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Ice Man
I am giving THIS challenge a go, and hoping that it will last a long time. I have recently been struggling to get into and stick at a game so I am hoping that this game can keep me interested as I go for a really big challenge.
These are the titles that need to be won:
La Liga (Spain)
Premier League (England)
Bundesliga (Germany)
Ligue 1 (France)
Serie A (Italy)
AND 5 OTHER TOP LEAGUES.
Champions Leagues
Champions League (Europe)
Champions League (Asia)
Copa Libertadores (South America)
NACL (North American Champions League)
ACL (Africa Champions League)
International Tournaments
UEFA Euros (Europe)
AFC (Asian Cup Of Nations)
Copa America (South America)
Gold Cup (North America)
ACON (African Cup Of Nations)
FIFA World Cup
Confederations Cup
Others:
10 Domestic Cups required (Where Top Level Teams can Enter)
FIFA Club World Cup
So as you can see I have got my work cut out for me! I have changed a few cosmetic things in the database (Club Kits, Right Stadiums & Managers etc.) so hopefully I should be set to begin. I have had a few problems with updated databases since the new patch came out so hopefully it won’t affect the game.
This is my initial game setup
Manager Profile & Available Jobs
So as you can see nothing to write home about. I am a Sunday league player with no coaching badges but hopefully I can blag my way into a manager’s job.
I decided to start with USA & Australia for a couple of reasons. Firstly they all speak English so that shouldn’t affect my job chances. (Not sure if this is actually a thing?) Secondly if I can somehow land a job then I am a lot closer to my goal of winning that continents Champions League.
However, as you can see there are no available jobs so I am going to be unemployed for a while. I have applied for the Bermuda job as it will give me something to do and may increase my reputation.
Due to the fact that I started at the start of the Australian league the MLS is already well underway so here is how the teams are sitting.
Ice Man
2016 - Australian FFA Cup (Brisbane Roar 3-0 v Perth Glory)
2017 - Australian FFA Cup (Brisbane Roar 2-1 v Western Sydney Wanderers)
2017 - Australian A-League Grand Final (Brisbane Roar 4-1 v Western Sydney Wanderers)
2018 - Australian A-League Regular Season Title
2018 - Australian A-League Grand Final (Brisbane Roar 4-0 v Adelaide United)
2019 - Asian Champions League (Brisbane Roar 6-5 v Al-Ahli KSA)
Shedender
Ice Man
Wednesday 9th September 2015
Vancouver have sacked manager Carl Robinson. It’s not a very surprising move as Vancouver have only amassed 9 points from 28 games.
Of course I have applied for the job, so we will wait and see what happens.
Saturday 3rd October
Still no word about the Vancouver job, however another job has opened up. New York Red Bulls have sacked Jesse Marsch for a recent run of bad play. New York are sitting in 17th place with 35 points.
Once again I have applied for this job, and would love the chance to manage New York.
Wednesday 14th October
Another club has my job application! Real Salt Lake dismissed Jeff Cassar after feeling that all parties needed a change. Salt Lake sit in 19th between Vancouver and New York on 28 points.
This would be an interesting job, trying to return them to their winning ways having won the MLS Cup in 2009. This job is my least preferred option of the 3 with New York and Vancouver taking priority.
Monday 19th October
I have finally heard back from Vancouver and it wasn’t good news. My application had failed to make the shortlist and this doesn’t bode well for the other 2 available jobs.
Ice Man
Monday 2nd November
More bad news unfortunately as both New York and Real Salt Lake have dismissed my applications. I am still waiting for a club to take pity on me and offer me a job interview.
Maybe that will be Toronto after they sacked manager Greg Vanney. Although no reason has been given for his sacking it must be due to the fact that they didn’t qualify for the playoffs again.
Monday 9th November
As expected I didn’t make the grade either with Toronto. The wait continues.
Friday 25th December
Merry Christmas!! I am still waiting for a job!
Friday 1st January 2016
Happy New Year! While recovering from the presumable hangover I thought that I would recap the MLS Cup final and show the current standings of the A League.
The MLS Cup will be in Chicago for the next year. The match wasn’t a classic but a goal in the 29th minute from Gilberto was enough for the win.
Man of the Match was Joevin Jones for Chicago and the left back impressed me greatly and I will make it a priority to try and bring him to whatever club I take over, whenever that will be!
Over the other side of the world the massive surprise is that league favourites Melbourne Victory are performing abysmally and are rightfully bottom of the table.
At the other end of the table Perth are basing their success so far on their defense. They have only conceded 6 goals in their 11 games and with a game in hand could open up a good gap on the chasing pack.
Dan
Ice Man
Saturday 31st December
Good news came at the end of the month as Mauro Biello decided to step down as interim manager. That is as good as the news gets for me, as I publicly declared my interest in the job, hoping that will somehow give me a chance at the job.
Apparently I don’t have a chance at the job. A day after declaring my interest in the job, Montreal Managing Director has laughed off my interest.
Wednesday 17th February
As expected I wasn’t even considered for the job.
