A-League Finals

[The Coon Dog]

Great result for Frank Farina's Queensland Roar tonight as they defeated the Central Coast Mariners 2-0 away.

29 mins - Mitch Nicholls - Queensland Roar
54 mins - Sergio Van Dijk (pen) - Queensland Roar

A huge mountain to climb next week for the Mariners.

The winner of this tie plays the loser of the Melbourne Victory/Adelaide United clash.

[Chops]

Add Tiatto (roar) sent off 2 yellows, to miss next game.

[The Coon Dog]

Looks as though the Victory have one foot in the Grand Final with a 2-0 win away in Adelaide.
Time & time again Victory cut a swathe through the Reds defence, particularly in the first half.

14 mins - Carlos Hernandez - Melbourne Victory
89 mins - Danny Allsopp - Melbourne Victory

[Remi Moses]

Victory were very worthy winners a great counter punch system. Could have won by more. Highly unbelievable the flack Ernie Merrick cops from the so called Victory fans

[Chops]

Personally I don't think Ernie is a great coach but he is probably the best in the A-league.
Examples- 2 defensive midfielders on the bench and 1 playing, not 1 cover for the defense. Thwaite is a centre back not a left/right back who played for Australia recently but can't get a game.

I believe Muscat is probably just as much in charge there. He is now old, slow and clumsy but he is clever and probably the best captain in the A-league as well.

The competition is woeful. Vidmar blames a leak of info for the loss. Who would have thought he would convert from a defensive formation to a standard 4-4-2 formation for a final at home!

[Remi Moses]

Muscat is without doubt a great leader. The amount of last second tackles and interceptions is first rate. Did anyone hear that Adelaide supporter mascarading as acaller on Fox last night. Bloody awful bias,thank christ Paul Trimbole was there to even the ledger. Just reckon Ernie cops araw deal,SEN had a poll a few weeks back on whether Ernie should be sacked! Victory were second at the time:eek::eek:

[The Coon Dog]

Queensland Roar 2 (Nichols 21', McKay 49')
Central Coast 1 (Mrdja 64' )

That win puts Queensland Roar into the Preliminary Final 4-1 on aggregate. They take on the loser of the Melbourne Victory - Adelaide United tie.

[Mantis]

Victory 2-0 up at half-time vs Adelaide (4-0 overall).

Is there a mercy rule?

[The Coon Dog]

Melbourne Victory 4 (Thompson 10, Hernandez 24, Allsopp 44, Pondeljak 47)
Adelaide United 0

That's a 6-0 aggregate scoreline.

Melbourne Victory into the Grand Final in a fortnight's time. Inspired performance by Carlos Hernandez, scoring one & setting up the other 3. Not a bad effort considering he only arrived back in Australia this morning from Costa Rica.

Can Adelaide reverse their finals form & triumph at home next week over the Queensland Roar? Queensland seem to be one of those teams that play better on the road so it wouldn't surprise me if they got up. If they do win I think they'll cause Melbourne more trouble than Adelaide.

[Mantis]

Can Adelaide reverse their finals form & triumph at home next week over the Queensland Roar? Queensland seem to be one of those teams that play better on the road so it wouldn't surprise me if they got up. If they do win I think they'll cause Melbourne more trouble than Adelaide.

I think Adelaide are showing the effects of a long season due to the number of extra matches they played in the Asian PL.

[Remi Moses]

Apparently Carlos got 10 hours sleep on the flight back!Must have been sleeping pills laced in his kfc.He was sublime tonight. Asian championship aside Adelaide are awful.
SEN not covering the game is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE,calling the who cares pre-season cup. POOR FORM:mad::mad:

[Remi Moses]

Melbourne Victory 4 (Thompson 10, Hernandez 24, Allsopp 44, Pondeljak 47)
Adelaide United 0

That's a 6-0 aggregate scoreline.

Melbourne Victory into the Grand Final in a fortnight's time. Inspired performance by Carlos Hernandez, scoring one & setting up the other 3. Not a bad effort considering he only arrived back in Australia this morning from Costa Rica.

Can Adelaide reverse their finals form & triumph at home next week over the Queensland Roar? Queensland seem to be one of those teams that play better on the road so it wouldn't surprise me if they got up. If they do win I think they'll cause Melbourne more trouble than Adelaide.

Adelaide will park the bus terminal in front of the keeper. I reckon it'll go down to penalties

[hujsh]

SEN not covering the game is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE,calling the who cares pre-season cup. POOR FORM:mad::mad:

No choice. Have to do it. They have a contract.

[craigsahibee]

Melbourne Victory 4 (Thompson 10, Hernandez 24, Allsopp 44, Pondeljak 47)
Adelaide United 0

That's a 6-0 aggregate scoreline.

