Ref should have booked Sanchez right at the start when he was asking for a yellow after a foul near the corner flag. Might have nipped it in the bud.

Caligula wrote:

Alves seems to be losing his villainous edge.

Y'what now? That bellend was on top form.

Tim wrote:

Ref should have booked Sanchez right at the start when he was asking for a yellow after a foul near the corner flag. Might have nipped it in the bud.

It wouldn't have helped. These two teams are chockablock with scheming, dishonest divers. I hate seeing it. It's become so bad in the last few seasons between these teams. Blight on football

Hats off to Sydney FC for being brave enough to have this policy and enforcing it.
Would it work in England? Does it matter what the power dynamic is between player and club? I imagine that in A-League, clubs have more power than players, making it easier to punish them.

No one has much power in the A-League. Most of the fracas that occur are between interfering owners and crappy managers. Many of the players have day jobs.

This move doesn't surprise me particularly, it's the kind of thing that can still happen before the stakes get a bit higher basically.

How come football never took off in Australia...it has always been a "wog" sport there hasn't it?

Can you imagine a strong Aussie side playing against England at Wembley? The atmosphere would be absolutely immense.

We don't really have any strong national football code - none of Australian Rules, union or league can really claim to have a good club in every capital. Aussie rules is the closest I suppose.

Football in Australia used to be a migrant sport, back in the 80s the clubs were actually called SC Croatia, Brunswick Juventus etc. Since then the various versions of our FA have been trying to force clubs to avoid ethnic alignment, but there was a fair bit of argy-bargy between fans from the various Balkan backgrounds during the 90s, for example.

Meanwhile the AFL is actually a much bigger sport with eg the Italian and Greek migrant populations in Melbourne, and rugby's bigger in Sydney.

I'd love us to have a competitive league, the FFA and the A-League are the best authority and competition we've had so far and that's the only way the sport will get stronger I guess. Hypocritically though, I can't really be arsed following it.

Klaus wrote:

All players dive, irrespective of whether they're English, Spanish or Italian.

there are definitely cultural differences in what is considered acceptable.

anyway, madrid v barca... what can i say? you just hope an earthquake swallows up both teams.

most of the ethnic groups that followed the NSL in the 90s - greeks, serbs, croats, italians - don't support Frank Lowy or the new structure of the A-League. they think the A-league clubs take advantage of the 'wog' talent without recognising players heritage. it's a mode of thinking that holds the game back overall.

I didn't like the fact that the regulators tried to completely squeeze the ethnic heritage out ... eg at one stage they were trying to tell Marconi Fairfield to change their name (and eventually they did, but only to Marconi Stallions).

Some of the club names are egregiously bad: Victory, Glory etc., but you get used to them nonetheless.

I think the game's ethnic heritage in Australia adds a bit of flavour, I just wish the related racism and the nutty importation of overseas conflicts could be put to rest. Wishful thinking though.

4 months later

Part Deux will start soon.

Fabregas on the bench.

http://ilemyp2.ucoz.com/chan1.html

good stream but ive gotta say even tello and thiago get in ahead of cesc, his career could go down the drain if this continues. Could become like pedro a utility player. The barca team bar messi is chosen on respect and popularity, xavi iniesta busquets are just too respected as a trio to be broken up, he made the wrong choice moving there, but he may get a few medals for sub apps though. And once xavi retires thiago will take over because he isnt seen as the guy who betrayed them and left and cost 35 million to get back.

Khedira. Puyol assisted him. 😆

Poor quality football match.

I have never seen Barca misplace so many passes! Goal aside, Madrid have been disappointing too, they've intercepted so many Barca passes, but have either just hoofed the ball forward or given it cheaply away.

Hoping for a better 2nd half.