I am seriously going to have to reconsider where to look for a job. I’ll wait a while and see what happens in Australia and then how the MLS starts next season but may have to start looking at new countries.
Sunday 20th March
Still alive, still waiting for a job!
Sunday 10th April
Finally, another opportunity to be rejected for a job. Today Brisbane has sacked John Aloisi. The former Coventry striker was released after failing to make the league playoffs. They were expected to finish 5th in the league and came a disappointing 7th.
Melbourne City parted way with manager John Van’t Schip. Melbourne of course a sister club of Manchester City came a very disappointing 9th. With the link to Man City they were expected to finish in 2nd place. This is a major failure and it is unsurprising to see Van’t Schip sacked.
Monday 2nd May
The A League season is over and it has seen runaway leaders Perth Glory fall at the final hurdle to Adelaide United. The final much like the one in America was settled by the 1 goal. Spanish midfielder Isaias put Adelaide ahead in the 19th minute and Perth couldn’t anything going, only having 1 shot on target the whole game.
Throughout this and nearly a month later I am still to hear from either Brisbane or Melbourne. No news is good news though!!
Tuesday 17th May
It has finally happened…..
gaz12321
clloyd
Ice Man
clloyd - I know that I limited myself but I thought that if I could get a start then it would save time, rather than working up the ladder. If Brisbane had turned me down then I was going to add some new leagues into the game.
So there we have it. Finally somebody has given me a chance. I was shocked yet thankful to even be given an interview, and it will be an honour to try and get Brisbane Roar back to winning ways.
Early impressions of the club are generally quite pleasing. We have a fantastic 52,000 capacity stadium which is completely superb, although we do have to pay a staggering £951k per year just to rent it. Not sure there is any value there and this will have a massive knock on effect.
The training and youth facilities are both average and I imagine that they will be good enough for what we are going to be doing here.
After taking a tour of the ground I took a look at the most important thing, the players. On first impressions we have a very old team that I will be looking to change around. We have an average age of 28, but have 9 players the other side of that, 5 of whom are key players.
Our goalkeepers and defenders are nothing to write home about but upon looking around the other teams in the league it seems there isn’t a team with amazing defenders. We will be looking at 26 year old Luke DeVere to be a leader at the back for us.
The strong point of the team is our midfield. Lead by our captain and last year’s star performer Matt McKay this will be where we look to dominate the league. Alongside him in the middle we have ex Sevilla midfielder Javi Hervas who at only 26 should be leading this team in the years to come.
Other veterans who I’ll be looking to contribute are German left winger Thomas Broich, Brazilian right winger Henrique and another Spanish midfielder Corona.
Up front we look short of options. The main option is Costa Rican Jean Carlos Solorzano who only managed to score 4 goals in 13 starts. Our backup option is youngster Jamie Maclaren who didn’t seem to get a great chance last year starting 10 games but coming off the bench 11 times. He only scored 1 goal.
After reviewing my players, the next place to look was at the coaching setup. This is where things started to go downhill. Upon arrival I was told that I had no assistant manager and the staff that are here are pretty rubbish. I have already sacked the goalkeeping coach and if I could, I would sack everybody but with limited options available, I’m going to have to stick with what I have for now.
When doing a quick comparison with the rest of the league it is very easy to see just how bad the current coaching staff are. After looking around for some coaches to bring in, I have found maybe 8-10 that could be a potential option. There is 1 decent goalkeeping coach to bring in which is a bonus!
Unfortunately there isn’t a very good assistant that really meets my requirements; however I have managed to find a Brazilian assistant working in Malaysia that will come in and open up some new doors and hopefully unearth some Brazilian gems!
The only respectable part of our staff is our scouts and physio. The scouts will be lead by Director of Football Craig Moore who will work alongside Chief Scout Jacob Vujica. I am hoping to bring in a couple of other scouts, preferably with the knowledge of nations other than Australia.
Our one man medical team is run by Tony Ganter, who will be aided by former Newcastle Jets head physio Rob Dingle once our contract talks are finalized.
After comparing the playing squad and the current staff to the rest of the league, I thought that I should look at how we did last season and where we can improve this year.
Firstly looking back at our results we had an appalling end to the season in which we haven’t won in 10 games. We lost the last 4 including 2 games to teams that finished below us. This really comes into consideration when you look at the final league table and see how many points we were off reaching the playoffs.
Despite this there were some better moments throughout the season. We won all 3 games against Wellington Phoenix and won 2 out of 3 against Sydney FC. The best win of the season came early in the year against eventual 2nd place team Newcastle United. We won 2-1 away from home with both goals coming from youngster Dimitri Petratos.
The final piece of the puzzle is our finances and they aren’t looking good. We are currently –£2.3m and it doesn’t look like things are going to get any better. This season we have made a loss of £1.1m and when you add in our rent for the stadium of £951k it becomes very clear where the majority of our loss comes from.
I wish that was as bad as it is going to bet but looking at our projections for the end of this year and the next it is already looking like we are going to need some new investments from somewhere.
