Fred and Greg Owens

I feel like writing about football again, but don’t have that much match material to rant about. So until the next ACL match, I think I’ll go over a few issues that have popped in the A-League and Australian football since that one-sided affair of Feb 18, 2007.

Just quickly, I’ll comment that I thought 6-0 was overkill. As much as I love Melbourne Victory, I’m a football fan first and foremost. I would have preferred to have seen a closely contested match where the fan would have been biting their nails, rather than the ruckus that was the final. Briefly, I preferred our 2nd leg semi-final win over Adelaide. It was more heartbreaking for the opposition. :)

Now onto the topic of the moment, Fred. Mike over at the Football Tragic has already commented on this. In short, the A-League is meant to be a professional league. Players, much like employees in any other company, will want what’s best for them. In Fred’s case, DC United have offered Fred the kind of financial security that A-League simply cannot offer due to salary cap restrictions.

There is no doubt that Fred was an amazing player, but the reality is that the A-League has a salary cap in order to be sustainable. The cap also create an even playing field across the whole league, preventing a cashed-up club from buying all the best players, and creating a closely contested competition. Clearly Perth and New Zealand had teething problems.

Back to Fred. A move to the US is also an opportunity to raise his young family closer to home. This is something that Central Coast has been able to offer Greg Owens. It has not gone done too well over at the Adelaide forum (it’s a similar response to that regarding Fred at the Melbourne forum…)

I hope that the two of them are happy where they are, or will be, going. Especially in the case of Owens, who had a horror February 18 but otherwise has the ability to pay much better football – if he keeps his head in check.

While I’m on Owens and his awful A-League final, I’ll just jump up and defend him for a moment. Regardless of if he was injured or not, or if he was injured and should have played or not, I don’t think left-back is quite the right position for a hot-headed, attacking-minded player like Owens.

P.S. Do you like my new Melbourne-ised look? :)

Sydney are back!

I'm back too! It's been a while, but you can't get rid of me that easily!

I’m quite excited about this (as in Sydney's return to being decent), I was quite worried that they would be very poor representatives of the A-League, and consequently make our league seem like a joke! But to play in some style when it mattered most – away, in their first Asian Champions League match – wooooooooo! Luckily for everyone*, Culina has done an excellent job in moulding a team that plays free-flowing football.

But first, let’s go to the Adelaide match against Shandong Luneng Taishan (from China). Shandong started with blistering speed, and scored early. Fortunately for Adelaide, the assistant referee incorrectly deemed it as offside and the referee disallowed the goal. Every single other offside flagged by the assistant was spot-on though, and I’m assuming he hadn’t ‘warmed up’ yet with respect to the first one. I have to give Adelaide some credit for what they did next. Adelaide were completely out of the match, simply because of the speed that Shandong played their game. So when they had possession, Adelaide slowed the game right down to try and establish their own rhythm. Alright, so in the grand scheme of things this tactic didn’t really work. But aside from the own goal, Shandong were never really convinving winners… unlike Sydney…

It really was a sight to behold. I haven’t visited the Sydney forums yet, but I don’t particularly feel the need to. I hope the fans are happy. Not that I though Butcher was all that bad (anyone who plays at a World Cup is a semi-hero to me), and I didn’t find Sydney particularly fun to watch, but woah! Their football last night was smooth! Whatever Culina’s done, I’m a very happy football fan. I think Carney had a lot to do with it – he seems to be back to his best, and it made a difference.

Favourite moment was a draw between the start of the first goal and Talay’s completely surprised and excited face after he scored. I think Carney’s interception of the ball that was played back by Shanghai to the defender was lucky. But sometimes luck is all you need, and by attempting to get that ball Carney did more than some other players would have. And it was the fact that he intercepted the ball and it was the intercept that started the goal that made it one of my can’t-stop-grinning faces. Add the great 2nd touch to control the ball, and the perfectly timed pass in front of Corica, so that Corica could run onto the ball – beautiful stuff.

Talay’s shot was awesome. My jaw hit the floor and then I was grinning from ear to ear. But what I really liked was Talay’s excitement and slight-disbelief that he scored. I think not having any A-League matches has had a serious effect on my emotional senses – a Melbourne fan, happy because Sydney was playing well and winning!

Anyway, I only saw the first half as I really needed to get to bed. Call me weak, meh, at least Sydney didn’t concede while I was awake. Speaking of conceding… Valkanis… enough said I think. Well, not quite, perhaps Beltrame could have done more with the cross, or actually, perhaps Beltrame could have done something about the cross, so that it wasn’t touched by the Shandong player. There were a few great saves from Beltrame. Bolton also had a solid first half from what I saw and a good second half from what I read – even though he did concede one.

