melbourne vic vs CCM – random thoughts

Melbourne looked dangerous at the start … but then CCM took over the midfield.  And it all just happened from there.  A deserved win.

CCM have a lot of haters.  And it is easy to see why.  But whatever the hell it is they are doing when they click – I like it.

They are not gonna win too many pass completion contests, or keeping possession contests … but they will win football games.  They did tonight.  They seem to move in packs, surging forward.  Past their own forwards. They just kept on kicking it forward, and going forward … and it worked.  Very comfortable without the ball.  Once they won the midfield battle, they didn`t have too much trouble with Hernandez and Thompson after that.

There is some nous and nice touches with a guy like Hutchinson about.  I like how Pedj Bojic plays at the base of the midfield – does a stack of defensive work, positions himself in front of the defenders, but when he sees an opportunity to join the attack, he does.  Unlike Grant Brebner. Nicky Travis gives them some run-at-defenders, comfortable-with-the-ball-at-his-feet X-factor.

And what`s with Muscat.  The guy looks almost as mad as a typical forum poster.  Baddam boop.

there`s no fullbacks!

I was thinking recently about the 4 centreback defence that Brisbane and the Aussie U20 squad used recently …

I know the people making these decisions are smart people , football people who understand more about the game than I ever will …

But I got curious about the thinking that goes into these choices.

Is it really a case of there being no fullbacks in Oz … or just not being happy with the ones that are available?  Too small.  Too slow.  Can`t hit a cross.  Not strong enough in the tackle. Not Dani Alves or Maicon.

I think they are out there.  Brisbane pulled Franjic out of state league – not only did they find a better full back than Luke De Vere (the centre back they were playing out there), I think he is better than the team`s first choice right back – Andrew Packer.  There isn`t a left back in the state league that could do a better job than Josh Mcloughan on the left?  There has gotta be one out there.  Or converting players is a choice.  I think that if Mike Zullo ever gets back onto the field, I would be interested to see him try the left back slot.  In the NT neither Chippers or Carney played in defence before …

But these aren`t stupid people making these choices – i think that a trade off is being made – choosing a bit more defensive solidity and height at set pieces (by choosing centrebacks) rather than getting better playing out from the back and support for the attack (the fullbacks).

I think I can understand why they make this choice, but don`t necessarily agree with it.

sydney v welly thoughts

Just recovering from a saturday night of bar hopping, so this is probably all a bit random. 

I am a big Mark Bridge fan.  But I also realise that he doesn`t consistently use his talents through most games.  If he could take his best moments from say, 3 games, and jam them into 1 game, he probably wouldn`t be in the A-league.  But he can`t.  I have similar thoughts about Travis Dodd.  But right now, Bridge is producing more good moments than he usually does. 

Alex Brosque is not “fast”.  Had to giggle when I saw the commentators raving about his speed.  Ben Sigmund is slow.  Brosque is one of the few A-league players who can run with the ball at their feet though.  It was a hell of a goal.  If he keeps on playing like this, I don`t think his coach will mind how many goals he ends up with this season. 

Leo Bertos is another player who can run with the ball at his feet.  Pity he doesn`t do it more.  If I was more of a caps lock using angry internet man I might call him a waster.  LEO BERTOS U UTTERLY ANONYMOUS TALENT WASTING TYPE PERSON!!! AAARGH!!! 

I miss seeing Danning on the park, but it is hard to argue with a functioning, solid 11 that is doing a good job atm. 

John Aloisi`s role is to remind Brosque and Bridge that if they have a bad run they are heading for the bench.  He isn`t bad, he just doesn`t add much to the team.  IMHO.

Time to teach my morning classes.

the happiness of the danes

Or was it the Norwegians?  One or the other.

Anyways, some researcher made a “happiness” league table of countries, and the Danes came out on top.  It seemed that the reason was the Dane`s thoroughly glum outlook on life.  If you expect bad things to happen then you won`t spend much time stressing or feeling bad when they do.  A gross oversimplification, but close enough I figure.

I feel a lot of glumness on the interwebs re Aussie soccer atm.  The crowds are down.  The socceroos are dour.  Your team (perhaps) sucks.  The general quality of the A-league sucks (depending on your opinion).

The glumness can be beaten in several ways.  One way, the least likely way, is for the environment to change – crowds go up, the socceroos go roy-of-the-rovers-ish, your team goes r-o-t-r-ish, or A-league games start looking like my games of Pro Evo Soccer Wii. This is the LEAST likely thing to happen.

Choice 2 – find another hobby or team.  Mr Hamish pointed out that Brisbane fans have the chance to support a very talented, successful, not-dysfunctional womens team at a good stadium at a good price.