Ice Man
Sunday 22nd May
My new coaching setup is complete. It has taken less than a week and my coaching team is now rated as one of the best. I have bought in 5 new coaches (including ex Australian & Brisbane manager Frank Farina), 1 physio, 1 scout and my new assistant manager.
Monday 30th May
We have announced the first signing of my reign at Brisbane. 23 year old Aussie striker Matt Thurtell has joined for £2.3k from Bentleigh Green. Thurtell has played for the club before but never made an appearance before joining Brisbane Strikers where he scored 54 goals in 44 appearances. That impressive form got him a move to Bentleigh Green where in his one and only season he scored 18 in 34 with an average rating of 7.25.
Wednesday 1st June
Today is the day in Australia when clubs in Australia release players at the end of their contracts. We have released 4. The only immediate knock on effect this has on us is that we now have no backup keeper and lost a versatile full back.
However, we have offered trials to 8 players who have been released from other clubs across the country. By position we have 1 goalkeeper, 4 defenders and 3 midfielders. In all likeliness we will probably sign 3-4 of them.
In another bit of transfer related news, I have decided to offer Thomas Broich the opportunity to move back to Germany. While he would be an important player for the upcoming season there are a couple of reasons why I see this move benefiting us. Firstly he is 35 years old and I want my team to be young and quick which he simply is not. Secondly he is occupying a Marquee Contract. We are only allowed 2 as a team and I have already lined up somebody that is going to need that contract.
Monday 6th June
Thomas Broich has agreed to a move back to Germany. He will join Furth for £50k and will move on Friday 1st July.
Sunday 19th June
Today we received our fixture list for the upcoming season. We will start the season off with a trip to Melbourne City. Our first home match will be against last year’s beaten finalists Perth Glory. I really like the end to our season with our last 3 games all at home. That could be vital for an end of year push towards the title or the playoffs.
We also received £713k in TV rights for this season. This is an increase of £30k compared to last season’s TV money. While every little helps, £30k isn’t going to make a splash in the water for us when we need a further £1.2m just to get back into the black.
Friday 24th June
As well as announcing our friendlies for our upcoming pre-seasons we also had the draw of the FFA Cup. With the FFA Cup first round happening a month and a half before the league season starts we are going to have 2 pre-seasons.
In the FFA Cup we have been very unlucky to be drawn away to Melbourne Victoy. Last season they made it all the way to the final where they lost to their Melbourne rivals. With Melbourne also competing in the Asian Champions League, I am hoping that they will be more focused on that then our FFA Cup game.
Friday 1st July
With teams in Europe releasing players out of contract I have offered 4 trials to Australians just released by their clubs. The most well-known player is the 9 times capped midfielder Neil Kilkenny. The other 3 players offered trials are Goalkeeper Danijel Nizic released from Burnley, Defenders Callum Elder and Joseph Konyit released from Leicester City and Bahlingen respectively.
After agreeing to sell Thomas Broich, I said that I had somebody eyed up. That player was Japanese goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima. Unfortunately that move will now not go ahead. I couldn’t offer him a contract until Broich was off our books and now it is too late as Bolton Wanderers have jumped in and offered a contract.
Kawashima would have been perfect for us, as he would have given the team a very stable and dependable last line of defense. Oh well, wasn’t to be.
Dan
gaz12321
Ice Man
Monday 18th July
With the amount of pre-season games we have I was keen to try and narrow down my roster. With a total of 11 players in on trial I decided to offer contracts to 5 of them with a potential of 2 more getting offers.
Along with the 5 from the trial squad, I have also gone against my own rule and bought in somebody over 30. In fact he is over 40! Aussie hero Mark Schwarzer will come in and fight for the number 1 role. If he impresses when he comes in then I will look to move on current keeper Michael Theo. Theo played well last season but he has a very high salary of £1,700 p/w and I could use that much better elsewhere.
And we start my reign with a fantastic comeback victory. The first half was pretty poor and the lack of competitive fixtures seemed to show as neither team created any chances during the whole half. It wasn’t until the 2nd half that things brightened up.
We went behind to a scrappy goal from our clubs leading all time goalscorer Besart Berisha. Fortunatly for us it only seemed to spur us on. Solorzano scored a tap in thanks to great build up play from winger Borrello. The final and match winning goa was scored by substitute Maclaren after some ping-pong play in the box.
Great win and in the next round of the cup we will play at home to the current holders Melbourne City. Melbourne knocked out another A League team in Central Coast Mariners. The game will take place on Tuesday 20th September.
Monday 12th September
Today we got this years youth candidates through from our Head of Youth Development. The class wasn’t exceptional but we could have found our goalkeeper for the future. There is also a decent left back although I am not expecting great things from him.
What a game this was. It was a match that was back and forth but in the end, we have now knocked both of last year’s finalists out of the FFA Cup.
We made it 1-0 thanks to captain fantastic Matt McKay getting on the end of Javi Hervas’s cross and sending his header across goal and into the far corner. We were then however bought back down to earth after 30 minutes when Fornaroli capitalised on a poor touch by Riley Woodcock and made it 1-1. We were very quickly losing 1-2 when another error allowed former striker David Williams to score.
