Football Thread!

[Soldier of Macedon]

Australia takes the lead in the final against Korea. Great goal by Luongo.

Absolute legend, our best player by far. Hopefully he can make the next World Cup if he stay's fit.

I hope so too.

[lavce pelagonski]

That was a great goal. Korea had so many chances.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Korea had so many chances.

And they've just scored in the last minute to equalise!

Edit: Australia wins in extra time. Well done to the boys and congratulations to Australia, the new kings of Asia, as the commentator said.

[Momce Makedonce]

An Australian club king of Asia in the club competition and now the national team kings of the continent too. Well done

[EgejskaMakedonia]

Great to see Australia win some silverware, especially on home soil. This should really help to promote the game within Australia over the next few years. I was really worried about the state of the National side not even 2-3 months ago, but this tournament has uncovered a few young gems, that will be the core of the team in the years to come.

Good win by Melbourne City today as well.

[Momce Makedonce]

Good win by Melbourne City today as well.

Suprised you didn`t win by a few more goals, we were terrible. Turning out to be a really lousy season for us after our ACL success.

[Bill77]

Since Ange is at the helm....Stuff the Socceroos Grci se (Which would have been the thinking of some genius's on this forum a while ago).

On the domestic football....Melbourne Heart/City.
What an abomination of a club. You'd think a game straight after a great win for Australia would pull a great crowd...Clearly not for City. There were also quite a few free tickets in circulation for this game. Around 15 were offered at my sons work. Only around 7500 in attendance...Pathetic.
Pretty sad when North Korea gets a bigger crowd to their group game lol.
City are bat shit boring, they barely make the back page in Melbourne and no one knows they exist until derby day.

Also, What is it with this club and signing injury-plagued 30 somethings. Grella, Kewell, Engelaar, Fred, Kennedy (By the way, Kennedy to play fewer games for City than Villa IMO) Even the media have a field day mocking this club, fox sports football page reported it with the line "he wouldnt be a melbourne city marquee without and injury setback".

To quote the joke of all jokes, the clown of a CEO who is the epitome of Melbourne Heart/city Scott Munn who back in 2011 ridiculed Melbourne Victory after Victory signed Harry Kewell , only to sign Kewell themselves a few years later as they wanted a piece of the pie which was well and truly devoured and no longer the flavour by then and nothing but crumbs left over....

''That's great, but we want to make sure we are still here in 50 years which is why we are signing young players".........."The circus comes to town and then leaves,''

Move over Ashton Circus......You are no match for City fc.

[Phoenix]

Since Ange is at the helm....Stuff the Socceroos Grci se (Which would have been the thinking of some genius's on this forum a while ago)

Not sure what to make of this, Bill...?

I'm still not convinced that Ange is a miracle worker.
I'm not convinced that this Asia Cup was endowed with quality teams or star individuals. The teams of the Asian Confederation are largely a basket case, without a single world class player from the entire confederation plying their trade and starring in any of the top leagues in Europe.

We witnessed appalling refereeing throughout the tournament (including the final) that knocked out an impressive and well drilled Iran side...we watched Japan implode against the UAE of all teams, robbing the tournament of one of the few quality sides.

I understand that you can only play and win against the side put before you but Ange seems to be such a tin arse...

Time will tell and he will best be judged at the end of his tenure but for now, well done to all...

Just getting back to your "geniuses" comment above...very few people in the football media predicted this result...

[EgejskaMakedonia]

Suprised you didn`t win by a few more goals, we were terrible. Turning out to be a really lousy season for us after our ACL success.

As bad as the season may be going for WSW, winning the ACL isn't something that will come by often. I'd take bottoming out in the domestic league for a season or two but being the Champions of Asia any day of the week. Who knows what's causing this though. Perhaps a lack of a proper pre-season? Lack of motivation after the ACL? Either way I don't think there's too much to worry about just yet. A few people in the RBB need to relax and let this slump take its' course.

[EgejskaMakedonia]

Not sure what to make of this, Bill...?

He'd be referring to Lavce and I with that comment. In the context of the rest of his post, I'd say I'm the intended target though lol.

[Bill77]

Not sure what to make of this, Bill...?

It was a dig at EM and his outrages comment a while back when he claimed the Greekness of Victory because of its association with Ange, which EM later tried retracting such ludicrous claims by suggesting he was joking.
But now I'm used to EM's bez veza claims ...most of the times I just ignore him. SO DECA NE SE SRKA MASTENICA.

Regards to your reservations over Ange, I am with you on this. People are getting too carried away with this....people must keep in mind we were the host nation, meaning we played on home soil which comes with many advantages. IMO if it was played anywhere else results for the socceroos would have been different.

