Maybe there’s more choices in the bigger cities?

The Sounders play at Lumen field – same as Seahawks but 40k + gives the stadium a good vibe. I loved visiting Portland though- it is very much a boutique type of stadium with a huge end for the home active support and room enough for a large tree trunk waiting to be sliced up with a chainsaw every-time a goal is scored. LA Galaxy ground is a good size. It is very much along the lines of Allianz or Parramatta. It has a large concourse around the outside that makes for great game day experiences, vendors, and fan engagement. The MLS are getting it right these days.

Surely it hasn’t taken 20 years for anyone to work this one out? Anyone who has visited the stadium knows how accessible it is, how compact and suited to the population and likely size of crowd rather than playing in cavernous stadiums in the hope of filling or getting 3/4 full once or twice a season. It is just a pity that games in Adelaide that require a much larger ground are transferred to the cricket ground. It makes such an awful contrast for football – great for cricket though!

Good luck to him over there. I’m not sure that he really got enough game time in the East although whenever I’ve watched him he strikes me as not being quite sharp enough and in that position it is all about the number of chances a player converts. Maybe he will return a better player but he is moving to a struggling side. Can Mr Taggart help his game perhaps?

I don’t believe it to be an existential terror as such although it is a great descriptor and I’d say I’m thinking about the long term effect on the game rather than the immediate effect and I wouldn’t expect to see much difference right now. I do believe it’s a bit different from the changes to the pass back rule and the introduction of penalty shoot outs. Generally people were supportive of the pass back and not being allowed to handle it being outlawed and it began to change the skills of goalkeepers too. I played in a local final the season that law changed and in the final one of our players passed back and the GK picked up. a free kick was duly awarded and both players were shocked but what was even funnier was the opposition who demanded the referee give them a penalty as they deemed the offence to be handball! – it did give us a good laugh though.

Marcel – we were taught that protestants say aitch and Catholics use Haitch……I’m not sure about agnostics and atheists???? The H is definitely silent.

I loved Mr McEnroe and his outbursts…they were pure entertainment and I met him a few times as I worked at Wimbledon and Queens club and he was so pleasant…a far cry from his on court tantrums….However, I digress. Hawkeye is brilliant and serves the game really well but not sure about any other sport and I’m sure the Indian cricket team aren’t happy with the technology this summer!

Well offside and handball are the two that immediately spring to mind and all that has happened is they have made the rules more difficult for the official to adjudicate and so they go to VAR for a decision. 22 players and 3 officials – no freckles please 😂

Grem, Soterio would be a player to use when all other players are injured or not available or you want some comic relief usually derived from him tripping over his own feet.

Many years ago, I suggested the club could put on buses to get people in and out and drop off at strategic sites. It might not speed up the journey home but it would make life so much easier for so many people who could be signed up for a small fee I’d have thought.

Waz, I didn’t see the game or the incident and can’t say I particularly care so I have refrained from commenting on the incident. When refereeing, it has always been “in the opinion of the referee” and now we seem to have lost that and it has morphed into “the possible opinion of a machine”. I made a comment a few days back regarding the old phrase of “I got the ball first” and particularly commentators who claim to know the intentions of a player. I argue that we referee on outcomes in relation to fouls but if we are watching the game carefully, I do feel we have the right to cast an opinion as to whether we thought the player made a play at the ball or whether the contact with the arm was accidental. That’s something of a conflict at a certain level but I believe the game is better for it.
At local level the pitches are anything but flat and you get strange bounces and huge variation and it is so much better to be able to make a judgement call rather than have a rule that says any contact results in a direct free kick. The silliest one is when the ball cannons into a player from just a few metres away…crazy decisions come out of that….hey, but its just personal preference, not an argument as to whether it is right or wrong or how it should be.

Waz, couldn’t agree more. I typed it from a very personal perspective. When I coach I get on with it and accept the decision good or bad (I might swear under my breath) and when I referee I might make mistakes but there again so do most of (all the players). I know we have brought this all upon ourselves by the way we have carried on whether it be commentators, pundits, fans, coaches, players or people watching who don’t even know the rules.
I would be much happier with the game without VAR, without endless replays and without fatuous comments that derive from being able to watch a replay 50 times when the referee had a split second to make the decision.