We regrouped in the 2nd half and after a great counter attacking move, McKay was on hand to equalise with a neat finish part keeper Sorensen. It was looking like the game was heading into extra time, but 2 late goals from Borrello and Clut saw us home and into the Quarter Final.
Thursday 22nd September
Today the bookies have announced their odds for the forthcoming season. Leading the way are Melbourne Victory on 7-4. Last season’s grand final teams are 8-1 for Adelaide and 25-1 for Perth Glory. We are priced at 14-1 and having seen how we have played in the 2 cup games, I wish that we could put the clubs money on the line and get ourselves out of debt!!
The other bit of news announced today is who we will play in the Quarter Final of the FFA Cup. I was hoping that we could avoid the remaining A League teams (Adelaide Utd, Newcastle Jets, Perth Glory & Western Sydney Wanderers) but as I expected it wasn’t to be. We were drawn against Western Sydney but thankfully the match will be played at home on Tuesday 1st November.
TheMazzeRunner
Ice Man
October 2016
So the first month of league fixtures are over and it has been a mixed bag. We didn’t start off well against Melbourne City especially considering the previous month we had beaten them in the FFA Cup.
We bounced back well with consecutive 3-2 wins. In both games we rushed out to 3-0 leads only for us to concede 2 goals and make what was a simple job a whole lot harder. In the Perth game it was 3-2 at half time but pleasingly in the 2nd half we dominated Perth and didn’t allow another shot on goal. The Phoenix game was more comfortable until we conceded goals in the 88th and 92nd minute but thankfully there was no time left for them to come back.
The Newcastle Jets game was our performance of the month and details are down below.
The final game was decided in the 18th minute when defender Luke DeVere was sent off. We had created some very good chances up until this point but thereafter we were never in with a shout. In the 2nd half we rallied but couldn’t find the back of the net. We went attacking but got hit on the counter and Sydney walked out deserving winners.
Our best performance of the month came in the away trip to Newcastle. We were coming of the back of 2 good wins and I was very keen to continue that run here. The game didn’t start off very well for either teams but was soon bought into life when some good wing play from Petratos combine with intricate passing from Solórzano presented Henrique with a chance at goal. That shot was well saved but Mullen could do nothing but see the ball rebound off him and into the back of his own net.
The 2nd and 3rd goals were very similar. Both were combinations of great crosses from the right hand side. The 2nd goal was thanks to a great ball in from right back Polenz which went straight to the head of Petratos who was able to knock it down to Solórzano who tucked the ball away.
The 3rd was from another cross this time by flying winger Borrello. His wicked cross was in between the goalkeeper and central defenders, which gave Solórzano the easiest of finishes and made the game 3-0 in the 64th minute.
The game was over right up until we conceded again in the last 10 minutes. A nice passing move by Newcastle dragged defenders out of position and allowed Crowley to score past an on rushing Schwarzer.
So overall we are looking pretty good in the league. The pleasing thing is that we are only 4 points off the leaders Adelaide and looking at the games that we have lost it we can easily get the points back that we need. Add to the fact that we still have to play Adelaide then I am still very confident that we can get top spot and look to pull away.
At the bottom of the table Perth have started the season in complete contrast to how they started last season. The other significant team there is Western Sydney. We are playing them in the Quarter Final of the FFA Cup next month and I’m hoping that the cup game won’t allow them to free up and play well against us.
The final bit of news this month is to announce our 2 new signings. Rhys Williams will be a familiar name. The ex Middlesbrough player has joined our club and immediately goes straight in at centre back. Still only 28 years old, I am hoping that he will be around for as long as I am here at Brisbane.
The other new player, Bruce Kamau joins after being released from last year’s champions Adelaide United. He had been on trial with us all through pre-season and I was very keen to add him as he offers us options not only on the wing but also up front.
Sankalan
Dan
itchycoo
This! ^^^
Ice Man
Tuesday 1st November – Game Day | FFA Cup Quarter Final (H) Western Sydney Wanderers
We managed to come through this hotly contested game thanks to 2 goals in 2 minutes.
After a relatively mundane opening to the match, the whole game changed in just 2 minutes. Firstly a superbly taken goal from Brandon Borrello gave us a 1-0 lead. The Western Sydney defense certainly didn’t help themselves with opportunities to clear the ball, yet they failed to do so.
If things weren’t bad enough for the visitors we made it even worse exactly a minute later. Straight from the restart Sydney gave the ball away needlessly, and within 5 or 6 passes the ball was on the right wing being crossed in to a waiting Jean Carlos Solórzano to make it 2-0.
The 2 goals really seemed to knock them for six, as they were unable to really muster any kind of attacking threat for the rest of the half. From our point of view we were very happy with the 2-0 lead and our main focus was keeping it that way into half time.
After the break the Wanderers started positively and for the next 20 minutes or so, started passing the ball around and although they didn’t create any real chances they were frustrating us as you can see by the amount of yellow cards we picked up.
