A League Finals

Here's the thing...

I'm a Brisbane Roar supporter, and no matter how dreadful they are, I will be one until the Roar go bust and there is a different Brisbane team in the comp; in which case I will support them (The Strikers ??? since it's unlikely to be Taringa Rovers). It's where I was born, grew up and, to all intents and purposes, live.

But I'm also a Queenslander and a supporter of the underdog. So, in the finals, I will be supporting the GC and Wellington... and if it finally comes down to Sydney and Melbourne (which, IMHO, they both deserve) I will be supporting Melbourne because I can't support a team wearing Sky Blue.

So this game meant nothing to me. I can't say was unhappy to see GC lose. Even if it means Sydney beat Melbourne next week and win the Premiership. Like it or not, Football (Soccer!) in Australia has a finals series and the winner of that is the winner.
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Misc 071003

I watched Top Gun last night. How gay is that movie?

Is anyone else suffering through a plague of moths?

Can the Queensland Roar's bad record against New Zealand teams continue? I'll be there Friday night to see if I ever get to see a Roar victory live.

It'll be 32 degrees here tomorrow. It's only October, for god's sake.

Anyone gonna buy the new Radiohead album? (Apparently, yes.)

Happy Sputnik day (for tomorrow).

Sulu gets his own asteroid.



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We sing better than your wife

David Beckham played his first Major League Soccer (MLS) game for the LA Galaxy today (Thursday night U.S. time) in front of 45,000 people at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C.

Beckham came on as a sub in the 72nd minute.

His team lost 1-0 to (Washington) DC United, but he did do one nice pass to Landon Donovan while he was on.

Beckham has technically been an MLS player since 1 July, but apart from 14 -odd minutes against Chelsea in a friendly, he hasn't played because of an ankle injury picked up with England and exacerbated with Real Madrid.


Destinies converge: Last year, Fred played in Melbourne's A-League winning team, this year he's playing in MLS for DC United. Last year, David Beckham played in Real Madrid's La Liga winning team, this year, he's playing for the LA Galaxy.

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Australian Football - Let's face it, we're not very good

So, like the Americans, we can't beat Iraq, either.

Let's face it, for the entire World Cup, we were ahead for about five minutes - the last five minutes against Japan. Then we lost t o Brazil, came from behind to draw with Croatia and lost to Italy. In the Asian cup, we came from behind to draw against Bahrain and now we've lost to Iraq. Even with Vikuda, Kewell and Cahill on the park, we have to face the fact that we're not very good.

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Misc 070609

For those about to enter the institution of marriage, we salute you. But you know what they say about institutions... Seriously, I hope you're planning on procreating: on Peter Costello's standard of one for you, one for your partner and one for the country; you, me, Paul and Danny will be running 11 children behind by the end of this year.

It's raining. (He says, thinking of Marge Simpson and donuts falling from the sky.)

I've had plenty of other things to say in the past few weeks, but then I think "Who wants to hear about that?" I've got to snap out of it: if every blogger thought about whether anyone really wanted to hear what they had to say then nothing much would ever get written.

Atlantic hurricane season started last Friday. Let's hope this year is more newsworthy than last year. I can say that of course because I live nowhere near the Atlantic ocean. Maybe what Pensacola needs is another big storm to clean up the Saufley Field landfill.

I've been remiss in posting my tedious local sports reports this season. Basically, the Souths Logan Magpies and Taringa Rovers had horrible starts to the season. The Magpies are second last and I haven't seen a table for the Brisbane Men's Soccer Premier League, but I'd guess Taringa would be in around the same position.

But, in the NRL, it's good to see the Gold Coast Titans doing better than the Broncos.

Misc 060903

Here's something else I lost in "Drafts".


Qld Roar 3 - Newcastle Jets 2
Weird Game. We still seem to be giving the ball away far too much; need to tighten up our passes. I thought Seo looked better this week, but Miron thinks he didn't have a good game, and people - like whoever votes for those 3-2-1 awards they list in the paper each week - thought he had a good game the first week, so what do I know?

New Zealand look good with Buari and Richter up front.

Melbourne look impressive. A little less writhing around on the ground would be nice, though.

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Weekend Update 060827

Queensland Roar 3 - Perth Glory 0
Phew! It was looking grim for a while there. Like last season, but worse. And Queensland gives up possession again.

All that time spent looking for strikers and none of them looked that hot in the first half; Milicic was fiddling around with it and never getting a clean shot in, Reinaldo looks more like a mid-fielder. And Queensland gives up possession again.

Seo didn't have a good night, we didn't control the ball in the mid-field at all; Wedau was invisible - so much for the "push button tempo controller" or whatever it was that Miron the Mouth called him in an interview I saw on Total Football the other day when I was away: Murdocca should be in the run-on side instead of him. And Queensland gives up possession again.

