A girl's guide to the A-league

Naïvety in football

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:46:00 +0000

Having an excessive amount of free time, but being limited to a computer does have its perks – it gives me a chance to catch up on months of blogging and forum posts that I would not normally read as there is always something non-computer-based to do.

Going through the links on my blog I “stumbled” across From the Left Wing again, and found a post that captured a few of my thoughts about football and the role of cheating in the sport. Titled Henry’s Handball & the Moral Ambiguity of Football, it’s fairly obvious what the post covers.

Football is a game that stirs emotions. Managed by humans, mistakes are bound to happen - fouls that are missed, clean tackles that become punishable offences, diving, calling a ball out when it remained within the field of play, giving a goal kick when it was clearly a corner, etc. Oh, and handballs.

Any of these offences can have drastic consequences - but I think handballs are rarely used to the same effect as Maradona and, recently, Henry have done. Perhaps that’s why Henry copped so much flak but FIFA did nothing. I would say it’s almost become accepted that players dive and are (mistakenly) awarded penalties. I could imagine that if FIFA made a decision on Henry, they would set a precedent for all kinds protests against rule-breaking actions that result in a goal/could have resulted in a goal.

And wouldn’t they be busy bees if they had done anything with Henry. As Jennifer Doyle writes:
Handballs, offside calls, the identification of goals and the discounting of goals, calls for aggressive tackles and diving - all are made by referees without the help of video replay, and are vulnerable to human error and players know it - and the most competitive exploit this. It becomes part of your game.
It becomes part of your game. It becomes part of the opposition’s game. If it’s part of the opposition’s game, it should be part of yours. Circular argument, but you have to wake up and realise it happens.

I think Australians are too naïve when it comes too this. We generally play by the rules, but someone else will spoil the party. And when the game is over – we’re left with nothing.

Even if you refuse to include it in your game you must accept that it occurs. You must make sure that you do not give the opposition the opportunity to cheat in a way that is catastrophic to your team. I won’t name or describe the best example for us, as I think that it is obvious.

“Cheating" is an art in this sport.
Personally, I’ve never handballed in an un-obvious way (I have had brain snaps in the middle of the park where I’ve obviously stuck my hand out, made contact and sworn at myself/burst into a giggle fit at my idiocy) and diving isn’t in my repertoire.

But I recognise that football can be subjective. I won’t pretend otherwise.

I exploit this. I won’t pretend otherwise.

I indirectly address referees.

I abuse opposition officials if I notice them unjustly interfering with the game (as a coach, I don’t taint my players – I will simply give my team instructions or cheer them on but especially loudly when the linesperson happens to be in front of me. Or specifically, their ear is in front of me. Their faces are gold when you see their paranoia develop - Surely it’s just in my head that she gives louder instructions while I am there.)

I waste time. I like to think time wasting is a special talent of mine, particularly as a goalkeeper.

I claim the opposition’s ball.

I play until the referee stops me. Dribbled the ball out? Carry on until the referee tells you otherwise. Similarly, don’t stop because you think the opposition has dribbled the ball out. We’ve all been caught out before.

Lots of white lies. You probably think that they’re not as bad as handballs and diving in the box…

Let’s return to I play until the referee stops me. I have gotten away with football murder. I was so good, I convinced all but one team-mate (who was on the goal line with me), our coach (at the time, my eagle-eyed dad) and the opposition attackers. What if I got caught? Well, I would have played dumb and accepted the referee’s decision.

For the record, I have only ever had one yellow card. For indoor. Apparently slide tackles are illegal.

Taking a bite from my hat

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:47:00 +0000

But not eating it - it was only one (1) touch.

But I did quite like Archie's outside of the foot touch to Tommy P (he's the only Tommy, but I like calling him Tommy P - perhaps inherited from Wayne?) who then crossed it for Kruse.

So while Archie did annoy me somewhat, I'll ease up on him. For now.

