Your all-time A-League best XI

Tell us your best ever A-League team.

   

Rules:

Player must have been contracted for at least one season (e.g. David Villa not allowed).

No more than five imports.

Player is assumed to be in their best form that they were in the A-League 

              (e.g. if you pick Del Piero, it's Sydney-era; not Juventus-era).

Use whatever realistic formation you want.

    

If you can't remember names, try here

       

My best ever team:

                                        Matthew Ryan

Ivan Franjic   Sigmund    Patrick Zwaanswijk         Josh Rose

                                        Mark Milligan 

                                 Felipe       Aaron Mooy 

Ifill                                                                             Rojas

                                          Smeltz

    

Bench: Kosta, Bonevacia, Bruno Fornaroli, Ljubo Milicevic, Eugene Galekovic

           

Alternative: Name your worst-ever A-League team.

a team of vinni lia's

No Broich?

I'll give it a crack:

                         Berisha

         Carusca    Broich   Barbarouses

                 MIlligan     Mooy

Cassio  Ognenovski   K.Muscat   Franjic

                         Galekovic

Subs: Archie, Fornarolli, Valeri, DJ Brox (for flexibility), Theo(klitos)

I am assuming Cassio as International player (as he was at his peak, rather than the shadow of brilliance when he became an AU citizen)

I am assuming Kosta is a home-grown player and not international player.

                     Izzo

Appiah Appiah Appiah Appiah

Appiah Appiah Appiah Appiah

              Totori Appiah

Bench: Hall, Appiah, Appiah, Appiah, Totori.

My Nut-Job XI: Players likely to start a fight, put in a shocking tackle, assault a referee, get red carded or suspended at the drop of a hat.

                       J.Griffiths     B.Berisha

 D.Carney         J.Burns    R.Aloisi         T.Dodd

 M.Muscat     L.Milicevic    K.Muscat      B.Sigmund

                                 A.Covic

Subs: R.O'Donovan, R.ZadkovichC.Miller, D.Tiatto, N.Boogaard; D.Vukovic

You forgot the guy who played for the nix for a season, someone Johnson? Can't remember the name but he was a bit nuts

Richard. Probably a better shout than Aloisi.

Sure, Richard Johnson got a few yellows but Ross Aloisi fudgeed up for Adelaide in the Final against Victory (saw red in the first half) and had the ignominy of last home game for the Nix getting a red as well. 

Still remember his slow walk off the pitch at the Caketin. Sydney were 2-0 up and he just lunged into a tackle (Brosque I think). No need. Now that was nuts!

Needs more Pavlovic

Needs more Dwight Yorke.

So people think that Pavlovic and Dwight Yorke are more nut-bars than Berisha, Nutpuncher and O'Donovan?

I'll grant you that Pav's 3 yellows and 1 red in 808 minutes for us is 'impressive' though.

Pav could play on the wing ahead of Dodd. Way more of a nutcase IMO

Surely if the criteria is getting a red card at the drop of the hat then you'd need Ruben Zadkovich on your bench. 

Quite the 17 seconds impact player!

According to the A-League the bestest XI ever is:

            Cahill - Cahill

Cahill - Cahill - Cahill - Cahill

Cahill - Cahill - Cahill - Cahill

                  Cahill

Gary?

The FFA were live streaming Cahill's first training session with City - not far from the truth.

Actually that's a great shout. Charlie Miller out, Vanilla chocolate magic in. 

Gao could play too! he was awesome.

None of you had Ifill in a best 11 ? Some having Kosta in that position. Hang your heads in shame.

Bevan did in the first post.

 "The Top 100 All-Time Greatest A-League Players" Four Four Two Australia magazine August 2017

(The list includes foreign imports such as Del Piero and Yorke)

The magazine has a good bio of each player with a photo.

