Fan Letters

It's been a while since I've posted some fan letters - I checked my older ones, I did have to laugh at myself when re-reading the one to Newcastle about how to waste time. But today, something a little more serious. Not that time wasting isn't serious, but...

Dear Mr Pasfield
Your yelling is quite annoying - it's high-pitched, panicky and there's an awful lot of it.

No wonder your defenders don't listen to you! Their eardrums must've burst by now.

If not, perhaps they've taken a preventative measure. So the lesson here is too much yelling and they don't want to listen to you. A bit like Ben Kennedy has experienced. Have a chat to him about it - but please don't yell during this conversation.

Although your yell does provide an endless source of amusement when one tries to mimic it.

Regards

- Cecilia
Your biggest yell mimic (and yes, I'm annoying too).

Dear Mr Langerak
If you were a little older I would have undoubtedly already written to you by now - you're such a cheeky little cutie. :) Add your baby face and you really seem illegal.

However, cheekiness and cuteness aside, please learn how to use your body properly. I'm not convinced that that ball you were "shielding" from Brockie was actually out. I suspect that you were in punching distance of the assistant referee and we all know that you really are all limbs. You're kinda like a daddy long legs, but with only four legs. Although two are arms.

So, at training this week, try and have a chat to Carlos. I say try, because I have no idea if he actually speaks English yet. Try playing Charades if the talking thing fails. Though with your long limbs, he may mistake you for a John Cleese/Frank Woodly type and laugh himself silly.

Why Carlos? He is very good at using his (ample) body for shielding and protecting the ball. Get him to show you how he uses his body to shield the ball. It mainly involves sticking your arse out and creating space.

If Carlos offers to take the training further, please be careful. He does have an ample body, and we know he loves chicken, La Ionica chicken. So if you end up at his place for dinner, stick to the breast.

You don't need a big arse to stick it out and create space. I wouldn't want that cute little face of yours ruined by excess fats.

Regards

- Cecilia
Your biggest "Awwwwwwwww he's so cute!" gusher.

Dear Mr Vargas
I hate deflections. Please stop trying to do too much so that you don't make proper conduct and the ball follows some random trajectory that even Charlie Eppes couldn't figure out - and he's good at making sense of nothing. I've seen him on TV, so it must be true.

You're also quite slow and a poor marker. No wonder Daal got the better of you. Not to mention previous North Queensland attacks seem to have gotten through due to your inability to mark and/or read the game. Sure sure, the goal happened because of a wayward Leijer pass (intentional, so Charlie might have been able to calculate it), but Daal needed to be better marked.

Also, please don't collect silly yellow cards. The only reason one should collect one is when you've made a serious tackle. Not because you feel like arguing. He's the ref. He has cards. He'll always win. Unless it's Delovski - he seems a bit soft on the cards.

Regards

- Cecilia
A paid-up Melbourne Victory member for quite a few years now.

Internal injuries?

I continue to wonder if Glen Moss not playing was due to friction between himself and Kevin Muscat. Muscat, as captain and assistant coach, appears to have enormous influence on the team - the Victory defence sometimes gets into serious problems because it seems like they MUST pass the ball to him!

Not being able to communicate well with your defence, means that they can't work for you and you can't work for them. So I can't say that Moss is solely responsible for that 4-0 loss to Central Coast, but I don't think he should be made the scapegoat either.

Long time between drinks

Sorry, I know. But spending all day at work bored behind a computer followed by coming home to sit behind a computer to do other work (which I enjoy but don't get paid for) means I don't really want to continue sitting behind it!

Anyway, I may have found a home for my coaching exploits this year - and they seem keen to let me have a go at goalkeeping coaching, so I'm looking forward to that. :) I'll try and keep the updates on that front coming, as we all know how well Melbourne Victory did on the weekend (even though I missed half of the match due to going out for dinner...)

Are 'keepers crazy?

I think not. We just get thrown into some deep shit at times.


You've been watching your team play Mickey Mouse passes for the past 90 minutes. You've only seen fleeting moments of hunger, but there's no denying that of the two teams - the other has been more desperate.

You're already three goals down, and you've lost the one player with the best ability to read the game. But he too, has only been a shadow of his former self. He's been getting you out of trouble sometimes, but he's just as casual as the rest of the team.

Then it happens. A break. From about half-way. Keeper's instinct is to go up and close the player down. Reduce the amount of goal available for the shot. But the run for the player with the ball is too far.


And you run out of box.


Shit.

Half-time: Iraq 1, Australia 0

While Schwarzer was off his line it's not just his fault that we're currently down 1-0. As a team game, the blame must be shared - why was Mohamed allowed to shoot with so much time?

Unfortunately Slater and Hill are so focused on Schwarzer being off his line that the TV audience who have no idea about football will go on to not realise the importance of applying pressure - i.e. reducing the amount of space and time an opponent has such that they cannot perform.