Choice 3 – Re-adjust your expectations.  One theory is that sadness is caused by a gap between reality and what you expected to happen. The Danes don`t have to do this, they were expecting a flying a dinosaur to shit on their heads this morning.  Or something else like that to happen.  Your team sucks.  Is your glumness caused by their suckiness, or by your earlier expectation/hope that they would “ROCK!!!”?  I argue that it tis the expectations that cause the glumness.  Adjust them and that smile will come back.

Choice 4 – Madly find silver linings.  Woohoo!  A-league crowds are down!  Now the plastic new “franchises” have to give up some of their smugness and really work at relationship building with fans / communities (not looking at you CCM, you sound rather nice).

I am doing a bit of choice 4, but I am mainly into choice 3 atm.  So, lets have a cup of tea and enjoy some footy, shall we?

PS.  Just watched the highlights of Welly vs GCU.  How many times do you hear the phrase “they could have had 6 goals before the break”?  Faint praise as it highlights the dominant teams lack of putting-the-ball-in-the-net-ness.  Bravo Welly for turning dominance into goals.  Will they tonk another team this year?  I have a feeling it is quite possible.

why can`t he always write like this?

sometimes fozzie seems like a rational, normal person -

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/football/a-league/crowds-will-grow-from-grass-roots/2009/10/24/1256147922636.html

 

if you have ever used the word “cynical” when talking about football …

Then you are probably a bit naive, aren`t you?

the joy of 6

I rather enjoyed this collection of team goals

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jul/17/joy-of-six-great-team-goals

I like the Southhampton goal best.

4 – 2 – 3 – 1 bad, 4 – 4 – 2 good?

Well, no.   I read a Mike Cockerill piece over at SMH this morning that gave the impression that 4231 is defensive and 442 is offensive.  Silly me for reading Mike Cockerill?  Well, yeah.  But I hadn`t had my coffee yet, so the brain wasn`t fully switched on …

Holland uses a very attacking 4231.  Japan uses the same formation and never looks overly cautious.   The 2006 WC winners Italy used a solitary striker; whilst not a magical side, they weren`t the most defensive side there.

So the formation isn`t Australia`s problem.  What is the problem, IMHO, is the personnel being used and what they are doing on the park.  For example, 2 defensive midfielders who stay in front of the central defenders for the whole match is defensive.  If one of them got forward sometimes, suddenly it is an attacking formation.

Reading Mike Cockerill reminded me of how much I enjoy reading Jonathon Wilson`s writing over at the Guardian.  If you like reading about how football teams work, and why, then you should check his stuff.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonathanwilson

Crowd numbers matter …

because …

I think that underneath the discussions about A-league crowds are a set of deeper, unstated beliefs that are not being aired.

The main unstated belief is that the A-league will become one of Australia`s mainstream spectator professional leagues, with similar support as the NRL and the AFL.  The flipside to this belief is that not becoming as big a professional league as the NRL or the AFL would be a bad thing.  A disaster.

I don`t think that not becoming as big as those other spectator leagues would be a disaster.

The continued growth of the A-league is not pre-ordained.　　Things may stay pretty much as is – a couple of teams with nice plus 15,000, while the rest of the league flirts with 8,000 to 10,000 crowds.  As long as the teams are well run and stable.

Now that the national setup is all Dutch, it is instructive to think about the Dutch league.  Their best players don`t play at home.  The Eredivisie is in the 2nd tier of Euro leagues.

So perhaps our professional league has a more humble future in store.  Our best will continue going to Europe when they are young.  Less talented pros will get a chance to make a living in the Euro 2nd and Asia.  The A-league will be like the Brazillian or Portuguese leagues – small crowds – young players, old players and those who never quite had it.  Perhaps. Its not that bad, is it?

different forms of cheating are acceptable in different cultures; we are conditioned to think that “our” players do not take part in the cheating we abhor

Idea 1

They dive.

We are thugs.

Both are forms of cheating.

We are blind to our own preferred form of cheating.  When “we” play a game against “them”, usually we will complain about their diving.  We will also ignore any of our kicking “them”, hectoring the referee or other forms of cheating that are acceptable in our culture.  They will complain about our thuggishness and ignore their team`s diving.  I just spent 10 hours riding / trying to sleep on the overnight bus from Tokyo to Osaka – I am incapable of thinking of examples.  Hey internet, go find some examples for me.

Idea 2

We get so used to saying “they dive, but we don`t”  that we start to believe that “our” players are incapable of diving, and you can`t see it when they do.  The English are so used to thinking like this that they are incapable of realising that Rooney and Gerrard have used diving to help their teams.  Are their Aussies that dive?  Cool, I made an example.