The “unnatural position” is seeing defenders facing an attacker with their arms behind their back – seriously, how stupid has that become. When jumping in the air, our arms go out to help balance; that is natural.
I preferred it when the referee had far greater discretion. The ball hits a player’s arm or hand. Did the player gain an advantage out of it? Do I think it was a deliberate act? If I believe it was accidental, I say so and wave play on. women cannot even protect their chests from being stung by the ball these days. They used to cross their arms in front for protection and men used to protect the groin. The message these days is that you don’t need to do that – in fact you are likely to be punished!

FIL – and you put up with a lot of obstacles. Once upon a time many years ago I would have blindly followed to the ends of the earth but these days I believe that support is a two way street. a club should at least try and earn the support of fans and not just take them for granted.

FF – I wasn’t really looking at the stadium from the weather angle, only that the western side could have incorporated a large lower terrace of some description that could house more fans and create a better atmosphere rather than so many corporate boxes etc which often remain empty. As for Moore Park – it is so much better these days with light rail although I’ve seen much better transport solutions around the world – and worse too! Well over 2 hours to get home after a game when you live in the same city isn’t my idea of good organisation. I recall sitting queuing to get out of fox studios carpark for over an hour – mind you I have experienced it at Homebush too…..just suggesting poor planning but we still went along.

Semi final first leg before Tommy Juric grabbed the goal that set up that night/early morning second leg against Al Hilal! There were 26 of us in an end that holds 15000 and one Vita Saba made his debut and we knew he wouldn’t last long on the field in the A League!

I reckon you have it half right Stuart but not the whole picture. The winning and success side of things is always likely to bring in some fans or at least a level of curiosity but it is unlikely to rekindle interest from a lot of fans that were foundation members or season ticket holders in seasons past.
I disagreee with your synopsis relating to those caring about football who would have bought a sky blue shirt when it was the only ticket in town. When the A League was being set up, SFC did a pretty good job in engaging with all Sydney associations and there was a deal of encouragement to get fans in from everywhere. Season 1 we wanted to support the new league and many of us did attend home games at the old football stadium but it was hard work when travelling from Western Sydney. Parking was a nightmare at Moore Park and public transport was diabolical. Buses from central station were erratic to say the least and it was so much easier to walk through surrey hills – maybe do a pub crawl on the way and suffer whatever the weather threw at us. Then after a successful first season, the club sacked their German coach which made no sense to many. Those of us who cared about the game rather than just being curious returned to grassroots and local clubs and left it alone up until there was a possibility of a new club being formed to fill the void in western Sydney. The amount if work carried out by Lyell Gorman and his team was phenomenal. Public meetings, private consultations with interest groups and associations were all part of the plan to give something in Western Sydney and the name, colours, home ground, ethos of the club and much more were all founded on consultation and engagement with the community and those that wanted a club.
We now the rest- it has been well summarised right here and been discussed many times. In many ways though the early success of the club was perhaps its undoing. It became a private enterprise and with it went just about everything that had underpinned the foundation and the roots. The new stadium – looks good but very badly organised after the seasons in exile at the soulless Homebush buildings. The club broke so many promises and upset many fans as they displayed their lack of prowess in administering a positive return to the stadium and the rot was setting in from there. Add in the merry go round of coaches, players and the obsession with the corporate side of the game that congregate in the Western side of Parramatta stadium – who agrees to a stadium where you effectively only have 3 sides of truly interested supporters? There are plenty of other things to throw in and that is all without touching on policing/stewarding, riot squads and the treatment of fans in and around the stadium and I’m not referring to the RBB….that is another story that is best left to those directly involved. So people find other things to do and don’t feel inclined to sit in the sun in 30 odd degrees etc etc. For myself and family, we tend to support the A League by attending a variety of games. I was at the “Big Blue” a few days ago and we travel to Gosford, Newcastle, and will attend WSW games if we feel inclined. People question me on the subject quite regularly as I’ve gone from being a foundation member and travelling the length and breadth of the country to watch the team and overseas too. Wellington is a great away trip and we went as far as Seoul for the asian Champions League a decade ago but I won’t be there this afternoon although will attend the CCM home game along with some Mariners supporters later in the month…….
It’s complicated!

