Leaderboard

For those who wanted, I translate my article into English with the link of it. Australia: the fall of the Wanderers Created by its supporters in 2012 and the only Australian club to have won the Champions League, the West Sydney franchise will end another season in anonymity and will not participate in the final phase of the championship. A slow drift from a forgotten history. January 25, 2019, the Western Sydney Wanderers publishes on its website the signature of the Australian international forward, Mitchell Duke. The latter declares: "I am twenty-eight years old, I want to be the leader of the club, I want to help lead and teach young players to grow and become footballers". A year and a half later, Duke left the club. He scored fourteen goals in twenty-six games, leaving a team once again without a captain and without a captain. Unparalleled beginnings In the suburbs of the city of Sydney, people are clinging to the idea of seeing the club at its highest point again and hanging a new trophy next to the 2013 Premiership, acquired in its very first season. But since the golden era, WSW has become a mid-table club whose only glory this year has been being the bête noire of local rival Sydney FC, inflicting its only two wins before the championship was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the Wanderers' story is an incredible one. The club arrived in the A-League in 2012 and had Aaron Mooy or Shinji Ono on the field and Tony Popovic at the head of the group. Under Popovic, from 2012 to 2017, the club will captivate the hearts of some very special fans in the Australian landscape, with a culture close to the ultra movement in Europe that makes the WSW the second club with the most subscribers behind the Melbourne Victory and one of the biggest sellers of derivative products. Barely launched in the league, WSW has twice reached the play-off finals (2013, 2014), finished first for the first season contested (2012/13) and twice runner-up in the regular season. Better still, in 2014, its participation in the AFC Champions League makes it go down in history as the Wanderers win the title against the Saudis Al-Hilal. A more complicated season ensued (penultimate A-League, elimination in the group phase of the ACL, in the first round of the FFA Cup) before a rebound the following year, despite a defeat in the final of the championship against Adelaide United of Guillermo Amor and a course marked by a mythical match, the semi-final against the Roar, which saw the Wanderers lead three goals to zero in less than half an hour, pass in front in the second half, catch up on the wire, then win 5-4 in overtime. A match that perfectly symbolizes the Wanderers and their identity, summed up by the tifo of the fans for Popovic: "Success cannot exist without passion". Heart and Soul Tony Popovic was, without a doubt, the heart and soul of this club. Forced to deal with the recurring turnover of members in the A-League, he saw his team weaken over the years and the club fall in the rankings (sixth in 2017). Undoubtedly weary, and seeing players such as Terry Antonis and Kerem Bulut not kept, Tony Popovic ends his winning cycle by leaving the club a week before the recovery to try his luck in Europe, at Karabükspor (he will lead only nine games). Since then, however, the Western Sydney Wanderers have not been the same, as the club's supporters*, those who gather under the banner of the Red and Black Bloc, testify: "Popovic was a management maniac at the club and he made all the decisions, probably getting what he wanted in most cases and challenging the owners and the CEO. It worked and we won titles because everyone was on the same page. When Tony left, all these people in the club suddenly had to agree on how to make decisions and work together, but they failed miserably. It's a bit like Alex Ferguson who left Manchester United. A big fall. Unfortunately, we now have an owner who dominates everyone and makes the key decisions. Nobody wants to challenge that. It's simple, we need WSW to have a culture where people are empowered and agree on the same roadmap. If we have a CEO who is too afraid to think independently, it's time for a change. Bring back Lyle Gorman who wasn't afraid to pursue what he felt was best despite opposition from the owners. This is the problem pointed out by the fans, a manager who fails to manage a club and has been vegetating off the top of the board for four seasons. On a recurring basis, the best players at Western Sydney Wanderers do not play for more than one season or club and pursue their careers elsewhere, at other clubs in the league or abroad. Several cases over the years point to this mismanagement and the inability to retain the best to build around it: Chris Ikonomidis, Terry Antonis, Mitchell Duke, Alexander Baumjohann, played only one season or even one and a half. Ikonomidis went to Perth Glory with Tony Popovic, where he won the regular season title and played in a Championship final. Terry Antonis went to Melbourne's Big V and Alexander Baumjohann to rival Sydney FC. Both lifted national titles. Duke, on the other hand, got back in shape and landed a better contract abroad. "Recruitment at our club is a mess, we're handing out long-term contracts to average players while all the good players seem to leave almost as quickly as they arrive and Lederer doesn't pay to keep them. Since we won the Champions League, we haven't been able to find a top striker with a top team at the same time. We signed Oriol Riera, but the rest of the team was average to bad. When Brendon Santalab scored fourteen goals in 2016-17, the rest of the team barely managed to make it to sixth place". This instability is also symbolized by the captains' waltz, five in five years when the neighboring Sky Blues have only had four in ten years. Rediscover your identity It is important to remember that WSW is a special club. When the federation opens a new franchise in West Sydney, it implements an unusual strategy: appealing to future fans. Through online surveys and social networks, the future fans of the club can define the name, colors, location, but also the culture of the club, its style of play. It is this DNA that fans now invoke. Find a communication between all the members of the club (managers, fans, players...). A few days ago, the president Paul Lederer evoked in front of the press, a big clean-up in the administration of the club in order to separate from people who do not have their place. It remains to be seen if Lederer will activate the right levers, if he will be able to remember what makes the WSW identity to allow him to come back to the forefront. The leaders now have until December to demonstrate their willingness to once again make this club a place for soccer in Australia. A club that is probably the best in terms of passion, fervour, culture and dedication. Dedication that can't be bought, but built. End.

