AFC CLE and CL2 2024/25

[mack]

Smurfs go behind vs Hiroshima.

[StringerBellend]

6 minutes ago, mack said:

Smurfs go behind vs Hiroshima.

Good

[mack]

Always funny seeing Smurf fans cry about a ref.

[Paul01]

1 hour ago, mack said:

Always funny seeing Smurf fans cry about a ref.

I have absolutely no pity for Smurfs crying about refereeing decisions. F em

[StringerBellend]

Kopites of the A League 

[Sithslayer1991]

Was at the game as I took the old man. Honestly that midfield Lo Sena is like A-league Rodri the amount of times the guy had 3 players around him and still was able to beat them and find space is scary. Caceres was also doing this to a lesser extent. The funny thing was as I told my old man if this was the derby they would have score the 4 big chances they created but because its Asia Smurfs always choke.

Would have been nice for Kilmala to sky the shots against us like he did in this game, or Burgess to just fluff his lines like he did twice.

[Paul01]

48 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Was at the game as I took the old man. Honestly that midfield Lo Sena is like A-league Rodri the amount of times the guy had 3 players around him and still was able to beat them and find space is scary. Caceres was also doing this to a lesser extent. The funny thing was as I told my old man if this was the derby they would have score the 4 big chances they created but because its Asia Smurfs always choke.

Would have been nice for Kilmala to sky the shots against us like he did in this game, or Burgess to just fluff his lines like he did twice.

Clear (and not accidental) handball by Sena before he was given the foul just before the final whistle. He controlled the ball to put it at his feet

[SBW]

Looks like Yokohama FC fans for whatever reason turned up to CommBank Stadium last night

 

 

[Davo]

Paying their respects to an ACL winner since we're massive.

[mack]

Mariners getting obliterated by Yokohama.

[StringerBellend]

I guess Australia isn't getting another ACL 1 spot anytime soon.

Maybe we can only play against teams who park cars behind the goals and have running tracks around the pitch with stands that look like something out of a post apocalypse movie

Edited December 3 by StringerBellend

[Sithslayer1991]

No I think the way things are going we are likely to lose a spot in Champions league. And be stuck with ACL 2 and ACL 2 play off spot. Live rankings actually have us behind Vietnam because Mariners keep losing and Vietnam only has 1 representative in ACL 2 because one of their teams withdrew. Plus the withdrawn year during the COVID times is killing us.

[StringerBellend]

24 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

No I think the way things are going we are likely to lose a spot in Champions league. And be stuck with ACL 2 and ACL 2 play off spot. Live rankings actually have us behind Vietnam because Mariners keep losing and Vietnam only has 1 representative in ACL 2 because one of their teams withdrew. Plus the withdrawn year during the COVID times is killing us.

Brilliant well done Australian football. I guess the club's should be happy as apart from us (maybe Sydney) nobody seemed to really want to be in it 

[mack]

The real problem is going to happen for the 27/28 slots.

26/27 it won't matter if Vietnam get above us, because it is highly unlikely that Malaysia get above us as well. Australia & Vietnam should both get an ACL and ACL2 slot.

27/28 on the other hand, we lose the 14 points from the 2016 season where SFC & MVC got out of the group stage. It might come down to how far SFC get in the ACL2 and if they beat Kaya in the dead rubber 6th match before the KOs. The risk is that we drop below Vietnam and Malaysia, which would drop us out of the ACL Elite entirely.

[Sithslayer1991]

Its difficult to see how far A-league clubs can go. The big club from Thailand (Burriram) and Malaysia (Johor) have poured a lot of money on foreign players that have lifted their standard from being below A-league just 10 years ago to now competing and winning against K-league and J-league clubs in champions league. Japan and Korea both have depth of players with the pyramid system they have, so it doesn't matter who is in the Champions league. China is just keeping up because the big clubs from Shanghai are still competitive

City failing to get out of the groups when they were there doesn't help, but the reality is league standard is not keeping up with the top clubs in Asia. And the champion A-league team tends to lose all its players by the next season they are mid table AKA Mariners. 

[Davo]

Feels like the gap between the competitions is too large. In the second tier A-League clubs played each other in the ASEAN Zone final and the winner went on to win the whole thing, while in the top tier we're not even getting out of the group.

[Sithslayer1991]

20 minutes ago, Davo said:

Feels like the gap between the competitions is too large. In the second tier A-League clubs played each other in the ASEAN Zone final and the winner went on to win the whole thing, while in the top tier we're not even getting out of the group.

Even Smurfs in ACL2 failed to beat Sanfrecce who this season are very much a  Champions league team as they have been in the title race in J-league. But you are correct the league standard is above the average ACL2 team, because regardless the Smurfs or any A-league team are still favoured to have a deep run in ACL2 unless they meet the K-league or J-league team along the way.

But come into ACLE its a big jump in quality, and it will continue to get higher because of the giant piggy bank FIFA has for their mickey mouse club world cup. I don't think removing the salary cap will help here, because I don't think A-league clubs will spend more than they currently are. Its about building the local depth, raising the quality overall, having a consistent club in champions league and retention of star players because the best players in A-league go overseas. 

[mack]

1 hour ago, Davo said:

Feels like the gap between the competitions is too large. In the second tier A-League clubs played each other in the ASEAN Zone final and the winner went on to win the whole thing, while in the top tier we're not even getting out of the group.

The gap between Tier 1 and 2 was much bigger when the Mariners won it as it was before the rebalancing done by the AFC for season. For their AFC Cup win, there were zero teams from Japan, South Korea, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Thailand, UAE or Uzbekistan. The teams from Iraq were their 3rd & 5th placed league finishers, Vietnam & Jorden sent were their league runners up as well, so even those middle tier ranked nations weren't sending their strong teams.

After the AFC rebalancing, the ACL2 now has one team from all of those higher tier nations. It also balanced the entries so there's no more wonky draw. Having the 3rd or 4th placed league finishers from SK, Japan, Iran etc makes it far stronger than the AFC Cup was. The AFC Cup win was practically determined by who won the Bulls vs CCM game. Now there's easily at least half a dozen stronger teams than Sydney FC.