It would be very unlike me if I didn't complain about the match - I wouldn't say that Melbourne played well but that Perth assisted with it's lack of display. In the first half, Hernandez managed to get a break on the Perth defense. Hernandez. How?!??!??! It also happened in the second half when he (finally) scored, though I do think he was offside at the time, so that wasn't as much as a miraculous feat.

The other thing that irritated me was the number of opportunities that Carlos wasted. However, he scores once and the crowd appears to forgive him. #@$%@*!!!!!!!

To further add to my woes, I think I am really losing whatever interest I had in the A-League. Seriously, I'm struggling.

*No swear word in particular, just feeling frustrated by a crowd that likes goals rather than football.

Bahahahahahahahaha!

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:58:00 +0000

Manchester Utd 0 - Leeds 1

!!!!!!!!

How the hell am I meant to go to sleep now?!?!?

Out with the old, in with the new

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:49:00 +0000

Further to my Charlie Miller musings last week, we now have Moore to add (hee hee, although the pun was not intentional). Perhaps even Reddy had to go for the same reason!

Cecilia sucks at rockclimbing.

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:32:00 +0000

a.k.a. Cecilia rockclimbing FAIL.

In the meantime, you can read Faux Fuchsia's blog post on decluttering. Nothing at all to do with football, but she keeps The Decluttering Thread going on the Vogue forums, so she's a saint of sorts.

Especially since I'm trying to cut down so that I don't take excess stuff to Sydney and that I don't leave too much behind in Melbourne.

Fan Letters

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:56:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've posted some fan letters - I checked my older ones, I did have to laugh at myself when re-reading the one to Newcastle about how to waste time. But today, something a little more serious. Not that time wasting isn't serious, but...

Dear Mr Pasfield
Your yelling is quite annoying - it's high-pitched, panicky and there's an awful lot of it.

No wonder your defenders don't listen to you! Their eardrums must've burst by now.

If not, perhaps they've taken a preventative measure. So the lesson here is too much yelling and they don't want to listen to you. A bit like Ben Kennedy has experienced. Have a chat to him about it - but please don't yell during this conversation.

Although your yell does provide an endless source of amusement when one tries to mimic it.

Regards

- Cecilia
Your biggest yell mimic (and yes, I'm annoying too).

Dear Mr Langerak
If you were a little older I would have undoubtedly already written to you by now - you're such a cheeky little cutie. :) Add your baby face and you really seem illegal.

However, cheekiness and cuteness aside, please learn how to use your body properly. I'm not convinced that that ball you were "shielding" from Brockie was actually out. I suspect that you were in punching distance of the assistant referee and we all know that you really are all limbs. You're kinda like a daddy long legs, but with only four legs. Although two are arms.

So, at training this week, try and have a chat to Carlos. I say try, because I have no idea if he actually speaks English yet. Try playing Charades if the talking thing fails. Though with your long limbs, he may mistake you for a John Cleese/Frank Woodly type and laugh himself silly.

Why Carlos? He is very good at using his (ample) body for shielding and protecting the ball. Get him to show you how he uses his body to shield the ball. It mainly involves sticking your arse out and creating space.

If Carlos offers to take the training further, please be careful. He does have an ample body, and we know he loves chicken, La Ionica chicken. So if you end up at his place for dinner, stick to the breast.

You don't need a big arse to stick it out and create space. I wouldn't want that cute little face of yours ruined by excess fats.

Regards

- Cecilia
Your biggest "Awwwwwwwww he's so cute!" gusher.

Dear Mr Vargas
I hate deflections. Please stop trying to do too much so that you don't make proper conduct and the ball follows some random trajectory that even Charlie Eppes couldn't figure out - and he's good at making sense of nothing. I've seen him on TV, so it must be true.

You're also quite slow and a poor marker. No wonder Daal got the better of you. Not to mention previous North Queensland attacks seem to have gotten through due to your inability to mark and/or read the game. Sure sure, the goal happened because of a wayward Leijer pass (intentional, so Charlie might have been able to calculate it), but Daal needed to be better marked.