sadly I am pretty sure only we could turn Messi into an average player

I can imagine the facebook crowd now. Half we be "why didn't we try to sign him years ago" and the other half will be "33 years old, too short to play in the physical A-League, coming from a team that won no trophies this season. Pass."

Good luck to him https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/meet-the-ex-socceroo-coaching-in-america

I'm thinking a player/coach/club owner role could fix it all in one swoop. Boom.

If Glory manage to go through wonder if Popa can go 0/5 in grand finals? Might be getting ahead of myself there.

Messi? Meh... did you see him in the Champion’s League quarters. He is a hasbeen. We should aim higher...

Come on lederer if you sign Messi I'll forget and forgive you for being judas

Messi wants to leave Barcelona, just saying.....

What do you get if you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?

I must say that i agree Neverbloom. As much as i still love the club, i don't have the same excitement around game day, and i think this is down to a few things: Even before we left Parra for SOP, there were many people in the crowd who were there to chat and catch up instead of watching and being absorbed in the game The RBB. As great as everyone of those people are in creating the atmosphere, the impact has been slowly melting away. This was a huge reason for me becoming a member instead of just watching the team from afar Away fans - I used to love seeing the huge numbers of Victory and SFC fans filling into the north end of Parra Stadium. These numbers have dwindled away some what The football - for the last 3-4 years the football has not been exciting. This doesn't mean we don't win every game (but lets be clear, winning is better) but the games haven't had that excitement that we had in the early days. I am not one to worry about the club and what they do for me. I understand for some, this is important. I am just interested in being excited about turning up and watching my team every 2nd week. Look forward to hearing from other fans.

I suppose this could belong in one or more other threads, but here goes https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/45th-anniversary-of-first-women-s-asian-cup-highlights-australia-s-forgotten-football-history

not true.........we hired a lot of coaches and changed our away jersey cololurs, we also teamed up with a pyramid scheme in herbalife so we have done things

They've done no more or less than any other A League club. Our club has done sod all since about season 3

