The NSL Finals and other

Well I am glad you started this thread Andreas I had already made a couple of topics about the finals just before they started but that is all that has been discussed about them :dazed:

Friday nights game was all Newcastle and they came very close to pinching another goal and going on to host the grand final and leaving Glory to do it the hard way. They really had nothing to lose and their only option was to attack and when Kyle Patterson described it as "Premier League pace" yesterday On "On the Ball" I think he was almost right.

There was about 17,500 people at the game and if you put that together with our 31,963 the week before when Glory won 4-1 at Subiaco Oval it is an excellent result for the NSL with almost 50,000 people going to the two games

It was excellent to see the game on Sportswatch yesterday. When I saw it in the paper I thought there must have been some sort of error I must agree Andreas that show is pretty good, it even shows the results from all the major European leagues, something you don't see here except for SBS

Can't wait till the GF on May 12

Thanks for the reply KI :rollani:. I think thats the longest reply you have ever made that doesn't involve an article roud:

To be honest i wish Newcastle had won 3-0 and then the final would have been here on the east coast and i would only have to travel a few hours by car to the game :sigh:. In fact Newcastle would be one of the few venues i'd even consider going to since the crowd atmosphere is as good as it is in Perth (from what i have see @ RL games on TV and although the ground is ageing a little, its in a central, easy to get to location (Lambton) and has a lot of history surrounding it with the Knights rugby league team doing so well there .

Abt the game last friday. I was interested to see Kyle mention the speed of the game since most football pundits are more obsessed with technique and skill than the pace of the game. F.ex the English top flight has always had the fastest play in the world, but before the Premier league and influx of quality foreign players, the standard and quality of the play was probably not so good. However from the highlights i saw of the game, there was plenty of technique and skill involved and i thikn local sides have always tried to play that way, but generally the speed of the game suffers to the point where it is too slow and thus not too effective :sigh:

Power fan, if you read my post carefully you would have noticed that i praised Perth and Newcastle for leading the way in Oz soccer. The problem does not lie with them. The reason why ppl such as myself don't attend games is b/c we are protesting at the state the league is in (desperately needs reform) and because of the many suspect decisions Soccer Australia make (they are in need of reform also - i.e get rid of them all and start over or get an independant commission to run the game). If ppl turned up at games because they liked soccer (enough of those types in Oz to fill all the grounds) then SA would have even less incentive to reform the league b/c they would think that there wasn't a problem.


To be honest the biggest problem with the NSL is that the standard of play has dropped because so many players are going o/s. However this is a problem in many european leagues where the standard is significantly below that of the top european leagues. Scott Chipperfield's team (FC Basel. Switzerland) for example play in front of 30,000+ spectators at every home game. Why? because the league is well run and not being chopped & changed every year (well they are reverting from a split season format to a 36 game league season with ONLY 10 teams [take note SA] because apparently this is the maximum number financially viable. Similarly, you wonder why players would drop everything to trial in a league like Norway in the middle of an NSL season when the standard there is probably not much better than NSL. Easy, because they have a 14 team comp that has 14 teams every year and several teams that draw 10,000 plus crowds on average every week. Of course, football is the major football code in both of these (and just about all european)
countries.

Another reason why some teams draw poor crowds here is b/c of the state of the grounds :rollani:. How the f^ck SA decided to move yesterday's game to Marconi stadium (among the worst in the league) i will never know . Olympic even offered to pay SA to play at a quality stadium like North Sydney Oval (which would have been not as far for their fans to travel also ):eekani: but SA refused :devil: :sigh:

Grand Final tickets hot property...

Grand Final tickets were the hottest item in Perth today with over 23,000 sold

The game seems certain to be a sell out

Golden Members and Season Ticket Members were able to buy tickets today, with Members able to purchase tickets from 9am to 5.30pm on tomoorow (Tuesday. They are allowed two budget tickets per member and the official supporters club members can get their's from 2pm to 5.30pm on Tuesday. They can buy two budget tickets per member.

Any remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public from 9am on Wednesday.

Meanwhile Newcastle officials expect the club’s crowd record for EnergyAustralia Stadium set during last Friday’s major semi-final second leg against Perth to be broken when United hosts Olympic in the preliminary final on Sunday.

A crowd of 17,503 people attended the match as Newcastle beat the Glory 2-0, and they think this week will surpass the 18,367 that turned up to Newcastle KB United’s clash with Sydney Olympic in 1979.

The Kngiths are playing away (rugby league side) and some Olympic fans will come along so there is a good chance of the record being broken.

All smiles everywhere for the last two games of the NSL season It could nudge the record for the biggest crowd attendence for the finals in NSL history :hopefull:

but i might live a million miles from Parra stadium :tongue:. Sydney is a big place you know

I admire your dedication none the less. You guys must stand out a lot too since i heard hardly anyone goes to the Power games :sigh:. I think part of the problem (apart from on field perfomances being continually below expectation) is that Marconi and Sydney Utd are drawing from your potential supporter base. If both these teams were axed i reckon the Power's crowds would triple although many of these fans may not initially support the power because of their links with the RL club (a good idea IMO) and because some do not percieve the Power as multicultural/cosmopolitan but aimed at the mainstream Australian anglo saxon/celtic community (a theory which is rubbish IMO )

BTW what made u think i lived in Sydney when its not in my profile

p.s i reckon next year will come around and SA will again postpone the restructure of the league for another season :rollani:. I reckon there would be more chance of that happening than a total restructure of the league :sigh: