Shane Smeltz (Ronaldinho FC)

What a pass for the first Sydney goal vs melbourne.....he still has a great touch

I hope we see him play for the All Whites again. Would be sad if he never does

I kinda sense that Hudson has moved on...

Who do we have apart from Wood as a striker? Brockie? Boyd?

Yup and when you listen to all the noise about young players, Smeltz is not one of those.

That'd be all those young players who lost to Thailand? I think Hudson will reach a point where he has to play (at least some of) his best players if he wants to keep his job, as if he keeps losing he won't.

I think your spot on Martin.  

I think Shane will be wearing the fern for a while yet.  Hudson hinted as much during the power-point presentation.  I think that there is a high chance of Shane being involved right up the Russia and even playing there if we qualify.

He's already said we need more experienced heads in there.

I'm not saying I would not pick him. I just think Hudson will not pick him.

I bet Smeltz scores against us on the weekend.

several times - he had a paddy about dropping to the bench a couple of games ago...he is on a rampage right about now....

Over Siggy's dead body

form is a weird thing. How many times would you have sworn Ifill was on his last legs hobbling around the park? Usually when that happened it was a sign he was about to carve the defence up and smash one into the top corner.

Trade mark Ifill wince.

Ahh the memories

hamezilla endorses this!

Seriously, Hudson has rocks in his head if he doesn't pick him based on his form at the moment. I don't care how old he is you need strikers you score goals. And Smeltz scores goals.

I would still trust Smeltz over Wood at the moment.

And I'm saying he's already talked about getting him back in..

Smeltz is just one goal away from drawing level with Archie for most A league goals:

Archie on 84

Shane on 83

hope this jinxs Archie for Sunday

Come on Archie.  You deserve to extend that lead.

(That should help).

Both kiwis!!! (...yes one deserted us).

Only one born in NZ

And that's the one who played for Australia.

Smeltz has a complicated family background  - born on a US military base in Germany to a US-born father and English-born mother who were NZ citizens I believe. Moved back to NZ to live when he was six months and moved on to Australia when he was six years old.

Smeltzy happy with his physical state, with his club environment etc. in this interview:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/sydney-fc/sydne...

Full game and gol against CCM.

how is he going in the all-time a-league goals race with Archie?

Archie has 89, Shane 86. Berisha is third with 64

So whats the shopping like in Kedah, Malaysia?

[quote=RR]

So whats the shopping like in Kedah, Malaysia?

[/quote

It is only a 100 ks from Penang, which has excellent shopping.  :)

Shane Smeltz scores first Kedah goals in Malaysia Cup victory vs. T-Team https://t.co/Xx0IsRvg69

— Jason Pine (@pineyzb) July 20, 2016

Here's video of his goals:

https://www.facebook.com/kedahfa.my/videos/1221759...

He's gonna score a bucketload if that's the standard of defending he's playing against.

didn't PNG beat Malaysia recently? Is this league even as good as the ASB?? 

from an AWs perspective this means curtains for Shane- surely.. 

I don't know about the quality, but the crowd sizes are decent as is the TV coverage over there of the league. 

I imagine he will be doing quite well out of his deal and enjoying the cost of living.

I worked with a Malaysian Chines guy about 5 years ago. He said the standard of the local league was pretty bad.

It's a pro league though, doesn't Singapore have teams in it as well?

AFC rank it bellow the national leagues of Hong Kong, Vietnam and Bahrain, but above India and Oman. Looks like a league on the up. 18th in Asia (a league is 8th). But still way lower  quality. Their clubs will likely have to come through two rounds of qualifying for the champions league. 

about 20 years ago they did, but then they had a dispute with the Malaysian FA so they set up their own S-League (also fully professional)

Only goal of the night between Kedah & T-Team by Shane Smeltz.

What an assist & what a goal.#KEDvTT #MSL2016

— Padang Bola Sepak (@padangbolasepak) July 23, 2016