Asian Champion's League

[hearts on fire]

They were never going to win, but in saying that they have done very well in getting this far.

I think they were lucky to make it this far, but have gone down to a better team and there is nothing wrong with that.

[Wedgie]

Crikey, 3 + 2 = 5.
I bet a few Adelaide fans will be having nightmares about seeing that figure against them in a big final.

[dinglinga]

u watchin the final with all ur adelaide city chock friends....cos they will NEVER get as far as UNITED did in asia

[zipzap]

Crikey, 3 + 2 = 5.
I bet a few Adelaide fans will be having nightmares about seeing that figure against them in a big final.

Isn't it 2 pts for an away goal? ie 3 + 4 = 7

[dinglinga]

Crikey, 3 + 2 = 5.
I bet a few Adelaide fans will be having nightmares about seeing that figure against them in a big final.

Isn't it 2 pts for an away goal? ie 3 + 4 = 7

obvouisly ur another uneducated person jumping on the soccer bandwagon
its only double goals in a drawn situation after two leg

if u want to poke fun go have a look at ur club in the late 90' s u guys would take any point u could get pfft

[zipzap]

I'm not poking fun, just stupid.

[hearts on fire]

jeeze these soccer blokes get pretty defensive quickly, all the bloke asked was if the away goals were double.

[Mic]

Ouch, bad result. United`s roll is certainly over.

[zipzap]

jeeze these soccer blokes get pretty defensive quickly, all the bloke asked was if the away goals were double.

For some reason I thought it was...brain fade. Oh well, bad luck Reds...save it for the Club WC instead

[hearts on fire]

yep bad luck Reds, they will have plenty of more opportunities in the future to win it.

[smithy]

Lets be honest, this proves 1 of 2 things, and make no mistake sensational effort by the reds to get to the final but,

the A-league is no where near as good as what people think or say it is as gamba osaka are 7th in the J-league

That'd be more closer to the truth.

[rod_rooster]

The facts are that the A-League clubs cannot possibly compete financially with most of the other competitions that compete in the AFC. To make it to the final is a remarkable achievement by Adelaide United. Absolutely unbeleivable considering the odds stacked against them. I'm not a big fan of (dare i say soccer in here) but you have to appreciate what they have done.

[Dutchy]

pretty shattered, but at least it was a quick death....

super atmoshpere at the ground tonight despite the result

chin up all, it was a sensational effort to get this far, no other Aussie team will get this far for the next decade IMO

we were definately flat playing 10 games in 50 days + travel, no matter what you do you cant deny that had an effect, Gamba played their semi in Japan while we had 30 hour journeys

nice to catch up with SJABC again, hopefully 2009 is better for GF's for us!!!!

[Dirko]

The facts are that the A-League clubs cannot possibly compete financially with most of the other competitions that compete in the AFC. To make it to the final is a remarkable achievement by Adelaide United. Absolutely unbeleivable considering the odds stacked against them. I'm not a big fan of (dare i say soccer in here) but you have to appreciate what they have done.

Spot on there RR.

pretty shattered, but at least it was a quick death....

super atmoshpere at the ground tonight despite the result

chin up all, it was a sensational effort to get this far, no other Aussie team will get this far for the next decade IMO

we were definately flat playing 10 games in 50 days + travel, no matter what you do you cant deny that had an effect, Gamba played their semi in Japan while we had 30 hour journeys

nice to catch up with SJABC again, hopefully 2009 is better for GF's for us!!!!

Yep, after that first goal felt like the wind had been knocked out well and truly. The Japanese league is so much better the A-League it's not funny. Will be near impossible for a A-League team to compete against cashed up leagues.

Yeah thanks for popping up and saying hello Dutchy. It was a great atmosphere, even after the first goal, the crowd still had a buzz....

Ohh well onto 2009

[redden whites]

u watchin the final with all ur adelaide city chock friends....cos they will NEVER get as far as UNITED did in asia

Well at least they have a few trophies on the wall to show off It was stagefright in a big way tonight as well as a massive gulf in skill between the sides .

[Dirko]

It was stagefright in a big way tonight as well as a massive gulf in skill between the sides .

Don't think it was stagefright. Having a 17 yo keeper didn't help. Galekovich probably would've saved those two goals.

Justa huge difference between the J-League & A-League. As I said to my mate tonight, it'd be like plucking a kid from the U17's and telling him to run with Ablett all day....Sure he'd do a good thing or two, but at then end he'd be smashed...

EDIT: Just say, fantastic effort by Cassio tonight. He plays for the shirt, and his efforts were just spot on. Think he took some angry pills also.
That campaign will set up United for a real title shot this season IMO. Get back Contanzo, Alemao, Galekovich, Agostino, Salley. Bit of talent there....

[the big bang]

good on them for getting this far!

as only a part time socer fan, it has certainly made me sit up and take more notice of the club and the sport in general.

congrats united.

[Dirko]

as only a part time soccer fan, it has certainly made me sit up and take more notice of the club and the sport in general.

That's the added bonus. People take notice, KIDS take notice, and if Kids take notice and get an interest then the game blossoms.....

[croc11]

Ok - just a few comments.

We are allowed to be shattered as fans because in 3 grand finals (albeit this one over 2 legs) we have conceded 6,3 and 2 = 11 and scored 0.

Harsh, but fact.

Yes the Japanese sides have budgets which blow us away, but we decided to go to Asia and compete and whilst honourable losses are sometimes accepted, we again have been blown away. We haven't even scored which makes matters worse.

I am not calling out for heads to roll - we just need to accept the facts, that when it comes to the biggest games of all (not the semis) we have blown up big time - time for the critical review to start by the coaching staff - Viddie has done a huge job - he now needs to analyse properly.

17000 people - huge crowd - 17000 very disappointed supporters.

[David Votoupal]

I'll say Adelaide United did very well to get to the final and did Australia proud. While there is still a gap in quality between leagues, results in the past two years of ACL shows that not a lot separated the Australian, Japanese and Korean sides, with the quality of entrants fluctuating year to year in a competition like this one. Considering our league is restricted by small squads and salary cap- which have come under fire from quite a few supporters of the game- our clubs have made a very good fist of things.

However, Gamba Osaka are the kind of side whose attacking game can wipe the floor with most teams in this region- and they're not even in the top 3 of the J-League this year- and showed their ability to step up a gear or two in the one that really counted. They could have done it to any other side in this region.

A lot has been made about Japanese clubs throwing money at foreign recruits, especially by media here, but this tends to be ignorant of the fact the Japanese game has a wealth of home-grown talent (most of whom prefer to remain in their local comp anyway) brought up through the ranks.