The results of every round of games will be posted here for discussion.

Weekend of the 3/4th of December - Round 15

Queensland Roar 1 New Zealand Knights 1
Newcastle Jets 1 ADELAIDE UNITED 2
SYDNEY FC 2 Melbourne Victory 1
Perth Glory 2 Central Coast Mariners 2

Knights break their 11 game losing streak.
Sydney come out on top in a great game with their rivals Melbourne infront of a huge crowd.

Lets have the league table then!

And if possible - the player stats (top goalscorers)

No results for three weeks as the competition is taking a mid season break so Sydnay can compete in the Club World Championship.

Thursday nights game.

Melbourne Victory 2 - 2 Perth Glory

Twas a good game this one but Melbourne will be very disapointed they didnt win, they dominated the game for long periods especially in the forst half. The Glory seemed bery happy to hold onto the draw after a opportunistic goal by Nick Ward. Archie Thompson was the stand in Captain but limped off late on with what looked like cramp.

Victory edged up to fifth, leading Central Coast, who play Newcastle on Saturday, on goal difference.

The draw means that Victory have now won only one of their last eight games and desperately need a result to have any hopes of making the finals.

Friday night

New Zealand Knights 2 - 2 Sydney FC

This was a good game with the Knights taking a lead in the 3rd minute through Sean Devine. Sydney equalised in the 6th with David Carney's freekick deflecting off the wall and into the net. Near the end of the first half, Dwight Yorke hit a penalty after a handball by Knights defender van Eijs. Sydney played to their strengths by looking to keep the ball and dominated but New Zealand kept at them having some really nice passages of play until shortly after Neil Emblen came on as a sub he crossed a deep ball to the far side of the penalty box and Brockie volleyed in an equaliser.

Sydney dominated for most of the game, but it was still very even. New Zealand looked organised and controlled with the midfielders working really well together.

It was the right result but makes Sydney's job of catching Adelaide much harder. New Zealand however would be really happy with the way they've responded to Hay and Yeo's departures - it shows again that they're not as poor as the table suggests.

Saturday night

Central Coast Mariners 4 - 1 Newcastle Jets

I only saw the first half of this one before going out, but the Mariners really dominated this game. Newcastle looked tired and more affected by the heat. Gumprecht scored the Mariners' first goal and Damien Brown another from a freekick later.

From what I've read elsewhere, Mateo Corbo was sent off for Newcastle in the 57th minute and John Hutchinson scored the Mariners' last two goals before Kiwi Vaughan Coveny scored late for Newcastle.

Apparently the managers had a bit of a spat at the time of the red card. But well done the Mariners, this moved them into fourth. They also had their highest crowd of the season with over 11000. Newcastle remain on 3rd place behind Adelaide and Sydney.

Sunday Night

Adelaide United 4 - 2 Queensland Roar

These are probably the two most enjoyable teams to watch and this was an entertainer. Queensland took the lead after 11 minutes through Alex Brosque and dominated the first 25 minutes. But Adelaide rattled off three goals in 13 minutes just before half-time. Adelaide's second from their former Chinese international Shengqing Qu was brilliant. His partnership with Fernando Rech is building into easily the best strike pairing in the league.

Each team also scored in the second half. Queensland weren't bad, but Adelaide are well worth their convincing lead at the top of the table and are clearly the team to beat heading into the finals.

Ladder
Team W D L PTS
1. Adelaide 11 2 3 35
2. Sydney 8 4 4 28
3. Newcastle 7 3 6 24
4. Central Coast 6 5 5 23
5. Perth 6 5 5 23
6. Melbourne 5 5 6 20
7. Queensland 4 6 6 18
8. New Zealand

Round 20:

Thurs 26/1/05

Newcastle Jets 0-5 Queensland Roar

(Scorers: Reinaldo, Richter, Brosque, McKay and Murdocca)

Friday 27/1/06

Central Coast Mariners 3-1 Melbourne Victory

(Scorers CC- Spencer, Spencer, Heffernan. Victory- Ferrante)

Saturday 28/1/06

New Zealand Knights 1- Adelaide United 1

Sunday 29/1/06

Perth Glory 1-2 Sydney FC

(Perth scorers- Despotovski, SydneyFC- Rudan, Zadkovich)


The first A-League finalists are

Adelaide United

Sydney FC

CC Mariners

Newcastle Jets

(second through till 4th is still up for grabs)

Damn the Knights just missed out!

So then you will be following Sydney in our finals campaign then mate?

hmmm, do you think Melbourne will make it?

Nah Jono, the top 4 have been decided: Adelaide, Sydney, Central Coast and Newcastle. Just the order of teams 2-4 to be decided.

The finals work as follows:

Competition Format – Finals Series

The top four (4) teams at the conclusion of the Regular Season will progress to the Finals Series. The Finals Series format will be as follows:

a. Major Semi Finals (matches A1 & A2) – To be played February 10-12 (1st Leg) and February 17-19 (2nd Leg). Will feature teams that finished 1st and 2nd at the conclusion of the Regular Season.

b. Minor Semi Finals (matches B1 & B2) - To be played February 10-12 (1st Leg) and February 17-19 (2nd Leg). Will feature teams that finished 3rd and 4th at the conclusion of the Regular Season. The loser is eliminated.

c. Preliminary Final (match C) – To be played February 24-26 between Loser A1-2 and Winner B1-2. The loser is eliminated.

d. Grand Final (match D) – To be played March 3-5 between Winner A1-2 and Winner C.

The finals definitely deserve their own thread mate!

I'll set a thread up once the order of the top 4 gets decided.

Unstickied to fall to the bottom of the heap as this is for last season.