Although that might mean Massimo wouldn't be so fresh and able to slice through them at the end of the game like he did. Because until the fresh legs came on it looked like being another really bad night for the Roar. No one should really fail to beat Perth, given what's going on with them. Then we scored three goals in six minutes and all was forgiven.

Except by me: as you might have guessed, I thought we gave up possession far too easily, far too often.

Still, the Roar might end up at the top of the table after today's games, if no one else wins 3-0 or better. We were on top after the first round last year. Eventual position: 6th.


Taringa Rovers Falls at the Final Hurdle
There was an article in Saturday's paper about Taringa Rovers. Well, it was about the final weekend of the Premier League and how there were five teams going for four spots and all the permutations of what would happen if particular teams won or lost, but the headline was Last-ditch bid for Rovers, so I'm going to say it was about my old team, Taringa.

"Taringa, on 39 points, must beat third-placed Palm Beach today to cement its finals spot while Pine Rivers can also jump into finals contention witha win over Brisbane City. "

Pine Rivers did (2-0), Taringa didn't (0-3), so they ended up fifth, one place better than last year, according to the Wiki.

The Premier League Reserves team won 2-0, but also ended up in 5th place.


Manchester United Top of the Table (after three games)
...though Chelsea haven't played their third, yet.

Still, they've got a goal difference of +8 (10 for, 2 against) and only one of those three games was played at home, so things are looking good.

I know it's early in the season; but, it's never bad to go out to a commanding lead early.

[END]

Update to Misc Week ending 060813

I'm not sure how Taringa Rovers went against the Strikers, but they drew 1-1 with Rochedale Rovers yesterday. Unfortunately, they've slipped into 4th place. (My cousin's team, the Premier League reserves lost 8-0.)

Souths-Logan were the TV game, but I didn't see it. We lost 60-10, so that's probably a good thing.

Queensland Roar beat NZ 2-1 in the 7th place-play-off in the pre-season cup. Back to our usual position on the table.

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Misc Week ending 060813

Damn 'drafts' folder. I lose stuff in there. Here's something I wrote last weekend...

Queensland Roar lost to Melbourne in their pre-season match 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 draw.

Bojinka! Imagine if this had happened 11 years ago... Oh, it did?

Taringa Rovers plays the Brisbane Strikers tomorrow.

People analysing those search terms that AOL released have found some interesting patterns.

The Souths-Logan Magpies play Toowoomba today, but the score isn't up on the QRL's website yet. It looks like we're going to be the TV game next week - there's only ever one game played at 2pm on a Saturday. Yep, a troll through the ABC program guide confirms it.

White guys on the Down Low?

The results are on QRL.com.au now: Souths-Logan got thumped by Toowoomba 48-22. Mind you, Toowoomba are the Broncos' reserve team, so I didn't expect any different.

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Weekend Football Update

The Queensland Roar lost 2-1 to Sydney in a pre-season cup match at Carrara. We didn't see the winning goal because we were walking back to our car to avoid the rush that would come 5 minutes later. Still, as Boycat's Mum said, at least we didn't stay to watch Queensland lose the match and then get trapped in the carpark for half an hour. You don't really see the perpetual drizzle in the photo above, but we don't complain about rain here in South-East Queensland.

Taringa Rovers beat Brisbane City 3-0 to go back up to fourth in the Brisbane Premier League.

The Souths-Logan Magpies lost a close one to Easts, 20-16, putting them in seventh place in the Qld Cup but they're two-and-a-half wins (5 points) out of the five. This is about the best they've ever done, though.

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World Cup Wrap

The Guardian has printed an article where about 10 people gave their opinions on some topics (best this, worst that, Jericho this, crucify that, etc.)

Here - after a bit of mathematical manipulation - are their findings:

(They're British/English, so that explains some of the results in the 'worst' categories.)

Best Player: Cannavaro by a landslide.

Worst Player: 1. Frank Lampard, 2. Ronaldinho - obviously most of them took this to mean 'biggest let down', although Zeljko Kalac got a nomination.

Biggest Joy: 1. Cambiasso's Goal, 2. Ghana.