Mohamed's shot was perfect, but a little bit of pressure could have been enough for it to sail over the cross-bar or for it to be hit short and safely into Schwarzer's arms.

P.S. Could someone please give that crowd member wearing an MV top a yellow shirt? Kthnxbai.

How to get more girls to go to the football.

A while ago I was discussing pet dogs with Au (a girl at work). With Facebook blocked at work, I couldn't find any photos of my pup on Photobucket. Yesterday morning I remembered that I did have a photo... so I emailed the link to her.


=========================
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:20 AM
To: Au
Subject:



I did have a photo of my puppy on photobucket!



http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/cestaz/73558713.jpg
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:32 AM
To: Au
Subject: FW:



Actually, try this one:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/cestaz/P1000430.jpg

------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:51 AM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



Hahaha… what’s his name?


------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:53 AM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



Gnaw so cute!!

But the other email/pic combination made me LOL! hahaha


------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:56 AM
To: Au
Subject: RE:



HER name is P####. Google it to find out where the name was inspired from – it’s a bit of a laugh… well, to me anyway.



That being said, P#### suits her and I couldn’t imagine her to have any other name.








P.S. Yeah, trust me to f@%k it up with a footballer, and a goalkeeper no less! He’s quite hot though . LOL.
------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 11:06 AM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



“open area on the outskirts of a town “??? I’m not sure this reference is right, cos I had presumed it would be football related!



And yes he is quite hot!
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 11:08 AM
To: Au
Subject: RE:



It’s pretty much the open prairie area in central Argentina. LOL



I’m imagining someone going, “Here’s my cat. I called it Werribee.” LOL



Yes, VERY hot. Olyroos goalkeeper too – I’m looking forward to the Beijing Olympics. ;) He’s a lot of fun to watch from a goalkeeping point of view. That’s how my semi-obsession with the young boy started anyway…
------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 11:17 AM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



“Here’s my cat. I called it Werribee.” …. When you put it like that!! Or, here’s my cat, I called it poo farm – since that’s what Werribee is referred to as.



I’d even watch it for that!! Just how young is this boy?? (coming from the person who has been to four 21st birthdays in the past 2 weeks…)
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 11:21 AM
To: Au
Subject: RE:



Hmm… I’m surprised I don’t know this off the top of my head… about 10 years ago I would’ve been able to tell you his star sign and what-not.



He’s 22, and a month older than my brother… and older than those people who have recently turned 21.



Hurrah! He’s not illegal!



And he’s an Aries. LOL
------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 1:23 PM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



Well that fact that he is legal is the main thing… really though, 22 isn’t that young. How old are you anyway?



Hmm so is Aries compatible with your star sign? haha
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 1:30 PM
To: Au
Subject: RE:



23 – but I’ll be 24 before he turns 23. :’( LOL



Oooh… “hot air” when I tried a compatibility test online.



your time together will fan the flames of the Arian fire and elevate your relationship to one of passion

…oooh…



This combination can sometimes be very wacky

wOOt!



You might be able to prod Aries’ interest in self-improvement and become a teacher to them

Oooh… wonder what I can teach him, ey? ;)


The best group of Aries for you is the group born between 31 March and 10 April.

Damn, he’s a 22nd Mar.



I am clearly procrastinating.
------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 1:33 PM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



Yes, but you are doing it really well!



Pfft, that’s not much age difference at all… sound very compatible too!



Actually, I found out an interesting fact about my family the other day. Of all the relos that are married, the women are older in pretty much all of the relationships… I’m destined to be with a younger man! haha
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 1:40 PM
To: Au
Subject: RE:




Oh, and you really have to see this kid in the flesh. Drool-worthy.

I was watching him warm up (I like to observe how each of them warm up you see) and I started talking about his physical finer points and now have a friend completely hooked on his stature.
=========================

Later discussions revealed that Au has a friend who wanted to take her to a Victory game. Now she wants to make sure it's against the Mariners. Hopefully Vukovic won't be on national duty or suspended when the time comes...

For the record, I did know Vuko was of legal age, but it's one of my favourite things to say when the time comes.

And Wayne, I directed her to your blog for reasons that should be clear.

Our midfield problem

I'm not a Ljubo fan. So with Brebner suspended* and Muscat injured (Broxham too, but he would've been ineligible due to Olyroo commitments) we had a new midfield. Of Ljubo. If anyone saw one thing that Ljubo did for the team, please let me know. All I saw was someone doing bugger all and giving the team instructions the whole time. As if I'd listen to someone who wasn't putting in the hard yards themselves! And how can such a tall guy be beaten in the air?!?! Oh that's right, as part of the step-onto-the-pitch-only-package, the guy can't jump. Couldn't jump during preseason or against Wellington, can't jump now. It's not the knee, it's him. He's useless. So what did Ernie do? Use the three subs but kept Ljubo on the pitch.