Canberra'a A-League venture looks set to launch a licence bid in excess of $4 million to finally return Australia's top-tier to the capital. It's believed it's either be to buy the Central Coast Mariners or to form a completely new club. The Mariners licence is officially on the market with owner Mike Charlesworth reportedly wanting $4 million for it. But it's believed Canberra's A-League bid will announce on Tuesday they're willing to offer a figure in excess of that - potentially to relocate the Mariners, but it could also be to set-up the 13th A-League team. It's unclear whether they were looking to take over the licence next season or the following season. Their European financial backers have stood firm with the bid, despite Football Federation Australia overlooking them in 2018 when they announced a two-team expansion of the league. They instead went with Western United, who still haven't built their stadium, and Macarthur FC, who have been beset with turmoil despite not joining the A-League until next season. Macarthur has also had one of their major financial backers pull out. In contrast, the Canberra bid has Canberra Stadium as their home ground, their major backers have stood firm by the bid and they also have the support of the ACT government. Andrew Barr's government was willing to kick in $1.2 million every season to the Canberra bid to help bring elite men's soccer permanently back to the ACT for the first time since the demise of the Canberra Cosmos. The Cosmos played in the now-defunct National Soccer League for six seasons until they were excluded from the competition in 2001. The FFA assured Canberra they were the next cab off the A-League ranks back in 2018 and have repeatedly reinforced that statement. But it wouldn't be the first time the FFA has gone back on their word, with the ACT told the same thing back in 2009 when they missed out to the now Melbourne City - only for the FFA to then go with the Western Sydney Wanderers three years later instead. Canberra's A-League bid has also received the backing of former NSW Premier Morris Iemma. Iemma was part of the failed Southern Expansion A-League bid and is also a Football NSW board member. "If the FFA is minded to allow relocation of the licence, relocating it to the ACT would strengthen the A League and strengthen football," he said when Charlesworth announced he wanted to sell the Mariners almost three weeks ago. Mariners chief executive Shaun Mielekamp was hopeful of keeping the Mariners on the Central Coast, but was open to relocation. The Mariners played two A-League games at Canberra Stadium in the 2016-17 season, but didn't receive enough support to make it worthwhile returning for a second campaign.

^^^ Thank you for sharing your article!

Oh no! Well...parts of that post are good ,Kitto! It's good that you'll be operated on and will feel better soon!

How we all doing? Turns out I have a golf ball sized tumour somehow nestled behind my knee cap. It's pushing on the nerves around it and causing mischief. Organised surgery for about three weeks time. It's not cancerous which is good but it's growing and I need to get it sorted out.

Just on state rights. The ability of the state to close themselves off from the rest of Australia has surprised me no end.... The states control education aside from universities, hospitals, most police forces certainty in number, most transport systems... The Federal government fund most of these things but the states determine how they operate. If we go back to the 80's and prior, each state had its own companies act and each state looked at themselves first and the nation second. Under Bob Hawke, a more federalist model emerged and as economic international barriers started to break down the states adopted a more federalist model. Today, to me anyway the premiers seem to wanta play the pre 80's state games .... I am staggered TBH at the lack of any real power the federal government has .... Maybe its just I lacked knowledge but the power of each government to decide in what they see as their interest i.e. water as an example I am amazed by... It beggars belief if I have read things correctly that national supply chains can be effected ... The NT government said a few weeks ago they will remain closed for 18 months, and early on the WA government said until a cure is found we will remain closed not sure if this still applies or if its government policy but it indicates a state has the power to essentially cut itself off from the world and the federal government can do SFA. As I said I am amazed at how little power the Federal gov has ....

We’d have him making tidy backward passes to Jurman and Ziegler within a week I’m hearing that he is now known as the Barcelona Baccus

No. Google are lying because they're in a fight with other large media companies about having to share revenue for content they're putting on their sites.

I couldn't disagree more. They had a community. The created a genuinely decent game day experience. Sure, we had a part to play in that but they were fun even before we existed. They have been screwed by their owner, who wouldn't spend money. Sound familiar?

thank you for the reply, the RBB are still fantastic but its not the same as it used to be but i do love the atmosphere they bring, i agree away fans used to make it fun, also i remember season one the first time we went to newcastle that was something special, seeing the food vendors faces when we started marching into the part of the stadium with the roof was special, the atmosphere is still amazing just not that level of amazing, i dont know when herbalife joined us but they are dodgy and not a huge fan of seeing them around maybe next season will bring excitement, at least if i tell myself that it has to be true one day i did feel some passion last season a few times but it wasnt common, the main fun i had last season was running into a couple of old friends during match day more than watching the matches but having not much passion for the wanderers has honestly made me feel like a fake fan

not entirely sure where to put this(well i know where but i dont want to take over anyone's topic) but how do you all feel about the wanderers? honestly i just dont feel much, i have been hoping many things would reignite the passion i felt and it just didnt happen yet i am not a gloryhunter, in fact i signed up for the wanderers i thought we were going to be garbage but i was still all in, with depression passion rots and interests fade away, there are a few things i still feel passionate about but its not a long list just doesnt feel like the same club anymore and i dont know if that is my fault or if its the direction the club is taking but i know i should be passionate about the red and black but sadly it just doesnt happen, cant force passion, didnt need to try to force passion in the past still hope it magically becomes something i am passionate about but cant see how that would happen, was hoping going back to parramatta would make me feel more, doesnt feel like my club, somewhere i belong but again i am not sure if that is my own fault or the club becoming a lot less focused on its fans

