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Round ball code talk

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Its not FFA's fault that the President of FIFA was a crook.... we were robbed. I guess Qatar had the money to spend on new stadiums and to line the pockets, we didn't I imagine.

Didn't deserve to be ripped off.....

Simon Hill has a huge grudge....having said that, I agree that a lot more funding should be made available only if there is going to be a good return for the investment. If that 45mil spent won us that bid 2022, the returns would have been 10 fold, minimum, in Sydney alone.

However there was a great sigh of relief coming from AFL HQ's.

Not sure we would have got it anyway. A mate of mine worked on the SA component of the Australian bid and said the Poms submission blew ours out of the water.
 
No but it doesn't surprise me. Parents are paying up to $3,000 for annual lessons for kids as young as 8 for high end technical training like the Coerver Coaching method clinics. For many many years the money in soccer in Oz has been at the bottom end and not the top of the game. The lure of big $$$ in Europe has always seen parents spend up big on the kids to chase that dream.
Concur here, small sample but my European brother in law enrolled his then 5 yr old son in a clinic, not 3k but in excess of 1. Interestingly he spent no time whatsoever training or practicing with his son himself despite being semipro in a Nordic league back home. Said this is normal where he's from & didn't understand the benefits of having a kick with your child, like I do with my boys, as experts are better equipped to teach youngsters. Like I said small sample but perhaps this is the norm in other cultures.
 
A late first half goal has the Socceroos up 1-0 in Tehran.

We were lucky to be up at half time, and the lead pulled back in the second. 4 big games left. 3 at home and one in Japan. The game against UAE (Sunday?) is massive.
 

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Is it possible that Leicester could be relegated to the Championship the year after winning the EPL? After 23 games the team that is 3rd from the bottom(Crystal Palace) has 19 points and a -9 goal difference while Leicester has played 23 games also, has 21 points and a -14 goal difference.
3 games ago they were only out of the relegation zone on goal difference but have since won 3 on the trot and are 4 points and a 22 goal difference away from relegation.

The quarter-final against Atletico Madrid will be the third time Leicester has faced this team, and they have faced them in every European tournament they have played. In 1961-62 they played the European Cup-Winners Cup and lost to Atletico Madrid in the first round after beating Glenavon in the preliminary round.

In 1997-98 theu played Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Cup and again lost in the first round.

In 2016-17 they will be playing in the quarter-finals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_City_F.C._in_European_football
 
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We were lucky to be up at half time, and the lead pulled back in the second. 4 big games left. 3 at home and one in Japan. The game against UAE (Sunday?) is massive.
Did you see the couple of chances we missed in the second half? one before Iran scored and a Mooy pass was missed by two players inside the 6 yard box, one got a brush of a toe on the ball and the player it went thru to didn't react quickly enough and mis hit it wide, and then in either the 89th or 90th minute an Iranian defender on the goal line cleared a shot on goal with a header, after the keeper must have got 10 yards from the goal line to make a mickey mouse clearance punch and was left stranded and a Socceroo player had a strike on goal. I didnt see much of the first half, but like Iran we had enough chances to win it in the second half.
 
Did you see the couple of chances we missed in the second half? one before Iran scored and a Mooy pass was missed by two players inside the 6 yard box, one got a brush of a toe on the ball and the player it went thru to didn't react quickly enough and mis hit it wide, and then in either the 89th or 90th minute an Iranian defender on the goal line cleared a shot on goal with a header, after the keeper must have got 10 yards from the goal line to make a mickey mouse clearance punch and was left stranded and a Socceroo player had a strike on goal. I didnt see much of the first half, but like Iran we had enough chances to win it in the second half.

You're right, we did create chances, especially in the last 5-10 minutes. We had the better skilled players on the pitch but if the Iranians has 10%, maybe even 5%, better skills, we may have been in trouble.

There was an instance late on where I think Troisi was heading into the box, and I thought he was going to shoot, passed the ball wide to Mooy (again I think it was as I was getting tired at that point) who also had a chance to shoot but again tried to pass the ball into the middle and they cleared the ball.