Melbourne Victory into the Grand Final in a fortnight's time. Inspired performance by Carlos Hernandez, scoring one & setting up the other 3. Not a bad effort considering he only arrived back in Australia this morning from Costa Rica.

Can Adelaide reverse their finals form & triumph at home next week over the Queensland Roar? Queensland seem to be one of those teams that play better on the road so it wouldn't surprise me if they got up. If they do win I think they'll cause Melbourne more trouble than Adelaide.

If Melbourne play the way they did on Saturday night, no one will come close. They were superb.

Carlos' Costa Rican club are reportedly asking for $800k US transfer fee. Based on Saturday nights effort, he is worth every bit of that. Pure domination.

God it's good to see any team from Adelaide in any sport get pummelled like United were.

Cassio may be a handy calculator but as far as football goes he is crap. Second only to Greg Louganis as a diver.

[M.R.M]

Adelaide were shocking and Vidmar should be sighted for his comments after the match (regardless if they were 100% true regarding Adelaide being a pissant town). Lordy should dip into his pockets and pull out the cash for Carlos, but he wont :(. Hope we get the Reds in the GF because QLD will be a handfull.

[Chops]

Lordy should dip into his pockets and pull out the cash for Carlos, but he wont :(.

He won't. He didn't for a better, more versatile and full 90min player in Fred so he shouldn't for Hernandez

[M.R.M]

He won't. He didn't for a better, more versatile and full 90min player in Fred so he shouldn't for Hernandez

I know Ern, and that's why this league will always be a doorway for young talent to go overseas and a place for old workhorses to retire. Our population numbers also have much to do with this along with the fact that AFL is our No.1 sport followed by cricket IMO.

[craigsahibee]

I know Ern, and that's why this league will always be a doorway for young talent to go overseas and a place for old workhorses to retire. Our population numbers also have much to do with this along with the fact that AFL is our No.1 sport followed by cricket IMO.

Any chance of switching back to the winter months? The reason I ask is if we played our league at a different time of the year to the European leagues there maybe a chance where "loan" spells could be negotiated with European teams where some of our "expats" playing in the minor leagues of Europe, could come back and play during the Northern Hemisphere off season. May even be a chance for European clubs to give some of their younger players 1st team experience when they would normally be on the practice pitch.

I know there may be a problem with ground availability in the Eastern states, although the new football stadium at Olympic Park should be finished for 2010 which would mean the Victory would only have to contend with Melbourne Storm's variable fixture.

[M.R.M]

Any chance of switching back to the winter months? The reason I ask is if we played our league at a different time of the year to the European leagues there maybe a chance where "loan" spells could be negotiated with European teams where some of our "expats" playing in the minor leagues of Europe, could come back and play during the Northern Hemisphere off season. May even be a chance for European clubs to give some of their younger players 1st team experience when they would normally be on the practice pitch.

I know there may be a problem with ground availability in the Eastern states, although the new football stadium at Olympic Park should be finished for 2010 which would mean the Victory would only have to contend with Melbourne Storm's variable fixture.

Can you imagine having the HAL season run concurrently with the AFL? Every single one of my mates that attends the HAL is also a member of an AFL club. Numbers would drop off significantly with both sports (esp here in Vic and in SA). With Melbourne "Heart" coming in this would almost certainly spell the death of the club before it's even got off the ground.

I don't really think that the loan spell problem is related to summer or winter months. It's more a workload issue. Only surplus players would return because most European leagues have only two to three months break in between seasons ending and starting. A time where they need players to rest.

For HAL to grow it needs to stay during the summer months. It just can't compete with AFL - and i want a break at least once a week ;)

[The Coon Dog]

Adelaide United 1 - '25 F. Barbiero
Queensland Roar 0


Probably the result Melbourne Victory were looking for as they seem to have the wood over Adelaide.

[The Coon Dog]

Half time in the A League Grand Final & it's still 0-0. Poor, actually very poor decision by the referee to red card Christiano for Adelaide after 10 minutes. I think the amount of blood Vargas has on his face influenced the ref. It was a yellow card, nothing more. 2 players leaping in the air & using their arms for balance, one caught the other in the head, nothing malicious.

For those without Foxtel: live stream (http://redbullsports.blogspot.com/)

[The Coon Dog]

Melbourne Victory 1 - Adelaide United 0

A very scrappy affair. Tom Pondlejak's long range effort was all that separated the 2 sides.

Surprising to see Danny Allsopp red carded for an off the ball head but. Replays failed to find the incident.

[Remi Moses]

Just came back from the game. My observations are Adelaide would make a great super 14 side,poor poor side with absolutely zero flair. Honestly I know the objective is to win but Adelaide are just awful,any wonder nobody attends games at Hindmarsh!!!Couldn't tell with the red cards no replays of any fouls at Slimey Collins Dome.:eek::eek:

Kudos To Ernie Merrick to cop the amount of S*** he does and end up with two titles in four years. GREAT EFFORT