The A-League Thread

[SuperCliffy#01]

I want to wish my boys the Central Coast Mariners all the best for the year, and i hope we win the cup.cya.

[Titanium_BD1103]

YAY Dwight is back in training... GO Dwight very happy to see him back...

From: www.foxsports.com.au

Yorke back at training

By Philip Henderson
August 21, 2006

DWIGHT Yorke will be given until match day to prove his fitness for Sydney FC's A-League season opener against Central Coast on Sunday.

Yorke returned to team training today after spending the past three weeks recovering from a groin injury.

He has not played for Sydney FC since the club's grand final win in March, and he last played a competitive match - the 2-0 loss against Paraguay while captaining Trinidad and Tobago at the World Cup in Kaiserslautern, Germany - more than two months ago.

Yorke was given an extra three weeks grace in returning to pre-season training following the World Cup, and Sydney coach Terry Butcher had hoped to have his star player available for the final three matches of the pre-season cup.

A training mishap delayed his return, however, with Yorke, 34, also missing an international for Trinidad because of the injury.

The former Manchester United star left today's A-League season launch early to join his Sydney teammates for training at Centennial Park, with Butcher saying he would give the club's captain all the time possible to prove his fitness before Sunday's kick-off.

"I'm not ruling him out just for the fact he hasn't played because Dwight's Dwight, he is a special guy, and we'll see," Butcher said.

"He's desperate to play, he wants to do very well.

"He's missing games, he's missing training, and he doesn't like that, he wants to be a part of everything.

"The problem with Dwight is he does too flipping much ... he has set himself back because he has done so much, but that's Dwight, he's a special guy and a special player and we're very lucky to have him."

Sydney rested five key players from last Saturday's final pre-season match, the 2-0 against Newcastle Jets.

But Butcher was confident the five - David Carney, Alex Brosque, Steve Corica, Clint Bolton and Alvin Ceccoli, who all started Australia's Asian Cup qualifier last week - would be right for Sunday's grand final re-match against the Mariners at Aussie Stadium.

AAP

[Titanium_BD1103]

Once again Sydney FC will have joint captains, with Dwight and Mark to share the honours this season...

From: www.a-league.com.au

Yorke and Rudan handed twin captaincy role
Tuesday, 22 August, 2006 - 8:25AM

Sydney FC has handed experienced duo Dwight Yorke and Mark Rudan a shared captaincy role with Yorke named Team Captain and Rudan give the job of Club Captain for the 2006/07 Hyundai A-League season.

The appointments were confirmed at the Sydney FC 2006/07 Season Launch, held at Star City last night.

Rudan, a born and bred Sydney boy, will be the official club spokesman while Yorke will lead the team onto Aussie Stadium throughout the season.

The Trinidad & Tobago captain is hopeful he will be able to take his place in the Sydney FC side for Sunday?s opening round clash with the Central Coast Mariners after recovering from a groin tendon injury.

Sydney FC Coach Terry Butcher, who announced the twin roles, said the pair gave the Sydney FC club tremendous ambassadors and also strong role models for the younger players in the side.

?Dwight and Mark offer a lot to this club and the experience they bring is one of the crucial aspects of getting this team to perform to its expectations,? Butcher said. ?I have always thought that a football club is only as good as its senior players and in these two (Yorke and Rudan) we have two real pros.

?We have a lot of very talented players who are at the age when they are ready to develop and learn and they can learn a lot from Dwight and Mark.

?Dwight has earned his respect as captain last year and also with what he has achieved in the game but I have been very impressed by Mark since I arrived.

?In Mark and Dwight we have two tremendous ambassadors and role models for Sydney FC and the younger players in the team.?

Team Captain Yorke stated he was anxious to get back onto the field and was still hopeful of being ready to play on Sunday.

?We are all looking forward to Sunday tremendously,? Yorke said. ?The first game of any season is special but when you go into the season trying to defend a title there is added excitement.

?I hope I can be part of it but the main goal is to make sure we can perform to our best over the whole season and repeat what we did last year. It is going to be a big season and I am proud to be captain of this team.?

Club Captain Rudan was equally proud: ?To be named Club Captain is a tremendous honour,? he said. ?I am a Sydney boy and to be playing for a Sydney team in the A-League has been something I will always remember.

?To be named as Club Captain is even better. We have a big year ahead with the A-League and then hopefully the Asian Champions League so it is time to get down to business.?

Sydney FC kicks off its title defence against the Central Coast Mariners at Aussie Stadium on Sunday at 5pm.

[SuperCliffy#01]

Central Coast Mariners have announced that they have a major sponsor in Rebel Sports and one other.cya.

[Titanium_BD1103]

Correct, Rebel Sport however is their back of jersey sponsor Clifford...

