A Window To Asia

With just over a month until the start of the new season I thought it about time I resume this blog. I lot has happened in the last couple of months but there are few items I want to mention specifically.

Firstly, congratulations to the Socceroos on qualification to their second world cup in a row (only our third in total). I have been astounded by the criticism of the coach, Pim Verbeek, in the lead up to the last couple of matches. Although I also have been critical of the conservative approach he employs the proof is in the pudding and I would suggest it will be a long while before another Australian coach exceeds his qualification record of 14 games, 9 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses.

Secondly I think overall Newcastle and Central Coasts performance in the Asian Champions League was unfortunately about what was to be expected. Central Coast never looked like they deserved to be there and it was no surprise they failed to win a match. Although Newcastle exceeded my initial expectations of them by making the final 16 round, the way they capitulated to Pohang demonstrated that they probably didn’t deserve to get that far. I think Gary Van Egmond is a huge loss to Newcastle and I fear both they and Central Coast will struggle to make the final 6 this year.

The final item I wanted to talk about is the moment in A-League history that occurred today. What moment am I talking about? Today Melbourne Victory’s recent signing, Thailand international Surat Sukha, officially joined the reining champions. It is significant because I believe he is the first ASEAN player to be signed into the A-League. It is my personal belief that several of the ASEAN countries can and will provide a market for the A-League. Not just in terms of players but supporters, TV rights and sponsors as well.

The population of this area is staggering, Indonesia (220 Million), Philippines (92 Million), Vietnam (88 Million), Thailand (63 Million), Malaysia (28 Million). With this sort of marketing opportunity on our doorstep is seems daft that Australian teams haven’t attempted to tap into this market before. Take Thailand for example. Their capital, Bangkok, alone has a population of over 8 million people and is a football mad country (though admittedly the majority seem more interested in the EPL than their local league). With a time difference of only 3 hours behind Melbourne, it would seem a logical TV market to tap into.

Surat Sukha may just be the thin edge of the wedge into this exciting country and if successful you can bet your life on the fact that others will soon follow. Of course Melbourne have been influenced in their decision to sign Sukha due to the 3+1 rule in the Asian Champions League. For those unaware of the rule, all teams may have only three foreign players in their ACL squad though you are allowed to have a fourth if they are from an AFC Country.

This rule is similar to the one that the J-league introduced this year and as I have commented on before should be implemented here in Australia as well. To allow five foreign based players to be signed by each team in the A-league and not mandate that at least one of them is to be from an AFC country just seems crazy. Other countries in the AFC are following the J-league lead with Saudi Arabia and Qatar both planning to also implement the 3+1 rule next season and I will be very surprised if they are the last.

It seems though at least a few of the A-league teams are now looking to Asia. In addition to Sukha at Victory, Adelaide have picked up Shin In Sup (Korea) and Sydney have signed Byun Sung-Hwan (Korea). And Newcastle of course still have Song Jin-Hyung (Korea) on their books. So our out of the 10 teams, 4 have recruited in Asia. Not great but at least it is a start. The FFA need to implement a 4+1 rule for next season.

36 Days to Season V

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Sydney's Attempt To Profiteer On Youth

You have to hand it to Sydney FC, their audacity is astounding at times. Today’s attempt to pressure the FFA to compensate them for the loss of youth players to other A-league clubs is not only out of line, as it goes against what the FFA to trying do with not limiting youth player opportunities, but must leave the clubs that truly developed these players seething.

Why they think they would deserve any compensation is beyond me. The three players mentioned in the article (Zach Cairncross, Sam Munro and Steven Lustica ) have played one season in the youth team at the club. Now I know the coaching expertise of John Koshmina is second to none but does Stefan Kamasz really expect us to believe that Sydney FC has taken these young players and sharpen them into professional footballers in a single season?

What this outrageous demand by Sydney does do is highlight the issues that grassroots club are now facing by this system. The fact is these players have been signed to the Youth League with no compensation at all to their junior clubs that raised and nurtured them throughout their developmental years. This is the real tragedy of our current system. A system that fails to provide little reward to our grass roots clubs for their developmental programs.

Take Steven Lustica for instance, he played all of his junior days at Canberra FC. They just must love hearing Sydney ask for compensation at potentially losing him to another A-league club. Where is the call for compensation for all the work they have done to develop him into the footballer he is today.

