Daily Archives: December 12, 2015

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – DECEMBER 12: Romeo Castelen of the Wanderers is challenged by Daniel Georgievski of Melbourne Victory during the round 10 A-League match between the Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory at Pirtek Stadium on December 12, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Second half goals to Mark Bridge and the excellent Romeo Castelen has spurred Western Sydney Wanderers to a 2-0 win over Melbourne Victory at Pirtek Stadium on Saturday night.

In an action-packed clash befitting a top-of-the-table contest, the Wanderers continued their incredible winning streak to suggest there’s a new favourite for the title.

Bridge struck nine minutes after the break to send the home side on their way before man-of-the-match Castelen made the points safe 11 minutes from the end

It’s now seven wins in a row for the Wanderers while Victory drop to third on the back of two straight defeats.

GOALS

1-0 Bridge (54’) – Scott Neville’s defence-splitting pass released Romeo Castelen in behind the Victory defence, the Dutchman unselfishly squaring to Bridge for a simple tap-in at the far post. A well-worked goal.

2-0 Castelen (79’) – Picking up possession about 30 yards from goal, Castelen played the ball one side of Georgievski before racing around the other side and regaining the ball. He tried his luck from a tight angle and it was too hot for Danny Vukovic to handle, sneaking in at the near post.
In a pulsating first half which ebbed and flowed from end-to-end, Victory had a couple of great chances to edge in front.

First following an Andrew Redmayne fumble, Daniel Georgievski hit a pile-driver towards goal which hit Besart Berisha and smashed onto the crossbar and down…but not over the line.

Less than 10 minutes later Kosta Barbarouses – after a brilliant one-two with Berisha – almost beat Redmayne, with Scott Neville clearing his poked effort off the line.

The Wanderers made the most of their next chance after the break and the three points was theirs.

OPTA DATA KEY STATS

The win was the Wanderers first against Melbourne Victory in their last five meetings dating back to the 2013-14 season.

It’s also the first time Victory have lost back-to-back matches in the A-League since Australia Day in 2014.

Bridge’s goal means he has now scored in each of his last four starts.
HIGHLIGHTS REEL

What a cracking 90 minutes it was at Wanderland.

The Hyundai A-League’s top two put on a show for the 17,000+ fans in a contest that lived up to the pre-game hype.

The match had a bit of everything. Sublime football, great atmosphere, missed chances, a couple of penalty shouts and some great skill.

No doubt these two are destined to meet again at some point during the finals.
COACH KILLER

Vukovic has been one of the form goal-keepers in the A-League for a number of seasons now but he came up with a shocking error for the Wanderers second goal.

Sure Castelen’s strike had plenty of venom behind it but the experienced gloveman should have done better than parry it into his own net.

Once that goal went in, it was always going to be a bridge to far for Victory to mount a fightback.

THE FINAL WORD

Another week, another win for the Wanderers. With each victory it’s starting to feel a lot like it was in the club’s debut season where they went all the way to the Premiers’ Plate. Tony Popovic’s side has now opened up a four-point gap at the top of the ladder ahead of a trip to Perth Glory next Saturday night.

That’s now two losses on the spin for Victory. While it’s nowhere near a crisis yet, it hasn’t be the same high standards we’ve come to expect from Kevin Muscat’s side over the last 18 months. They get a chance to rectify things on Wednesday night with their rescheduled clash, also away at Glory.

TEAMS:

Western Sydney Wanderers: Redmayne (gk), Neville, Alberto, Topor-Stanley (c), Jamieson, Andreu, Dimas, Nichols, Castelen (Mebrahtu 84’), Vidosic (Sotirio 72’, Bridge (Santalab 74’)

Melbourne Victory: Vukovic (gk), Geria (Howard 87’), Broxham (c), Delpierre, Georgievski, Mahazi (Gallifuoco 77’), Bozanic, Barbarouses, Finkler, Ben Khalfallah (Pain 67’), Berisha

Scorers: Bridge 54’, Castelen 79’

Red cards: Nil

Yellow cards: Nichols 20’, Ben Khalfallah 43’, Andreu 56’, Geria 66’, Barbarouses 70’, Santalab 85’, Mebrahtu 86’, Sotirio 88’

Conditions: 19C, Overcast

Attendance: 17,073 @ Pirtek Stadium

source:a-league.com.au

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s governing majority is looking fragile as crunch time approaches for a pension reform that will test his resolve to impose painful measures to satisfy Athens’ international creditors.

The coalition of Tsipras’ leftist SYRIZA party and the right-wing nationalist Independent Greeks has a majority of just three seats in parliament, and pro-European opposition parties that voted for Greece’s latest bailout are publicly refusing him any help on the toxic pension issue.

The overhaul, which must deliver savings worth 1 percent of gross domestic product or 1.8 billion euros next year, is the most sensitive of a raft of reforms demanded by the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund in return for up to 85 billion euros in aid in the country’s third bailout since 2010.

Trade unions have staged two 24-hour general strikes against further pension cuts and Tsipras has promised there will be no across-the-board reduction in benefits for retirees.

Tsipras says most of the savings will be achieved by ending early retirement under a law enacted last month, leaving about 600 million euros more to be saved.

“Hell, there must be ways to find those 600 million euros. It’s not 6 billion, it’s 600 million,” he said in a television interview this week after critics said he would struggle to avoid a new round of unpopular pension cuts.

Instead the government is proposing to increase social security contributions, mostly by employers – a move the lenders warn would deter job creation and set back economic recovery, setting the stage for tough negotiations next month.

Wars of words

As the deadline approaches, Tsipras launched an attack on the IMF this week, saying it was making unconstructive demands on both sides and should make up its mind whether it wanted to stay in the Greek program.

