My Lamborghini Tiatto

It is an older, affordable model, but it is a Tiatto.

All parts are in working order, although some appear prone to falling out (arm from shoulder socket). Having said that, unlike the Brazilian Juninho and earlier Italian Carbone models, this model self-repairs and can be back up to top performance in minutes.

In fact, so far, despite not being in a leading team, Tiatto is the A-League's leading marquee or marque.

The height he can reach for headers (called by my son's team - head-butts) is amazing. He 0-60 short running game beats younger strikers and team-mate defenders alike. He does tyre (sic) if you ask him to do this too often. And he has been known to swear at under-performing team-mates and to highlight their goal-scoring deficiencies.

Tiatto is a class player, so far the best in the A-League. I had my camera on Thursday night but when is arm popped out I was so absorbed watching him in the torturous manoeuvre to put it back I forgot to photograph him.

Roar 0 - Central Coast 1

Nearly 9,000 people went out on a wet Thursday night to watch the Roar hold around 70% of possession and take 24 shots to Central Coast's 8.

The Roar management are working hard behind the scenes. Brining in professional refs to explain rule implementation subtleties and differences to Tiatto, Moore and others.

There is no mistake the Roar dominated this game. And with more concentration upfront and lesser opposition (say a full strength Roar against last week's Newcastle) and big wins will come.

So off we go to Perth. Another big test. But one the Roar can and should win. And then a a most win game at home against Sydney.

Agree it isn't a conspiracy... however, coaches are saying similar, if toned down, things...

I agree it isn't a conspiracy. However, there are unintented consequences of the FFA's actions that they should have thought about.

For me, if Tiatto's tackle deserves suspension then every tackle in that category must lead to suspension. It cost the Roar the game against Newcastle. McLaren had to make all the tackles and got two yellows for his trouble, and it led to Packer playing too much and re-injuring his leg - out again.

Frank Farina's article in the Courier Mail last Friday points to the need for the FFA to be consistent. I take it further and say they need to be transparent. People need to know the rules before they run on the pitch, in this competition one set of stolen points and you miss the finals.

Sydney FC's coach has also indicated that he thinks the FFA are not focusing enough on the A-League with his comments in today's Australian. However, his comments are that this week should be a bye because of international duty. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Roar doesn't have any current national squad members.

Plus I say whoever injured Juninho should be out for 3 weeks (Juninho is out for at least 6 weeks).

FFA 'fouls' Queensland Roar to set tone

Central Coast 3 - Wellington 0
Sydney 2 - Adelaide 2
Melbourne 0- Perth 0
Newcastle 1 - Roar 1

The FFA's approach to matches is no longer transparent.

The FFA has lost some core talent, Matt Carroll and John O'Neil are the obvious ones with sports management experience.

Last year when there was a problem, the FFA's A-Team waited a few weeks and then made a discrete call to Melbourne Victory and asked them to stop diving in the box to win games. Victory complied and Archie joked about it.

This year's FFA team are keen to respond to the public humiliation in the Asian cup and, as a result, are trying to tone down the game. The No. 1 priority of the FFA appears to be, and perhaps should be, the national squad. They have to create a team used to dealing with the referring standards of Asia. This means softer play.

However, the A-League teams have recruited to cover their perceived weaknesses from version 1 and 2. However, the refereeing talent just can't be improved on such short turnaround. And buying in marquee refs (as suggested here before and directly to FFA) isn't going to be tried.

Clearly, for the first two seasons the Roar played great attacking football without enough success. It was probably football that would have been praised in Asia. However, in the real world of the A-League, hard head team's like Adelaide just pushed them off the ball and in the words of John Kosmina, 'ground them out.'

In response, Frank Farina has brought in Tiatto and Moore. These guys shouldn't get pushed off the ball. But both were lost after the first game. Tiatto's case in particular is a big problem, including ultimately, for the FFA. The Roar is battling to survive. It has the best stadium in the league and pulls bigger crowds than from the 5 million population of Sydney. Plus it is, now that Melbourne has filled its potential, the A-League growth market.

