thinks Phoenix's assistant, Luciano Trani, will be the replacement. If that's the case then you'd assume Rini's conceding he isn't the tactical genius everyone claims him to be.
Interesting Q&A in this mornings(Sat19Mar11) tiser revealing Rinis thoughts on the way the season ended, telling remarks about learning from the locker-room disharmony, it gives me great hope that Rini will reshape the club in the off season to finall remove the vestiges of the Kosmina/Vidmar pissant days. duck sauce: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/rinis-startling-confessions/story-e6frecj3-1226024088904
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/09/09/ri-okays-naturalized-players-cup-qualifiers.html Serginho van Dijk has got Indonesian citizenship He will be called up for the WCQ
Adelaide United left-back Bradley Norton has reached a mutual agreement with the club to terminate his contract, with the Melbourne-born player returning home yesterday. This leaves 16 players on the club's books, meaning there's still room for another seven senior Australian players to be signed.
There may be one or two local players signed for the season (i.e. LaStella, who scored against Roar in a recent friendly), but I imagine the rest will probably be youth promotions. ... Problem is, I watched quite a bit of Youth League last season. There wasn't a great deal that genuinely impressed me.
MUCH better than what I expected, was very pleased with that performance. Wasn't expecting much from the season after having seen the first friendly against Victory a month ago, but this was a huge improvement on that, and a bigger improvement over last week's game. The players seemed a lot more in-tune with one another and, while the midfield didn't quite pull up their socks for all of the defensive duties, they actually did provide very good cover. There were a lot of one-twos in link up play, which is very promising, and you could tell that the players wanted the win. Was a lot happier with Levchenko, who was very composed and smart in midfield, despite any earlier impressions I may have had. Vidosic looked very good, which is a promising sign after having only just returned from injury; surely he'll only get better.
Adelaide really should have won by more TBH, missed a couple of good chances. Victory's defence is hopeless, looking forward to Brisbane facing them.
+ 2,500 standing, official capacity of 17,500. It was reported as a sell-out, but they released a lot more tickets on the day of the game, either because of membership non-sales or forfeited seats. As for the team, bah-freaking-humbug. Didn't even bother going to Melbourne on the weekend, because the atmosphere has just been rotten lately and I already struggle enough to keep myself from jumping onto the pitch and going bunta and every one who deserves to be accused of being a bad person. No way can I be happy with a draw on the weekend, despite it being our first points at Docklands in a long time. The team is playing THE WORST football I have ever seen from this club and we were blessed enough to have Eugene between the posts to keep up from conceding perhaps another four on the night. I've no idea how we're even above GCU at this point; it's been a disgrace. There's been a few decent moments where I've thought that maybe--just maybe--there were genuine signs of improvement, but those considerations get shot down very quickly by continual mistakes by some of our "higher rated" players. How some of them are continually getting game time, I'll have no idea. For starters, Jon McKain should be back in the amateur league, because his continual mistakes are of that exact calibre. Oh my goodness, he is so bloody awful, it makes me want to throw rocks at his face. DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON AN ATTACKER WITH THE BALL WHEN YOU'RE MARKING HIM, YOU ***************************** IDIOT. How he's the captain, when he can't even lead himself to make the right decisions, is beyond me. But not only the players, Rini has really stuffed up this season and I don't think you'll ever see him admit to the fact. To him, they're improving everyday... which makes me wonder exactly what he was expecting in the first place. By the way, can't wait to get knocked out of the ACL group stage. That will be great. (But I do love Champions League nights at Hindmarsh, oh my, do I ever.) </scathing rant> (Though it was quite tame and I could go on for much longer.)