That in turn triggered another war of words with Germany, the biggest European creditor, which insists the global lender must stay in the program to enforce tough discipline and to reassure German lawmakers.

Sources in SYRIZA say some deputies are unhappy at the prospect of a reform that will entail merging the country’s multiple underfunded pension funds and reducing state subsidies to the system and is bound to lead to lower benefits for many.

No one knows how many, if any, of the grumblers may refuse to back the law.

Aides say Tsipras will negotiate hard with the lenders but ultimately will face down any opposition in his own party and push the pension reform through parliament so that Greece can start negotiations with the euro zone on debt relief in March.

Tsipras dismissed talk of a wider coalition in the state TV interview, saying his 153 seats in parliament were more solid than the 225-seat majority which had initially supported a 2011-12 interim government of technocrat Lucas Papademos, which crumbled within six months.

Political sources say the prime minister has put out feelers to a small opposition party, the Union of the Center, which has hinted its nine lawmakers might let the legislation pass.

Despite their tough public stance, other opposition parties could well abstain or absent themselves in sufficient numbers to ensure passage of the pension bill, the sources said.

“No one has an interest in having another election now,” said a senior political source, noting that the conservative New Democracy is in disarray ahead of a leadership election next week, and the center-left PASOK party is wary of taking any new responsibility for unpopular austerity measures.

The source said that while his “central scenario” was that Tsipras would ram the pension reform through, there was a risk that the prime minister would decide to play for time, delaying any reform until pressure mounted and the threat of another destabilizing Greek crisis began to affect financial markets.

A source on the lenders’ side said creditors could also play things long to increase reform leverage over Greece and push back debt relief talks until after sensitive regional elections in Germany and a general election in Slovakia in March.

While Tsipras remains Greece’s dominant politician, with no challenger in sight, Athens is awash with rumors of an “ecumenical government” combining technocrats with consensual politicians if he loses his majority.

source:ekathimerini.com

Police, protesters and media converged on the Sydney suburb of Cronulla on the 10th anniversary of violent race riots as a group of self-described patriots held a “halal-free” barbecue.
More than 100 officers took to the streets on Saturday, many on horseback, after the NSW Supreme Court and the Federal Court in Sydney both made rulings to prevent a rally commemorating the riots being held.

Instead of a rally, anti-Islam protesters held a barbecue on Saturday.

Counter-protesters were also in the area, although the heavy police presence kept the opposing groups separated for the most part.

Two people were arrested from groups of anti-racism protesters, with some people holding banners including “Anti Fascist Action Sydney” and “Cronulla Welcomes Muslims”.

Later, police funnelled the bulk of the counter-protesters onto city-bound trains, with riot police accompanying them onto the carriages.

The procedure was completed without major incident, barring some verbal scuffles.

Barbecue held in place of ‘memorial rally’

Party for Freedom chairman Nicholas Folkes was ordered not to hold a “memorial” rally on the grounds that it would stir up racial hatred.

He branded the decisions “sharia” law before pledging to hold the “halal-free” barbecue.

Today, about 50 supporters of a self-described patriots organisation gathered near the suburb’s sand dunes for the meal, which included a pig on a spit-roast.

Speaking at the barbecue, Mr Folkes criticised the court’s decision.

“When you do speak up today, and you’re a patriot and you love your country, the political establishment and those useful idiots on the left think there’s something wrong,” he said.

“It’s not just people here, there’s millions of Australians that feel the same.”

Earlier in the day, Folkes appeared on commercial television to show his car tyres, which he said had been slashed the night before.

On December 11 2005, racial tensions in the area exploded when Middle Easterners and other people of non-Anglo appearance were set upon by crowds of white Australians, many of whom had been drinking heavily.

The weekend of violence followed weeks of simmering racial tensions in the beachside suburb between locals and visiting groups of youths.

The bloody weekend shocked Australians of all backgrounds, leading to years of soul-searching and community programs aimed at mending bridges between Sydney’s communities.

source:abc.net.au

The Federal Government looks likely to reject a United States request to send more military assets to the Middle East.

US secretary of defence Ash Carter made the request earlier this week to all countries involved in the coalition battling Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria and Iraq.

“Along with, as I understand it, 40 other or so nations we have received correspondence from the US secretary of defence which we’re considering at the moment,” Defence Minister Marisa Payne said.

“We of course are making a very significant commitment in the Iraq and Syria conflict at the moment, one which we are pleased to see other nations joining in more recently as well.

“We know that the British government, for example, has recently increased their engagement.

“The United States, in pursuing that with a number of the coalition partners, is exploring other opportunities.”

The request, at this stage, does not extend to putting Australian troops on the ground.

“We’ve been asked to, along with as I said 39 other nations, to look at what we’re already contributing and what more we might do,” Senator Payne said.

“Where we can play very important roles is perhaps in command positions, and we’re responding to the United States in relation to that as well.”

She highlighted Australia was already making the second largest contribution to the coalition campaign, suggesting Australia may be more likely to wait for other nations to intervene before expanding its own efforts in the region.

“We will respond to the United States in due course,” Senator Payne said.

“But if you bear in mind what we’re already doing in our air operations and our building partner capacity work … these are significant undertakings, and Australia is already making a very significant commitment.”

Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) jets were deployed to the region to carry out airstrikes against terrorists in Iraq in October 2014.

In September this year, then-prime minister Tony Abbott announced an expansion of that campaign to Syria.

Earlier this month, the UK Parliament voted in favour of its air force joining military operations in the region.

Syria has been embroiled in a vicious civil war since a popular uprising against dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2011.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and an estimated 4 million have been forced from their homes amid fighting between Mr Assad’s forces, IS and other Islamist militants, and other rebel groups.

Australian troops are also involved in training Iraqi forces who are fighting Islamic State in that country.

source:abc.net.au