Sorry to regular readers who may have expected a different kind of post, but I’m just warming up again.

For a better review than what I've just knocked up, visit the Football Tragic.

In the meantime, Adelaide can look forward to these conditions on April 25th…


*Sydney fans, A-League supporters (as in those who support the A-League and want the A-League to succeed, even if it's at the [short-term] expense of their team), and other supporters who don't yet know what's good for them.

P.S. I'm meant to plug something, but I'm yet to give it a listen myself, so I won't be plugging it yet! (Sorry)

P.P.S. No Costanzo gushing today, he wasn't as spectacular as he had been, but I think the move up the field isn't the best for him. Still, he put it a good performance, and Adelaide don't really have the players to put in there... I also though Djite did a decent job of playing alone up front, and I agreed with the tactic.

P.P.P.S. Branko, can you please do something about your defence? Middleby's quick, but short (I wonder if he could ever attempt a header?) and lacks some strength. Topor-Stanley's the opposite - strong but slow. I can't really think of a solution at the moment except for the inclusion of Zadkovich on the right - he wasn't too bad under Butcher (muttered under breath).

Photos from the final...

I've made a conscious decision not to write about the final. I'm still too damn happy!

Though perhaps some of the yellows Adelaide copped were a bit harsh given that the refereeing was of it's usual dismal A-League standard. And I think that fourth goal was off-side. Regardless, Adelaide didn't have a chance.

Enjoy the slideshows!

First up, the 'general' show....

And this is a higher-resolution slide show on the magical wintery flare! I can imagine faeries and elves popping out from the cover... wearing navy blue...

See you all next season... meh, perhaps not - I think I'll follow the ACL, and naturally the Asian Cup - you haven't got rid of me yet!!!

The A-League Final: Melbourne vs. Adelaide

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I even cheered on Theoklitos this evening! But never fear, it's only temporary. I'll be back to normal by 10pm when I watch the replay.

The "best looking bloke in the A-League" has been found/calculated/whatever!

Well, I’ve finally figured out who’s the “Best Looking Bloke in the A-League” in the A-League… well, kinda...

These are some of the problems that I found along the way:

1. Not so serious nominations. This lead to the installment of Steve Eagleton as the Newcastle representative.
2. Lack of participation. This meant that some teams unfairly voted against their player in the end if their participation in the poll was high but the polls of other forums (where their players were) was not so high.
3. Multiple voting. i.e. Not being able to vote for your player at your forum but voting for your player at another forum.
4. Stuffing up the Perth poll. I didn’t put Che Bunce as an option, but did put Colosimo. Guess who got the most votes there.
   

Dealing with these problems wasn’t easy. I decided that problem #3 was completely out of my control, and I figured that if one forum/team did it, then the others would too. In the end, it’s kinda fair…

Problem #2 was fairly evident. As you can see in the spreadsheet below, Melbourne and Sydney forums had the most active participation. And so were giving lots of votes to other teams without really receiving any for theirs (fair enough too, considering the Sydney and Melbourne reps!) The Newcastle forum involved posts urging the boycott of the poll as Eagleton was not an option to them, as I tried to remove any ‘home’ team bias. This works well in a raw data form, because they didn’t end up giving many votes to Eag’s competition.So while I had said on each forum:

I'll cumulate all votes once the polls finish. One vote on one forum = one vote on another forum.

I’ve changed my mind. Muahahahaha! No, it’s only fair. I had an idea that I mentioned in each forum initially, and have modified it. The original idea:

I did consider a percentage modified count, where I'd consider crowd numbers at matches, but as this isn't reflected in the forum participiation I've decided against it.

So I’ve designed a percentage modified count where I’ve considered poll participation numbers!

If you look at the first Excel sheet, above, column J shows the raw number of votes and K, the percentage of votes for each player. Rows 12 and 13 show the number of votes from each forum in a total number and percentage formats. Column M is the product of the percentage vote of each player multiplied by the participation percentage for his ‘home’ forum.

i.e. Greg Owens from Adelaide’s adjustment score is the product of 15.5 (the percentage of votes he got from all forums) and 15.5 (the percentage of votes Adelaide forumites put in compared to all forums.)

This means that Che Bunce automatically came last as I didn’t put a poll up in the New Zealand forum as they weren't all that receptive in the first place. As a result, this also helped out problem #4, because it didn’t matter how many votes Perth may have given him. Making this 'adjusted score' also somewhat rectifies a bit of problem #2 - a vote on another forum increases that forum's participation percentage and consequently the adjusted score for that forum's 'home' player.