Also, please don't collect silly yellow cards. The only reason one should collect one is when you've made a serious tackle. Not because you feel like arguing. He's the ref. He has cards. He'll always win. Unless it's Delovski - he seems a bit soft on the cards.

Regards

- Cecilia
A paid-up Melbourne Victory member for quite a few years now.

Christmas/New Year holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:58:00 +0000

My work office has been closed from December 24 and will reopen on January 11. That's a lot of free time - and while I have much to work on (planning the move) it's too early to start working on it, as nothing really happens until February. It's not even the New Year yet!

The A-League hasn't been all that enticing this season, I'm still wondering how Brisbane was so successful in leaving the league's highest scorer unmarked! It's not as if they can blame Farina now!

Though I did love how Charlie's team won. Hee hee - take that Postekos! :) I wonder if Charlie's comradeship with the younger players was why Postekos needed him gone - after all, Postekos has been a youth coach lately and perhaps he wasn't keen on someone older undermining his authority...

Hmm... Victory are playing tonight - I suppose that's a good way of ensuring that my second layer of nail polish. Perhaps I'll add a photo of it later this evening as Google Image is of no assistance!

Internal injuries?

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:50:00 +0000

I continue to wonder if Glen Moss not playing was due to friction between himself and Kevin Muscat. Muscat, as captain and assistant coach, appears to have enormous influence on the team - the Victory defence sometimes gets into serious problems because it seems like they MUST pass the ball to him!

Not being able to communicate well with your defence, means that they can't work for you and you can't work for them. So I can't say that Moss is solely responsible for that 4-0 loss to Central Coast, but I don't think he should be made the scapegoat either.

Archie Thomspon

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:56:00 +0000

Enough said.

So who still hates Archie Thompson?

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:44:00 +0000

This was shouted out by a man who sits one row behind me on my left after Thompson had scored his second goal.

He's quite aware of the group I sit amongst that is unhappy with Thompson as a player and as the marquee - someone will semi-regularly yell out, "Archie! You're shit!"

Reading the paper and watching highlights of yesterday's match, it's somewhat (ok, very) frustrating that Thompson is portrayed as a player who is deserving of being considered for the Socceroos squad. The Australian public seem to think that a player who scores a couple of goals in a match is a good player. They fail to realise that Thompson is lazy and needs the whole team to play for him in order for him to be effective.

Gone is Danny Allsopp who worked all over the field – patching up the gaps that occurred in the midfield in defence, gaps which have become more apparent this season. Without Allsopp there is no longer a hard-working, self-sacrificing player in the Victory attack who was the perfect alternative to the generally idle and selfish player that Thompson is.

The number of times that Thompson has been offside this year has been ridiculous. I suspect that if there was a statistic that totalled the distance that each player was offside, Thompson would have it in the bag with the most metres. That he’s rarely slightly offside is an indication him not working for the team – he’s out of play and he’s of no use to the team. Sometimes the ball will head out in his off-side direction. Instead of letting the ball go for a throw-in deeep in the opposition defence, Thompson chooses to become involved in the play – giving the opposition a free-kick further up the field than if he had chosen to let it go.

Do you really want such a “player” in your national team?

So he scored a couple of goals last night. Whoop-de-doo. Those goals were a credit to Ward and Kruse – the quality of those passes to Thompson was outstanding. As Fox Sports news were only replaying Thompson’s goals I had a chance to appreciate those passes. They were perfect.

But the media doesn’t seem to recognise the quality of the pass. It happens often that the goal-scorer is the celebrated one. Unfortunately in this case, Thompson is the one being celebrated – a player who does not deserve to be in the national team, but with the media coverage causes the public to believe that he belongs in the national team! A preposterous idea!

The worst thing is that football is still a misunderstood sport here in Australia. So much of the focus is on scoring goals. It's a mindset that will take a long time to change, having had so many decades of AFL as the primary sport - a sport that is high scoring and where 'booting' the ball up the field is OK. Football is a different kind of sport. The Australian public will need to recognise that it's not AFL on a square pitch, and that there is much more to being a footballer than scoring goals that are served up on a silver plate.

