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Speaking of promotion, relegation and the Bundesliga, Holstein Kiel are playing against Wolfsburg tomorrow morning for a spot in the top flight next season. Kiel have only spent a year in the second tier, after being promoted from the 3 Liga. Their stadium is also tiny, and only holds 10,000 people. Unfortunately they may not be able to use it if they are promoted, as the Bundesliga requires that stadiums have a capacity of at least 15,000.

As others have said, we have played some good football, but we haven't played it consistently, at all. This season seemed to follow a pattern where, we'd play good football, win 3-4 in a row, and then suddenly play awfully, and lose three in a row. We have to be good more consistently if we are to ever challenge for a championship.

Oh for sure, I agree. His appointment just seems like such a bizarre choice. CFG want all of their teams to play the same brand of exciting football, yet, they hire Joyce, an old school English manager? As I said, those player changes in the middle of the season couldn't have been easy to deal with, but of course, that doesn't excuse things like being seemingly inept at substitutions.

If Newcastle win, we're still in Asia, but I feel as though automatic qualification is really what we should be aiming for. And knowing us, we'd probably lose to a third division Indian side. As for whether this season has been a pass or fail, ignoring ACL qualification, it's been kind of a mixed bag for me. The good was getting our highest ever finish, and seeing Arzani and Atkinson come through. I hope that we get to the point where one day most of our Aussie players have come in through our academy. The worst part of the season however, was our recruiting of visa players. The McCormack situation was unfortunate, but not entirely unforeseeable, and Cahill was bound to leave once Joyce came in, in my opinion. However, the decision to let go of Brandan is still baffling to me, and Budzinksi, well... It is easy to see that he was our third choice {Remember that Croatian bloke?). The club doesn't seem to really want him here. I would be okay with him being let go tbh. Bart was our only good foreign signing this season, and it wasn't even our scouts that found him, it was JvS. So, whoever's in charge of recruitment gets a solid F from me. As for Joyce himself, I am somewhat willing to give him some benefit of the doubt, it mustn't have been easy to deal with so many squad changes in the middle of the season, so I am giving a tentative pass. We will see if this season was just a building block towards something better, or just another 'meh' season. Like most seasons since CFG came in.

Harper is such a tool

Even the traditionally strong Asian teams are pretty shit this time around. This is probably the worst Japan side I've seen in a while, South Korea almost didn't qualify directly, and then there's us, if we qualify. The strongest Asian team is definitely Iran, and they probably have the best chance of advancing from the group stage.

We have players who are in pretty good club form, such as Rogic, yet they play like shit for the national team. Same goes for Mooy, we have seen how creative, and dangerous he can be, live, yet, he has rarely played like that for the national team. Also, why the fuck was Behich, who has been consistently playing for his club dropped for fucking Brad Smith? Who has probably played more for the nt than at a club level.

It is a very nice kit, but the A-League logo makes it look so cluttered. It would be perfect with the logo on the sleeve

Ajinomoto Stadium in Japan. Managed to attend an FC Tokyo game whilst I was living there. And yes. FC Tokyo fans sing You'll Never Walk Alone. The wikipedia article has more photos.

Not quite a foundation member, I actually started out with a 5 game membership in 11/12, then opted to get a full one in 12/13. I have renewed every year since then (Except for last season due to being overseas).

Guy was so coked up that he needed to destroy the advertising after he scored. Looks like one of those guys who'd get into a fight over a cigarette outside Sunshine station. Love it, hopefully he can carry this form through the season. But he seems like a gun so far.

Fuck yeah! I had a good feeling about the game, but I never expected that! Other than the usual suspects, I thought that Muscat played really, really well. Granted, Victory's attack sucked, but still.

Eh, it's nothing new, they did it with Del Piero and Ono when they were here iirc.

Channel 9 testing the waters for A-League rights maybe?

I somehow misread the question when I first voted haha. I realised what a dumbass I was about 5 seconds later.

Agreed. Space travel and colonisation is one of the only things that I am actually optimistic about tbh haha.

Oh of course, I guess that it is pretty impossible to gauge which technologies will take off (no pun intended), and which ones won't. In the 60's people were hopeful about colonisation in the following decades, but nothing materialised (There were a few reasons beyond the technological limitations of course). I do think that most research will be done by government agencies like NASA and the ESA, but that research will be co-opted by people wanting to make money. Pretty unrelated, but if it is government agencies that do end up leading the charge, it must be a joint effort. If, for example, it was a solo effort by NASA, the colony could be seen as an 'American' colony, and not something that benefits humanity as a whole. NASA gives SpaceX contracts in order to build new spacecraft, yes. They also lease them launch pads etc. Right now, close co-operation between government agencies and companies is important, as research can be shared and such.

My love of space, and colonisation of space trumps my political leanings haha. Although, as I have gotten older my tolerance for capitalism has increased a bit, I can see the benefits in markets, etc. I am no Tesla haha, but I am not the insufferable Marxist jerkass that I once was.

UOTYH: With the news that SpaceX is wanting to colonise Mars, it got me thinking: It will be private companies that lead the way in space travel, not government institutions like NASA. Of course, whether or not SpaceX's idea will succeed is a whole other issue, but the lure of raw materials (some of which are rare on Earth) to be mined leads me to believe that it's only a matter of time before large companies start to seriously look into it.

TTDIM: Being given 48 free light-bulbs by a guy going door to door.

Geez, our advertising for the upcoming season is better than the FFA's haha.

I think that it just highlights the fact that our national team's active support sucks. Really bad.

I'd guarantee that the majority of those 30k supporters were just Australians who wanted to see (arguably) the best team in Asia. I also don't think that many Japanese people would fly down for the game in October anyway, especially not that early in the campaign. It is unconfirmed that the game against Japan will be at the MCG anyway. So it's pure speculation at this point.

Well, the Japan game will be on the 11th of October, the AFL season will be over by then so the pitch should be fine. You'd assume so anyway.