However, Colosimo still had votes at Perth. Lucky for me, the Perth participation was so low that he came 2nd-last regardless of if I did or didn’t count his votes from the Perth forum (compare Excel sheets 1, above, and 2, below.) In fact, the adjusted rankings didn’t change at all for any players!


So there are actually two winners for the "best looking bloke award!" One based on raw data, as promised on each of the forums. The other based on the method outlined above. The charts below show the results. A and B include the votes given to Colosimo by the Perth forum, C and D do not. The A and C are the raw data, the B and D shows data from the adjusted score method.


So our winners are...

Danny Vukovic and Greg Owens!

Our "raw data" winner: Danny Vukovic (what's not to like about a goalkeeper?)
A good player, always switched on, seems to have quite a bit of character.

Oh, and is kinda cute too.

I'll make it known that I voted for him on the MV forum as a bit of a oh I can't decide but the Central Coast have got good taste as they only voted for Wedau and Owens why not give my vote to Danny as he's quite cute kind of vote.

And on when CC nominations were up I selected Alex Wilkinson over Danny. Sorry, couldn't resist putting this picture up - I only just found it! Good defender too - and definitely the cutest A-League captain.







Our "adjusted score" winner: Greg Owens (has a bit of a rash temper when he's playing, but if we're just looking I suppose it doesn't matter that he scored against us. Not that it matters any more.)

You can see that he's not a bad looking sample of an A-League player here on the left...









But Greg, covering up your face isn't going to help us!

And it's really quite difficult to look away when he's got that grin...

Note: all pictures linked to their appropriate homes on the A-League club sites.

P.S. Allsopp looked REALLY good at Fed Square today, but no, the Tards had to pick Vinnie Lia... and where'd he come in the raw data? LAST! Buahahahahahaha! Can't say too much really, he ended up beating Spase in the adjusted score, but I think that has more to do with the high participation rate of MV. Maybe I should have adjusted the participation rate with crowd numbers, so that smaller clubs 'get a chance.'...

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!

Oh how I hate indecision and assumption in football!

Quite a long post, which I haven't seperated. I suggest you make yourself a nice cup of coffee, and sip while you read! Hmmm... coffee...

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Over at A Seat at the A-League, John has written a nice post regarding some discussion on sport and football. While there's nothing in for me to add to this, there was a comment about Ronaldo that triggered a reminder for me - one of my pet hates...

Stupid bookings are easily my number 1 pet hate. Mickey-Mouse passes would come second, and tied, slightly ahead or slightly behind would be indecision and assumption.

Taken from A Seat at the A-League, is the following slab of text, which I've marked with numbers for my purposes.

(1) Malcolm also talked about how people who study a subject deeply and gain extensive practical experience develop an ability to tap into their unconscious to made very fast and accurate decisions. Here he used the example of Ronaldo who will take a striking opportunity instantaneously, without conscious thought, by drawing on all his experience and training. (2) And that if he did think about the shot then someone would have the time to take the ball from him. Or as we often see in the A-League, a player creates a fantastic opportunity, and then takes time to think about his shot and powers it straight to the goalkeeper or wide

Part 1: Assumption, and why it doesn't belong in football

While the way to deal with some situations is it to draw on experience and training, I'd be more inclined to apply the 'without conscious thought' to goalkeepers. While the aim of football is to score goals, the 'keeper is very much an antagonist, trying to stop any goals. Training is needed to ensure technical proficiency; experience is used to read the game to try to anticipate what will happen next. Sometimes the 'guess' is incorrect, and the keeper is wrong-footed. It's vital that the read the game is read sufficiently well to not be wrong-footed, and to not concede a goal. Sometimes a strike can be so good that reflexes are required, and this is when I consider a 'subconscious' event occurs - it's pure instinct. In fact, I'd regard a good keeper as someone who naturally has the instinct to go after the ball however it's been kicked/headed/hand-of-Godded, rather than someone who follows the textbook so closely they don't know what to do when there's a variation.

Ronaldo, on the other hand, is an opportunist. Sure, experience and training both play a vital role in making him the brilliant goal-scorer that he was, but most of his game is played consciously. He has the upper hand on his main opposition (the other team's keeper) because he has more of an idea of what's going to happen. He will spend most of his game time moving into the right positions, making space, 'anticipating' the play that should happen because it's been practised to death at training. What made Ronaldo such a good opportunist is that he knew where he had to be. Sometimes the play would work and a goal would be scored. But sometimes it didn't work - a misguided pass, a defender's interception, whatever. And his role in the team was to finish off those moves.

