The weight of another defeat evident on his shoulders, Melbourne Victory coach Grant Brebner has promised some “tough, hard conversations” with his playing group following his side’s 1-0 loss to Newcastle Jets and admitted that, at the moment, Victory fans were “justified” in their frustrated boos.
Maybe a global pandemic is just what the A-League needed A Set the default text size A Set large text size
Replay A Set the default text size A Set large text size
Here’s a stat for you, Andrew Howe. Of the 54 goals scored in the A-League to date, 21 of them – or just over 38 per cent – have been slotted home by players aged 23 or younger.
Valentino Yuel may not be in that age bracket, but the 26-year-old continued the trend of exciting new talent getting on the scoresheet when he angled home the opener in Newcastle’s 2-1 win over Wellington Phoenix in Wollongong yesterday.
Samuel Green 1611215557,1612995394
Wellington Phoenix return to A-League action for the first time in 15 days searching for their maiden points at their temporary home in Wollongong against the Newcastle Jets on Sunday.
Ufuk Talay’s team will be without suspended midfielder Alex Rufer, who was sent off in their 1-1 draw against Macarthur FC, when they face interim coach Craig Deans and his struggling Jets.
Despite some impressive displays from young guns including Valentino Yuel and Ramy Najjarine, Newcastle have showed sprit while falling to four straight defeats to open a turbulent campaign.
The Kiwi outfit have been unlucky not get to a win on the board and they will be desperate to open their account at WIN Stadium after slipping to a 2-1 defeat against Sydney FC in their ‘home’ opener.
Share on Twitter
At this time last year Arnold could easily select an 18-man squad for the Olympics because his options were limited.
Now they have expanded greatly thanks to the influx of local young talent in the A-League this season.
The Games are six months away and yet to be confirmed as the pandemic rages internationally.
Restrictions over travel have had a significant impact on the Australian competition, forcing clubs to give young, home-grown talent more playing minutes.
Olyroos Tom Glover, Tass Mourdoukoutas, Tom Aqualina and Ramy Najjarine are all regularly starting at their respective clubs, among several others.
Share on Twitter
Celebrating their 400th game in the competition, the Jets were looking to break the shackles of a slow start but instead only re-enforced what was already their worst beginning since the A-League s 2005 inception.
Dominating for large periods of the match, the home side were undone by a deflection and one moment of sleepy defending.
Riku Danzaki dug the knife in after just six minutes, admittedly given too much space in his quarter before pulling the trigger on a 25-metre speculator for the Roar.
The Japanese import s shot took a deflection off Nikolai Topor-Stanley before beating keeper Jack Duncan - marking consecutive matches in which the veteran defender had the last touch in an opposition goal.