I owe Beltrame a hug, not just because I do find him swoon-worthy (I 'fessed up last week during Eamonn's podcast) but because he almost took Ljubo out. I seriously think that we would've been better with ten men and no Ljubo than ten men plus Ljubo. Not only was Ljubo completely useless on the pitch, it looked like the other Melbourne players were avoiding passing the ball to him unless there was absolutely no other option! Perhaps passing and playing with Ljubo gets you on the wrong side of Muscat...

Anyway, let's not waste anymore time on Ljubo.

How GREAT were Adelaide! Sorry, I know I should be licking my wounds, but the main difference between the two teams was desire. Everytime there was a fifty-fifty ball or yet another Mickey-Mouse-pass from Melbourne, Adelaide would be there challenging for the ball. They looked so much quicker, getting there before us most of the time. Mentally and physically faster than us. I think not having Burns, Djite, Agostino and Valkanis means that a few players who don't often get a chance to play really wanted to prove their worth.

Pantelis had a great match, perhaps the best on the park. And to cap it off with that goal - it was quite a pretty strike. Dodd also had a great match, he seems to have really stepped up since taking on the captain's armband. Vidmar is now in the enviable position of having to seriously decide who to start with, and I'm hoping he gives Pantelis another start, he really did have a good match.

Yeah, I'm happy with our loss to Adelaide, but only because I can sit down to watch Adelaide and find myself watching some football. Vidmar may have started his head-coaching career in a bit of a shaky manner, but there's a real football team in the A-League season now. Perhaps two once I see the Roar play this weekend.

*Serves me right, I know.

About yesterday's opposition

Before kick-off I was standing at South End watching Vukovic warm up. A few weeks ago I was concerned about his goal kicks and distribution when it came to long balls. During his time away with the Olyroos, things didn’t seem to have improved, so I was getting quite concerned. But he was looking good during his warm up, with both kicks from the group and from his hands consistently getting to Redmayne. During the match there was one shocker, about midway through the second half, but a nice improvement on how he had been going lately.

While at South End, I think I convinced another (female) Melbourne fan of Vukovic’s swoon-worthiness… I’m trying to get opposition votes for him early should I decide to do the Best Looking Bloke Award again for the A-League! I do think that the Mariners have the best team, but that’s just my completely biased opinion, heavily weighted by one player.

Back to the football, McKinna’s done a great job for a team of players that may not have the individual technical brilliance that some individuals in other teams may have, but they’ve got a lot of heart. I don’t think there’s one player out there for the Mariners that McKinna would have to sub off because he wasn’t trying or didn’t feel like playing. The main reason why I think the Mariners have gotten off to such a great start, is that the team is largely unchanged from season 2, or even season 1! They’re quite a stable club, unlike current bottom team Sydney…

P.S. Looks like Central Coast have taken up the position that Queensland Roar had for me last year...

The tough ask

With Vukovic away on Olyroos duty, Matthew Trott had some awfully large shoes to fill. I'll admit that for the first hour of the match I wasn't particularly impressed with Trott; after all, I do hold Vukovic on a bit of a pedestal.

But then Trott made a wonderful save. Things were looking up for him in my books. A beautiful stretch out to the left to stop the header from Reinaldo and he parried even further to the left - away from the Queensland Roar strikeforce. I thought the lack of Wilkinson and Heffernan would have had a more destabilising effect on the defence. But with Vidmar fit and Brown in the line-up (whose amazing form at the end of the season had been forgotten about by me until I saw his name in the line-up) Central Coast were solid. The best part about Trott's save of Reinaldo's header, was that if he had not made it he had a defender backing him up. It was really nice to see after last week's sleepiness from Adelaide.

Later in the match, perhaps about 10 minutes to go there was another gorgeous save - low and to the left again went Trott. Well timed, and very secure. There were other saves during the match, but it's the saves that involve timing and really good form that I love to see.

I was converted, still think the world of Vukovic, but Trott's a great understudy. Now all I need is for Vukovic to do a dummy of the sort Trott did in injury time. He forced the Queenslander to commit to the ball by looking like he's going to kick the ball far, only to not do anything at all. Looked even better in the slow motion replay. It really showed his mind was ticking, good to see the boy has a fully functional brain. Whether he meant it to waste time or not is another matter (taking a goal kick eats up a bit more time, and I'm always on the hunt for new methods), but it showed great presence of mind. So good to see in such a young player.

More on why I hate assumptions in football

The first rule of life should be not assume anything. It's very applicable in football, and I've vented about it before. Last time, my rant was angled towards strikers (using Ronaldo as an example) and had a bit to do with the second ball. i.e. the ball the occurs when the keeper spills it, parries it, or if the ball hits the post.

This time I will rage against defenders. So many times in my playing days I was let down by my defenders, who would assume that I would safely deal with the ball. It was really only in my final full season that I played that I came across a defender who would always back me up (loved that sweeper to bits), and more often that not you'll see defenders slow down when the ball gets closer to the keeper. What I mean is, there's a shot, and once it's taken the defenders back off, preparing to receive the ball from the keeper once s/he has it. But what if the keeper doesn't end up with it?