On a pitch like that I believe you need to test the keeper out whenever you have half a chance. You never know what will happen.
 
You're right, we did create chances, especially in the last 5-10 minutes. We had the better skilled players on the pitch but if the Iranians has 10%, maybe even 5%, better skills, we may have been in trouble.

There was an instance late on where I think Troisi was heading into the box, and I thought he was going to shoot, passed the ball wide to Mooy (again I think it was as I was getting tired at that point) who also had a chance to shoot but again tried to pass the ball into the middle and they cleared the ball.

On a pitch like that I believe you need to test the keeper out whenever you have half a chance. You never know what will happen.

I watched us largely dominate the first half, but yes on balance we were lucky to be up at half time. I don't know if we decided to try and protect the lead but we were (unconvincingly) defending for the second half until we went behind (Iran should've had a penalty for handball too). Then we seemed to get some urgency in the end.

It was disappointing and will need to be a much better performance at home on Tuesday. We have 3 of our last 4 at home, including the last against Thailand. We probably need to win the other two otherwise we're into a 3rd place play-off into a x-confederation tangle.
 
I'm not convinced we're going to be good enough to qualify this time around. I know we're still undefeated in this qualifying phase but some of the draws have been pretty unconvincing and we seem to lack firepower and the ability to control games for long periods of time.

And I think we are pretty much totally reliant on Mooy in the middle of the park. If he isn't involved we really struggle to put any sort of meaningful play together.
 

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Near the end of the game there had been 32 fouls in total but no yellow cards. Then the next five fouls resulted in yellow cards, the fifth of those, where a UAE player attempted to kick the ball off a Socceroo's head, was nearly serious enough to warrant a red card.
 
Just saw that last week Brazil beat Paraguay 3-0 and are the first team to qualify for the world cup. diegodcg must be happy! Another World Cup to attend. With 4 games left to go in the South American qualifiers the worst Brazil can do is finish 2nd of 4 automatic qualifiers. Argentina is struggling a bit and is 5th placed at the moment. My first thought was if we finish 3rd in the group and then have to play the other 3rd placed Asian team in the other group and beat them we will have to beat the Argies to get in. But thankfully if we don't automatically qualify but get thru by being the 5th Asian team, we play home and away against the 4th CONCACAF team for the final qualifying stage which at this stage is the USA.

The Kiwis - who will win Oceania confederation group - will have to play the Argies or whoever ends up being the 5th placed South American team.
 
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Brighton and Hove Albion have beaten Wigan 2-1 and with Derby holding Huddersfield to 1-1 they will be promoted to the Premier League for the first time. Reading are 1 point closer to Brighton but have one less game in hand. With Newcastle's last two games being a draw and a loss they are not promoted yet. Newcastle can ensure promotion with two wins even if Huddersfield win all their remaining games.

The promotion will mean an additional 300 million pounds.
 
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Just watched the Manchester City v Crystal Palace game. The result was never in doubt although Manchester City ended the first half only 1-0 up and Palace had had a few good attacks and one shot on goal which drew a very good save. City had 26 shots and eventually won 5-0, most of the goals were from long range but the last was a diving header close to goal.
West Ham have pretty much shut the door on Tottenham's slight hopes of challenging Chelsea with a 1-0 win. At the other end of the table Swansea City have got out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 win over Everton while they were replaced by Hull City who lost 0-2 to Sunderland, who are already going down.
The teams who will be in the European Champions League have not yet been decided, Manchester United are 4 points out of qualifying but have a game in hand while Arsenal are 9 behind the qualifying teams but have 2 games in hand. Manchester United has Arsenal away today, if they do not win that one they will likely play in the Europa league.
 
Not a fan of either side but I hope The Victory can keep this up. Would love nothing better than seeing that all sooking Arnie get done in the GF.
 
Newcastle won the Championship as Brighton slip to an 89th minute Villa equaliser and the Toon beat Barnsley 3-0.
 
Yeah, but Kevin Muskrat is a campaigner.


Even Norman "Bites Yer Legs" Hunter got the ball most times. He certainly never missed it by a clear metre which has to be a totally intentional foul.
 
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