Best Match: 1. Portugal - Holland, 2. Australia - Croatia, 3. Argentina - Mexico, 4. Italy - Germany

Worst Match: 1. Switzerland - Ukraine, 2. Anything with England playing

Team of the Cup (4-4-2):
Starting Eleven:

Buffon (GC)
Zambrotta
Lahm
Cannavaro (Capt.)
Marquez
Pirlo
Rodriguez
Riquelme
Zidane
Klose
Torres

Substitutes:
Lehmann (GC)
Edwards
Grosso
Ferdinand
Miguel
Kaka
Ribery
C Ronaldo
Ronaldo
Henry
Crespo
Ricardo (GC)

I had to make some choices here about who to use as a substitute. There were so many votes for the run on full-backs that I had to use players who had only received one vote for the subs. So Rio Ferdinand gets the gig by virtue of playing for Man U. If I didn't have to stick to people nominated by the writers, I'd pick Lucas Neill.

It was the same with the strikers: Klose, Torres and Henry got most of the votes, leaving a few single votes.

Ricardo only got one vote, too, but you have three keepers in your squad of 23. I'm not sure of the proportions of the other players you'd have in a squad, though.

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Bring on the Asian Cup!

We didn't really ever look like we would win, but for a time there it looked like we wouldn't lose.

Still, the Asian Cup finals are on next year, and we've already beaten the Asian Champion Japan, so we've got a pretty got shot at that.

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Misc 060625

• Boycat's Mum has a theory about something that causes cancer. Let's just say it involves the phrase "eating away at you".
  
• The Schonell Theatre has closed. It lost its subsidy from the University Union. The Union claims it couldn't afford to fund the Schonell since the voluntary student union legislation cut the amount of funding they received.
• Story on Al Jazeera - "Football on the up Down Under", about how soccer is gaining in profile because of the world cup. It describes the fact that here, football is "largely drawn up along state lines" - NRL in Qld and NSW, "while in the rest of the land" it's the "bizarre code" of AFL. Good to have an outsider's perspective.
• Can Australia only play really well when they're behind? Apart from the last few minutes against Japan, they haven't been ahead.
  
• The Souths-Logan Magpies won over Ipswich 44 - 34 in the Queensland Cup rugby league.
• Who ate all the Bratwurst lists Neill and Viduka as subs in their 'team of the first round', with Guus as coach.
  

[END]

They think it's all over... It is now!

What a scrappy game, and we were so outplayed in the second half, I don't know what went on at half-time because we finished the first half like we would score four.

But we're through. And as a poster to the New York Times' blog points out, Bruce Arena, coach of the just-eliminated U.S. team called us 'easybeats'.

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I'm not the only one who thinks the camera is too far away from the game

The BBC agrees with me.

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Ahhh, doesn't matter.

All's well that ends well.

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What a bunch of bullshit

All my years playing and watching football, I didn't know you could charge the 'keeper out of the way.

[END]

Here we go, here we go, here we go...

World Cup thoughts.

Cranberry sauce. (I'm very tired.)

I've watched all the games so far, apart from this morning's 5am game, most of them the next day. Some of them on x2 speed, because Boycat's Mum isn't that big a football fan. I've explained to her that there's only about a week and a half of three games a day and then it will settle down a little.

Other thoughts:

• I don't like the main camera angle... well, it's more the framing I don't like. The angle is the standard camera-on-halfway angle, but the framing shows too much of the field - sideline to sideline - and it makes me feel a little disconnected from the action, it needs to be zoomed about 10%.
• The second half of the England game was terrible. I'm so glad I stayed up until 1am for that.
• Go Trinidad and Tobago! We'll forgive you for playing for the wrong team, Dwight.
  
• The fourth German goal is the goal of the tournament so far, but I agree: the ball does move around a bit too much. No keeper should be able to hit the videoscreens like the England keeper did.

But what can I say? Nine hours to go until something I've waited my whole life to see. (I was alive, but too young in 1974.)

Photo by Skywalker1403, stolen from flickr.

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Misc 06.06.06

• FREE GIG: For those of you in Syd-en-ee, there is a free King Pest gig this Saturday (10.06.06) at the St Petersburg Nightclub, 21 May St, St Peters. King Pest contains Carl from Slaughterhouse Joe and Gary from the Sanity Assassins. The Password is "nyet". (BYO Stollies)
  
• Peeboo gets a camera credit in the new Dirt Petty DVD.
• The Souths-Logan Magpies haven't been winning to often recently, leaving them in about 6th place.
• In the Brisbane Premier League football, my old team, Taringa Rovers, is in 3rd place after a draw at Taringa on Saturday.

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Miscellany 060423

The Souths Logan Magpies extended the winning streak to four games, putting us in fourth place - equal on points with a group holding second to fifth.

I really like this: This Is My Last Entry: Why I shut down my blog by Sarah Hepola. A lot of what she says seems familiar.

Also, the New York Times has an article with some stuff on the whole 'Google doing evil in China' issue that I hadn't known or hadn't thought about; interesting background on how Chinese censorship works. Unfortunately, this article will disappear behind the Times' own Great Paywall fairly soon.

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