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Coaches fume at FFA as Jets, Victory draw

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Jets boss Gary van Egmond has savaged the inclusion of a host of his young stars for an Australian under-22 tournament in the wake of their 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory on Friday night.

The Jets were missing four regular starters, including young Socceroo striker Adam Taggart, from their line-up due to the AFC Championships in Oman which runs from 11-26 January.


According to Australian coach Aurelio Vidmar, the tournament is ideal preparation for the 2016 Olympics but van Egmond believes there is little to be gained for the players.

“You can’t tell me that it’s better for the young boys playing over there than it is in the A-League when they’re playing against men each week,” van Egmond said.

“I think you can help it by not sending players over to an under-22 tournament which realistically has no bearing on much, that probably helps.”

 Van Egmond was clearly disappointed following his side’s wasteful display against the Victory but felt the players missing from both sides detracted from what could have been a high quality affair.

“I think personally it’s a case where it detracts from the game, I don’t think it was a high quality game and realistically it could have been a very high quality game,” he said.

“Unfortunately that didn’t happen, for me it’s a blight on the game for the supporters and the members who pay their money and I don’t think it was right.

“That would have helped in regards to the quality of the game and it probably would have helped them maybe create and convert a few chances and it would have helped us for sure.”

Van Egmond suggested that the Jets would consider revising their recruitment policy in the future if the FFA continued to insist on playing tournaments which are seemingly meaningless.

“Probably us and Victory are the ones who’ve looked to invest as much as we can in the young ones and at the end of the day Newcastle Jets football club has to revisit what they need to do now,” he said.

“If this is the reward it’s not much of a reward, West Sydney don’t have any players in so they’re not going to be hurt.”

Victory boss Kevin Muscat shared similar sentiments post match but admitted he was pleased with the resilience of his players under difficult circumstances.

“I’m pleased with the players that’s for sure, the effort, obviously four players going away with the Olympic team, couple of injuries and a suspension, we knew it was going to be difficult for us,” Muscat said.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be free flowing by any stretch but with four players coming in from last week and it took us a while. There didn’t seem to be too much cohesion in the first half.

Muscat was also critical of FFA’s scheduling of their next match which is a four-day turnaround against last season’s premiers Western Sydney Wanderers on Tuesday night.

“To be honest I don’t really see the point in commenting, it is what it is, I’ve got to pick a group of players up, on top of that they’ve found it appropriate to give us a midweek game as well,” he said.

“Instead of worrying about an insignificant tournament I’ll concentrate on picking a team up and preparing for Tuesday night against a difficult opposition.”

The Jets created a host of chances against a shaky Victory defence but only had a Mitch Nichols own goal to show for their efforts in the 42nd minute, before conceding a goal against the run of play through Andrew Nabbout just after half time.

Both teams had chances to win the game in a scattered second half but lacked a cutting edge in the final third to snatch three points.

In a match which did not reach any great heights and with each side missing so many young stars, both teams will take solace in a point.



Newcastle Jets: 1.Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk), 3.Taylor REGAN, 5.Ben KANTAROVSKI, 6.Zenon CARAVELLA, 8.Ruben ZADKOVICH (c), 9.Emile HESKEY, 10.Nathan BURNS, 11.Craig GOODWIN, 13.Joey GIBBS, 14.Josh MITCHELL, 16.Jacob PEPPER, 17.James VIRGILI, 18.James BROWN, 19.Michael BRIDGES, 21.Sam GALLAWAY, 20.Ben KENNEDY (gk).

Melbourne Victory: 1.Nathan COE (GK), 2.Pablo CONTRERAS, 3.Adama TRAORE, 5.Mark MILLIGAN (c), 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7.Gui FINKLER, 9.Kosta BARBAROUSES, 10.Archie THOMPSON, 13.Andrew NABBOUT, 14.James TROISI, 15.Mitch NICHOLS, 16.Rashid MAHAZI, 17.James JEGGO, 18.Francesco STELLA, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (GK), 22.Jesse MAKAROUNAS, 27.Christopher CRISTALDO, 31.Dylan MURNANE
**two to be omitted**