Reasons for my lack of blog presence

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:40:00 +0000

I remember being an Honours student in a microbiology lab when I started writing here. I don't think this blog was a procrastination method of mine, I used to have a procrastination list and I don't recall this blog featuring on it.

But I had a hectic time at uni last year - final year, and I decided to really work my arse off. The effort was worth it in the end, I ended up with awesome marks and I also ended up wondering why I hadn't put this kind of effort in earlier. Part of it might have to do with the environmental engineering course having more civil eng subjects in the earlier years, so I just didn't care for it. Even in an integrated subject we had last year, I still feel asleep during a lecture on pipelines.

Of course, it's only natural that I am currently working on civil infrastructure projects. Designing pipelines.

How do such tragedies happen?

Well, it's quite simple really.

I wanted to do a PhD but didn't have the H1 average required to know that you can start a PhD. Yes, I know H2As can normally get you in, but I like certainty.
Like all (I suppose) final year eng students, I applied for graduate positions.
Like most final year eng students, I was successful in gaining a graduate position. I was notified in Semester 1. During exams. With only a week to take up or decline the offer. I was stressed. I wanted certainty. I took it.

So there you go. Is there a moral to this story? I think there is - work harder in your early years of uni so that you have a better idea of your capabilities. That way, come final year you won't be so shocked with the high H1 average in Semester 1. And when all your marks are high H1s in semester 2, you won't be going, "Damn," because you only just found out you have stupidly high marks and can start the PhD.

At least the past 11 months in engineering design/consulting have proven that I don't enjoy it. So when I start the PhD (I won't officially know until mid-December) I won't be wondering what consulting is like.

Last year I was genuinely busy, this year I've hated my job - and it's hard to write when you're unhappy with things.

Bu now have a future to look forward to (although it will be a long 6 weeks until I have confirmation of Future To Look Forward To), so I might be happy enough to start blogging again.

Of course it would also help if I stopped falling asleep during A-League matches because they're boring. And we all know what happenned as a result of me falling asleep in civil eng lectures...

You seem kinda familiar - have we met before?

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:24:00 +0000

Oh, you're my blog! I knew that we had met before.

September, October. Two whole months and I haven't done anything here.

Let's face it - the A-League has turned into complete crap this year. I think it was always crap, but this year definitely blows.

And so I have neglected my blog. What's there to write about? I can't pretend that it's a great game - it's not, and it irritates me that the Fox Sports commentators aren't more honest with what they see. But I suppose they can't say it's a shit game - after all they want people to be watching it.

I still attend MV matches, but I can't wait for the second Melbourne team to come along so I can cancel my MV membership without feeling like I'm abandoning the sport.

Book Review: A Year of Sport Travel

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:41:00 +0000

It's been almost two months since I last posted - I can only offer excuses for being so time poor, despite no longer studying! It may not seem like much but football coaching, trying to train for the Around the Bay ride, feeling miserable because I hate work, hunting for and choosing between PhD projects and locations, purchasing and getting used to my new [manual] car have all taken their toll on me and my time! So much so that I've even downgraded my expectations for the Around the Bay from 210 km to 100 km. And as my head starts to clear re: work or study, and making decisions where I'll be next year (not in Melbourne by the looks of things) I can turn my attentions to the things that have fallen by the wayside.

One of them has been A Year of Sport Travel - a book that was sent to me by the lovely people at Lonely Planet because of this blog! So it's only fitting that I review it here.

It's the kind of book that I imagine the "typical" sport-loving Australian loving. We are a sport-obsessed nation, and given the increasing rates of obesity I suspect that we are really a sport-spectating-loving nation (unless we refer to the A-League, which seems to be having crowd number problems.) Organised in weekly intervals, A Year of Sport Travel offers four sports a week that one can choose from to watch (and even to participate if you are so inclined).