Saffi,

I don’t think there is all that much disagreement with your synopsis of the send off.
There again if he had sent him off without VAR interfering I doubt that anyone would have kicked up that much of a stink – it was “one of those”. As you said, we will never know what might have happened with 11 v 11. however, a couple of things come to mind. Sydney were clearly on top even before the red card. MV really didn’t look a threat going forward and as I said elsewhere on her, Arzani is a shadow of what he was. He spends far too much time trying to beat every defender and then some rather than providing some incisive passes or getting into position himself. The two changes at half time made the world of difference but had it been 11 v 11 for the first 45 minutes, would those changes have been made and would Sydney have gone into protect and survive mode? Unfortunately, we’ll never know. We just feel somewhat cheated of a good evening’s entertainment!

There certainly used to be in NSW at any rate. i now they have a weekly review in the UK, league by league so I’d have thought the same goes for A League?

SS – In my best London heritage – that’s bollocks. There maybe east coast bias in fixture setting, not helped by where so many teams are based but the suggestion that a referee wouldn’t have awarded a red card after VAR intervention is fanciful to say the least. all teams get good and bad decisions, reviews from VAR and things that don’t go well and it isn’t based on where you are based. If it was, why would we bother even thinking about going along? I have discussed the subject with a few referees and the general consensus is that often when there is a boisterous crowd they more often find fault with the home team and award accordingly…..which of course suggests all is not fair but we haven’t as yet employed AI to officiate.

The plaintiff cry ‘ I got the ball first” is probably the most common misinterpretation of the LOTG across the globe, followed by “but ref, I was going for the ball” and fans and commentators discussing incidents surmising about the intent…… we referee on outcomes, not what we thought the player was trying to do or second guessing! Having said that, from where I was sitting it looked as though he lost his footing and his foot rolled over the ball and caused the collision. if it was intent – it was well disguised.
However, the way MV set up in the final third of the field (in the first half) they looked as though they could spend a whole season without testing the goalkeeper.

The noises coming from the PA at Allianz on Saturday were almost indecipherable for the most part. The announcers appeared to be shouting and it blurred the sounds. Sitting on the eastern side it was difficult to hear even the players’ names being read out.
However, the worst was to come; with the VAR decisions, someone needs to check the sound system as nothing but a mime came across the PA so unless you could lip read, the promise of an explanation for changing decisions was broken in several senses. There were two disallowed goals that could have been explained as well. Offside was the likely call but again, the decisions could not be heard from the on-field microphone.
Performance wise, MV looked very disjointed and not at all like a side sitting close to the top of the ladder. I recall Arzani’s breakout season in the A League and how he excited fans and got the attention of the parent club although I can’t help thinking he made some awful moves. Maybe if he watched some old footage he might rekindle some of what he brought to the game as he appears to me to be a shadow of the youngster that had fans buzzing back before the 2018 World Cup. The changes made at half time for MV at least put some fight into the side even if it was overly aggressive at times although I can’t help wondering what on earth Mr Talay told his side in the half time break as the hosts went into their shells, offered very little other than boring football that had quite a few spectators leaving 20 minutes before the final whistle. Mind you, I witnessed about a dozen MV fans leave before half-time as they obviously believed there was no hope and better places to be on a Saturday night.
It was a pity Lolley didn’t complete a hat-trick; he was a real menace for the most part and I reckon MV were thankful that when the final whistle blew they were not on the receiving end of a cricket score.

Grem, he pulled up holding his hamstring and then played on for a few minutes before realising what most of us older guys know – once it has triggered, there’s no playing through pain – it doesn’t work.

12000 away fans? – more like 120 in the southern end. It was one of the poorest turnouts I’ve ever seen from MV supporters and a few even left before half-time as they appeared to be aware they were on a hiding to nothing.

NM – I agree the send off just about killed the game as a contest but the better side did not lose. SFC attacked from the outset and deserved to be ahead well before the send off. MV were particularly poor going forward. They got to the final third and ran out of ideas. Arzani was particularly poor; hugging the sideline and running up blind alleyways and as usual trying to beat everyone and losing the ball. The half time changes for MV brought about fresh legs and fresh hope as they pressed high and created some chances of their own and combined with Sydney going into their shell somewhat the second half provided some hope. The home side had 2 goals chalked off as well and it really wasn’t a contest. MV players were thankful when the final whistle blew and appeared to be happy they hadn’t lost by 5 or 6 which could have been the case had the first half gone a different way.