Just as they were looking like scoring and making the game very interesting, we struck with a killer blow. Some slow but meaningful build up play was rewarded with a bullet of a shot from Borrello to score his 2nd and our 3rd.
This goal absolutely killed them and we were able to control the ball for the remainder of the game and come away with our first clean sheet of the season.
The reward for winning this game was an away Semi Final match against Newcastle Jets.
We left it late and it was certainly great, and we are into the FFA Cup final!
After a nervy 10 minutes on our part, we suffered a blow in our final chances when Ben Kantarovski scored an absolute screamer from 25 yards out after we only managed to half clear a free kick in a dangerous position.
The disappointing thing in the remainder of the half was the lack of chances that we created. We were keeping possession well and getting in and around their box but were relying on long shots as we couldn’t create any clear cut chances.
After some Alex Ferguson hairdryer treatment at half time I was hoping that we would come out fighting, and I didn’t have to wait long to see that my words had really worked.
In the previous 5 minutes to us scoring our goal we had 3 shots on target and another 3 corners but just couldn’t find that cutting edge. In the end it was our 4th corner of the half that did the trick. After it was only half cleared the ball came back out to Javi Hervas who’s initial shot was blocked by a defender, but with the goalkeeper out of position he was left with an open goal and just like that the game was tied 1-1.
For the remainder of the half things got very tetchy. We were going all out for the win, while Newcastle seemed confident in taking the game into extra time. The amount of yellow cards just shows how much we were pressing them down trying to get the ball back. Although it clearly didn’t work!
Just when the game was looking like going into extra time we found our way ahead thanks to the brilliant cross from my substitute Paulo Retre. Retre was having a very quiet game since coming on, but as he picked the ball up on the left wing he cut inside and put a wicked curling ball in towards the back post where Jamie Maclaren smashed the ball in and booked our place in the FFA Cup final.
The Final will be held on Sunday 22nd January at the Adelaide Oval against Perth Glory. Unfortunately we will be without our first choice right back Jerome Polenz after he was suspended for picked up 3 yellow cards in the previous rounds.
Bring it on!!
Just a side note. I am generally going to be doing 3 updates per season. There will be an early season, mid season and then an end of season. If I try to do an update every month then I find myself hardly playing the game and making sure that the updates look right. This way I can play most of the games and then just do an update here and there.
There will however be an individual update for the FFA Cup final.
Thanks
Ice Man
November, December & January 2016
Never have I found a team more frustrating than this Brisbane team. The inability to score is frustrating but even more so is the fact that we can’t stop conceding when we score.
As you can see from our results there are way too many draws. There is also a very clear pattern of what is going to happen. If we score 1 goal then we are very likely to end up drawing 1-1. On the rare occasion we score 2 or more goals then even we can’t throw the game away. (The Melbourne Victory game was 1-0, 1-3 & 2-3)
The draws are just so infuriating. We have given up 6 points from winning positions, and even then there is no second wind from the players to go and get the lead back.
At least we started January with 2 wins otherwise this would have been an unforgivable start to the season, especially considering how we started.
The main thing despite how badly we have played so far this season is that we are in the playoff positions. Melbourne and Adelaide are running away with it and after playing the both I am a little surprised they are so far ahead.
If we can find some consistent form in the second half of the season then I don’t see why we couldn’t end up finishing 3rd or higher.
Despite all the doom and gloom there have been some shining lights. The midfield paring of Matt McKay & Javi Hervas have been unbelievable. Both of them are averaging over 7.5 for the season and never miss a match. Javi playing at times like his namesake Xavi leads the team with 5 assists and with better strikers could easily be in double figures.
Speaking about strikers Solórzano and Borrello have both scored 7 but what that doesn’t say is that Solorzano had scored 4 after only 4 league games so that is a very disappointing return, although he has missed about 2-3 weeks through injury. While he has been on the side lines Borrello has stepped up and scored some vital goals including 2 in the impressive 4-2 win away to Central Coast.
The discipline has been a problem and I have to take a big proportion of the blame for that. We have been tackling hard and closing down very tightly. This doesn’t seem to combine very well especially when we are trailing and rushing around trying to get the ball back. Hopefully this will be sorted soon as I look to change the way that we play.
When the January transfer window opened I was very keen to try and improve our team at both ends of the pitch. I wasn’t very pleased with our defending and with a change of tactic I wanted to move Rhys Williams into the defensive midfield position so a central defender was a must. Thankfully I managed to find Joe Rodon who was in our wage range and was willing to make the move out here on loan for the rest of the season.
At the other end of the pitch I was hoping to bring in Fulham’s Aussie striker Adam Taggart. Unfortunately for us, with his contract running out at the end of the year, French team Angers offered him a contract and as we couldn’t offer him a decent contract (bloody finances) he was off to France. After taking a long look around the globe we ended up going over to America and bringing in Jordan Hamilton who was out of favour at Toronto.
