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The Crossbar: We're back baby

Monday, October 14, 2013

by
The wait is finally over, what a huge, huge week for football in Australia and we don't say that lightly. The Hyundai A-League is back, and back in a big way!

The national coach bit the bullet and talk of the great one returning was everywhere. Romance in football is usually confined to some third division team beating Newcastle United in the second round of the FA Cup but Guus Hiddink back as the Socceroos coach! Mills and Boon couldn't write that shit!

This week they were playing for
Send in your most obscure ones and we'll try and go the whole season without doubling up

The Griffin McMaster Mug
The Aziz Behich Belt
The Travis Dodd Trophy
The Jason Culina Cup
The Dean Heffernan honour pin

Our big observation

No-one had 'that' chat to Hayden Foxe over the off season.

These snuck under the Crossbar (likes)


  • Kits. Newcastle with the green, white and cinnamon (yep!). Perth Glory with the collar
  • The playing pitches. No cow paddocks or rice fields, keep that up ground mangers of Australia
  • Over 100,000 at the A-League this weekend
  • We didn't have to wait long to take a swig in our drinking game; Jacob Burns yellow card came 28 minutes into Round One
  • A-League on SBS in HD breaking audience figures around the country. 350,000 watched on Friday night
  • Wanderers fans. Was that really an away game? #CanSupport
  • 45,202 at the Melbourne Derby or roughly 44.75534% of the league's attendance. A record Melbourne Derby Crowd
  • Ernie Merrick and Alistair Edwards bringing tracksuits back to the sidelines #Straya
  • Carlos Hernandez back in the A-League
  • ADP's goal, we will try not to follow the crowd and make everything an ADP fap fest but.. t'was a ripping goal

What went over the crossbar (dislikes)


  • Ono and Juric on the bench. How is Juric going to be the one to watch this season when he is sitting on the (extended) pine?
  • Holger getting the sack. Eight months out from a World Cup, its not ideal - now we are stuck with weeks of scrutiny over who's going to get it out of Popa, Grumpy Graham and Ange
  • The Police wasting the resources they did at the Melbourne Derby, If you were going to commit a crime in Melbourne Saturday night around 10pm was the time to do it. No arrests and only six ejections
  • Atmosphere and result in the Melbourne Derby #Bland
  • A-League defences, no improvements made there. #JustAddBennyHillMusic

Okay, so 99% of your dislikes last year were referee related even when we said NO REFS, so we are going to add 'Ref Watch' this year and try to be completely balanced in our appraisal.

Ref Watch: Round One
Grade: B+

  • Just put your whistle away guys
  • Learn the advantage rule or apply it better
  • No howlers
  • Card happy in the Travis Dodd Trophy game

Our Tweet of the Week
@thefootballsack

Relax ref my tweets can't keep up with all these yellows #ADLvPER

Your Tweet of the Week

@paul_football

watching Bridget Jones Diary would be less painful. We are now an embarrassment. #FRAvAUS

 This was humorous

Melanie Dinjaski's photo.

Next week's predictions

  • The Socceroos will beat Canada 4-0 leading to David Gallop to announce Aurelio Vidmar as a great candidate to take the Socceroos to the World Cup and beyond
  • Melbourne vs Adelaide breaks more SBS audience records leading to Channel 7 inquiring about the rights for the A-League Monday night slot
  • The Football Sack run into trouble with their game naming cups after two rounds and drop the concept all together