From: www.ccmariners.com.au

Mariners announce pair of major partnerships
Saturday, 19 August, 2006 - 6:30PM


The Central Coast Mariners have received a positive off-field boost ahead of their Pre-Season Cup title defence, with Rebel Sport and Fortunity announcing major sponsorship arrangements with the inaugural Hyundai A-League Grand Finalists for the next two seasons.

Both Rebel Sport and Fortunity have committed six-figure sums to the Mariners, who are set to begin their second Hyundai A-League campaign next Sunday, 27 August, at Sydney?s Aussie Stadium.

"Partnering with a national organisation like Rebel Sport, which is so widely recognised and an icon in the Australian sports market, is an exceptionally positive achievement for the Central Coast Mariners," said Mariners Executive Chairman Lyall Gorman.

"It is a very strong statement when a company with the presence of Rebel Sport are able to show their belief in the Mariners, their belief in our vision to become the centre of excellence for football in Australia and are able to identify with our core values and beliefs.

"As for Fortunity, a local organisation, for them to step into a major partnership role in a region of our size is a very big statement.

"At the moment their business is regional, but the bigger vision for Fortunity is to reach a national profile and for two key community organisations such as Fortunity and the Mariners to be joined at the hip on a common journey is a really big show of belief and faith in the Central Coast region."

Rebel Sport, Australia?s largest sporting retailer with over 60 stores Australia-wide, will be featured on the back of the Mariners? playing strips for the 2006/07 Hyundai A-League season.

"Rebel Sport is very happy to be supporting a team such as the Central Coast Mariners, who not only are one of the premier sporting teams in Australia, but also a team that is so widely respected and admired in their own community," said Rebel Sport General Manager Erica Berchtold.

?The team is certainly an inspiration to the Central Coast and we?re very proud to be supporting both the team, and the Central Coast area.?

Fortunity, launched in July this year, provides accounting, tax and financial advice to small to medium sized businesses, corporates and individuals and is a major employer on the Central Coast with over sixty staff.

"Fortunity, the members of Fortunity and the shareholders of Fortunity are delighted to be a major partner to be associated with the Central Coast Mariners," said Fortunity Chief Executive Officer Tony Hercok.

"We care a lot about the Central Coast and we want to support another very successful Central Coast business ? we are well and truly behind the Mariners!"

[Titanium_BD1103]

Adelaide United are over the pre-season cup success and ready to go for the big prize...

From: www.theage.com.au

Adelaide United gets serious for opener
August 24, 2006 - 8:04PM

The time for celebrating is over, it's back to business for Adelaide United.

The newly-crowned A-League pre-season Cup champion underwent a gruelling training session ahead of the season opener against Melbourne Victory at Olympic Park.

Coach John Kosmina ran his team rugged at Santos Stadium to ensure the team would be suitably fired up for the trip and was over its celebrations to mark their pre-season cup success.

United captain Ross Aloisi said he was now in his preferred angry frame of mind to meet Melbourne, which has famously not scored against Adelaide in all seven games between the clubs.

"As you can see in my face I'm actually not that happy at all, and it's good because I don't like to train during the week where we do bits and pieces, I like it to be hard all week because that's the way I play my game," he said.

"If I go into a game happy then I know I'm going to play a crappy game, that's why I'm pretty serious."

Kosmina said he had pushed his men hard in order to flush out any residual self-satisfaction from a lead-up that saw Adelaide succeed but not with the necessary cohesion.

"They were in good spirits after the cup final, I'm not sure they were in good spirits after the training today because we were pretty heavy with it, but we needed to be," he said.

"We didn't get out of jail against Central Coast (in the cup final) but it was probably our worst performance of the whole cup campaign and we can't just accept that, so we talked about a few things.

"Application mainly, that's a word that covers a lot of areas, and about people being responsible for their roles, their jobs."

Adelaide has noted the greater regard it is held in this season, and also digested the greater expectations of all sides after a first season that was experimental as well as successful.

"Sydney FC are favourites and they probably deserve it, they've got more of a killer instinct than we have, we've got to learn to be a little more ruthless, but people respect now where they probably didn't last year," Kosmina said.

"Melbourne haven't scored against us in seven games are going to be desperate to get a result - but we're not happy with seven games not conceding, we want eight and we want nine."

Nathan Burns and Fernando Rech will make their returns to United colours - after Australian under 19 duty and injury respectively - via the substitutes' bench.

Surprisingly, they will be joined by senior midfielder Ang Constanzo, who has made way in order to fit Shengqing Qu into the starting 11.

Former Celtic winger Bobby Petta remains a couple of weeks away from making his A League debut.