The downside to bringing in Hamilton was that we had to lose a foreign player and the unlucky player was Spanish midfielder Corona. It was a shame to lose him but there were a couple of reasons why he was an easy choice to release. Firstly he is retiring from football at the end of the season so this will get us ready for that. The other reason is that he only managed to play in 4 games weather that was through injuries or through the good form of Hervas & McKay.
A final transfer note is that we have managed to extend the contracts of McKay, Williams & Petratos which are going to be key players for a long time.
willz121
Ice Man
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
My first trophy as a manager is in the bag, and we produced our best performance to date to do so. I was obviously keen to get off to a good start and couldn’t have asked for a better one thanks to Petratos’ early goal.
It all came from a vital interception from DeVere and within 8 or 9 passes the ball was out on the wing with Macclaren and his delightful cross to the back post was met with a thumping volley and just like that we were 1-0 up.
We only had to wait a further 27 minutes for our next goal. This one was a lot simpler. A corner from Javi Hervas found Petratos all alone on the penalty spot and thankfully he was composed enough to head the ball past the helpless keeper and at 2-0 and dominating the signs were looking very, very good.
The victory was all but confirmed in the 43rd minute when another set play brought us our third goal. A magnificent in-swinging ball was met by the head of Jamie Macclaren who had timed his run perfectly to be all alone inside the box with only the keeper to beat. Thankfully it was on target (as most of the season so far, they had been off target!) and we took a 3-0 lead into half time.
The 2nd half was a mere formality as we controlled the tempo of the game, by keeping the ball for the majority of the half. We ended the game with 61% of the possession and to allow Perth only 1 shot was a magnificent effort especially considering our struggles in the league.
A look back on our run through the tournament and there is no question in my mind that we deserved to win the cup. Having beaten 4 other A-League teams just to get to the final was an incredible achievement but then to go on and beat the 5th A-League team is just an amazing feeling. Perth Glory in comparison didn’t play 1 A-League team on their way to the final.
Ice Man
February, March & April
What a load of rubbish. I have never been so glad for a season to be over. We were beyond bad.
Not really sure where to start as it’s all too depressing reliving it. As my title above says we were awful. Beginning on the positive that we won 3 games. The Perth game wasn’t a great win, we were just lucky that they are bottom of the league and played really bad that game. The Central Coast & Western Sydney games were important wins at home and as you will see from the final league table were instrumental in us qualifying for the playoffs.
Now for the bad parts. Our problem is very much a forward and defense problem. Our defense has been a problem all year and it’s one that I will be working very hard to fix. We simply concede too many goals and more importantly we really struggle to see out winning positions.
At the other end of the pitch we really, really need to find a good striker for this team. We are being hurt by so many missed chances. Most of the time we are creating 4+ good chances a game but only scoring 1 sometimes 2 is just not good enough. Looking at the top teams in the league they have each got a very good striker who is finishing the chances.
The final game summed up our season. We went behind and couldn’t get back into it. Rubbish.
So as I just said we managed to scrape into the playoff positions thanks to those 2 wins at home. While only being 2 points of 3rd is a positive the gap that Melbourne and Adelaide have is just way too big.
The simple factor that I will take from this season is that a good striker is vital. Melbourne bought in Steve Beleck on loan from Fiorentina in January and since doing the goals he has scored has helped them to win 4 games alone. In the same time period Adelaide’s Bruce Djite’s goals have helped Adelaide win 3 games.
Now granted even without Beleck’s goals Melbourne would still have won the league but not by so many and add loss of morale and form then things might have been very different.
Now if you thought that the playing side was bad, then this is where the main problem lies. We are losing so much money a year and I am not sure what we can do about it.
We are paying a ridiculous amount of money (951k) to play in a 52,500 capacity stadium, and our average attendance for league games this year was 15,489. That’s just 29% of the capacity. Now what is the point in paying all of that money when I am sure that there is a smaller stadium that we could fill most/every week and not be paying out all that money per year. We made £923k in gate receipts this year, and yet we are still -30k before we have even paid the years rent.
I am doing all that I can. I am 2k under wage budget including bonuses and 4.5k under without the bonuses. I am doing that and it is hurting the playing side of the team as we are missing out on key players as they know we can’t offer them anything like a competitive salary.
One final note is that even when I suggest bringing in a Senior Affiliate team to help bring in some extra finance the stupid chairman seems to think that it isn’t worth the money.
Aaaaarrrrggggghhhhhh
Pretty self-explanatory really. A big surprise for me was that Javi Hervas wasn’t even in the fans top 3 for player of the year. He should have been 2nd in my opinion.
Matt McKay and Rhys Williams were both included in the A-League team of the year and will play in the All Star Game next year against a yet to be named team.
Dan
gaz12321
Hopefully you can make some financial progress as well, do the Cup Winners get into ACL?
Ice Man
gaz12321 - Thanks, I'm trying to sort out the finances but the chairman really isn't helping! The Cup winners don't get into the ACL unfortunately. The winners don't get anything apart from the cup!