When I got to my seat at Telstra Dome last night, Dad warned me about Sydney's first goal. No hello or how was work, just a "When you see Sydney's penalty you will fume." I suspected the worst - and when I saw the penalty, my fears were realised. No one should ever assume that a penalty will end with the kick itself. What if the shot hits the post or the 'keeper attacks it? The defence (and the attacking team) should be ready to run into the box as soon as the ball is hit. Not after you see that the ball is still in play.

Where were the Adelaide defence!? Alagich was the only one who reacted, and even then, you could have measured his reaction with a calender.

Oh so exciting!

Have I written about how happy I am for the A-League to be back yet?!?

So, the first match... Sydney vs. Central Coast
A rare Bolton error allows Gumprecht to intercept the ball, pass it off to Petrovski who does a fairly decent job of ensuring the ball gets to the far post and in for a goal. Anyone who's read my blogs realises that I'm far more interested in defences and particularly goalkeeping. With Vukovic in goals for the Mariners I really wasn't going to pay too much attention to the Sydney defence (which looked shakier than I expected!)

I'm a bit worried about Vukovic's goalkicks. Towards the end of the first half the ones from the right side of the goalbox kept veering off to the right and out of play. Then in the second half they weren't getting any distance! And then there was that moment when he came right of the box and my heart was in my mouth. I think everyone knows the moment when he came to the edge of the box for the initial save and then came right out for the second save - which he completely missed.

But he was otherwise awesome, especially when Juninho made that run in the first half down to the goalline and Vukovic kept covering - nice and low, stayed on his feet and didn't commit himself until he lost his balalnce. Juninho cut the ball back, can't remember who shot (Zadkovic?) and Vukovic was back on his line where he needed to be. I think he was a little annoyed that he lost his balance against Juninho, but I commend his effort in not committing and staying on this feet - top piece of work there.

Boogard and Wilkinson both had solid games, was very happy with them. However, my Dad pointed out that McKinna was a bit amateur regarding Jedinak marking Juninho for the whole of the match. Perhaps something for a post later down the track!

Let's move onto the refereeing. First, Talay should've been carded sooner - he was fouling all over the shop. Second, Heffernan's body check against Milligan needs to be dealt with. It's worse in the replay as you can see Heffernan keeping an eye on Milligan, waiting for the run towards him!

And while we're on referees... Queensland vs. Adelaide. What a dirty match! The thing that annoyed me most about this match was Tiatto stomping on Djite. IN FRONT OF THE ASSISTANT! And well, he's blind and perhaps deaf, he wants be a ref, but had to settle for waving a flag about. It was happening during last season too - assistants so caught up in determining if a player is offside or if the ball is out that they miss the things that occur right under their noses. It's really quite disgusting to see players get away with things such as that right in front of officials. Disgusting from the point of view of how inept our referees are!

Keeping things short - onto Wellington vs. Melbourne. I have not been very nice to Mr Theoklitos in the past (see labels Goalkeepers and Melbourne Rant), but I was willing to turn over a new leaf. This obviously will not happen - I completely blame the second Wellington goal on him (and what a turn around were Wellington in the last 15 minutes!).

I'll try to start positively - Muscat's penalty taking skills are well known, so I'll talk about the second goal. Awesome run by Keenan down the left flank. Has two Wellington players coming at him, slots the ball between them to play a one-two with a team-mate (I'll have to rewatch the match to remember). So that's two opposition players dealt with. Upon receiving the ball, we ducks and weaves past 2 and a bit players, falling down at that 3rd player and passing the ball off to Super Dan who ensure that it's a goal by slotting it past Moss. A total of 6 Wellington players dealt with between Keenan, the 'wall' player and Allsopp. Lovely sight that was. Beautiful finish too, but a wonderful run down the left flank. Unfortunately, aside from that gorgeous run I thought Keenan wasn't all that extraordinary...

Broxham was one of my top players from the match. Stocky and short, his low centre of gravity is going to make him a difficult player to stop when running at you. :)

I'm not too fussed about the first Wellington goal, a bit unlucky from the Melbourne player who headed the ball back to where Daniel was, and once that happened there was nothing that could really be done.

But the second goal... First Theoklitos comes out to the edge of the box for some reason. Broxham had his eye on the high ball, puts it under control and seemed to have the intention of playing it back to the keeper. By the time, Theoklitos was right next to Broxham, so there was no keeper to pass to! It means that Broxham had to do something quickly and played it out to the sideline. The resulting throw-in goes down the sideline and is knocked back into the goalbox. When the play is far away - say, outside the box, then the keeper has the time to be off his line. But as the play moves closer, the keeper ought to be on his line. I think there was more than enough time for Theoklitos to get back into his proper position. But he's so used to NOT being on his line... AARRRGGGHHH!!!! He ended up being about 2m off his line when the ball reached its target of Smeltz. Headed over the massive gap between the goal and the keeper - thank you very much!