We need the N2D in place then expansion will be easier if the FFA iron out this mess we have ATM. I think clubs will have to bite the bullet and take a loss on the license fee (Maybe they can sort it out with the FFA in term of some sort of buy back thing but only get a certain amount back over x amount of seasons) Say we hold off reg for 2 seasons but we promote two teams up from N2D so we can make it a 16 team comp then start reg. Plus it will give the AL teams some time to adjust and make sure they invest to stay up in the AL. We cannot hold back this sport any longer in this country, it was held back enough by Lowy/Gallop and fox..

Oh Kitto!! Just be grateful it isn’t cancerous, good with the bad I guess! Hope the surgery goes well! How are you battling on the other fronts @Kitto?

Actually...this would have to be the worst...Cierny Balog Stadium. it's an amateur ground for TJ Tatran Cierny Balog The video below will explain it all: I guess if your team is losing during the first half, you can just hop of the train home.

Good thing the Lowy's are out of football otherwise we'd have every club playing on top of a Westfield.

Championship thread?, He'll be back in a year's time

I think I found one of the most weirdest/absurd stadiums in the world. This is Vozdovac Stadium in Belgrade, Serbia. The stadium is a rooftop stadium which is built on top of a shopping centre. Capacity of the stadium is 5.175.

I've also thoroughly enjoyed both games....the only sad part is that I haven't seen the Wanderers play with the same cohesion all season !!

Sure this isn't the Armageddon thread?

It's Untitled checking someone FIFA rankings...

I tried donating blood today , never again! Too many stupid questions “Who’s blood is it ?” “ Where did you get it from?” “ Why is it in a bucket? “

I think we all saw this coming.

Bye bye Rudes. HA HA

So Messi it is then!

I pretty much agree with all you and Billy Bob have written, Goat. You cannot force passion. Even loyalty wears thin when you really aren't sure what you are being loyal to. No need to feel like a "fake fan", I don't think! Look at all those extraordinarily passionate early supporters who have drifted off from here....and perhaps away from the club. Of course they may still be supporters, but I'm not sure that all would be, from some of the departing comments I saw here. It IS NOT only about winning. I personally would find winning all the time a bit tiresome... seriously. And embarrassing. And greedy. To me you need tension and uncertainty in a game, elation when you win a nail biter, and disappointment to lose a game you nearly won, that could have gone both ways. You need more than one or two dazzling moments ( and not just from your own side) to make you feel engrossed. You need to see progress. You need to see continuity within the team, and feel connection. I can't say I've felt any of that for years. Passion and loyalty, largely have to be earned. It's not your fault it hasn't been.

Good, real good actually. When I get closer to depleting my medication I'll go back to the gp. I'm going to cancel my next appointment with the psych since I didn't really felt like it all 'clicked', but I'll get a referral to someone else. On that thought, do I actually need a referral or should I just get some local recommendations (no idea where though)

Don't take it to heart....the media always do this sort of crap (and the ABC is not exception).....depicting everyone/anyone on benifits are dole bludgers etc......

Southend bias.

Elrich Just played for Perth on winning team into the Finals , I don't know why we let him go mid season Well it had to happen Popa accused of Nepotism , is Popa favouring his 2 boys over better players ?

We brought him back 2 years too late

Shame there isn't an Australian Current Affairs Thread to put this, so I guess here will do. Michael Gunner 'very confident' Labor will retain government after NT election but CLP yet to concede http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-22/nt-abc-projects-labor-set-to-retain-government-nt-election/12586356

My old grandad wouldn't touch parsta. Foreign muck he would call it..far too adventurous for him Chinese takeaway around the corner and he would get omelette and chips That generation I guess.

Yes...no and no! PS I've actually arranged permanent detentions involving threats of visa cancellation. But they were always more than deserved.

Hope you're right! Good luck!

Now we just need the whole of the AL on Optus

There is no such soccer it is FOOTBALL, or league is RUGBY LEAGUE or union is RUGBY UNION, or AFL it got no other name just AFL or ping pong