Naturally all the expected events are there - the World Cup, Olympics, World Athletics Championships (OK so it's not on everyone's radar but I care and it's my blog so there), Premier League and FA Cup. Also are other people's "expected events" - the Ashes (although given recent results, it may not be a suitable 'sport' to refer to), Dakar Rally, Tri-Nations Rugby, Tour de France, Winter Olympics, err... AFL's Grand Final, Wimbeldon, Boston Marathon, etc.

But the best part of the book is that it mixes the typical with the non-typical; this is why I really loved the book. And by organising the events by calendar, you are as likely to come up with something obscure when checking out the obvious events. Take the FA Cup - an event that happens in May each year and that I would expect any readers of this blog are familiar with. Turn the page over, and this week in May is shared with Indy 500 (meh), World Table Tennis Championships (meh - although it is a fun sport to play after a few drinks and hand-eye coordination has long gone) and CHEESE ROLLING! On the last Monday in May, a 7 pound circle of Double Gloustershire is rolled down a hill and people chase after it! With a seriously steep grade and multiple heats... well, check out the YouTube video for the fun that this event brings!

And if you thought cheese rolling looked dangerous, there's a hybrid event that could up it given Lennox Lewis describes both disciplines as "pretty violent"...

I tend to agree with the final comments of chess-boxing not yet the best of both worlds, or really the best of either - so when picking between the two I'd go the cheese rolling. I could stay in Europe for the following two months:

early June - the Giostra Della Quintana in Italy with knights, lances and horses
late June - Wimbeldon (if feeling civilised) or the Calcio Storico (if not feeling civilised and feeling like staying in Italy)
early July - the Wife-Carrying Championships in Finland (where the wife doesn't necessarily have to be married to the carrier according to the rules)
throughout July - the Tour de France throughout July (I had to have something normal)
mid-August - the European Minigolf Championships
late-August - I could come back to Wales for World Bog Snorkelling!

Definitely my kind of trip - something serious with enough zaniness to keep me hyper for a while!

The only downside to the book? Far too much cricket! The Ashes, the Cricket World Cup, and Indian Premier League! Although it's probably aimed at Australians... and they do have three football events - four if I include the Olympics!

Found myself a goalkeeper!

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:46:00 +0000

At the start of the season, I had a goalkeeper for the girls that I coach. Unfortunately the first team goalkeeper was injured so I lost mine. She has now played too many matches with the firsts, so I ended up without a goalkeeper. So I've been throwing randoms in there - some cope, some don't.

On the weekend I decided to use an U12 (Izzy) who plays on the pitch for her team and in goals for the U13s. She's not a tiny U12, so I figured she'd cope with the U16s.

Did she ever! All the other parents were impressed with her - I had the advantage of having spent time with her on Thursday nights where I help out with the U12 & U13 girls. It's one thing to see Izzy in her age group (where she mucks about a bit) and then to see her step up for the U16s in terms of her own performance but also the maturity to talk to the defence and claim the ball.

Looking at the U12, U13 and U16 fixtures... there's a chance I might be able to get her for most of the remaining games. I've put it all together in Excel, and calculated the travel time using Google Maps. Known as The Izzy Scheme, I've identified 7 of our 10 remaining matches where she has the time to make it to our matches (she could play 3 matches on one day on 3 of those days), and 2 where she'd have to decide between the 13s and 16s. Provided her parents are happy to drive about a bit, we may be able to cope without leaking goals for the rest of the season. It's just unfortunate that it took an injury and illness spree in the 16s to give me the opportunity/excuse to ask her to join us!

Back to Sunday - I had somewhat silly opposition. Their coach's excuse was that it was their first season. Heck, it's my excuse too - but I'd never use it! Anyway, we were a player short the whole time so I risked playing 3 defenders (vs. 3 strikers) the whole game as I noticed that when my defence pushed up to half-way, the strikers came up with them (expected). But when the wing-backs would push up past half-way, the strikers came up with them again! BONUS! Hee hee. :) I love stupid opposition. Or rather, stupid coaches who love to have excuses for poor performances. Unfortunately we couldn't score (and we definitely had our opportunities) so it ended up 0-0.