Other things occurred too (Allsopp's handball comes to mind), but I have a pet hate of keepers not sitting on their line. The ironic part is that I used to do this all the time... shhh!

How to read penalties.

Of course, if the player is experienced, it's not so easy.

The following figure is taken from Alex Walsh's The Soccer Goalkeeping Handbook (1998):

Hopefully it won't be an issue using it, but it's very useful in posing the following question: if the first taker of the penalties MUST score in order to reduce the confidence of the opposition goalkeeper, increase the pressure of the opposing team and generally set a good example for the rest of his team - why did Kewell kick to the obvious side (position C in the above figure)?

I suppose you could ask the same of Neill - but he was knackered... and not the first taker.

And now for something completely different!

I was going to make you all do a "How well do you know me quiz", but this isn't MySpace, is it?

Anyway, we had a bit of a friendly today - my U/16s vs. the U/15s. There were 9 of us and 12 of them. Take a guess at who won. Then consider we played most of the second half with 8. Guess the score.

Well, we finished 4-0, not that they were spectacularly bad, we were outnumbered most of the time (but still managed to be competitive) and the main killer was a lack of subs - so the girls finished off knackered. There is a LOT that we need to fix up, and the most annoying thing is that my goalkeeper needs a lot of work, but I can't correct everything she does as I have to look after the whole team. It's quite frustrating.

Funniest moment of the day came when I overheard a couple of the U/15 parents... "I think we're going to do really well this year." I felt like retorting, "Yeah, if all the teams you play against have 8 players." Naturally I didn't, if I was a neutral I would've, but I don't want to be seen as a sore loser, especially since I didn't actually care about the result. How the girls played (or didn't play) was far more important.

There's so much to work on, I don't know where to start! Well, I actually do, because I'm naturally a defensive player - or like to build the game up from the back. But who's right at the back? The goalkeeper. Who I don't have time to fix. It's not just her physical performance that was frustrating to watch (she can't dive properly, take goal-kicks properly, lacks explosiveness and agility) but her decision making was awful! It's not something that can be easily corrected by training over and over and over again! And her talking. Ahhhh!!!!

A few moons ago I played at a club where I could not stand the coach. Loved the goalkeeping coach there, but the team coach drove me insane. One night at training he was trying to get the girls to push up immediately after that ball was cleared from defence. Not once the ball was safely at the feet of our midfield, but cleared from defence. Now, in my opinion, there were a few problems with this:

1. the girls lacked the discipline to push out together as a unit, not forgetting to leave anyone behind,
2. by pushing up you're risking not being able to quickly cover a ball if it's popped over, which could happen since...
   
3. you don't know what's going to happen to the ball.

So you could have the girls running up the park to push up, and the other team could control the cleared ball and pop it over the defence who at that point are running the opposite way. A bit silly. Who in the end has to fix up the bloody mess in such an event? Me, and the odds would be against me. Anyway, that night he and I argued over it until he used some foul language at me telling me that I wasn't the coach of the team and so I should just shut up. I stopped arguing with him but I was still fuming. A few minutes later I had goalkeeping training, which was a God-send that night.

My goalkeeper does the same in terms of her timing of the "push up" call. It's really like she can't read the game and doesn't know anything else. So the defense is preoccupied with the ball being in their area, and instead of trying to help them out by calling out who's unmarked or ways to remove the ball from defence but keep possession she tells them to push up. I got a bit tired of this and ended up yelling at the defence to stay where they were and to the goalkeeper that there was no point pushing up if the ball was still in the immediate area. I'm finding this sidelines thing annoying, and am worried at the idea of being confined to a technical area.

So my current problem is how do I transfer all my understanding of the game to the girls? There's so much to learn, and it's hard to praise for one thing when they don't do the next bit right, and you end up praising but they don't really understand the next part unless I stop the game and actually go through it. Something that I can't do during actual game time.

Anyway, I need to make a long list of all that didn't work today, and a short list of what did.

My left foot

Or rather, Bolton's left leg... was he playing injured?

Dad and I were watching the match and noticed Bolton didn't seem quite like himself. Tentative and half-hearted we initially suspected he didn't feel like playing. The reason Dad thought of was no Socceroo call-up. Seriously, looking at the number two goalkeepers that we've had playing in the past few friendlies we certainly couldn't do any worse than Bolton, or even Beltrame, in my opinion. Perhaps he'd gone into a "what's the point?" frame of mind...

And then he fumbled that ball for the second goal (the first also being a goalkeeper 'error' although in hindsight, an injured left leg would also have had a significant role in preventing Bolton from diving to the right considering you need some push off from the left). Something was definitely up.

