A League review Round 4.

Sydney slump, Wellington on the yellow brick road,

Victory nil, Mariners still sailing,

Adelaide lose, Newcastle hide Jardel as long as possible...full wrap here. Perth game to come.


Sydney 1 Wellington 2

Wellington produced a strong performance to win the points in Sydney.

Lots of positives from Wellington, but Michael Ferrante, Daniel and Felipe all will have given Ricky Herbert hope for the rest of the season.

Felipe scored a cracker and Ferrante probed and played possibly his best game in the A-League.

A great win for the Phoenix and maybe, just maybe we have a New Zealand team worth watching, especially if they sign Ahmed Elrich, wouldn't that be great.

Sydney, who clearly play in the most difficult ground to get to in the World, have problems. Many problems.

Branko Culina started as a Messiah in the Champions League but the rhythm is missing.

Can one man, Juninho, save the season?

Adam Casey scored and that will give him confidence, Alex Brosque had his best game over the ninety but it wasn't good enough.

Ruben Zadkovich had another frustrating defensive display.

Sydney pushed for an equalizer but not really, not with the passion you'd expect from the country's biggest city.

Ufuk Talay and Steve Corica didn't seem to have the heart for it, and Olyroo Mark Milligan looked like he'd played an international game jsut 48 hours before. He had.

Branko is going to earn his money now. His front six look light, lacking presence or speed.

Sasho Petrovski's goals and the speed of David Carney are being missed.

Take a couple of key man out of an A-League side and a team's ability to win a game can quickly change.

Just ask...

Melbourne Victory 0 v Central Coast Mariners 0

Victory are missing Fred. He's gone get over it. And Melbourne were never great at home, not really.

Broxham showed well, Fernandez appears fitter, but Thompson and Allsopp could solve a problem or to.

Stick a goal away and prove you are the best attack in the A-League.

At the moment it's not happening, although this was an improved attacking display for Melbourne.

The Mariners missing Mrdja and Petrovski for most of the game couldn't score. And it is this strikeforce that has pushed them to the top of the table.

Adam Kwasnik nearly scored. He often nearly scores. But he will come good, I promise.

Hutchison impressed, Vidmar was strong although sent-off in the last minute for a foul on Archie Thompson.

The Mariners are the team to beat, but they will be tested now with Vidmar and maybe Mrdja and Petrovski out next week. We'll see.

Newcastle 1 Adelaide United 0

Coach Aurelio Vidmar has tons of talent available but he's not winning games, not yet.

He threw two points away in Queensland with his substitutions but could do little to get the win here.

Paul Agostino impressed alongside Bruce Djite, but can they really play together?

For Newcastle this was a strange result.

They were poor, apart from the superb defensive pairing of Adam Griffiths and Jade North but really their only goal threat came from Denni's through balls.

And then Coach Gary Van Egmond took him off after thirty minutes.

Jardel the superstar was kept on the reinforced bench. And we soon knew why.
He's big, looks heavy and can hardly run. He had a little run but did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Shades of Romario. A big name so he is must play right?

But then you have to change the way the team play to accommodate him. It's not good.

But the Jets won. With a good goal and Adelaide were gone in the last twenty and it could have been more.

So are the Jets worth their two wins?

Time will tell and any win in this league is worth celebrating.

Surely they can only improve.

Mark Bridge, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Mark Milligan and most of the Olyroos looked very tired in this round. And it did effect their teams.

An improved round overall. More goals, but Wellington's win and Felipe's goal was the highlight for me.....either that or Jardel' staggering entrance on to the field.

European golden boot...we'll see!

Go the Matilda's