DID I miss much this weekend?

Apparently Tiatto was sent off and Melbourne beat Adelaide, so nothing that I couldn't create a mental image of whilst nursing my steadily improving ankle (the results for that multiple choice questionnaire last week were overwhelmingly swaying towards 'E' for some reason...damn you shadenfreude-lovers)

To be honest, I spent most of my weekend either talking about how woeful Channel 9's cricket commentary is, looking for highlights of England's resilient displace against the Windies * snicker * and getting a morphine injection of English Premier League to counter the occasional glance at Greek football (unbearably painful between the hours of 1 and 4 am) and Andrew Orsatti's ESPN 'commentary'.

Perhaps that's what the A-League final series is missing...a little bit of the tactical ingenuity of Bill Lawry and Orsatti to give it that extra kick - I must say, it is getting rather repetitive reading about how TWO (emphasis on two) legged ties are over after just 90 minutes of play.

What ever happened to the old-school virtue of optimism that seems to have skipped a generation of pundits?

At this point I'll segway conveniently back to Euro 2004 (a tournament that Greece won ...hooray!) when no-one but Graham Arnold wanted to believe that a Cinderella story was possible, as Robbie Slater became public enemy no.1 in Earlwood and associated Greek outposts.

Bill Lawry on the other hand, embodies the human spirit's need for drama and surprise.

His innate desire to screech "It's all happening!!!!!!" at any possible moment, whether it be because a seagull happened to stray onto the wicket during a drinks break or whether it be because A.B. De Villiers has simply played a back-foot defensive shot against Cameron White, would fit superbly within the football sphere.

There's no way a man like Bill would ever, EVER write off the Mariners - nor Adelaide, for that matter - and he would quite possibly form one of the greatest ever commentary pairings with Andy Harper...

Truth be told though, Melbourne's utterly dull, dismal and uninspiring style of football (says the Greece supporter) seems to go so readily unnoticed, as though the presence of cultured footballers of the ilk of Hernandez and Allsopp (at this point you should be in a state of maniacal laughter) suddenly make them good to watch.

And still the Mariners get branded a long-ball team, despite Lawrie McKinna's protestations.

Oh and a quick word on Sydney FC's new manager. I saw his Sparta Prague side feebly lose out to Panathinaikos for a place in the Champions League group stages this season. They played a pragmatic but unspectacular style of football over two legs.

Whether that's any indication of the style Lavicka prefers remains to be seen but the logical thought process would suggest that his East European school of football thought should be a marked improvement on the style churned out over the past four seasons at Moore Park.

Whether players of a lesser technical quality are able to adapt to such a style is a different question altogether...

My question of the week: Would Denzel Washington pull a crowd if he was Sydney FC manager?

I watched Training Day a couple of times last week and the thought of him standing on the sidelines with a leather jacket and oversized crucifix whilst responding to a John Aloisi goal by nodding and saying "He-he-heh...mah n****" couldn't be much worse than watching John Kosmina overdose on caffeine...