BRISBANE ROAR PLAYING FOR SURVIVAL

Tonight the Brisbane Roar face Korean opponent Ulsan Hyundai in a match which could signal the end of their hopes of ACL success in 2012. With a possible 9 points left to play for, and placed 3 points behind 2nd placed Ulsan, tonight is do or die.

With the game kicking off at 7:30pm in Brisbane tonight, a media conference involving both team's captains and managers was held yesterday. Brisbane manager Ange Postecoglou was bristling as the assembled media continued to harass him about his future. Postecoglou was asked were the questions regarding his future annoying, he quipped, "Do you think it is? You keep asking the questions though don't you." The rumour mill has linked him with marquee club Melbourne Victory, however, Postecoglou is firmly focused on his ACL task and the A League Grand Final this Sunday. The manager was not concerned at what some deem inconvenient scheduling. Regarding the game tonight just 4 and a half days before the grand final he said, "that's the nature of the sport we're involved in, there's an international aspect . . ."

Brisbane's opponents Ulsan have had a successful start to their K League season conceding just one match from the opening seven. Just six days ago the tigers had a 0-0 draw with 2nd placed Jeju and notably they have conceded just 4 goals in 7 matches. The Roar will not be taking their opponents lightly given the meeting two weeks ago yielded a 1-1 draw. However, the Australian side had dictated terms, leading 1-nil until Matt Jurman was given a red card in the 47th minute. Striker Besart Berisha had calmly cut back for an oncoming Nick Fitzgerald to put Brisbane ahead in the 36th minute. Unfortunately the red card turned the game and Ulsan were able to equalise in the 55th minute. A very open affair but the result remaining a 1-1 deadlock.

With it all to play for tonight expect Brisbane to take the three points even if some key players get rested. In other action FC Tokyo host Beijing Guoan. The previous meeting between the two teams also resulted in deadlock. Hosted by the giants of the Chinese Super League the home team were recipients of a very helpful piece of refereeing to go ahead via a penalty (click here to see the youtube video) in the 11th minute. Not surprisingly when FC Tokyo hit back it was midfielder Hasegawa who was on target in the 44th minute. The Iranian-Japanese midfielder has been on fire throughout the tournament and in the J League, only recently coming unstuck with some disciplinary issues.

Around the Champions League the other interesting clashes involve Thai outfit Buriram and Jeonbuk Motors. The Thai club travel to Korea attempting to reverse their first ACL defeat just a fortnight ago. They are the giant killers of the competition taking the scalps of Japanese champs Kashiwa Reysol and Chinese champs Gaungzhou Evergrande. Group G seems to be full of shocks though with Guangzhou opening the tournament with a 5-1 win over Jeonbuk. Expect the Koreans to be on song tonight as they have it all to play for, sitting on 3 points while Kashiwa and Guangzhou on 4 points meet, means they will lose contact with the top two unless they take points.

SENDAI STAY TOP

Vegalta Sendai have maintained their undefeated start to the season by giving defending champions Kashiwa a 3-2 touch up. Striker Shingo Akamine grabbed the winner in the 78th minute.

Travelling to Chiba prefecture, Sendai endured the inclement weather and a fiery Leandro Domingues to give themselves a three point buffer at the top of the table. Both midfielder Yoshiaki Ota and the 28 year old striker Akamine have moved to three goals this season. Ota picked up two assists on the weekend with Akamine's goal being decisive. Interestingly Sendai are well ahead in the goals scored department which was an issue last season.

Sendai finished fourth in 2011 with the stingiest defence in the competition. They conceded just 25 goals in the 34 match season. Unfortunately they only scored more goals than 5 other teams. If the goal scoring problem has been nullified than there is no reason why Sendai can't complete an inspiring J League triumph. Sendai was smack bang in the middle of the earthquake and tsunami disaster of 2011. After winning J2 in 2009 the team were lucky to survive their first season in the J League. They finished two places above relegation and just one win clear of the relegated FC Tokyo. It wasn't unreasonable to expect the natural disaster to have a negative impact on the team in 2011 and spell the end of their J1 adventure, but they proved to be made of sterner stuff than most mortals. 

Now 2012 sees Vegalta Sendai head of the table, with big guns Urawa Reds in pursuit, and the usual suspects Nagoya Grampus lurking about. The J League has made a habit of throwing up the fairytale recently and their will be no shortage of people wishing good will toward the team from Miyagi prefecture.

A LEAGUE TURMOIL

JETS OWNER DOES THE RUNNER

Mining (lucky guy) magnate Nathan Tinkler has attempted to pull the rug from under the Newcastle Jets in a display of petulance. The owner of the Jets had a representative host a depressing press conference where the Hunter Sports Group (owned by Tinkler) declared, they were handing back their owner's license due to differences in opinion on how the game should be run. 


HSG chief executive Troy Palmer stated ". . . propping up their [FFA] decisions that we don’t agree with is not what we think is best for Newcastle." With true billionaire contempt it seems the rich man is taking his bat and ball and going home. The tamper tantrum stems from two major issues: the $5 million license acquisition fee paid by Tinkler and the Jason Culina insurance incident. Tinkler has good reason to be bitter about the acquisition fee. The $5 million that he paid is well over the money paid by others and Jason Culina was bought as a marquee player but amazingly the player wasn't insured as the FFA has a different rule for marquee players.

So Tinkler has reason to be angry and to want answers however, trying to hand back the license is a little irresponsible. The Jets attracted the third highest average crowd figures for 2011/12, and manager Gary Van Egmond gave up his post at the Australian Institute of Sport for the job at the Jets. Tinkler has metaphorically said to the fans "to hell with you", he has metaphorically said to Van Egmond "who cares about your family and any other bills you have to pay" and the same goes for all the players.

On investigation into Tinkler's history we see some consistent patterns of this kind of behaviour. In November 2011 he finally ended his dispute with horse trainer Anthony Cummings. Cummings was one of a long line of horse trainers who parted ways with Tinkler. The list includes Jason Coyle, Patrick Payne, Tony Noonan and Mick Price. But it's Tinkler's timing which really proves his class (sarcasm). Hours after the launch of the 2011/12 A League season Tinkler ruthlessly sacked then manager, Branko Culina, who had been on hand for the launch media event. Tinkler sacked Culina for the debacle that surrounded the signing of injured marquee player Jason Culina (his son). And now on the day of the A League awards night Tinkler prods his chief executive officer into the fray to tell the world he doesn't want his 'soccer toy' anymore. Unfortunately for Tinkler he signed a ten year ownership contract and the FFA are ready for court action. By the afternoon of HSG's announcement yesterday, the 'cut and run' group were issued papers from the FFA reminding of their legal commitments to the Newcastle Jets for another eight years.

Catch Football Federation Australia's response to HSG.