The fact is until Sydney establish their own junior program and truly develop players from 8-12 years of age they have no claim on these players.

Of course the FFA will give this call by Sydney the short front it deserves. The whole point of the youth league system was to sign them to short amateur contracts that would allow unfettered moves to A-league clubs if and when those clubs were willing to sign them to professional contracts. Sydney like every other club has the opportunity to scout the entire youth system for talent and offer senior contacts to anyone within the system. This will ensure that no club can hoard potential stars and hold them in the youth system hoping for a pay day when an overseas club comes calling. Young players will go to the clubs that are willing to give them a chance and sign them to an A-league senior contract. This promotes youth and encourages clubs to roll on the dice on giving talented youngsters senior contacts.

The system has its problems, by allowing A-league clubs to profit when they on sell these junior players with little compensation to their junior clubs they are creating resentment within the grassroots clubs. Already we have seen Canberra FC and Melbourne Knights hint at establishing formal ties with a foreign club in an effort to avoid losing their junior stars for little or no money.

Rather than heeding Sydney’s call, the FFA should move now to ensure that these grassroots clubs receive a bigger slice of the transfer fees that A-league clubs receive when these junior players get their chance at the big time. This would not only help promote the clubs that do a good job of developing our youth but would also encourage all A-league clubs to focus more on developing their own youth pipeline.

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Are They Serious

There seems to be at least one country in the East Asian half of the Champions League that doesn’t consider the competition much chop. The South Korean club Ulsan Hyundai have made their thoughts apparent to all with the Team they sent out onto the park for their second round match up with Newcastle last night.

Not content to rest a few players after their 0-0 draw against Seongnam Ilhwa in the K-league on Sunday the club effectively gave all of their first team players a rest and brought their reserves to Australia. The Pohang Steelers also rested a few players in their first round match against the Central Coast but certainly not to this degree.

The AFC officials would not be impressed with the Korean side’s less than committed approach to the competition. With the increase in prize money and change in format the AFC is attempting to raise the prestige of the tournament but if the teams don’t place an emphasis on winning it can only damage the spectacle and reputation of the Champions League. It is obvious that Ulsan had decided that a draw here at Newcastle was acceptable and there is no need to push harder for a better result. Quite rightly though Newcastle dispatched them with little trouble.

Of course Gary Van Egmond must have been secretly relieved at Ulsan’s approach. After the disaster that was their first round effort against Beijing Guoan last week (and don’t let the spin deceive you, a disaster it was) he needed a win at home. Make no mistake the Jet’s campaign was hanging in the balance, as we have seen in previous tournaments an early loss at home can be hard to recover from. It was doubly important as Ulsan would be considered the weakest team (except for Newcastle themselves) in the group and a loss here would have seen them struggle to get off the bottom let alone out of the group.

I significant improvement by the Jets was needed last night if they were to take the three points away. Their defence last week was tortured by Beijing and was always going to be interesting to see how Topor-Stanley and Milicevic stood up on home soil, especially Topor-Stanley whose performance last week was so bad that even the Chinese crowd were jeering him when he went near the ball.

In the end though Ulsan made it easy for Newcastle and although there was still many question marks around Topor-Stanley performance in the end Newcastle were not really troubled by the Koreans. Sasho Petrovski was a handful for the Ulsan defence all night and fully deserved his two goals.

Newcastle need to ensure they don’t get too carried away with the result though as the real test comes over the next two weeks as they face up to group favourites, Nagoya Grampus (home and away), who were held to a surprising goalless draw at home to Beijing Goan overnight. With their defence still looking very brittle they have a mountain to climb if they are to even get close to the Japanese side.

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A Cup Of Our Own

With plans for the 2009/2010 season well under way, its time for the FFA to drop the preseason cup in favour of a knockout competition that incorporates teams beyond the A-League.

Next season will see the A-league move to a 10 team league and will almost certainly see the regular season stretch to 27 games. These significant changes allow the FFA to take a critical look at the league's current structure and do away with some aspects that are just not working.