Hopefully with 11 players and perhaps some subs, we can get a result next week. :) I'll ask Izzy if she enjoyed herself on Sunday, and if so I'll ask her parents if they're happy with The Izzy Scheme. Now, here's hoping the 16As coach and player movement "manager" don't realise what I've found...

Random moments in junior football

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:24:00 +0000

I played one girls in left midfield this morning for the first half. In relation to where I was standing, she was on my side and attacking to my left. I moved her into the more familiar right midfield in the second half. So she was still on my side but should have been attacking to my right.

Should have been...

Round 5

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:44:00 +0000

Nearly 6 months into my grad job, and still struggling to find that work/life balance that is often spoken about - as a result I've fallen quite sick, and not had time to update the blog. I have made (most) training sessions - notable exceptions being at the height of my lethargy and one crazy week at work.

Nice and short today - I am leaving a comment that one of the most difficult things about coaching juniors is that you have to stay positive. We were leading 1-0 today, and ended up 1-1. It's only the second time we haven't lost, but frustrating nonetheless. The worst being when some of your players just don't have "it" but you need to maintain their enthusiasm and belief - even if you know that they're a liability for the team when on the park.

The junior season is kicking off!

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:35:00 +0000

So I have now accepted the role of being coach of the 2nd U16 girls team - which is a little off my plan of being an assistant coach, but should still be fun. That it's a second team means that the girls will still have training if work demands force me out of a training session here and there.

Got the fixture today, so it's time for me to start planning the rest of my life (whatever little there is anyway!) around the girls. I'm looking forward to the frustration, madness and general fun - I think it's safe to say that I missed coaching last year.

In my league is the club where I coached two years ago (while the junior part of the club was separate from the senior club that shared the grounds) and where I have played in the past (while the senior club was separate). Kinda looking forward to the 21st of June now - quite a few of my ex-teammates play at 1pm, and then my team will play their U16s at 3.15pm.

Finally, we have a football shirt.

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:28:00 +0000

Thank you Central Coast Mariners.

Labour Day Holiday Boredom!

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:59:00 +0000

But not bored enough to get back to work. I've almost finished writing my conference paper - I only have to tweak a few figures and then the nervous wait for acceptance will begin. The strange thing is that since I've decided that I will start my PhD sooner rather than later due to how much work has been driving me nuts, I've started to enjoy work again. Go figure that one out. Perhaps the happiness is due to the relief that I'm not "stuck" there. Of course, I'll be earning less when I go back to uni so my buy-an-apartment-and-move-out plan has completely failed.

One of the reasons that really "helped" me decide that I didn't want to stay at work was their piss-poor excuse for why I was not allowed to teach at uni this semester. Initially I just accepted it - really, what can a newbie really do? But when I found out another graduate can teach (he told me) at the same uni as I had plans to, but I can't - well, it really upset me.

So until I go back to uni I will have to be content with coaching. :) I have decided that since I had offered to be flexible with my hours when I said I wanted to teach microbiology, that I will be completely inflexible now with training nights. i.e. I will leave at 5pm, or perhaps earlier. Of course I'd get in at some ridiculously early time to squeeze in my hours and any physical activity I choose to partake in (my knee rarely hurts these days - except when running downhill). Add that I don't particularly see myself at the company by the time the year ends, and it's even more of a reason to be a bit more ballsy with my hours/demands.

These long days will cause me to be irritable, but hopefully I'll enjoy the coaching enough to balance the irritability. Of course coaching has its frustrating moments, so it will be interesting to see how I cope! The club had a bit of a trial-session a few weekends ago with the U14 to U16 girls. It's amazing that such a gulf exists between the age-groups. I'm sure the U14s would have been all over the U16s if we played them against each other.

The weird part was that once you moved a decent U14 to the U16 group, suddenly they became a different player. And not in a good way. Might have something to do with confidence, but all their skills just disappeared. It may also have something to do with trust - that the U14 with the U16s at any given time didn't know the other girls and hence stopped looking up, so their passes went awry. Doesn't explain the loss of touch - might have been nervousness/lack of confidence after all.