? 2006 AAP

[Titanium_BD1103]

-HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE 2006/07 ROUND 1 SQUADS-
Courtesy of www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Friday

Melbourne Victory v Adelaide United, at Olympic Park (8pm AEST)

VICTORY: Michael Theoklitos, Kevin Muscat (capt), Daniel Piorkowski, Fred, Daniel Allsopp, Archie Thompson, Vince Lia, Rodrigo Vargas, Kristian Sarkies, Adrian Leijer, Simon Storey, Grant Brebner, Alessandro, Claudinho, Eugene Galekovic.

UNITED: Daniel Beltrame, Richie Alagich, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Ross Aloisi (captain), Carl Veart, Fernando, Greg Owens, Travis Dodd, Aaron Goulding, Nathan Burns, Robert Cornthwaite, Shengqing Qu, Robert Bajic, Jason Spagnuolo.

TV: Live and exclusive Fox Sports 1; broadcast commences 7.30pm (AEST).

Saturday

Queensland Roar v Perth Glory, at Suncorp Stadium (7pm AEST)

ROAR: Tom Willis, Andrew Packer, Chad Gibson (capt), Josh Mccloughan, Marcus Wedau, Massimo Murdocca, Simon Lynch, Ante Milicic, Reinaldo, Matthew Mckay, Hyuk-Su Seo, Dario Vidosic, Sasa Ognenovski, Liam Reddy, Steve Fitzsimmons.

GLORY: Aleks Vrteski, David Tarka, Simon Colosimo, Jamie Harnwell (captain), Jeremy Christie, Mislav Saric, David Micevski, Stan Lazaridis, Leo Bertos, Ante Kovacevic, Adrian Webster, Stuart Young, Josip Magdic, Naum Sekulovski, Tyler Simpson, Andrew Crews.

TV: Live and exclusive Fox Sports 2; batch broadcast commences 7pm (AEST).


Sunday

New Zealand Knights v Newcastle Jets, at North Harbour Stadium (3pm AEST)

KNIGHTS: Darren Bazeley (captain), Greg Duruz, Che Bunce, Neil Emblen, Richard Johnson, Scot Gemmill, Sean Devine, Jonti Richter, Mark Paston, Jonas Salley, Malik Buari, Adam Casey, Michael White, Sime Kovacevic, Michael Turnbull.

JETS: Ben Kennedy, Andrew Durante, Matt Thompson, Vaughan Coveny, Nick Carle, Paul Okon (captain), Adam Dapuzzo, Jobe Wheelhouse, Stuart Musialik, Labinot Haliti, Tolgay Ozbey, Joel Griffiths, Mark Bridge, Stephen Old, Shane Webb.

TV: Live and exclusive Fox Sports 2; broadcast commences 3pm (AEST).


Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners, at Aussie Stadium (5pm)

SYDNEY FC: Clint Bolton, Iain Fyfe, Alvin Ceccoli, Mark Rudan, U*** Talay, Robbie Middleby, David Zdrilic, Steve Corica, Sasho Petrovski, David Carney, Jeremy Brockie, Alex Brosque, Terry Mcflynn, Mark Milligan, Dwight Yorke (captain), Justin Pasfield, Nikolai Topor-Stanley (two to be omitted).

MARINERS: Danny Vukovic, Wayne O'Sullivan, Paul O'Grady, Noel Spencer (captain), Bradley Porter, Andre Gumprecht, John Hutchinson, Jamie McMaster, Tom Pondeljak, Damien Brown, Stewart Petrie, Tony Vidmar, Vuko Tomasevic, Andrew Clark, Alex Wilkinson, Adam Kwasnik, Matthew Trott (two to be omitted).

TV: Live and exclusive Fox Sports 2; broadcast commences 5pm (AEST).

[Titanium_BD1103]

As I stated in the preview thread, New Zealand are the dark horses it seems....

From: www.tvnz.co.nz

Knights feared as dark horses
Paul Nevin
Aug 22, 2006

The New Zealand Knights and the Queensland Roar have been declared as the two teams that opponents feel could spring a suprise for the second season of the A-League.

A poll of captains and coaches from all eight A-League clubs at today's season launch saw the Roar and Knights - sixth and last respectively last season - installed as the teams most likely to surprise the competition in 2006-07.

"Queensland has got a lot of experienced players up there now, (coach) Miron Bleiberg has signed some great senior players and they could be a surprise packet," Central Coast skipper Noel Spencer said.

The Roar collected three votes while the Knights - whom coach Paul Nevin says are targeting a finals berth this season despite claiming just one win last season - received four.

Predictably, reigning champion Sydney FC was the only club singled out as the team to beat, drawing four votes with the other four responses "all teams", perhaps showing the closeness of the competition.

"You can't go past Sydney, every team has got a chance and there's some very good sides, but just from the pre-season games we played Sydney stood out for me," said Perth Glory skipper Jamie Harnwell, whose side was beaten 3-0 by the Blues during the pre-season cup.

