A-League side Wellington Phoenix to visit Indian Northeast

New Zealand-based Wellington Phoenix FC will be the first Australian A-League team to tour India when they participate in a pre-season cup in the Indian Northeast from August 24 to September 1. The team will be travelling from New Zealand to Weston, New South Wales in Australia to take on A-league rivals Newcastle Jets on August 18 before flying via New Delhi to the Northeast.

In the three team tournament Wellington Phoenix will face I-League sides Shillong Lajong FC and United Sikkim FC as other I-League sides turned down the offer to take part in the tournament, which has been named 'North East Lajong Super Series' and is being organised by JPR Events.

Wellington Phoenix will be led by the Kiwi 2010 FIFA World Cup and club coach Ricki Herbert, who has put together a squad of first team players and juniors. During the tour they will also interact and have coaching workshops with younger players from the region.


North East Lajong Super Series - Fixtures

August 24: United Sikkim FC - Wellington Phoenix (Guwahati, Assam)
August 26: Shillong Lajong FC - Wellington Phoenix (Imphal, Manipur)
August 30: Shillong Lajong FC - United Sikkim FC (Shillong, Meghalaya)
September 1: FINAL (Shillong, Meghalaya)


Wellington Phoenix squad

Goalkeepers
Glen Moss, Scott Basalaj

Defenders
Andrew Durante, Emmanuel 'Manny' Muscat, Benjamin Sigmund, Luke Rowe, Thomas Doyle, Alec Solomons

Midfielders
Leonadis Bertos, Jeremy Brockie, Cameron Lindsay, Tony Lochhead, Michael Boxall, Justin Gulley, Louis Fenton

Forwards
Paul Ifill, Alex Smith, Benjamin Totori, Thomas Biss, Tyler Boyd

Officials
Ricki Herbert (Head Coach), Jonathan Gould (Goalkeeping Coach), Chris Greenacre (Technique coach), Russel Gray (Team Manager), Wayne Roberts (Physio), David Dome (General Manager)

Brisbane Roar win A-League title amid controversy

The 2012 A-League Grand Final at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Sunday night was the seventh edition of the A-League Grand Final. Defending champions Brisbane Roar took on Perth Glory with the aim of being the first team to defend their A-League title. The Roars did in the end achieve their title defence but amid controversy.

The Brisbane Roars won the match in injury-time due to a penalty given for their Albanian striker Besart Berisha, who is seen to go down after firing an airhole with no contact from any Perth Glory defender. Berisha himself took the penalty to seal the victory.

Earlier in the game an Ivan Franjic own goal had given Perth Glory a surprise lead, but the Roar would hit back with a Besart Berisha header off a cross from German Thomas Broich before Berisha would win it for Brisbane late in injury-time with his second of the night.

Here the video on the controversial penalty which won Brisbane Roar the A-League title