With the club looking at squad-based training rather than team-based, it will be interesting to see how it works out for the players and for the club. The club's made it clear why they decided to do it, but they also acknowledge that it's foreign territory for them. They are also willing to return to team-based training if they can see it's not working. I'm intrigued to see how it all works out.

The A-League season is now over, and I don't think I made an swooning posts, so Fabian Barbiero deserves a mention. He seems to have a lovely attitude combined with those cute looks and decent footballing ability. If only Vukovic would have that attitude, perhaps I could publicly swoon over him again (I've decided that Vuko can be an a-hole; there's confidence and then there's arrogance. Don't ask me why I feel that way, he just annoys me somewhat. Despite how hot he is.)

Long time between drinks

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:20:00 +0000

Sorry, I know. But spending all day at work bored behind a computer followed by coming home to sit behind a computer to do other work (which I enjoy but don't get paid for) means I don't really want to continue sitting behind it!

Anyway, I may have found a home for my coaching exploits this year - and they seem keen to let me have a go at goalkeeping coaching, so I'm looking forward to that. :) I'll try and keep the updates on that front coming, as we all know how well Melbourne Victory did on the weekend (even though I missed half of the match due to going out for dinner...)

Not about football

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:19:00 +0000

Just a general post about things other than football right now. I have said it before, but there are so many A-League blogs out there that actually offer a proper analysis of the game and regular posts that I don't think I really need to stick to the topic here anymore! :)

So my final results came out yesterday - I have officially finished uni. My marks are also sufficiently high that I shouldn't have any issues applying for PhD scholarships when the time comes to do so if I wish to follow that path. It's hilarious how at the start of the year I didn't have the marks to confidently get a scholarship through the Australian Government - but then you meet a few lecturers who actually care about their research and are trying to find local PhD students (there are so many international post-grads in the school, it's funny to me, but perhaps embarrassing to the uni!)

Anyway, I ended up enjoying uni this year but opted to go into the workforce instead. So I've been in my new job for two weeks now... trying to get a feel of what my commitments are there. It's really difficult to tell as I am bored out of my mind but everyone tells me, "Enjoy it while it lasts." Until Friday I was actually quite miserable due to the boredom (Monday and Tuesday were particularly low points) so I don't understand why people tell me to enjoy it.

The good thing about working as opposed to further study is that I now have my weekends back. So I'm looking forward to winter, when I can actually get to a lot more VPL (Victorian Premier League) matches than I have been able to in the past. It also means that I have time to coach again. So I have started the hunt for coaching positions.

I don't particularly want to go back to where I was in 2007, as the junior club I was at was trying to affiliate themselves with a senior club I cannot stand. Unfortunately for me, they were the most convenient club! I have an interview with a junior club next week - which I am a bit nervous about as I have not coached for over a year now and my coaching books are not in my possession. People I have spoken to about this have laughed at me so I am in a bit of a state of mind that is, "Well fuck you too." So I am planning to stick to the VPL and avoiding VS - especially a particular team due to the whole laughter thing.

So now I have to organise a half-hour coaching session for the interview... and the only book I didn't lend was my goalkeeping training guide. LOL. I don't think forcing 12-15 year old girls to do goalkeeping training will win me any points!

Dear Melbourne Hearts, or whatever you're going to be called

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:23:00 +0000

Try and ensure that you have an iridescent playing strip. One colour needs to be whatever fits with your logo (i.e. what the FFA assigns to you) and other needs to be sky blue.

When one of your players swears at the ref, make sure your player has positioned his shirt so that it looks sky-blue to the referee and television crew. While your player will still be sent off, he will only cop a one-week ban (as per Sydney's McFlynn who was wearing white and sky-blue) as opposed to a two-week ban (as per Melbourne's Archie Thompson who did not have any sky-blue on him at the time of the incident).