His goalkicks and any free-kicks he too were all weak, his supporting leg behind the ball, with no follow through. Which, going on my left leg hypothesis, makes sense as putting a good follow through with the right leg means putting the body weight on the left leg. He was also taking his time with all the kicks, even at 2-2 (which in my opinion is 'losing' considering Sydney were playing at home).

And then there was a moment when I'm sure I saw Bolton land normally on his left leg, and quickly distributed the ball. As the camera panned away from him he was hopping about. A second fumble eerily similar to the second goal began to confirm the suspicions of my Dad and I. It was almost as if Bolton was making a real effort not to use his left leg for landing or pushing off - even if it cost Sydney a goal. Luckily this 'fumble' had some bounce so Bolton caught it one-handed.

I could be wrong, but I'd like your opinions. Not that I have a massive amount of readers or that any of you are as goalkeeper 'obsessed' as I am.

I'm still a bit gutted about Willis - sure he didn't sit on his line and lacked some assertiveness, but he had the makings of a decent 'keeper. The last thing I need today is for Bolton to be injured. C'mon Beltrame, let me finish today on a high.

Sob sob sob... not.

Alas, Queensland Roar have lost one of their swooniest players, and I am absolutely heart-broken!

Hahahaha.

I'm not really.

Seriously.

Oh come on, can't you see I was kidding?!?

Great, now I'm the laughing stock of blog-reading A-League fans everywhere.

Fine then, if you're not going to take me seriously, just read this then!

Hmmm... I wonder what kind of labourer he plans to be... might have to convince a couple of my friends now in Brisbane to use his services...

No, I am not obsessed. It's just too early in the morning.

Barbieri playing in the Foxtel Cup

Señor Random left a comment on this blog while I was on my post-A-League-final/going-back-to-uni hiatus regarding Melissa Barbieri playing in the Foxtel Cup Reserves.

I exhausted my commentary on the Melbourne Victory forum, but I don’t think I ever explicity said how I felt about a woman playing in the men’s league. I only ended up posting my thoughts on the forum because I thought the boys were being short-sighted, even though I agree with them on the general concept that Barbieri shouldn’t be playing in the men’s league.

Yes, you read that right.

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Football is a team event. The development of a player is dependent on their surroundings. In this sense, a ‘keeper can only be pushed as far as the opposition pushes them. The depth of quality in the Women’s Premier League isn’t all that far – so Barbieri has no way to be pushed to become a better player.

She even tried playing for the Preston Lions one season in an attempt to get more practice in game situations. While playing for her ‘true’ club, Box Hill Inter, she was hardly pushed to perform at her best because of the strength of the Box Hill team. Cranbourne (now Casey) Comets would have been the only real opposition.

So I understand the reasoning beching wanting to play in the men’s league, and I can understand why Matildas coaching staff, and possibly sponsors would want this to happen. I’ll admit if I was as her standard, it would be something that I’d pursue – although I’d take a different approach.

I’ll digress from the point here, but I think it will help the handful of readers understand where I’m coming from.

Playing with the men was something that I had more or less experienced in my short amateur goalkeeping career. The clubs that I’ve played at are irrelevant, but I’ll name them simply not to confuse myself and to give credit where it’s due to the goalkeeping coaches – some who I have forgotten their names. (I’m really REALLY bad with names.)

One of my first clubs was Mitcham – local club and the men played at Provisional League 2. Not one of the top leagues in Victoria, and perhaps the players aren’t as gifted as those that play Premier League, but very competitive nonetheless. While the goalkeeping coach that the club had there for a little while didn’t improve me technically like a later coach would, training with the guys increased my confidence dramatically. If you can save a decent hit by a guy, or have the confidence to take them one, you’ll be right with the women. Confidence does wonders for a goalkeeper – and I’m sure training with the guys helped me come out of my shell. To the outsider (i.e. non-‘keeper), I’m sure that was the season that s/he would declare that I had a screw loose.

A couple of years later, I played part of a season at Doncaster. Their women’s State 1 team had an average age of 15 or 16, was brand spanking new to football, and unsurprisingly was getting spanked by the opposition. There, they had a great goalkeeping coach (I’ve gushed about him elsewhere on this blog, but I won’t name him because I can’t remember the name of the Mitcham ‘keeping ‘coach’, so it wouldn’t be fair) and I trained with the State League 2 Men’s team.

Not only was Mark (oh, smeg it!) great, but training with the State 2 guys was an awesome experience. They were competitive during training, which pushed me, but they also looked after me, giving the appropriate feedback and advice when I needed it. When I completely stuffed up they would explain what I should have done, encouraged me to be more aggressive and to tell them where I wanted them positioned. That season was great for me in terms of development as a goalkeeper.

Bringing it back to Barbieri, I think she can get what she needs by training with the guys and perhaps by playing friendlies against men. Perhaps she has already tried it and found there to be no other way for her to become a better player than by joining a men’s Premier League team. But, by playing in the reserves league she has effectively taken the place of a promising youth.

