A-Leaque Soccer News Australia

With the Mariners currently in sixth place and the Jets in the third place, this is an important match for both team.

The scoring started early in the match. In the 4th minute Andre Gumprecht scored the first one for the Mariners. On the 31st minute Damien Brown made it 2-0 and on the 71st minute John Hutchinson made it 3-0. Surely this is the end of the Jets... and enough for the Mariners... but no John Hutchinson makes it 4-0 at the 83rd minute.

A death-blow has been delivered to the Jets and a consolation goal in the end doesn't help much.

Great effort by the Mariners.

New Zealand teenager Jeremy Brockie scored a superb volley in the 86th minute to earn the Knights a surprise 2-2 draw against Sydney FC. This is the Knights' first point at home! The Knights fully deserved their point after seeing their third minute lead, which came courtesy of a Sean Devine header, overturned by a lucky Sydney goal from David Carney and a penalty converted by Dwight Yorke.

The tie gives Adelaide a chance to take a seven-point lead at the top of the ladder.

Melbourne Victory's hopes to make the final four were raised slightly when they tied Perth Glory 2-2.

Goal scorers for Melbourne included Archie Thompson tying the game 1-1 on the 25th minute and Daniel Allsop's goal on the 45th minute to take the lead. However Perth bounced back with Nick Ward's goal late in the game at the 68th minute.

Australia has been drawn in Group F to play Brazil, Croatia and Japan in the round-robin stage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany.

GROUP A
Germany
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador

GROUP B
England
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden

GROUP C
Argentina
Cote d'Ivoire
Serbia and Montenegro
Netherlands

GROUP D
Mexico
Iran
Angola
Portugal

GROUP E
Italy
Ghana
USA
Czech Republic

GROUP F
Brazil
Croatia
Australia
Japan

GROUP G
France
Switzerland
Korea Republic
Togo

GROUP H
Spain
Ukraine
Tunisia
Saudi Arabia

To win the A-League Championship Odds

Sydney FC 2.80
Adelaide United 3.75
Perth Glory 5.00
Newcastle United Jets 6.50
Central Coast Mariners 12.00
Melbourne Victory 12.00
Queensland Roar 29.00

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Australia will play one seeded team, one unseeded European team and either an Asian or central American side in its World Cup group.

Australia was put into the pool with Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Angola, Togo and Ecuador and Paraguay.

This means that those nations were the only ones Australia will definitely not meet at the World Cup.

In Australia's World Cup group will have one team from each of the following groupings:

'Brazil, Germany, England, Italy, Argentina, France, Spain or Mexico'.
'Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago or USA'.
'Croatia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland or Ukraine'.

The draw of the World Cup groups takes place in in Germany on Friday night local time.

Perth Glory had a disastrous start to the match against the Central Coast Mariners. In the opening 15 minutes the Mariners scored twice and had plenty of opportunity to score at least 2 more goals.

However Glory fought back and was very lucky to claim a point from the action-packed clash where there were no yellow or red cards.

Mariners' goals:
8' John Hutchinson
12' Stewart Petrie

Glory goals:
54' Nick Ward
65' Hiroyuki Ishida

Perth Glory remain in the top four with 22 points and the Mariners are only 2 points away at 20.

Melbourne Victory needs to win at least four of its last six matches to have any hope of getting into the A-League finals.

Victory suffered its fifth defeat in the past seven matches when it was stomped by Sydney FC Saturday night.

Melbourne Victory faces Perth Glory, Adelaide United, Queensland Roar, and Newcastle Jets - all very tough opponents, and in the final round Victory face the New Zealand Knights.

At current form Victory will be lucky to win two of the above matches.

Sportingbet are offering a staggering $4.15 chance for Melbourne to win Sydney FC. The Victory team have had some bad matches lately but they are not that bad! Besides they play well against Sydney smashing them 5-0 in November.

Sydney FC to win $1.77
Draw $3.40
Melbourne Victory to win $4.15

Tip: $50 on Melbourne to win.

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Adelaide United continues its fine form with a victory over Newcastle Jets Friday night. Adelaide extend their lead in the A-League ladder and have now 32 points.

It was Newcastle that scored first. Richard Johnson scored with a diving header at the far post from a Matt Thompson cross in the 60th minute.

Adelaide veteran Carl Veart and substitute Louis Brain netted one each in the 76th and 79th minutes to make it a 2-1.

Adelaide could have scored a third one (44th minute) from a penalty, which the Newcastle goalkeeper easily saved.

Adelaide end Newcastle's seven-match unbeaten run with an excellent 2-1 away win in wet and windy conditions.

Adelaide are in form and on target for the A-League Championship!