Warmest regards

Cecilia

Melbourne's rectangular stadium

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:25:00 +0000

I meant to go shopping today, but after problems at the bank and having to return home early because of paperwork I decided to go on a cycle instead. The weather was pleasant so I decided to go into the city... and ended up taking a few pics of the upcoming stadium.

Click here for the photos.

P.S. I post as cestaz.

That was it.

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:38:00 +0000

Last night was a show of how far the A-League needs to come. It was also a show of how our Fox Sports commentators need to be more critical. With two commentators calling every game on Fox Sports, there is obviously the capacity for one person to be the play-by-play announcer and the other to offer some critical analysis of the came in progress.

Last night Andy Harper and Mike Cockerill did their usual jobs of describing the play - well, kinda. There were times last night that they would describe some of the play - or make general comments on how much better Gamba Osaka were than Adelaide. But they offer nothing to those who watch the game and want to really learn something. The sad part was that everything was easily blamed on Adelaide's smaller budget and how young the A-League is compared to the J-League. It was almost as if it wasn't Adelaide or its players' faults that they were being played off the park last week and last night.

Finally, a shining beacon of truth came along at half time. Ross Aloisi typically has me rolling my eyes - how can I take such a thug seriously in a suit and with a microphone in his hand? Well, it turns out that the thug in a suit was the only one who could either see the lack of spirit in the Adelaide boys or had the balls to actually voice his opinion. Craig Foster is another face of TV who is known for his criticism - but he tends to criticise everything possible. A lack of proper acknowledgment has worked against him and I know that many fans of football tend to switch off once he opens his mouth.

Last week Robbie Cornthwaite was a disappointment, whenever he was beaten or needed to back-track, he'd just jog along behind the play. No desperation. No hunger. Did he really want to be there? Last night, the same thing happened. But it took the half-time break for someone to point it out. Aloisi also criticised the rest of the defence. Unfortunately being an ex-player does not mean that you are able to be a good critic or offer that extra piece of information to fans about the tactics that are working, or conversely not working. Andy Harper anyone?

If a team was "built from the back," as Harper would say of Adelaide (or something like that), you would expect a team that had a rock-solid defence that would play the ball out. Instead Adelaide have a brainless defence - any time there was trouble, they would play hoof-ball forward. That was how the poor Birighitti ended up being put under pressure due to Valkanis, and how Gamba scored their first goal due to Ognenovski.

Unfortunately, it's a style of play that is deeply embedded in our football psyche - perhaps an artefact of so many youngsters being saturated with AFL. So until our youngsters stop playing Route 1, perhaps more hoof-ball is what we should not be suprised at seeing. We need to ensure our coaches at all levels readily criticise the style - after all making contact, whacking the ball with some strength, getting it in the right direction AND getting it to a team-mate is a lot to muster in one move. It is a risky move. That is not to say that players should not play that way if they can - but in all seriousness, first touch is something that is lacking in many of our A-League players. If such a basic skill is missing, how could we possibly expect success in more difficult skills?

Last night was not about Adelaide "choking" as some have said. It was a reflection of Australian club football. To lose 5-0 on aggregate would not only be a disappointment to Adelaide fans, but it should be a disappointment to all Australian football fans - regardless of which team you follow in the A-League, if any.

====================================================

In other news, best wishes to Craig Moore and may he have a speedy recovery.

Are 'keepers crazy?

noreply@blogger.com (Cecilia) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:51:00 +0000

I think not. We just get thrown into some deep shit at times.

You've been watching your team play Mickey Mouse passes for the past 90 minutes. You've only seen fleeting moments of hunger, but there's no denying that of the two teams - the other has been more desperate.

You're already three goals down, and you've lost the one player with the best ability to read the game. But he too, has only been a shadow of his former self. He's been getting you out of trouble sometimes, but he's just as casual as the rest of the team.

Then it happens. A break. From about half-way. Keeper's instinct is to go up and close the player down. Reduce the amount of goal available for the shot. But the run for the player with the ball is too far.

And you run out of box.

Shit.