I must admit the tournament was highly enjoyable. But I will say this. The FFA (assuming were responsible for allocating the broadcasting rights) missed a massive massive opatunity.....a once in a lifetime opatunity to promote and sell this sport to the yet to be converted people in this nation. Apart from the couple of Socceroos finals on ABC....Why were the games not televised on free to air like 9 or 10? Apart from the die hard soccer fans and those that subscribe to foxtel (which is about only 20% of the population) the tournament hardly went noticed. This pro Sydney FFA are a disgrace.

[Phoenix]

It was a dig at EM and his outrages comment a while back when he claimed the Greekness of Victory because of its association with Ange, which EM later tried retracting such ludicrous claims by suggesting he was joking.
But now I'm used to EM's bez veza claims ...most of the times I just ignore him. SO DECA NE SE SRKA MASTENICA.

Regards to your reservations over Ange, I am with you on this. People are getting too carried away with this....people must keep in mind we were the host nation, meaning we played on home soil which comes with many advantages. IMO if it was played anywhere else results for the socceroos would have been different.

I must admit the tournament was highly enjoyable. But I will say this. The FFA (assuming were responsible for allocating the broadcasting rights) missed a massive massive opatunity.....a once in a lifetime opatunity to promote and sell this sport to the yet to be converted people in this nation. Apart from the couple of Socceroos finals on ABC....Why were the games not televised on free to air like 9 or 10? Apart from the die hard soccer fans and those that subscribe to foxtel (which is about only 20% of the population) the tournament hardly went noticed. This pro Sydney FFA are a disgrace.

Thanks for clearing that up Bill.
One of the biggest disappointments for me was that Melbourne couldn't even get a semi-final match and to a lesser extent that the tournament didn't go to places like Adelaide or Perth.

[Bill77]

One of the biggest disappointments for me was that Melbourne couldn't even get a semi-final match

I was just reading something related to this

The Age‘s senior sports reporter, Michael Lynch, wrote this on the embarrassment of Melbourne not bidding to host a semi-final.

"Quite simply, the previous Baillieu/Napthine government and Melbourne Major Events made a massive miscalculation and, with the benefit of hindsight, completely misjudged the grip the Asian Cup would exert on the sporting public."

The board of Melbourne Major Events (VMEC) not only includes Collingwood AFL President Eddie McGuire, who suggested the Asian Cup would be a lemon, but also Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood, publisher of The Age.

From what I understand the state government would not play ball (funding) in hosting semi finals. We had this ridiculous concept of Big Bash happening and the Australian open at the time.

[VMRO]

It was a dig at EM and his outrages comment a while back when he claimed the Greekness of Victory because of its association with Ange, which EM later tried retracting such ludicrous claims by suggesting he was joking.
But now I'm used to EM's bez veza claims ...most of the times I just ignore him. SO DECA NE SE SRKA MASTENICA.

Regards to your reservations over Ange, I am with you on this. People are getting too carried away with this....people must keep in mind we were the host nation, meaning we played on home soil which comes with many advantages. IMO if it was played anywhere else results for the socceroos would have been different.

I must admit the tournament was highly enjoyable. But I will say this. The FFA (assuming were responsible for allocating the broadcasting rights) missed a massive massive opatunity.....a once in a lifetime opatunity to promote and sell this sport to the yet to be converted people in this nation. Apart from the couple of Socceroos finals on ABC....Why were the games not televised on free to air like 9 or 10? Apart from the die hard soccer fans and those that subscribe to foxtel (which is about only 20% of the population) the tournament hardly went noticed. This pro Sydney FFA are a disgrace.

Melbourne Victory does have a number of Ex South Melbourne supporters amongst their fans, so there would be an element of Greekness supporter wise.

Some of which i know of from back in the Preston/South rivalry days.


Bill, do you support anyone in the A-league?

[Phoenix]

I was just reading something related to this

The Age‘s senior sports reporter, Michael Lynch, wrote this on the embarrassment of Melbourne not bidding to host a semi-final.

"Quite simply, the previous Baillieu/Napthine government and Melbourne Major Events made a massive miscalculation and, with the benefit of hindsight, completely misjudged the grip the Asian Cup would exert on the sporting public."

The board of Melbourne Major Events (VMEC) not only includes Collingwood AFL President Eddie McGuire, who suggested the Asian Cup would be a lemon, but also Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood, publisher of The Age.

From what I understand the state government would not play ball (funding) in hosting semi finals. We had this ridiculous concept of Big Bash happening and the Australian open at the time.

I also saw that article Bill, I couldn't believe the shortsightedness of the Vic government but then again when you have hardcore AFL people like McGuire on the board of VMEC, it all starts making some 'sense' as to why the Melbourne football community and the Asian Cup got shafted in the so called 'sports capital' of the world...what a joke.