Soccer –Central Coast Mariners Take Out the Minor Premiership »
By Muz on Jan 21, 2008 in News
After a very tense weekend, the final four teams have been decided in the Hyundai Australian [tag-tec]A-League[/tag-tec] season with the [tag-tec]Central Coast Mariners[/tag-tec] finishing first, followed by [tag-tec]Newcastle Jets[/tag-tec], [tag-tec]Sydney FC[/tag-tec] and [tag-tec]Queensland Roar[/tag-tec]. It all came down to goal difference and [tag-tec]Football Federation Australia[/tag-tec] could not have scripted a better finish to the season.
By winning the Minor Premiership, the Mariners have officially qualified for the 2009 edition of the [tag-tec]AFC Champions League[/tag-tec], the most prestigious club competition in Asia. Has the Central Coast Mariners been the best team all year and deserve to finish on top of the A League ladder and earn the right to compete in Asia in 2009?
Firstly, let’s have a look at the table and how they finished.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | |
| 1 | Central Coast Mariners FC | 21 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 30 | 25 | 5 | 34 |
| 2 | Newcastle Jets FC | 21 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 25 | 21 | 4 | 34 |
| 3 | Sydney FC | 21 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 28 | 24 | 4 | 32 |
| 4 | Queensland Roar FC | 21 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 25 | 21 | 4 | 31 |
| 5 | Melbourne Victory FC | 21 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 29 | 29 | 0 | 27 |
| 6 | Adelaide United FC | 21 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 31 | 29 | 2 | 26 |
| 7 | Perth Glory FC | 21 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 27 | 34 | -7 | 20 |
| 8 | Wellington Phoenix FC | 21 | 5 | 5 | 11 | 25 | 37 | -12 | 20 |
P = played | W = wins | D = draws | L = losses | F = goals for | A = goals against|
GD = Goal Difference | Pts = Points
The Mariners recorded more wins than any other Hyundai A-League team in 2007/08 ten in total and scored the second most amount of goals with twenty nine. Additionally, they had the fourth best defensive record by conceding twenty five goals throughout the season. Coming into the final round, the Central Coast Mariners were separated from their three confirmed finals series rivals by goal difference only. As you can see from the above table, they have taken out the Minor Premiership by a goal difference of one.
Having lead the premiership for 17 of the first 19 rounds, the Mariners faltered and conceded 12 goals in three home game losses. This led to the Central Coast Mariners Football Manager Lawrie McKinna scratching his head as to what went wrong. The boys came out against Wellington Phoenix on Saturday night at a very wet Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford with the possibility of winning the Minor Premiership or dropping to fourth spot depending on other results. The Mariners won the game 2-0 with the second goal being scored in the final minute of injury time proving to be crucial.
The video below shows the two goals.
To answer the question, do the [tag-tec]Central Coast Mariners[/tag-tec] deserve to finish on top of the ladder, well, statistics don’t lie. They may not be approaching the final series in the greatest form but they are there and they will certainly give it a big shake.
Best of luck to Lawrie and all the boys and we know you will do the Central Coast proud.
The Central Coast Mariners play Newcastle Jets on Saturday 27 January 2008 in the first leg of the major semi-final series.
AFC-Champions-League, Central-Coast-Mariners, hyundai-A-League, Newcastle-Jets, Queensland-Roar, soccer, Sydney-FC
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Posted in News | 6 Comments »
2 Comment(s)
By Linda on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply
I cant seem to get my girls to find the back of the net. They constanly shoot high, just slightly wide or right at the goalie. How do I get them to find the open spot in the goal?
By Muz on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply
Hi Linda,
A very common problem that as coaches we all experience. I’m not sure of the age group of your girls, however the basic principles are the same for all age groups.
I am going to do a couple of posts specifically on ‘shooting’ shortly as I have had a number of requests for information. So keep an eye open for that.
A lot of the times a player will panic in front of goals as they feel the pressure to score. They need to relax. Also in a lot of cases they actually have more time than they think. At training take your main strikers aside with the goalkeeper and concentrate on shooting. Get another player to pass them the ball from different angles with no defenders initially. Ensure the strikers are striking the ball with their instep, in other words with the laces of their boots. Also, make sure just prior to shooting they take a quick look to see where the goalie is and tell them to concentrate on placing the ball to the sides of the goal – DONT try and blast it into the next suburb!
Practice this every session and they will improve and become more confident.
As I mentioned earlier, I will provide more drills in an upcoming post looking at getting around defenders but hopefully this will help you and the girls in the meantime.
Ps. I expect to hear about a couple of goals being scored in the next game.
Kind regards,
Muz