All eight captains and coaches polled agreed the quality of the competition would be better in the second season, while the minor premiership was given the nod, albeit only just, ahead of the grand final winner as the greater achievement.

"For us it's the premiership," said Adelaide skipper Ross Aloisi, whose side won last year's league title race before crashing out of the semi-finals.

"It's the best team over the season, but here in Australia it's obviously the grand final and the championship which is considered the top prize."

New Zealand was perhaps the biggest surprise in the poll.

While the Knights again finished last in the pre-season cup, they only narrowly missed playing in the semi-finals of the competition after drawing their first three games - including a 0-0 stalemate with Sydney FC.

Under new coach Paul Nevin they have made wholesale changes to their squad, bringing in 14 fresh players.

"I think New Zealand will surprise a lot of people," said Newcastle captain Paul Okon.

"They had a poor result last season, I don't think too many people are going to fancy them in many games, but they'll have a point to prove and I expect them to be very, very competitive."

Sydney FC coach Terry Butcher added: "The Knights impressed me very much when we played out there and drew, I think they could have won it in the last minute. They'll be a very difficult team to beat this year."

Of his side's goals for this season, Knights coach Nevin said he wanted to make the top four and play in the finals.

"People might say that's unrealistic from where we came from (last season) ... but I've had the chance to bring in new players and we're definitely within a shout," said Nevin.

"That's a realistic goal for us. And I think we've gone some way to show we're in the mix in the pre-season fixtures."

Results of poll of eight A-League club captains/coaches:

Who is the team to beat in this season's championship?
Sydney FC 4, All teams 4.

Who do you think will be this season's surprise packets?
NZ Knights 4, Queensland Roar 3, None 1.

Which is the greater prize, the minor premiership or championship (grand final winner)?
Premiership 3, Both equal 3, Grand final 2.

Will the standard of this season's A-League be an improvement on the inaugural year?
Yes 8, No 0.

Source: AAP

[DeeGan]

Good win to Melbourne last night - they looked good in beating the Pre-season Champs Adelaide.

GO THE ROAR TONIGHT!

[Steve Dangerous]

Roar playing three strikers.


Good to see 'em backing themselves.

[Hoppy2007Dragons]

My younger brother is going to the Roar game, i'm not happy i wanted to go anyway, go the Mighty Roar.

[Hoppy2007Dragons]

Go ROAR, 3-0, great start to the season.

[Titanium_BD1103]

From: www.foxsports.com.au

Sydney proves Mariners' nemesis
August 27, 2006

IAIN Fyfe buried his first A-League goal, while Clint Bolton made a pair of spectacular saves to give Sydney FC a winning start to its title defence against Central Coast at Aussie Stadium tonight.

Sydney triumphed 1-0 in a carbon-copy result of last season's grand final against the Mariners at Aussie Stadium, giving new coach Terry Butcher the perfect start to his tenure and skipper Dwight Yorke a winning return in his first game since the World Cup.

Defender Fyfe, a pivotal member of Sydney's champion team last season, scored his first A-League goal in the 51st minute after striker Sasho Petrovski cleverly laid back the ball from a Alvin Ceccoli cross.

The game had been evenly poised until that point, with the Mariners coming closest to scoring in the 21st minute when Bolton, who earned his fourth Australia cap in this month's Asian Cup qualifier against Kuwait, pulled off the first of his two miraculous saves.

Damien Brown's cross drifted dangerously to the far post where Adam Kwasnik headed strongly from less than two metres, only for a falling Bolton to stick out his left mitt and deflect the ball away with a superb reflex effort.

Bolton again denied Kwasnik in spectacular fashion in the 76th minute to cap off a five-star performance from the Sydney 'keeper.

After being in doubt all week with a groin injury, Yorke played the full game for Sydney in a holding midfield role.

Both sides created plenty of chances, although Sydney finished the game stronger, and after Kwasnik's second effort looked to always have the result in the bag.

AAP

It wasn't pretty, it certainly wasn't flashy, but a win is a win and I am happy to see the boys get off the mark with some points...

Bolton was a champ today, he saved so many goal chances by the Mariners and made things really difficult for a Mariners side that kept trying and wouldn't give in...

Overall ok game, dour but a win is a win.

[Hoppy2007Dragons]

Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1. Queensland Roar FC 1 1 0 0 3 0 3 3
2. Melbourne Victory FC 1 1 0 0 2 0 2 3
3. Sydney FC 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
4. Newcastle Jets FC 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
4. New Zealand Knights FC 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
6. Central Coast Mariners FC 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0
7. Adelaide United FC 1 0 0 1 0 2 -2 0
8. Perth Glory FC 1 0 0 1 0 3 -3 0

oh yeah QLD Roar on top of that table

[HodgoBerro]

Boo yeah! QLD ROAR!