Fashioning Feathers

It’s out with the old and in with the new as David Gallop’s tenure ends. In contrast to the NRL-tainted Gallop, the AFL-stained Ben Buckley, or the ARU-defecting John O’Neill, Johnson may be a former national youth representative and NSL player, with experience working within Professional Footballers Australia, the Asian Football Confederation, and Fifa. Most tellingly on his resume, however, is his last post: within the town Football Group environment. Make no mistake – Johnson is that the A-League clubs’ man, but his rolodex and backing should bring most of the key stakeholders along side him. https://www.agensbobet888.online/ daftar agen sbobet sekarang

Fresh impetus for Australian football lies on the horizon in 2020. The entry of a twelfth A-League club, Macarthur FC, mid-year will necessarily act as a fillip for the A-League, bringing new fans, new rivalries and new players to the league. The club’s establishment of an academy for Indigenous footballers headed by Frank Farina, and therefore the announcement of hugely respected coach Ante Milicic will necessarily animate the nation’s biggest grassroots footballing community.

So, too, the Socceroos’ participation within the Copa América in June/July looms as a possible red-letter month for football in Australia, with a fixture against a Lionel Messi-led Argentina promising the type of sports-media saturated backpage coverage usually reserved for a Nick Kyrgios/Bernard Tomic dummyspit or off-season AFL/NRL-player misdemeanour.

The ongoing bid to host the Women’s World Cup in 2023 – now a joint-proposal alongside New Zealand – could garner A level of attention, positivity and unlock potential funding to require the already flourishing women’s game to unprecedented levels. A women’s national second division has even been mooted –contingent on the bid’s success – and therefore the profile of leading Matildas like Sam Kerr, now plying her trade England’s Women’s Super League with Chelsea, will only still grow the game’s stature relative to rival codes.

Political infighting still simmers behind the scenes among Australian football’s key powerbrokers. except for all the scuttlebutt, chairman Nikou was returned unopposed at the recent AGM, leading a comparatively stable team despite the long-mooted appointments of the politically influential Stephen Conroy and therefore the commercially connected Linda Norquay never materialising.

Any doubt on the comparative health thereon front needs only to return to the present time a year ago, when FFA elections tainted by horse trading followed closely by the bungled sacking of Alen Stajcic eroded any honeymoon period for the incoming Nikou and his board.

In 2020, let’s hope – for all of Australian football’s sake – a cup of kindness yet awaits Johnson and his team.

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José Mourinho has challenged his Tottenham players to enhance their away form and has hinted that he could also be forced to vary his team’s sort of play if they are doing not stop conceding “ridiculous” goals.

Tottenham visit St Mary’s on New Year’s Day to face a Southampton side who have clawed their answer of the relegation zone with seven points from three matches over the Christmas period. Mourinho’s men, meanwhile, have lost to Chelsea and dropped unlikely points at Carrow Road during a 2-2 draw.

While Mourinho has corrected a run during which Spurs went from January to November without an away league win, he remains unconvinced by his team’s defensive performances and suggested his attacking players might be frustrated by failings elsewhere within the team.

“Four matches away, we won two, we drew one and that we lost one,” Mourinho said. “Is that better than before? Yes. Is it perfect? No. If we came to Norwich and that we cannot create and Norwich dominate us, we’ve to defend well, we resist, we draw 0-0, maybe you’ve got to admit a positive result. the matter is that the way we concede the goals and therefore the way we play.

“We attend United and therefore the goal may be a bad goal to concede. We react, we equalise, we attend half-time at 1-1, the last half starts, we concede a ridiculous goal, that’s the matter.

“We play so well, we create such a lot. within the beginning we were conceding many goals from corners but we stopped that. We conceded the opposite day against Brighton from a free-kick but … once I am small and you’re taller than me [by] 15cm there are things in football that are impossible. the sole solution is once you select players and make squads you decide on a majority of tall players to deal with the physicality of top football. daftar agen sbobet sekarang https://www.maxbetsbobet.org/

“But we’ve to enhance. We concede too many goals and it’s very frustrating. If i used to be one among my attacking players i might be very frustrated that behind we aren’t ready to stop it.”

While Mourinho hints at a change in approach, he insists there’ll not be a change in defensive personnel. Spurs are linked with variety of players, including Real Madrid’s Raphaël Varane and Dayot Upamecano of RB Leipzig, in recent days but publicly a minimum of Mourinho isn’t encouraging any rumours.

Asked if he wanted to feature to his back-line within the January window, the manager gave a perfunctory answer. “No,” he said and returned quickly to his current mantra. “In January we’ve a touch bit longer to figure and with work we are getting to attempt to improve.”

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