I know she was cleared to play on a Friday afternnon, and played that very evening. So I really do feel for the reserves ‘keepers who’d been at pre-season, probably working their arses off, and then only one of them gets a chance to play – and even then, for only 45 minutes.

Regardless of how I feel about it, it’s been done now and best of luck to her. However I wish more luck to the kids* who are now not playing in the league that they deserve to.

*Reserves is U/21, so they’re younger than me, even if it’s only slightly. :oP

Musings on Adelaide vs. Newcastle

Short post for a change!

I was hoping Newcastle would win this match... and then the penalties came around, and I celebrated when Beltrame saved the first time around... and that's when I think I jinxed Newcastle. Sorry!

But really, Newcastle should have thought about their penalties after Beltrame came awfully close to Thompson's. Coveny took the fourth one, chose the same side and elected to place the ball. As everyone knows, Beltrame saved it. Musialik took the fifth (and final) one for Newcastle. Like Coveny, elected to place it to the left of Beltrame...

Two things:
1. Beltrame would have been getting awfully confident on that side.
2. If you're going to take a spot-kick, place it where the keeper won't get it (top corners) or blast it to give it some speed.

In other news, the Mariners now have the best-looking captain. Go Melbourne!

Be careful what you wish for.

Now, I wanted Newcastle to finish in the top 4, because I thought van Egmond had done a brilliant job turning the team around, getting them to play good football, and consequently bringing crowds back to matches. Essentially, Con Constantine would be mad not to keep him. As things turned out, Newcastle needed to beat Melbourne in the final round...

They smegging demolished us! And like the Queensland match last week, I'm furious at Melbourne.

Let's look at the first goal - Allsopp had the ball, was facing our goal, smothered in Newcastle players. Let's forget to ask where the hell our right midfield (did we have one?) and right-back were (smegging Lia - grrrr), that's another issue which I won't cover with any detail today...

Back to Danny - Leijer was facing him, but far too close to risk passing the ball too. Vargas was relatively free in the middle, with Bridge nearby, but at least he wasn't outnumbered. I think Allsopp did the right thing, to try an maintain possession - you're struggling on the right, let's switch play to the uncrowded left side, using Vargas as a pivot point. Bridge read the ball and applied pressure to Vargas. Vargas received the ball, and turned around to shield it without having touched or made any attempt to control the ball. So, when Vargas ended up completely mistiming whatever he planned to do, the ball had not changed its path whatsoever. Making it easier for Bridge to do something, and something he did do... Even a slight touch would have altered the path, thrown Bridge's run off, even only slightly, but perhaps enough for Roddy to get back in to it, or for Theoklitos to smother the ball. Grrrr grrrr stomp stomp.

The second goal... trying to remember... (do I want to remember?) No, I don't want to - this was the Lia moment of how he cannot be good example so he set out to be a horrible warning. Again, credit to Bridge for following the play, and not assuming Lia won't control the ball. In fact, you'd assume he wouldn't control it really as Lia is truly awful...

The third goal - Have I told you how I dislike Theoklitos? If you're going to come out from under your goal, you come out and attack the ball (and player), you don't reach 16 yards and decide to just stand there and watch Coveny. I don't care if you thought that you were going to be ineffective. Come out, put pressure on the player - perhaps by forcing him to rush the shot he'll miss! But no! Theo's chicken...

The fourth goal - I'm over it now. Do I have to go through the pain, because this was a shambles. Complete and utter rubbish. I think Theo was left standing in the middle of nowhere again here, but with two opponents breaking through what can you do? Well, you may as well pressure the one with the ball - as I said before, he may just stuff up!

It is unfair to solely blame the defence for what happened. I'm a believer in defending from the front, and a reason why I'm not an Archie Thompson fan is because too often he will lose the ball and not try to fight for it back. But the main problem we have is a lack of width. I had a Caceres/Storey/wingers rant last week. And how did Newcastle exploit us? They used the width. Fred, Muscat and Brebs play as central midfielders, and were largely absent during the game - effectively giving us no mid-field.

On the left we had Alessandro, backed up by Byrnes. I think Byrne's needs a confidence boost, he is capable of playing decent football, just not lately. Alessandro's been figured out by other teams and is no longer effective going forward, and was never effective coming back. On the right we had Lia. I think most of Newcastle's goals came from the right, via Lia... who was effectively unprotected by the midfield...

Anyway, I saw this match at a pub (the Royal Derby) with some lovely Victory supporters, instead of the comfort of my own home. And it was probably a little more difficult for me to follow the match as I was getting far more fired up than usual when it comes to away matches. This, combined with Queensland's loss has set up a pretty poor weekend for me - can it get any worse? Yeah... if Central Coast win tomorrow, Newcastle come second.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Going for Adelaide, two weeks in a row? Someone medicate me!

P.S. Very disappointed Steven Old didn't even feature as a benchwarmer.

