SBS: Give us a break! This time Phil Micallef writes garbage

One time football visionary's, SBS have become the whinging heart of Australia football.

Now I love what SBS have done for football but their negative slant on the game in recent times continues and many fans have switched them off...and SBS must surely know it by now.

The latest drivel is from Phil Micallef see below but it is drivel so be warned.


It’s about time we stopped pretending that the A-League is the best thing to hit our sport since Guus Hiddink.

FURPHY NUMBER ONE Phil: It is Phil...we have nothing else...so get over it. And in case you dind't know I've seen Dwight Yorke, Juninho, Hernandez, Archie score 5, Djite, Burns and Nicholls...and that's pretty good for a new, young league. Not to mention record crowds, great stadiums and minimal crowd violence. It's fantastic

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Comments (0) | Your thoughts?


The competition is going alright and the main thing, I suppose, is that it has survived in a difficult market and next season will have two new teams.

Furphy number 2: The main thing Phil is that we have a national league without any racial tensions and a league we can improve and see our young players aspire to and improve it and them.

But the overall standard of play leaves a lot to be desired and the time has come for change.

The most embarrassing aspect of the A-League Australians’ clash with Kuwait last week was not the humbling 1-0 defeat that came out of the blue.

The side of the game that hurt most was the way a bunch of semi-professionals and amateurs ranked 98 places below Australia went about what must have been a tough away match for them with an attitude of “let’s play football and see what happens”.

And, boy, didn’t the men in blue show up the cumbersome Australians whose play reminded us of the days when we used to be outplayed and outclassed by touring teams before we pinched some 0-0 draw and then claim a moral victory on the basis of having created a couple of half chances.

Kuwait showed us that our game is unappealing, unimaginative, pedestrian and predictable and some of our players lack the necessary skills to play representative football.

Furphy 3: No Phil Kuwait showed us that when our whole team bar one is changed in two years since the last Kuwait game you get that sort of team performance. It also showed us despite what SBS seem to think, players count as much as systems. And take out the best ten Aussie A-League players from this season and you are left with..well the next best. Jedinak, Holland, Griffith, Bridge, North etc were all not selected. So a little more analysis please Phil.

Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners, Australia’s ambassadors in this year’s AFC Champions League, enter the competition with this backdrop and it will be interesting to see if they can emulate Adelaide United who reached last year’s final against Gamba Osaka.

Furphy 4: Will it be interesting Phil or will you just rant about how crap we in Australia are if we fail to progress.

This season’s ACL should tell us if the Reds’ surge was purely accidental or a true reflection of the A-League’s standard.

Furphy number 106. Accidental, why not say United were the luckiest team in the World ever to get to a final and if the mess that is Newcastle Jets and the "only play Aussie Mariners" don't get out of the group than clearly Adelaide's success was fluke.

The Canberra match was a microcosm of the A-League: vigorous, muscular play with little thought and even less flair to back it up, an attacking mindset that is not supported by creative passing in the last third of the field and a “hope for the best” long-ball approach when patience runs out.

While Australia huffed and puffed in search of an opening that never came, the Kuwaitis showed composure and mastery of the ball from the first whistle and actually played their best football when they were under pressure.

This is not the first time that a Socceroos match involving A-League players has received an unflattering report card.

Furphy no 110. You forgot to add "from SBS." Maybe you should have hooked into the FFA not the players. Verbeek didn't select any of the A-League players in Asia or who have gone to Europe in January. The FFA needs to look at team selection strategies. And if Pondlejak had scored would we have won and everyone been delighted even the Aussie whingers SBS?

Remember China who gave the domestic Socceroos a football lesson in Sydney in their last match of the previous phase of World Cup qualifying?

Fans are entitled to wonder how long it is going to be before we realise that our style of league football is tactically antiquated and we are being exposed by countries that are ranked below us. Or when we are going to bite the bullet and import a few foreign coaches to give our competition a breath of fresh air.

