The pre-season cup starts this weekend with Melbourne Victory playing Adelaide United in Launceston. The teams must be really missing each other – it's about 2 months since they last met. The now traditional meeting in Tasmania will almost certainly attract a bigger crowd than if it had been played in Melbourne but, unfortunately, it also happens to be Melbourne's only home fixture.

Melbourne have played 2 warm up games – this week, a 2-0 win against Italian side Whittlesea Zebras (Mark Bresciano's former team) and, before that, a humiliating defeat against Maltese club Green Gully Cavaliers. Green Gully were 1-0 up early in the second half when Muscat got sent off. It wasn't Kevin, though, it was younger brother Emmanuel (!) who plays for Green Gully. The Cavaliers played for 25 minutes with a man short but went 2-0 up before Melbourne had 2 red cards in the space of 5 minutes (Kevin wasn't one of them). It finished 3-1. The flare count was 5 and the game was held up for several minutes as smoke covered half the pitch.

Melbourne completed their quota of 4 foreign players this week by signing Jose Luis Lopez, a Costa Rican international midfielder from Deportivo Saprissa. The really exciting news, though, comes from Brisbane. Queensland Roar have taken Dundee United legend, and former Scotland international, Charlie Miller on trial. I really hope they sign him.

Flares at pre-season practice matches! Melbourne still seems to take its ethnic club football seriously....

Adelaide United have signed two more Brazilians: Alemao, a replacement at right back for Richie Alagich, comes straight from Rio, I think; and Cristiano, an attacking midfielder, who has been playing in Holland with Willem II. And have also signed Scott Jameison, a twenty year old Aussie who has spent time at Bolton Wanderers. There have been good reports on all three of them in last weeks trial game, in which AU beat state league club Para Hills 4-1.

The squad is looking OK except for one problem area- striker. The injury prone Paul Agostino will surely not last the season, and no-one else has been signed yet.

I expect we will have the usual 1-1 draw in Launceston on Saturday!

Do any of you know what happened to a team called Warringah Dolphins? They were from Sydneys northern beaches but seem to have disappeared? They were a second division team in the mid 90's.

Perhaps they were pushed back into the sea?

Glory apparently play Newcastle tomorrow in Mandurah, once a coastal town about 60km south of Perth but now basically a suburb.

There has been a storm through today so not sure if the game will go ahead.

Glory have signed a Brazilian called Amaral, claiming he played 31 internationals. Websites back this up but to my untutored eye most appear to have been in the lead up to the Olympics and were actually under 23 matches.

Still, he is only 35 and his best football was only six or seven years ago so that's not bad by our recent standards.

I am finding it hard to work up any enthusiasm this season.

In other news Mark Bosnich is sniffing around for a contract at Central Coast.

I think the Dolphins merged with Manly to form Manly United. A couple of my mates played for Manly and Warringah way back.

willie1foot wrote:

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I think the Dolphins merged with Manly to form Manly United. A couple of my mates played for Manly and Warringah way back.

Cheers. The Dolphins offered me a game in the mid 90's and I'm really not very good. I wondered if their scouting system of offering random backpackers a game had finally come back to haunt them as I couldn't find anything recent about them on the net.

trimster wrote:

QUOTE:
I expect we will have the usual 1-1 draw in Launceston

Almost right - a last minute goal fror Adelaide spoiled your prediction.

Cristiano got both Adelaide goals. Fabiano scored for Melbourne. One pre-season game and he's already contributed more than Leandro Love did in the whole of last season.

The crowd was only 4,720 possibly because the temperature in Tassie was only 6 degrees.

This Cristiano sounds promising- can't wait to take a look at him. Hope we get at least one home game in the pre-season cup...

Vidmar originally said he was more of a midfielder than a striker... but both his goals yesterday looked like good opportunist striker's goals.

Melbourne were missing Thompson, Hernandez, Lopez, Brebner, Muscat, Celeski and Broxham.

I think it's important I practice my excuses early because I have a feeling they might be needed a lot this season.

The FFA have announced that a local Townsville consortium has won the bid to operate the Townsville team in next season's A League and that the Gold Coast bidding process is "well advanced."

Two rival bids are being considered for Sydney 2 and the FFA will announce the winner of the Melbourne 2 licence before the end of next month. These clubs will enter in 2010.

There are 4 bids lodged for Melbourne but, according to newspaper reports, there is a clear frontrunner – a consortium which plans to base a club in the City of Casey in Melbourne's south east. The club is provisionally named Melbourne Heart and will play in red. Letters of support have been lodged with the FFA from Mark Bresciano and Vince Grella. Scott MacDonald, whose parents live in Casey, has said he would like to finish his career there. Melbourne Victory, on the other hand, will have to make do with a fat, over the hill Mark Viduka.

Two Sydney teams seems very premature.

Glory meanwhile seem set to sign Paul Reid.

Reid has just come back from a major knee injury. I mean, for fuck's sake, how many more times will we do this?

Melbourne won 1-0 in Perth last night with a Michael Thwaite goal.

Don't like the look of the goal celebration:

Could be something Thwaite picked up in Rumania...!

Adelaide drew 0-0 with Newcastle in Cessnock. I don't think we are even gettting a home game in the pre season cup this year...

Nogoalsnoglory wrote:

QUOTE:
Two Sydney teams seems very premature.

Glory meanwhile seem set to sign Paul Reid.

Reid has just come back from a major knee injury. I mean, for fuck's sake, how many more times will we do this?

Paul Reid has just signed a two year contract with Adelaide United. He missed much of last season at Brighton with the knee injury. What Adelaide really need are more strikers.

I think that our own Posty Webber may have played with Reid at junior level, though I could be totally wrong on that.

And Mark Bosnich apparently played a blinder against Sydney. Well, he kept a clean sheet which included saving a penalty.

The good thing about this is that it's given the media something to talk about to remind people that there's only a couple of weeks to go to the season proper.

I haven't seen Posty on this new forum...although he seemed to know his NSL players, I don't think he ever posted on an A League thread! I actually thought he was a rugby league fan...

I tip Sydney to struggle this season... where do you think they will finish, Rory?