Phoenix players past and present featuring:

4. Shane Smeltz

6. Carlos Hernandez

9. Marco Rojas

16. Joel Griffiths

20. Danny Vukovic

30. Paul Ifill

39. Fred

44. Nathan Burns

48. Jade North

56. Andrew Durante

62. Michael McGlinchey

67. Gui Finkler

70. Kosta Barbarouses

So, thirteen Phoenix players - 13% of the Top 100

Michael Theo is ranked #11 and first played in the Aussie top flight for our own Football Kingz in 2001-2002

Moss and Brockie are ranked as two of the five "Top A-League Nomad Stars" as having the most clubs.

Ernie Merrick is ranked as one of the top five A-League coaches of all time.

The top three players in the list are Broich, Berisha, Archie Thompson (Smeltz is fourth)

There are three Phoenix players in the top ten. Three of the top ten are New Zealand born or NZ citizens (Archie, Smetlz, Rojas).

Ranking Paul Ifill at only 30th is plainly ridiculous. I'd have Paul as about ninth, ahead of Rojas, who they have as ninth. 

The Aussie Four Four Two is worth reading (they also have an excellent website) with lots of A-League coverage, as well as UK and European coverage. The big feature stories such as the Top 100 Players are not on the website but it has up-to-date news. It works out at about $NZ 8 per issue including post ($A 89.95 for 12 issues) if you subscribe by Wednesday this week at https://www.mymagazines.com.au/

Cameron Knowles, the Kiwi assistant coach of Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer features in an impressively researched article in the Aussie Four Four Two magazine in June this year about Aussies and Kiwis coaching overseas. They even bothered to interview him. It also features another Kiwi coach, Oli Harder, in charge of Klepp IL in Norway's top women's league. He signed Football Fern Kirsty Yallop from a Swedish club recently. And Ryan Sandford from Wellington, now working with ex-NZ Football Technical Director Paul Smalley as goalkeeping coach for the Bangladesh FA.

                   L. Reddy

I. Franjic A. Durante P.Zwaanswijk 

            E. Muscat   T. Broich 

  Carrusca     Del Piero        Ifill

         Smeltz  Thompson

Bench:

T. Sorensen, A. Leijer, M. McKay, Henrique,  S. Corica, B. Berisha, 

That's actually a pretty good team.

Why, thank you :)

I must say I think I show my age there a bit, since I haven't missed an A-League game from S1 to about S7 but then struggled to watch many games other than the Nix

You have Franjic in a back three and Manny playing RWB with Broich LWB?

Dunno man, looks all out of whack at the back to me.

That's rather modern and sleek 3-2-3-1-1 actually :)

Agree that Franjic wouldn't be great in a back 3, and Broich wouldn't do that well as a holding mid.

Likewise, Carrusca is probably out of position a wee bit.

Then again, those dream XI teams are always a bit up in the air in terms of how the players would actually perform in reality..

Agree that it's crazy that Ifill is 30th, but not sure he should be ahead of Marco. Marco has been a superstar in this league, although unfortunately not with us.

It's also crazy that Kosta is 70th, he's won A-league titles with two different teams and played a pretty critical part for both team getting to those titles. And McGlinchey is 62nd!!! Ridiculous.

Also interesting that of the 13 players who made it in the top 100, only 2 (maybe Smeltzy at a push too) would actually be automatically associated with the Phoenix. The rest are all there through success with other clubs.

Sadly, I still have not missed an A League game here in NZ, I saw a Psychologist about it and was informed that I must be paying penance for an ill deed I have done in a previous life!

Would Nathan Burns even been on that list if it was not for his excellent season with us? He hadn't won any individual HAL awards or been in teams of the season before he joined us.

Good point. In fact, when you look at his overall track record in the A-league, it's hard to fathom how he could be ahead of Kosta for example.

Smeltzy won the golden boot and Johnny Warren Medal with us, not really a push is it?

Did you play rugby LG?!

Only 1 season when I was 27 - did it for a change of pace. That was 30 years ago! 

You must have just about paid off that penance then!