2017 Off Season
The off season started on a positive for me as I was offered a new 1 year extension. Despite the severe disappointment I have with the way the team played throughout the year I am excited to remain here as we look to improve on last year and try to qualify for the Champions League.
Speaking of the Champions League, Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United will be Australia’s representatives this year. Melbourne not only won the A-League regular season, but they also went on to beat the Newcastle Jets in the Grand Final. As Melbourne won both, the next spot goes to whoever finished 2nd in the regular season.
Shortly after signing my new deal it was announced that Brandon Borrello had been named the A-League Young Player of the Year. It was a great achievement for him and hopefully he will go on and have an even better year.
We got our new recruits from our Head of Youth Development and I have to say he did a cracking job. We have offered contracts to 5 of them with Nielen Higgins & Daniel Jedinak being the best 2. Richard Bridge & Fabio Vinci will add to the defensive prospects while last signing Mitchell Ryan only has an outside shot of ever playing a game.
So we've had a fantastic pre-season combined with 2 more great FFA Cup results. The Adelaide game was always going to be tricky especially after where they finished last season but armed with a new tactic we were going to give them a bloody good go.
As it turned out for 70 minutes not a lot had changed. We were losing and looked incapable of changing things. Thankfully my brilliant substitution (pat on the back!) changed the game. Jamie Maclaren came on after an hour and made the impact that we needed. He raced clear of a slow defense and slotted the ball home. The second came after a cross from the right was met by Maclaren as he got across his defender and volleyed the ball home. 2-1 winners.
After some more good pre-season results we were once again coming up against another A-League team in the FFA Cup. This time we were drawn away to the Central Coast Mariners. I was hoping that this would be an easier game than the first round and thankfully it was.
We were 2-0 up inside 10 minutes and from then on the game seemed very easy. Borrello added his 3rd after half an hour and the game was as good as won. There was still time however after the break for Rhys Williams to score from a corner and young Argentine Azarias Molina to score his first for the club in the 66th minute.
The draw for the Quarter Final was made straight after the game and for the first time since I’ve been in charge at Brisbane we have been drawn against somebody that doesn’t play in the A-League. We will have to travel to South Melbourne in what should be a tricky game in amongst the start of our A-League campaign.
So it was clearly obvious that we were going to need to improve and recruit well and after my intial thought about a complete rebuild I changed my mind when I saw who was available to bring in. My initial areas that I wanted to improve on were in goal, central defense & up front. Thankfully I managed to find players for all of those positions and with the added bonus of 2 of them being Australian, they really helped with the squad restrictions in place.
I did however decide that I was going to use 2 of my foreign spots on the most important area of the team, upfront. I had been searching all throughout last season and when I saw that I could get Ryan Hardie on loan, I instantly knew that I had to. His striking partner for this year will be a very talented Argentinian on loan from giants Boca Juniors. Molina comes with the added bonus that being under 20, he allows me to use an older player as well which is vital for squad depth.
Brandon O’Neill and Andrija Jurkic have been bought in to help with the squad depth. After they were released from Sydney FC & Central Coast Mariners respectively I bought them in on trials for the whole of pre-season. Brandon was signed after a week or two after impressing me greatly while also adding fantastic depth at different positions. Jurkic isn’t somebody that I am totally sold on and is an easy releasable player if I find somebody else to bring in.
Ice Man
October, November, December & January 2018
So overall it’s been a very inconsistent first half of the season. We started our league season off with a fantastic win of defending champs Melbourne Victory. Over the rest of October and November we were so inconsistent as you can see from the loss to Adelaide all the way till the win against Central Coast.
After losing to Melbourne City we managed to find some form and went unbeaten until I rested too many players in the loss to the Mariners. The disappointing thing was that during that unbeaten run the draws to the Victory and Sydney occurred through conceding in the last 5 minutes.
Here’s hoping to a more consistent second half of the year.
We are sitting in a decent position. We are in touching distance of Melbourne Victory and although we are only 2 points clear of Perth and potentially going out of the playoff places I feel confident that we will win enough games to finish comfortably in the top 6.
2 Years in a row. Wooooooooooooo
After overcoming a very good South Melbourne team on penalties in the Quarter Final and then dominating the Newcastle Jets in the Semi’s this was always going to be the hardest test. Western Sydney who had knocked out Melbourne Victory to get to the final, where in the midst of some similar league form to us.
I was very keen for us to impose ourselves early on in the game and despite keeping possession really well for the first 20-25 minutes we didn’t create anything at all. As the half grew older Sydney were also growing in confidence and stringing some nice passing moves along, but we did well to restrict them to long shots only.
The half time talk went well and after telling them to believe in themselves and getting them all happy and motivated, I couldn’t believe that just 5 minutes later we were losing. A cheap giveaway in possession gave Sydney great attacking position, and when a clumsy tackle from Riley Woodcock resulted in a penalty, Italian forward Federico Piovaccari stepped up and smashed it into the top corner.
Thankfully we didn’t have to wait long for a response and just 2 minutes later the scoreboard was level. A fantastic cross from Callum Elder was matched by an even better header from Jamie Mclaren, which gave Duncan in goal absolutely no chance. Just like that it was 1-1 and we had the momentum.
