Ok so my lack of posting is extremely bad form, the ACL been and gone, and the first 6 weeks of email with no posts. In my defence i didn't start on the a-league because i knew i would miss 5 weeks due to my European adventure. So I'm going to start this one with a few comments on the a-league so far and my short but exciting European football adventure. (in my defense further, if you read this, make a comment, i feel like I'm talking to myself most weeks!)
So to Europe first. Couldn't get tickets to the Serie A so that was extremely disappointing. But did make a trip to a Ligue 1 game in France Nice Vs Montpellier. THE FOOTBALL - was great, well at least from Montpellier it was. The pace was impressive, and i think the largest difference was the technical side of the players involved. And no i don't want to go on a date with Les Murray, Craig Foster, the army of Dutch coaches the FFA has locked up in their basement or the countless other people who preach the A-leagues lack of technical prowess. The issue is they are right and i challenge anyone to watch the game i watched and tell me otherwise. All the players, from the strikers to the goal keeper were just brilliant on the ball. There was rarely a poor first touch, and when players received the ball they knew what they were going to do with it before they had it. The movement off the ball was equally impressive. THE FANS - were terrible. Well i should clarify the Montpellier fans were terrible! Whilst already up 2-0 they proceeded to throuw large fire crackers on to the field which smoked, and then exploded with a huge band (enough to make a young boy sitting near us cry!) and 5 or 6 sparkler type things spread all over the field. After the 3rd one the ref called his officials off the field, 1 AR was running a line in front of said fans. after a 15 minute intermission he must of agreed to continue with the game on the basis that the police got the Montpellier fans out of there. The riot police came in, pushed them out whilst the game proceeded. The irony of it all was that they were already winning 2-0 and they continued to dominate Nice and ended up 3-0 to the good! So basically my heart was broken to have European football hooligans confirmed first hand! I also would like to go on the record to say that if that's what we have to put up with to have a 'European' style top flight football league. i don't want one, give me 8000 fans including families and kids anytime!
So a quick note on the Jets. I still managed to follow their progress online and via SMS (thanks Lee and Mikey!). Mixed start to the season topped by that victory over the Gold Coast (i nearly cried when i heard this!) but I'm not going to review the games. My two tips which i believe, if the Jets can overcome, could lead to another finals appearance are thus:
1) Squad depth - put simply they don't have enough. The current departure of the Young Socceroos, growing injury list highlights the fact that realistically Branco (or is it Branko?) only really has a starting 11, or maybe 13 or 14. They will miss the o's Fabio, Sasho and Lljubo (i just thought of that then!) as senior players whenever they don't make the 90 minutes. And the fact that the Young Socceroos world cup can cause so much disruption to our starting 11 (rooney, Kanta and even Hoffman (shudder)) is a problem not with the players but with the lack of players to replace them. I can only hope some of the current swathe of triallists make the cut!
2) The Fans - or lack there of! I know the cliche but Newcastle teams, the knights, KB united, the Breakers, the Goblins have always relied on big crowds to lift them when the chips are down. Current showings are poor and i hope the Newcastle faithful pull their fingers out and get to the ground on game days!
More soon, i promise! I love you all!
Peace
(another shout out to the Goblins who lost their GF in a penalty shoot out. I felt your pain that day even half way across the world! I love you all and there is always next year!)
