bluetonium said:
Might be interesting if any Melbourne City fans could give us an overview of the club and the team - who are you best players, what style do you play, and what are the expectation and predictions for next season?
I gather Sydney FC are the Man U of the A-League in that nobody really likes them but they are the most successful? And Wellington have a team in the A-League but as they are from New Zealand they are prohibited from qualifying for the Asian Championships if they ever did win the A-League, is that right (Chris Killen plays/played for them iirc)? Are the player registration rules over there still quite tight (1 marquee signing only, 5 foreigners and only 4 subs per game?)
I'll do my best..
Style: 433, Van't Schipp comes from Ajax so he talks about possession, attacking play. He utilizes the fb as wb that bomb forward a lot, most play is concentrated on the wings.
Club overview: we were run on an oily rag from a bunch of business men with good intentions. Spouting a youth policy of producing young talent within, attacking football with strong community focus.
With only the community focus getting anywhere near what was proposed at inception, our previous coach was dismal and was allowed to stay far to long, totally devolving the club into a whole type of groaning at everything. Our ice baths have always been wheelie bins and I think last year we trained at 5 different grounds.
Players of note, good or bad:
Gk: we have no one that stands out, our first and second are much the same, both youngish, both mediocre.
RB: there are two players, Janatan Germano (international) who spent last year on the physio table more than the training ground, then Jason Hoffman (been there since inception, first signed on as striker) who most have a love - hate relationship with, he has played in every position bar GK. He did improve last year, but we used to have one of the best RB in the league and he is nowhere near that standard.
CB: Weilaart is an aging Dutch player, Patrick Kisnorbo from the championship (Leeds United). We also just signed Conner Chapman from Newcastle Jets, was in their first team and is a promising youngster.
LB: our problem position, Garuccio played there at the tail end of the season, though is a converted winger. Last year was his first time playing for the first team, he impressed coming on at RW (he played LW in the NYL) showing courage and a lot of promise cutting in or running down to put a cross in. He made an impressive showing for his first stint at LB, but makes silly mistakes in games following.
Midfield stand outs: We just signed Mooy from Western Sydney Wanderers , a signing everyone is happy about , a young player probably more your box to box. Stephan Muak, has played for our international youth teams, is an attacking midfielder, shows some good technique and is young.
Retre signs on from the youth side and had a good year last year.
Attack: David Williams, the most frustrating striker to play for us, if he is on song (a bit rare) he will score a hatrick, if not he will miss sitters and his passing is mmuch the same. Dugandzic when he first played for us showed a lot of promise, but he got some long term injuries and went backwards, the tail end of our last season he started to improve again showing his promise and at 24 (I think) he could be good for us but needs to have a good season.
That's some players off the top of my head.
Expectations: In truth are high since the buy out, fueled by excitement, tempered with pessimism (from years gone by) and a passion for the club to do well .
Other A-League teams:
Melbourne Victory (yards, visitors, scum, you get the idea) are sadly an ambitious club and to SydneyFC (and FFA) chagrin are the biggest club.
SydneyFC (bling FC) always spend the most on players, but choose poorly with their coaches. They had early success, but are a mid table team.
Brisbane Roar (Roarcelona, their nickname by the press) are the best team. They were coached by Ange Postecoglou who just coached the Socceroos this WC, he transformed them into a record breaking team and they have never looked back. Coached by an Englishman now, Mike Mulvey.
Western Sydney Wanderers have been top two and are owned by the FFA, but I think they just got sold?? They play counter attacking football and have a good coach.
Adelaide United are now coached by Josep Gombau (spelling) who has gone from Barcelona to Japan, now here. I liked the way they played their football last year and will be up there this coming season I think. In the past they have had success, even getting to the final of the Asian Champions League.
In the A-League we are allowed 5 foreign players, one can be a marquee. We can also have an Australian and youth marquee, as the league has a cap on players wages (3.5 M I think), the marquee wages do not contribute to the wage cap.
There is talk of aligning ourselves with the Asian confederation - 3 foreign + 1 Asian player, though could be just dropped to 4 foreign players.
Ahaha, that's enough, I hope it wasn't too long winded and gives you an insight.