The penalty against Newcastle

So I forgot to talk about the penalty in my previous post...

First, when it's a ball-to-hand incident, I am quite against awarding a penalty to the other team. Secondly, I thought Covic's footwork facing the penalty left much to be desired. To be honest, I considered that Colosimo would shoot to the left (i.e. 'keeper to dive to right) based on the approach he had to the ball (no angle) and that he's right footed. I don't like 'keepers to guess, but it can be read somewhat, roll the dice, eh? Just never guess during training.

Now back to Covic. Yes, he dived in the right direction, but he took a long time getting there. Why? Because his first move was a two-footed jump forward (to narrow the angle), followed by a push from the left foot to get to the right side of goal. Do it yourself, and you'll find it's two distinct movements. Considering it was likely that Colosimo would shoot to the right side of the goal ('keeper's p.o.v.), I would've taken one step forward with my left and then push off from that movement. Although it's still two moves, it can be far more fluid and consequently faster.

I suppose if Covic didn't read the kick or didn't want to gamble, then taking that two footed jump forward allowed him to reduce the angle and still gave him an option to go either left or right. However, since I did say out loud to my family to dive right, I'm not particularly happy with how Covic handled it. Heck, I could've been lucky to have 'guessed' which way Colosimo was going to shoot, but I doubt it. :-P Modest, aren't I? :-P :-P

Who's not biting their nails?

I had made some predictions for matches in earlier posts (here and here) as I had wanted certain teams in the top four and others out. Naturally, this has all come unstuck, partly because not all matches went my way and partly because I couldn't think of a single Sydney player I liked whereas I was very happy that Beltrame was back in goal. I also began the Adelaide vs. Sydney match going for Burns, but more on that later.

Round 20 began poorly for me, with the Kiwis unable to get 3 points and earning themselves the wooden spoon. Such a shame when considering their form of late... The Central Coast are now out, thanks to the kind of player every 'keeper wishes they had in their team - Richard Johnson. He also started the headwear trend for the round. Take away the on the line clearance and he still had a great game.

Edit at 10:40pm: Oh, and why did the CC keep shoulder charging Paston in situations where they had no chance to get the ball? It was ridiculous! And the fact that it was multiple players suggests that it was McKinna's doing...

I'll gloss over Friday night - great 'keeping display from Velaphi. Melbourne played so poorly I can't really commend Queensland, even if they had played well. Replay is on tomorrow, but I fear I'd end up in a foul mood again. Mori and Pantaledis carried on the headwear trend for the round (photo linked from mvfc.com), but took it too far such that no other player was game enough to try and up the ante on Panta, who had a nose that was still bleeding.

By comparison, I don't look that bad here now do I?
Except that my hair's far too short and a mess!

Anyway, back to the football... and the match that had me asleep for the first 22 minutes. Although I had wanted Adelaide out rather than Sydney, when the day came I decided that there was no player in the Sydney line up that I would cheer on as much as I cheer on Daniel Beltrame and Nathan Burns. Talented kid that Burns... Shame that he straightened his trailing leg during the match after he was tackled. Luckily Beltrame playing, making some great saves and reminding me of how in awe I am/was of Nigel Martyn. How can such a big guy get around so much? And when he lands - ouch! Hehe... I don't think Beltrame's as big as Martyn, and probably not as brilliant, but pretty damn good otherwise.

Regardless of how I was watching this match with a red eye, I was very disappointed in the number of opportunities Matthew Breeze gave Milligan. First Breeze pulls out a yellow for the mad Irishman, McFlynn. Next, Milligan fouls and only receives a talking to. An evil tackle here, and complete pulling of the man down there, and finally on his fifth offence after the warning Milligan receives his yellow. Should've easily been his second.

And if I bring up the officials, why not the linesman on the far side during the Perth/Newcastle encounter. Facing the sun, not wearing a cap, and paying too much attention to one thing to determine if a player is off-side or not. It's clear that most of our A-League assistants pay so much attention to just the ball that they miss everything else, including malicious tackles slightly off the ball and of course the off-sides. I feel sorry for Griffiths and Newcastle, especially as I wanted Newcastle to get a top four placing so that van Egmond would become the Newcastle coach.

Addition 10.25pm: I forgot to discuss the penalty. As it will be goalkeeper oriented again, I've made it a seperate post that is linked here.

Which brings me to a bit of a conundrum, and unfortunately Newcastle's going to lose out. Although we don't need the points, Melbourne must win this Friday to get a good run into the finals. As a result Sydney would be safe and Newcastle out. Even if Newcastle lose, I'd like Queensland to get a win at home, partly because they're playing at home and partly because I would also like them to get some momentum heading into the finals.

And on a final note, today I nick-named one of the lenses we use at work the Dilevski lens. No, I'm not obsessed, it just fits. It's an A-League thing, I even remember patients' names significantly better when I'm switching between computer systems if they remind me of players.