Riera and Manny in All Stars Squad

Riera selected in All Stars Squad

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/wellingtonphoe...

From report 

" This time last year Albert Riera was playing for Auckland City in the ASB Championship. Early next month he will be playing for the Foxtel A-League All Stars against Italian giants Juventus.

The latest honour for the Spanish former paramedic comes hard on the heels of him being named the Wellington Phoenix Player of the Year.

“It is hard to believe,” Riera said on being told he would be playing against his hero Andrea Pirlo.

“Pirlo has always been one of my idols. I think I will follow him everywhere and try and get his shirt!

“This honour has come totally out of the blue. I was surprised to get the Phoenix Player of the Year award after missing a lot of the season through injury . . . now this!”

Riera was a standout player for the Phoenix in the early and middle parts of the Hyundai A-League season before a serious groin injury, which required an operation, side lined him for the last three months.

The talented midfielder has been working hard to get back to full fitness during pre-season training and is feeling good.

“It has been tough but I feel I am now getting somewhere and am feeling better every day,” he said.

“I’m almost there and it is just a matter of getting my confidence back.

“Playing against West Ham United and Newcastle United is going to be exciting and after that is now Juventus.

“It is a great pre-season programme and should prepare us for a good A-League season.”

Wow.Good on him

Brilliant. IS the game gonna be PPV? Riera looked good the other night against Upper Hutt.

Well done Riera. Gotta say I am slightly surprised to see a Nix player in the team. Assuming Gombau gets some say in who's in the team?

Nice.

Do they have a thing where one player from each team must be an all star?

I read earlier that fans vote in 16 of the 20 man squad, Gumby gets to choose 4, possibly also nominees who knows.

don't you bloody Ozzies hurt him!

Gombau loves his Spaniards, might sneak in for a start.

I think it's great. He is a really good player. Riera seems to be grateful of his opportunity, hopefully this means long term phoenix loyalty and hard work.

Great recognition of his season then.

Newcastle Jets goal keeper Mark Birighitti, Perth Glory midfielder Youssouf Hersi, Central Coast midfielder Nick Montgomery and Wellington Phoenix Manny Muscat are the final players to be added to the 2014 FOXTEL A-League All Stars squad for the upcoming match against Serie A champions Juventus at ANZ Stadium on Sunday 10 August 2014.

Surprising.

Nice.

dafuq

Stoked for Manny, he is a boss and deserves some sort of recognition for it.

That said, not sure what it says about the 'all stars' team. To me 'all stars' has connotations of glamour and showmanship (i.e. the brights lights entertainment product that anything with All Stars attached to it comes with in the US). Doesn't exactly fit with the workhorse that is Manny Muscat. He doesn't exactly add to the all stars 'brand'. For a regular football team that is irrelevant, but for an all stars team I'm not sure that's the case.

However, like I said, stoked for him on a personal level. Good stuff Manny.

I would assume Manny is for the bench given the number of positions he can cover. They already have roux and I forgot who the left back is but I believe they have one.

I agree, the league doesn't really have that many 'stars'. Even when ADP and Heskey were named in the last squad, they were eventually unavailable. Maybe they couldve come up with a better name, like A-League XI or something... i dunno.

Josh rose is left back. Here's the full team list:

Player

Club

Alessandro Del Piero

uncontracted

Marcelo Carrusca

Adelaide United

Eugene Galekovic

Adelaide United

Thomas Broich

Brisbane Roar

Matt Smith

Brisbane Roar

Nick Montgomery

Central Coast Mariners

Josh Rose

Central Coast Mariners

Storm Roux

Central Coast Mariners

David Williams

Melbourne City

Besart Berisha

Melbourne Victory

Gui Finkler

Melbourne Victory

Mark Birighitti

Newcastle Jets

Youssouf Hersi

Perth Glory

Ali Abbas

Sydney FC

Bernie Ibini

Sydney FC

Sasa Ognenovski

Sydney FC

Manny Muscat

Wellington Phoenix

Albert Riera

Wellington Phoenix

Tomi Juric

Western Sydney Wanderers

Matthew Spiranovic

Western Sydney Wanderers

Ali Abbas? Ibini? Dubious.

Muscat is a Malta rep - trying to sell a few more tickets?

Riera is a f*cking star.

Anyone else less than interested with this? So hard to get excited about this game, especially after the last one. Id watch another club play Juventus, not All Stars though.

I won't be able to help myself. I'd watch Cap10 if it was the only football on.

Not sure if to congratulate you on your dedication or wonder if you are punishing yourself, like I did last weekend watching Upper Hutt lose 7-3 to Waiarapa.

I'll watch it, I'm just not following it or taking it seriously.

I'll watch it if I'm not doing anything else. Juve have a lovely squad, and Reira, Manny and Roux will be there.