If you cast your minds back to the World Cup of 2002, in the final Ronaldo scored both goals. Try and remember the first one - it was a shot (from Rivaldo?) that Kahn should have held onto comfortably. Unfortunately Kahn spills it (his first error of the Championship and to do it in the final, I feel for him) and Ronaldo scores from it. Why? Because Ronaldo asked himself, “What if?”* What if Kahn doesn't get it? What if Kahn fumbles it? I should be there. And he was. Kahn fumbled the ball. Goal.

It's not that Ronaldo reacted to Kahn spilling the ball, it's that Ronaldo was already there. And as such I can't say it was 'subconscious.' Heck, even Ronaldo's presence in the area, putting pressure on Kahn to hold onto the ball, taking away time could've had an affect on Kahn. I doubt it considering Kahn's steely nature and experience, but you never know.

In short, Ronaldo did not assume that Kahn would hold onto the ball. No matter how good a keeper is, you can’t assume they’re going to be perfect 100% of the time. Especially if there is an opponent lurking, defenders should support their keeper as much as they expect the keeper to perform and as a result support them. And it’s not just at goal-scoring opportunities. The ball can be won at any time, even when the opponent has the ball at their feet. If the opponent doesn’t know what to do with the ball, or has only decided what to do after he has received it, it gives time and an opportunity for the ball to be won.

Alternately, if you have the ball, make sure you know what to do with it. Don’t be indecisive… which leads onto…

Part 2: Indecision and why it needs to go from football

The difference between most of our A-League players and top-notch players is essentially time. A good player will always have time to do what he wants with the ball. Not because his opponent gives him time, but because he makes the time for himself.

So a good player is very aware – he knows where his opponents are on the field, where his team-mates are, and of course where the ball is. When he doesn’t have the ball, the player should be creating space for himself, or creating space for team-mates by drawing out an opposing player from the area where the ball may be. When a team-mate has the ball, the player should position himself to receive the ball, and he should know what to do with the ball before he receives it. That is to say, when he does not have the ball, the player should have already considered his options in the event the next pass in the team is to him. This gives the player time, because he has to control the ball and can pass immediately or take on a player straight away because he knew what he was going to do. If it’s a pass, he can talk to his target player as the ball is being passed from the initial ball-possessor to our main player, perhaps while to ball is being controlled, and then before the pass is completed the target player knows what is going on, or at least to expect the ball.

The not so good player will receive the ball, control it, and once the ball is under his control will look up and assess the situation. Perhaps he’ll take one or two or three or four more touches on the ball before he decides to do something. With all these touches the opposition is getting closer, and taking away space from the player with the ball. Putting pressure on him to do something. If the pressure’s too great, perhaps the player with the ball misguides his pass, or touches the ball bit too far out of his reach.

Experience is an essential component of ensuring one knows what to do with the ball. Knowing how a defender will try to block you from approaching the goal can be turned into an advantage if you know he will jockey/guide you towards the line. You may figure that by pushing the ball to the outside of play and quickly stepping/rolling** it back in you could effectively throw the opposing defender and give yourself some time to pass the ball off. Speed is important in football – not just physically, but mentally too – which is why I love playing it so much.

And there are some players who I start to swoon over, not because they’re good looking, but because of a play. Whether it was an extraordinary control of the ball (eg. a cushioning and push in a different direction, all in one movement), a good turn (Nicky Carle has a bag of these), or the ultimate way to make-Cecilia-adore-you: the through-ball. Vision and precision. I’m in love.

Hahahaha – seriously, I love passes amongst a team, it’s what makes football enjoyable to watch – even if the game ends up as a scoreless draw. When a through-ball works it’s almost magical – you’ve beaten an opponent (or two), and found your team-mate, ideally put the ball in front of his run so he can maintain speed and if a goal’s scored you have an assist. If he misses you can yell at him! Well, if he skies it or passes it to the keeper, yell at him. A good save or narrow miss is little different. :)

Sorry about the length, but I hope it was mildly educational. For the weekend, best of luck to Newcastle (to win and meet us next week) and to the Victory (to stay injury-free).

Oh yeah, and may Greg Owens be pictured sipping coffee on TV again, and may he not cop any elbows, punches or kicks to his face a cute smile.

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*Well, I’d like to think he did.

** You know, you put your foot on top of the ball and then roll it to where-ever you want. In Spanish it’s “Pisar la pelota.” I don’t know if there’s a term for it in English – step on the ball? How about an example (haven't done one of these in a while...):

Riquelme. He loves to step on the ball. He actually loves the ball. i.e. he's a ball hog - a bit to greedy for my liking, but a good example.

As I said, don't like Riquelme - not enough of a team player for my liking. He also played for Boca. Well, at least it wasn't River.