Things got better for us on 68 minutes when young Scottish striker Ryan Hardie put us 2-1 ahead having just coming off the bench. This time it was a cross from the opposite fullback Polenz who did wonderfully picked out Hardie on the penalty spot. He was all alone and with a single touch was able to get the ball out of his feet and fire the ball into the top corner.
As the game was getting closer to the end and things starting to get a bit edgy, I decided to take a real risk and instead of going all defensive, I went attacking in the hope that we could get control of the ball. I wanted us to have the mantra of trying to score instead of trying not to concede as this team isn’t good enough to have that approach.
Thankfully it paid off and we managed to see out the remainder of the game with no dramas and just like that we had retained OUR CUP!
Ice Man
February, March & April
Well, February and most of March really don’t need any explaining. Shambolic, Diabolical & Shit, and that was the nice words to describe the Melbourne City performance. I have never seen a game where nothing would change the result. They could have played with 7 or 8 players and still won. We were an embarrassment. Subsequently that was to be Mark Schwarzer’s last game for us. He would sit out the rest of the season and announced that he would be retiring at the end of the season.
The game that changed everything came against Perth Glory. With the game being tightly fought, and with Perth having just equalised in the 65th minute, I decided go all guns blazing and changed tactic to a 4-3-3. This seemed to have the desired effect as in the last 10 minutes the 3 up front overwhelmed Perth’s defense and space opened up for Barrello to score 2 late goals and give us a vital 4-2 win to kick start our season again.
I decided to stick with the 4-3-3 tactic and after beating Central Coast Mariners we had guaranteed our place in the Grand Finals. With that in mind we rested a few players and still managed to win 4-3 in a thriller with Melbourne City.
We had started to find top gear and were starting to fire on all cylinders at the perfect time.
We qualified easily in the end, although next year I would prefer not to have to wait until the penultimate game to guarantee our spot.
At the top of the pile it’s the same 2 as last year. Not as far ahead as last year but yet again Melbourne showing that they are the best team in the country. Funny thing is that we don’t have a bad record against them. This year we went 1-1-1 but should have won when we drew, and could have drawn the last game which we lost.
The interesting thing to note heading into the Grand Final stages is that Melbourne, Adelaide and Newcastle are all currently involved in the Asian Champions League so tiredness could be a factor for the 3 teams.
Ice Man
Grand Final Playoffs
So there we have it. We came good at the right time and have won the A-League Grand Final. After coming into the finals on the back of 3 wins out of 4, I knew that there wasn’t going to be a better time than this to win it all.
The Newcastle Jets game was incredibly tough. The game wasn’t an open attacking game with on 4 shots on target for both teams during the whole game. With the score at 0-0 after 80 minutes and for all intense and purposes this game was going into extra time, I decided not to make any substitutions and would really attack them in extra time with fresh legs.
As it turned out that wasn’t going to be necessary. During a rare trip into the final third a deep cross from Jerone Polenz was turned into his own net by Newcastle’s Cameron Watson and with just 7 minutes to hold on, we were on course to make it into the Semi Final.
The Semi Final would be up against regular season winners Melbourne Victory. While this was always going to be a tough game, the fact that they had just played in Japan 4 days ago was something that I was hoping to take advantage of.
That is exactly what we did, as a very tired Melbourne team looked a shadow of the normal self. We were dominating them all over the park. We got off to the perfect start with Borrello putting us 1-0 up after 57 seconds. The game had a bit of a lull in it, but it was sparked into life once again as Ryan Hardie scored a fine goal from just inside the box and at 2-0 it looked like this game may have been finished.
However, Melbourne hadn’t read that script and scored a scrappy goal just before the break and with a turn in momentum I was now slightly worried. All year this had happened to us. We would be winning games easily only for us to concede 1 and then the flood gates would open. We could not let this happen again.
We didn’t! Throughout the second half we had numerous opportunities to put the game to rest but it wasn’t until the 89th minute that we finally did. With a tired Melbourne throwing everything at us we managed to catch them on the break. A nice run from Hardie drew defenders and the goalkeeper towards him and a simple pass into Borrello left him the simple task of rolling the ball into the open net and leading us into the Grand Final.
Were onto the Final!
It was a rerun of the FFA Cup final and we couldn’t let Sydney get the better of us here. We didn’t. We started of strong and Molina put us ahead after a lovely team passing move was finished from 6 yards out.
As expected Sydney came back strong and after a mad goal line scramble Vidosic equalized for the hosts and momentum was all on their side. However, it didn’t last long as experienced left back Scott Jamieson got two quick yellow cards and was sent off.
Despite not scoring before half time, I was sure that in the second half our numerical advantage would make the difference and it sure did. We didn’t have to wait long for the goal that would put us ahead. Another good cross from right back Polenz was met with a by Hardie to put us 2-1 up.
Another quick couple from Molina and Hardie after the hour mark was enough for us to win the Grand Final and book our place in the Asian Champions League.