The preseason cup competition in its current format is a lame duck and the FFA needs to replace it with an alternative that not only provides a much more marketable package but also can potentially incorporate a qualification spot for the Asian Champions League in the longer term. The answer of course is a knockout cup competition. There has been speculation in the press for a while now that the FFA will look to introduce a cup competition this year or next but the time appears ripe to go earlier than later. A limited Cup Competition would solve a number of issues while providing the FFA with another marketable competition alongside the A-League.

Of course in this current economic climate the FFA need to err on the side of safety. The first year a 16 team competition would provide a four round competition and would fit nicely into our sporting calendar. The 10 A-league clubs plus 6 teams from across the country would provide a small but interesting competition for the first year. This would mean excluding a couple of the state federations from the initial cup but similar to the A-league, a limited approach in the first year may be the wisest move.

So who would be the six clubs? Below is a sample list of the 6 teams who are the current champions of their state leagues.

VPL Champions ………………………………Altona City
Captial Football Champions……………....Canberra FC
QSL Champions……………………………….Sunshine Coast FC
NSWPL Champions …………………………Wollongong FC
NNSW Champions……………………………Broadmeadow Magic FC
SA SL Champions…………………………….Adelaide City
* Apologies to WA, TAS, NT and NZ

The first round could be contested in July (when the state leagues are fully match fit and the A-league is in preseason mode), with the quarter-finals in the first week of October after the state leagues finals have been completed. The semi-finals and final could then be scheduled for November/December dates.

One of the issues with the Preseason Cup is that it ties the A-league teams into practice matches with other A-league clubs and therefore leaves them little room to maximise revenue by participating in preseason competitions with other foreign clubs, something which the fans of all clubs would love to see. By only committing them to one match in late July the Cup Format would allow them to schedule their own preseason matches with whoever they like.

Of course though the biggest bonus of a Cup Competition is that that we could use it as a qualification spot for the Asian Champions League. With the A-league expanding to 10 this year and then most likely to 12 the year after we are by the AFC Rules for the Champions League eligible for 3 and 4 places respectively (Of course there are some other provisions beyond the size of the league that the AFC has laid down that we would have the meet). A Cup Competition lays the ground work which would allow the FFA some leverage to convince the AFC to grant Australia a third place for the 2010 or 2011 Asian Champions League (most likely a play off spot would be the best foreseeable outcome in the short term).

The last but certainly not the least compelling reason is from a publicity point of view a Knockout Cup Competition provides the FFA with another marketable product. By placing the TV rights for such a competition on FTA they would be able to increase the exposure of the A-league teams without hindering the commercial arrangement with Foxtel. With Channel’s Ten’s “ONE Sport” kicking off in the next couple of weeks, you can’t help but speculate that it would provide a prefect vehicle for the new competition.

Of course as the competition will need to be expanded in future years. A 32 team (5 Rounds) competition would be the logical goal and this could further be expanded by introducing a qualifying round.

But baby steps first, come on FFA make it happen.
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The Lure Of Asia

There is a common cliche that you hear bandied around a lot, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”. They must be sick of hearing it in the corridors of the FFA at the moment.

Our entry into Asia was seen at the time to be a master stoke of football politics by Frank Lowry and co. It not only provided our national team with a much less heart wrenching path to the World Cup but it also provided our new national domestic competition a pathway to a larger stage in the Asian Champions League. Mike Cockerill of the Sydney Morning Herald and Fox Sports wrote last week of the impact the Asian Champions League is having on the significance of the Final of the A-league. With both teams already qualified for the ACL his contention is that the final has lost its gloss with both teams seeing it as a bonus rather than the primary aim.

There is no doubt that entry to the Asian Champions League is a priority to the A-League clubs. The ACL has come a long way since its introduction in 2004. The inclusion of Australian Team, entry to the Club Wold Championships and the change of attitude of Japanese clubs towards the comp have all contributed to the competition growing in statue in the region. The change in format for 2009 should again take the competition to another level.

With an increase in prize money and exposure to the large east Asian countries, Australian teams can benefit substantially from their time in the ACL. Players also can showcase themselves not only on the Asian stage but use the competition as a launch pad to Europe. But do we really have the talent and competition to compete on this stage? Adelaide’s run last year has, I fear, given fans, clubs, media and bigwigs at the FFA a false sense of where we stand in relation to East Asia.

