Football Matters with Cyclops 6 February

Local
The season was supposed to kick off last Saturday with the 1st Round of the Australia Cup where the Premiers are away to Saints Eagles Souths in Townsville. However, the match was postponed and will now take place this Saturday

Seniors
Training has been well underway now for a few weeks. Men train on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6.15 and the Ladies are in action on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5.30 to 7.00. The Fixtures start on the weekend of 20- 22 M arch. The Division 1 and Funkies teams play Estates at home on the Friday, and the Ladies are away to MA Olympic. On the Sunday the Premiers and Reserves are away to Rebels.

Juniors
Registrations are open and teams will be hopefully getting sorted in the next few weeks. Please head to Facebook for registration information. If you have any questions, please email the club at burdekinfc@hotmail.com.

Masters
The Masters will resume its Monday Night Magic (or Mayhem) on 23 February. All are welcome, male, and female, useful and hopeless. Be there, International Park for 6.30 Kick off.

Europe

In the EPL, Arsenal thumped Leeds 4-0 and is now six points clear of Manchester City who could only draw 2-2 at Spurs. Aston Villa lost but is still third a further one point behind and ManU continue their good run under new Manager Michael Carrick beating Fulham to stay in fourth place. At the foot of the table West Ham, Burnley and Wolverhampton are in look relegation bound.

In Germany’s Bundesliga, Bayern could only manage a daw away to lowly Hamburg and is now only six points clear of Dortmund with Hoffenheim a further three points behind. Stuttgart is still in fourth place. Heidenheim and St Pauli both lost and are holding up the table and Mainz, who won again, are almost out of the relegation zone.

In Italy’s Serie A, only three one of the top eight teams won. Inter was one of them and they are now top the table eight points ahead of AC Milan. Napoli is a further point behind and Juventus who won 4-1 at Parma stays in fourth place one point behind. The bottom seven teams all lost, and Pisa and Verona look Serie B bound.

In Spain’s, La Liga Barcelona and Real Madrid both won and Barca still leads Real by one point. Third placed Atletico could only draw and is another nine points off the pace. Fourth placed Villarreal is another three points behind. At the bottom of the league, Oviedo was the only team to win but along with Levante is still in deep trouble.

Finally, in France, after twenty rounds, three of the top four teams won and PSG still leads Lens by two points with Marseille, who could only draw, now a further seven points away. Lyon is in fourth place on goal difference. None of the bottom seven teams won and Metz, Auxerre and Nantes are in deep trouble.

The Quote of the Week is from ex- Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger -“If you do not believe you can do it then you have no chance at all”.

The Matildas are only a month away from their first match in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. The Matildas are in Group A with Iran, South Korea, and the Philippines and their first match is against the Philippines in Perth on 1st March. They then meet Iran on 5th March and South Korea on 8th March. The Asian Cup is being hosted by Australia. Twelve countries have qualified for the event which is also a qualifying event for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.

Socceroos fans planning to travel to the United States and Canada for next year’s World Cup have been hit with hefty ticket prices. The cheapest ticket on offer for an Australian fan wanting to see the Socceroos in action in a group game is $210 (US$140). That price is for a category three ticket to Australia’s opening game against a yet to be determined European qualifier in Vancouver or the Socceroos’ final group against Paraguay in the San Francisco Bay Area.

For those matches, a category two ticket will set fans back $570 (US$380), while a category one ticket to be as close to the action as possible is listed at $675 (US$450). The prices get even worse for Australia’s clash with host nation, the USA, in Seattle. The cheapest ticket going for that match is $398 (US$265). The craziest tickets have been saved for the final at New York/New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on July 19, The cheapest ticket on offer is $6,280 (US$4,185), Category two will set you back $8,366 (US$5,575).
In the A League, after fifteen rounds Newcastle are now the League leaders after beating Brisbane 4-1 and after Auckland lost 0-2 to Perth Glory. Sydney FC demolished

Western Sydney 4-1 to move into second place two points behind Newcastle, with Auckland dropping to third spot. Brisbane has dropped to seventh place, winning just one of their last five games. Western Sydney continue to hold up the league.

In the A League Women, after twelve rounds Melbourne City are still top despite losing 1-2 to Adelaide. Canberra beat Melbourne Victory 2-1 to move up to second place a point clear of Adelaide. Brisbane drew 2-2 at home to Central Coast and is now fifth. Sydney is bottom of the league after losing 3-2 to Western Sydney.

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