Asian League Discussion

Apparently the Dunga to coach Al rayyan move is not yet finalized.

David Trezeguet is cashing in by signing with Baniyas the runnerup in the UAE last season.

Canada's wing midfielder Issey Nakajima Ferran will play for Brisbane Roar in Australia replacing club captain and Australian international Matt McKay who moved to Glasgow Rangers.

Asamoah Gyan the Ghana forward from Sunderland who fell out with his manager Steve Bruce is being loaned for one year to Al Ain in the UAE.

The Japanese league is down to a 3 team race in it's final 3 weeks of play. On Saturday defending champions Nagoya Grampus won 2-1 against Yokohama Marinos to move even at the top with Kashiwa Reysol who play tomorrow. Gamba Osaka dropped to 3rd, one point behind the leaders after they drew 2-2 with Albirex Nigata.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-japanroundup

An interesting finish to the season, with an added bonus of the winner gets to represent host nation Japan in the World Club Cup next month.

The three team title race remained in Japan until the final matchd ay. All 3 title contenders won but it was Kashiwa Reysol winning the title by 1 point over defending champions Nagoya Grampus with Gamba Osaka 3rd, just 2 points behind.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-japanroundup

The amazing feature of Kashiwa's achievement is they won the league title in their first year after earning promotion from the 2nd division!

Looks like Nicholas Anelka is headed to China, Anelka to sign with Shanghai Shenhua, a club who finished 11th in the Chinese league. But look at what Anelka will be paid there, "a weekly salary of £200,000 ($313,000)"

Shanghai Shenhua are also about to sign Jean Tigana to become their coach. Doesn't look like they will stop there either. The real estate boom in China apparently is what is fueling this buying spree. Guanghzou Evergreen easily won the league title this season in China with their imports Dario Conca and Brazilian forward Muriqui leading the way. Conca, an Argentine playmaker, was the player of the year in Brazil in 2010 and unlike Anelka who may be nearing the end of his career, Conca is still in his prime.

An article from The Economist on why football has not succeeded in China.

The reason chiefly cited- corruption. but the real estate boom autogol discussed has led to more real estate developers and companies investing in the sport and that conversely leads some to think that will diminish corruption (better salaries=less incentives to fix matches)

Eamon Zayed in Tehran

I remember Eamon Zayed, the Irish forward. He came in off the bench and in 5 minutes scored a hat trick for his new club in Iran, Persepolis as they won the big Iranian derby over Esteghlal. 90,000 fans in the stadium and 20 million plus TV viewers! Quite a way to endear himself to his new club.

Interesting how the Iranian league seems to be opening itself up to foreign players now. Perhaps Zayed's presence will increase English language coverage of Iran's league?

Here is a story on the mess going on in Indonesia,The top league in Indonesia was called the Indonesian Super League, it was apparently not run by the Indonesian FA but like in many countries by a separate body. The Indonesian FA then decided to set up an Indonesian Premier League as the country's top league and of course as the sanctioning body, sanctioned that as the country's top division. Not all clubs, however, joined the new Premier League, Super League champions Persipura among them. Persipura took the AFC, the Asian Confederation to the Court of Arbitration of Sport for denying them entrance into the Asian Champions League and CAS has provisionally allowed Persipura to enter the tournament's preliminary rounds until it makes a final decision.

So this week Persipura has to play a home and away set of matches against Australia's Adelaide United. What a mess and a great inconvenience for Adelaide United who only received scouting tapes of their future opponent a few days before their first match.

Yogi, looks like it was just a one off game played in Adelaide, with Adelaide beating Persipura 3-0 to advance to the Asian Champions League group stage.

The Australian A league season is nearing it's end and the time for playoffs to start, New Zealand based club Wellington Phoenix who play in Australia's League, are clsoe to securing a playoff berth. Central Coast and Brisbane are the two clubs ahead of Wellington and they too are all but assured playoff positions.

But here is a question for everyone, what if Wellington finishes in the top three in Australia where the top three are guaranteed a spot in the Asian Champions League. Wellington are based in New Zealand, a member of Oceania's confederation but they play in Australia's league, a member of the Asian Confederation. Would Wellington then be eligible to play the Asian Champions league? I assume they would since they are approved to play in Australia's league.

Wellington are a member of Australia's A league and if they qualify for the Asian Champions League then yes they would be allowed to compete. A strange situation for sure, even in North America we don't get anything quite like that even with US and Canadian teams competing in the same league and Mexican clubs competing in both the CONCACAF and CONMEBOL club championships.

Back to Australia's A League, the final weekend is upon us and here is a rundown on what is at stake,

The opening weekend of the Australian League playoffs.

Wellington Phoenix beat Sydney 3-2 and will face the Perth Glory-Melbourne Heat winner.

Meanwhile the league's top two teams Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariners meet in a two legged semifinal. The winner advances to the league final, the loser plays off against whichever club emerges victorious from one of Wellington, Perth or Melbourne.

And we thought MLS' playoff system was strange!

Brisbane defeated Central Coast and advanced to the Aussie final while Central Coast met Perth, who emerged victorious from the series of matches vs Wellington and Melbourne. Today, [url=http://sports.yahoo.com/news/perth-meet-brisbane-league-final-111049854--soccer.html]Perth defeated Central Coast in a penalty shootout to advance to the Final vs Brisbane. Central Coast apparently are cursed in penalties, not only did they miss a potential game winner today in the 2nd half but they not only lost the penalty shootout in this match but also in last year's final versus Brisbane.

Raul signs a 1 year contract with Qatar's Al Sadd.