A bit of a surprise in the A-League playoffs as Melbourne Victory brought Auckland down to earth in Auckland by downing them 2-0 in their semi-final second leg - to win 2-1 on aggregate. Annoyingly sets up an all-Melbourne final.
Well the cup shocks keep coming. Aberdeen beat Celtic on penalties in shades of 1990. And like Palace v Man City weeks after being hammered by the same team.
Fair play to Sunderland: lost an influential player early on; went 1-0 to, frankly, a worldy, got the rub of the green with VAR; survived a bit of an onslaught, hung on in there and nicked it at the death... terrific game, the Championship in 100 minutes or so!
Agree. Despite being a South Islander I wanted the Jafas to win. As a matter of interest what do you think the standard is of the teams in the A league? I try to convince a staunch Phoenix fan that it's about League Two. The better players who go to the English leagues rarely succeed. The Auckland goalkeeper Paulsen is a Kiwi on loan from Bournemouth but I doubt if he will play for them if they stay in the Premier League.
There are similarities to the top flight in Scotland - for such a small league, a huge disparity in standard between the top and bottom clubs. But imo clubs at the bottom of the A-League, such as Brisbane and Perth would struggle against top National League clubs such as Barnet or York, whilst those at top - eg the two Melbourne sides City and Victory - could possibly hold their own in League 1. One thing's for sure - I struggle to name any Aussies who could be anywhere near deemed successful in England at the moment - beyond Luongo at Ipswich & Burgess & Souttar at Leicester (both now relegated), Dykes at Birmingham (who never played in the A-League but came here from the NPL Queensland) and McGree at Middlesbrough. Not an impressive list really, compared to days gone by. Your probably right though - League 2 standard in the main.
Wrexham are coming to Australia and NZ in July to play Sydney, Melbourne Victory and Wellington. I expect the games will be televised as they are getting a lot of publicity here. They will be interesting from a WFC perspective.
Hopefully not saudi money: that would probably end it for me; proper cognitive dissonance if it doesn't.
Another shocker from VAR disallowing Aston Villa their opener. Awful decision. Disgraceful, actually.
Actually the problem was VAR couldn’t rule on the decision as the ref had blown his too early to give a foul before the ball went so was more down to the on pitch official . So not down to VAR making a poor call . No certainty VAR would have given that goal either