With our limited ability to buys in talented foreign players and keep talented Aussies due to a very restrictive salary cap I am not sure we have the players n the park that can take it to these East Asian teams that have much larger budgets.

As shown last night by a very under done Newcastle Jets we may be clinging to a dream that we are nowhere near making a reality. I have seen reports today of Gary Van Egmond talking up the Newcastle performance but in reality the Jets were played off the pack last night. Beijing Goan ran rings around them and the score line flattered Newcastle no end. I am sure the old excuse that this was nearly a new team and that they hadn’t played a competitive match in six weeks will be touted around. But also remember that the Chinese team is in preseason and is certainly not in match harden shape right now.

On the evidence last night, Newcastle will struggle to make it off the bottom of the group. The crunch game will come next week when they host Ulsan Hyundai at home, lose that and its good night for their campaign.

Central Coast will kick off their campaign tonight when they host Pohang Steelers in a match they must simply win. The Steelers are arguably the weakest team in a strong group, Adelaide won both of the matches against them in last years ACL competition and to be honest if the Mariners are to have any hope of progressing they must do the same.

Unfortunately I cannot see either team progressing out of their groups. They simply do not have the squads to compete successfully at this level.

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Socceroos Just Awful

We had little preparation, the ground was like a cow paddock, the heat/humidity was unbearable, the referee was appalling. These are just some of the excuses that are routinely bandied around for Australian teams when they fail to deliver since we have moved to the Asian Confederation.

However on Thursday, we were at home, with a team that had a full four days together, on a pitch that was like carpet, in weather conditions that were perfect for football and had a referee that put in a faultless performance (Matthew Breeze take note). Yet how did we go? I would suggest this was the worst performance by the Socceroos in the last 6 years (you have to go back to the loss to New Zealand in 2002 to find such a poor performance).

It is difficult to find a player on Thursday that preformed anywhere near expectations. In defence you can make the argument that Roddy Vargas perform OK but Craig Moore had a night to forget. Daniel Mullen’s inexperience was exposed and resulted in a goal and Matt Thompson was simply dreadful. The full backs put absolutely no pressure on the Kuwaiti’s and allowed them to run us around as they sat back.

In the midfield it was an even worse story. Paul Reid looked lost out there, he struggled to hit a pass all night and in the second half seemed almost to be trying to turn the ball over. It was almost a relief when he was replaced. Matt McKay ran around a lot but his final ball into the box was so poor it was embarrassing. The two wide players in Pondeljak and Zullo did get themselves into some good positions but time and time again either their first touch or their crossing let themselves and the team down.

Archie Thompson and Matt Simon will most likely cop a lot of criticism but to be honest when you have 5 defenders sitting on you what you need the most is good delivery to your feet. Both tried hard and although they should wear some of the criticisms the service just wasn’t there.

The biggest concern was the Australian inability to hold possession of the ball under tight pressure. Time and time again we gave the ball up to the Kuwaiti’s. At international level players must be able to keep possession or they simply shouldn’t be given a national shirt.

I know some will say I am being too hard but when a country ranked so far below you controls the ball better and moves that ball a round the field with more confidence then you, something is wrong. Thursday showed just how far the A-league has to go before being able to provide a realistic competition to develop our players.

Most of the media are giving Kuwait a lot of the credit but in truth their performance had more to do with Australia’s lack of ability to hold the ball. They would be flying home today hardly believing their good fortune.

The most outstanding performance was from the referee. Masoud Moradi from Iran gave an absolutely masterclass performance last night. . His control of the game and ability to be in position to make the right call every time was simply a eye opener and put an exclamation mark on just how bad Matthew Breeze was in the final last week. Are we allowed to import referees? Because Moradi would be my first choice.

Overall Pim, although disappointed by the performance, must be feeling a little vindicated today. His comments on the A-league were spot on and if people cannot see why he is concerned about Culina returning from Thursday’s performance then people have their head in the sand. The League simply is not at a standard that is keeping and developing our players to a level that allows them to compete at the international level.

Hopefully now we will see players like Kennedy, Burns, Djite, Stefanutto, Beauchamp, Carle asked to return for some of these matches. A sprinkling of European players would go a long way to seeing a significant improvement.

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2009 A-league Final Preview

With the A-league Final on Saturday between Melbourne and Adelaide I thought I might have a go at a preview of the match.