Furphy no.120
Phil the Coach, who is out their every week bringing his wisdom to our players. Give us a break Phil. It's time Fozzie, Les and yourself took another line. Sure we want to see our game improved but it takes time and re-education, writing this sort of crap...saying we are exposed by teams ranked below us...er Phil your the journo teams ranked below the Socceroos containing Viduka and Kewell or maybe Dodd and Carney but a Socceroos side containing Zullo and M. Thompson and Simon aren't ranked in my view.

Oh and for the record Sydney FC have a Czech coach, and Perth had Steve Mcmahon, Sydney had Terry Butcher, Fury have Iain Ferguson...so define foreign Phil.

Football Federation Australia gets a bit twitchy when the standard of the A-League is brought into question.

Yet the FFA cannot remain in denial when the evidence suggests that the domestic game is clearly stagnant because overall standards are not rising.

And the reason they are not improving is because our style of football from grassroots upwards is still centred too much on raw physique and too little on subtle technique.

Furhpy SBS:
Small sided games, you all wanted them. Now you've got them. Unfortunately the 7 year old who started playing small sided games to supposedly improve his technique and therefore our league is ONLY 8. Give them a chance to come through and stop your whinging.

Australia's domestic football might score the odd international success which could be the result of various circumstances, not least our innate fighting spirit.

Adelaide’s run to the 2008 ACL final was a case in point. The Reds fought bravely against all odds, showing true Aussie grit and producing a magical half an hour in the semi-final against Bunyodkor that will go down in football folklore.

But in the competition's decisive match they were outclassed by Gamba essentially because the Japanese play a much better and more refined type of game.

Furphy no 1000:
So Gamba were better. Thanks for that:) They outclassed Adelaide. They play a much better game. Phil do you know anything about the history of the two sides, the two leagues, the players. Endo is an International for Japan. And our best Djite and Burns left half-way through the season two of the more gritty and brave Aussie players but unfortunately we couldn't replace them with grit and we got a couple of technical Brazilians in Diego, Cassio and the even less technically gifted Jamieson. Somehow we fluked it through.

Watching football in Australia today is an infinitely more exciting and rewarding experience than it used to be, not least because we are now involved in Asia and facing all the stiff challenges this vast continent is presenting us.

Furphy no 1004.
Can you write this at SBS? After all I've read we have a positive comment...but hang on not because of anything in Australia but because of Asia..a back-hander I guess..but the team will surely have words

Even the A-League has an open, pleasant feel about it. Most games are fiercely contested but thankfully gamesmanship is virtually non-existent.

But unless we learn to play with far greater technique and more modern tactics, our long-term prospects for success abroad won't improve.

The Kuwaitis impressed a healthy gathering at Canberra Stadium with their first touch and their ability to pass the ball with intelligence to players who ran into space with intent. Australia could have stolen an undeserved draw in the end but in reality they should have lost by more than one goal.

It took a double humiliation by Hungary (6-3 at Wembley and 7-1 in Budapest) in 1953 for the English to take a good look at themselves and realise that they were deluding themselves with their archaic ‘made in England’ football.

Total furphy: This is crap. Did England change their style of play? Didn't they win a world cup at home playing the English way. Does Fozzie and Lez agree that England have changed their style since 1953...stop laughing at this one guys...and haven't we had lots of "modernised English coaches" in the A-League..I'm missing something clearly

The Poms were forced to modernise their game. They did so, perhaps even reluctantly, but 13 years later they won the World Cup.

An unequivocal disaster on the international stage might just be what the A-League needs for change to take place.

Furphy no 2001: Well we will probably get our unequivocal disaster in South Africa because with our once in a generation Viduka and Kewell less likely to play we will be left with what. But of course Australia will expect..and be disappointed. So far we've had a header in Uzbekistan and a shot in Bahrain...and it was late...maybe our overseas aren't as good as SBS try to make out.

Now Phil exactly what would you like to see. More tactics...hmmn interesting, more passing,...better skills, less goals, less space and when would you like this..next week, next year and how do you propose we, or any club might do this. Come on Phil you are the expert so educate us..can't wait:)

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