Palmeiras and other nuggets

I have my Palmeiras tickets for Saturday 12 July. Palmeiras are from São Paulo. Their team for the Lang Park match is may include Juninho. Yep the Sydney FC Juninho. In the past their team has included: Denilson, Marcos, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos and Cafu. It promises to be a very exciting game and well worth the $20 (father-son) general entry.

I haven't been to seen the Roar training sessions yet. Jugging by the results and comments it has been a slow start. I had hoped that we would get a massive new athlete to cover the loss of the Ogman. However, all the buying seems to have been on the attack and excitement side. New squad members to look out for include:

16 year old Thomas Oar. Sounds like, eventually, he could be capable of anything.

The big name signing is Brazilian Marcio Carioca who last season he played 13 times with Portuguese side FC Pacos de Ferreira and scored 6 times, Wikipedia says of him 'strength on the ball, accurate finishing and pace').

There has also been a lot of interest in 19 year Brazilain old Bruno Mezenga who has played for Brazil at under 15 and under 17. He is on loan from the highly regarded Flamengo where at 16 he was their youngest ever debut. However, he played 18 times for Flamengo without scoring and in 2008 he was loaned to regional Rio de Janeiro club Macae where he scored twice in 12 games. In 2007 he was loaned to another regional team Fortaleza where he also scored twice in 12 games. Perhaps like Reinaldo he will develop and eventually deliver for the Roar.

19 year old, under 20 national team and AIS rep, Isaka Cernak-Okanya is originally from Uganda. Cernak, an attacking mid-fielder has played alongside A-League young stars Tahj Minniecon, Sebastian Ryall, James Holland and Mitch Nichols.

Local striker Tim Smits gets his chance building on a pre-season opportunity 2 seasons ago when he was a short term cover for former Roar youngster Dario Vidosic.

Midfielder David Dodd (brother of former Roar and currently Wellington defender Karl).

Anyway, no new defenders which is a shame.