There is a lot of history between these two teams. This will be the sixth finals match that two teams have played against each other. In fact in six finals appearances Melbourne has only ever faced Adelaide, a strange statistic.

It would be fair to say that Melbourne has had Adelaide’s measure this season. In the five meetings this season Melbourne has won every match and although some are saying Adelaide are due it is difficult seeing them completing a upset here.

Melbourne go into this match full of confidence, their 6-0 drubbing of Adelaide over the two legged semi-final has allowed them a week off to recharge the batteries and take care of any niggles that may have existed within the playing group. They go into the match as a team that know if they play to their potential Adelaide stand little chance of stopping them holding aloft the cup.

This is the team I would be expecting to start

--------------Theoklitos----------------
Ryall-----Muscat---Vargas------Kemp
----------------Celeski-----------------
----Pondeljak---------------Ward------
---------------Hernandez--------------
-------Thompson-----Allsopp----------

No surprises here as Ernie settled on this formation in the latter half of the season. It has worked perfectly as Victory’s defence has gelled well, allowing only 4 goals in the last 7 home games. On attack the Victory at home have been almost unstoppable. Winning the last 7 and scoring an impressive 17 goals.

The attack has been much lauded in the media recently and no doubt Thompson, Allsopp and Hernandez deserve the pundits. Carlos Hernandez is clearly the best player in the League currently and his ability to provide the ball to his strike pair would prove a danger to any team. For Adelaide to have any chance on Saturday Paul Reid and Jonas Salley must close him down, if they allow him the space that he has enjoyed on previous occasions this again could turn into a rout.

Probably two decisions by Ernie Merrick have gone unsung in the recent praise of the Victory team. The first is the replacement of Michael Thwaite with Seb Ryall. Ryall has been outstanding since taking up the right back position. His confidence has belied his years and his influence has taken enough pressure off the central pairing that Muscat and Vargas now have effectively shut opposition strikers out of the game.

But the biggest unsung hero of Victory is Billy Celeski. His move to the Defensive Midfield has been a revelation. It is easy to forget that his has effectively pushed out two of Melbourne foreign players in Grant Brebner and Cost Rican international Pupy Lopez. His tackling and distribution from the back has been the major factor in the strength of Victory. Suddenly Hernandez is finding much more space. Pondeljak and Ward are getting forward with more confidence.

On the other side of the park, Adelaide has a lot to prove in this return visit to Telstra Dome. There can be no doubt that some mental scars must still be present from their last visit when Melbourne tore them to pieces in a 4-0 whitewash. It should be noted that it could easily have been even worse such was the terrible performance of the reds that night. Here is the line-up I would be expecting.

--------------------Galekovic------------------------
Mullen---Corthwaite---Ognenovski----Jamieson
--------------Salley--------Reid---------------------
--------------------Barbiero-------------------------
----Dodd--------------------------------Pantelis----
--------------------Cristiano------------------------

Salley’s performance last week and the fact that Vidmar must do something about the space that Hernandez was given last match makes this formation a foregone conclusion. Salley will be tasked with man marking Hernandez which should allow Reid to play a more positive role than he has on previous occasions against the premiers.

With this setup, Adelaide will be a tough nut to crack, I would be expecting them to play a little deeper than on previous occasions in an effort to avoid being caught out by the quick running Thompson and Allsopp. Victory are not known for their ability to score from crosses and if Adelaide can choke up the middle and defuse the Victory counter attack play they will go a long way to winning the match.

Of course to win they must score (unless it goes to penalties) and this has been Adelaide’s real issue. It took a wonder goal from Barbiero last week to get past Queensland and to be honest other than that awesome strike the reds looked again toothless up front.

Both Dodd and Pantelis have not brought the form they displayed early into the season into the finals and both have struggled to not only make an impact but have at times looked tired and uninterested. For Adelaide to win this match both of these players must place pressure on the Melbourne full backs. If Kemp and Ryall are allowed to push forward with ease Adelaide will be in trouble from the start.

In the end it is hard to go past Melbourne here. Pim Verbeek has handed Thompson and Allsopp some added motivation with his recent “hopeless” comments and with the form that Melbourne is in they should get enough chances to punish Adelaide.

Prediction 3-1 to the Victory

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