The FFA appears not to understand what it will take to tap this potential. I don't think changing the rules of international football and over-riding a ref is going to help. In fact it is going to hurt.

The first round Roar v Adelaide was poorly refereed. Clearly, the FFA agrees that its ref team did not see key parts of the game. So it intervened where it could to send a message - we are watching. Unfortunately, even the FFA can't push the FIFA defined envelope as far as righting the decision on the Roar's disallowed goal. But that is what the fans will remember.

In fact, the fans won't understand why Tiatto was cited (and another topic is 'why bother to call the player to put a defence case if there is no independent judge?' - I interpret some of John O'Neill's reported comments as an allusion to this problem).

The FFAs actions will discourage the fans. In particular, it will turn off the fans that take a crowd from 15,000 to 50,000. They will see the game as either unfair or full of dirty players. Let's remember that the FFA used both Tiatto and Moore to promote the launch of the season.

The other problem for the FFA was its treatment of two other fouls in round 1. Heffernan's deliberate elbow to Milligan's head and a Milligan tackle. Both Milligan and Heffernan were needed for Socceroo duty. So Heffernan's outrage is left as the ref had it - ignored, and Milligan's sentence is entirely suspended. And why wasn't Adelaide's Valkanis cited for his late two footer?

The struggling Newcastle, whom the FFA assisted in version 1, were saved by the sending off of the Roar's Maclaren. How will Roar fans react to that? It is unlikely that they will rush to fill Lang Park on Thursday mid week after that.

FFA need to show they were not scapegoating the Roar. It now needs to suspend Harnwell for a close of play wrestle with Muscat. And to suspend who-ever it was from Adelaide that put the crushing to threaten Juninho's season. I would like to see that.

It will be interested to watch the FFA now. Will they look increasingly like the old ASA?

To lose one captain may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

Danny Tiatto has been cited to appear in Sydney over a tackle early in Saturday night's game. This comes on top of the sending off of Craig Moore. And of Seo the week before. Further, there are reports (Fox commentators) that up to 7 Roar players where sent letters by the FFA after the 3 v 4 pre-season play-off against Central Coast warning them on their behaviour.

All this is a bad sign.

The Roar have paid a lot of money for Moore and Tiatto. People come to watch them. If the FFA is going to go further than what was considered a poor referring job in the fans eyes, how is the game going to grow up here?

Roar 2 - Adelaide 2

Well quite a few missed opportunities there lads.

Gota Love the way you can come back from goals down.

Pity about the red cards.

Still there is aways next week.

Rainy Opener: Sydney 0 Central Coast 1

Central Coast are going to be an even tougher team this year - without Brazilians (who take the place of Australians according to coach Lawrie McKinna). They have their traditional defensive blood and guts and, now, a devastating attack force in Sasho Petrovski and Nic Mrdja.

The plus for Sydney is that they will play better in the dry. Juninho, by his admission, was short of game time. Yet he still had flashes of brilliance. Unfortunately for Sydney, Popovic did not. Popovic's game was uneventful at best, at worst he was missing at key times. Alex Brosque got himself in the right place a few times but squibbed his opportunities (ah just like old times).

Central Coast did dominate in the first half. And Sasho got his revenge goal early.

But it was Peter Green's greeness that led to a refereeing blunder that let Central Coast off the hook. Heffernan clearly and with malice took Milligan out in the penalty box with a deliberate elbow to the head. Penalty! Send off! No. Free kick to Central Coast. Eh? Ref inexperience and mistakes could turn out to be a problem for the FFA. Particularly when trying to attract crowds to watch superstars like Juninho (who was repeatedly fouled in the first half).

Sydney dominated the second half but didn't look like scoring till the final 5 minutes. Then it seemed incredible that they didn't, particularly when jet-lagged under 23 star keeper Danny Vukovic decided to play up field and left his goal for the no hands men to defend (you probably had to see it to believe how Chancey that was).