Daily Telegraph
uutisoi Sydneyn synkästä tilasta ja esittää myös pienen arvion Mäkelästä:
Sydney must buy some talent
SYDNEY FC have been a disaster at almost every level this season - from crowds, player recruitment and especially on-field performance.
They say a boxer can go from his prime to over the hill in the space of one round, even one punch. In a football sense, Sydney have become slow and lethargic in a few months.
Four wins from 19 games paints a horrible picture for the defending champions, but the extraordinary thing is they still have a chance to turn it around.
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With their A-League finals hopes fading with each game, Sydney will be hoping to salvage something from their season by making a good run in Asia. To do that, they need to buy some players.
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Sydney have added Finnish striker Juho Makela, but he's an unknown quantity.
He's made seven international appearances and has been a regular goalscorer in Finland. It's fair to say, though, the Finnish league wouldn't be as strong as the A-League, so no one is sure if Makela is the answer.
I would have looked at getting Robbie Fowler from Perth.
OK, Fowler doesn't have pace either, but pair him up with Brosque and Mark Bridge and suddenly you have a decent front line.
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Hajamainintoja myös muista lehdistä:
The Sydney Morning Herald:
ATTACK
On paper, Sydney's attack has not been that bad. The team's best player, Alex Brosque, has battled various injuries to score six goals and has always looked lively. New recruit Bruno Cazarine signed on well into the new season and has also bagged six goals in tough circumstances. Even Mark Bridge, who has scored just once, can point to six assists, one fewer than the league's best. Still, it's not enough. Bridge needs to rediscover that uber-confident edge. Cazarine has been a worthy investment but needs to give more than tap-in finishes. And Brosque simply must stay injury free. Without him, Sydney cannot save their season - which could be a problem if he goes to the Asian Cup. Either way, the arrival of Finnish striker Juho Makela in January should have them all on notice.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 2It's for that reason that the need to sharpen the focus on next year's Asian Champions League campaign is getting more pressing by the day. Perhaps Lavicka is heeding the message. Youngsters Terry Antonis and Dimitri Petratos are finally starting to get meaningful game time, and hopefully Antony Golec and Matthew Jurman are soon to get the same opportunities. It's squads, not teams, that succeed in the ACL, and Sydney desperately need to improve their depth.
They've done that by adding Finnish striker Juho Makela to their list, and he'll join Cazarine, Stephan Keller, Hiro Moriyasu and skipper Terry McFlynn as the club's foreigners for the ACL. With Moriyasu protected under the Asian quota, one of the other four will have to miss out. Better to have too many than not enough, perhaps.
Tässä vielä mielenkiintoisia kommentteja A-Liigan pelaajien palkkauksesta. Keskiarvopalkka oli viime kaudella $135,000, kun esim. Yhdysvaltain MLS-liigassa se oli noin $89,000. Sydneyn tj vaatiikin palkkoihin alennusta, sillä esim. Sydney teki viime vuonna mestaruudestaan huolimatta $6 miljoonaa tappiota. ''We only have a certain amount of players in Australia but there is no open-market situation because we are limited in the number of visa players we can sign,'' he said. ''Every club in the competition ends up chasing the same players - Australians willing to play in the A-League - and that pushes up their prices every year without the players actually getting better themselves.''
