a-league - Most popular for 2007
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Landon Donovan has suggested he might end his playing days in Australia's A-League.
"My wife and I have talked about that (coming to play in Australia). Not now but maybe one day. I
have got a couple more years at the Galaxy ... it might be a while (but) I love it here," he
said.
He called the 80,000 strong crowd that watch the Galaxy take on Sydney FC 'awesome' and though they
played a great game.
I picked a bad time to be away, didn't I? Events in the past week have been strangely reminiscent
of the 04-05 season: great play, great sense of team spirit, tons of injuries. Perhaps it's a good
omen, as Barca won the title that time, but I hope the squad remember that they did it by sticking
together and working hard through the bad patches.
Here's an amazing statistic: it's been 10 months since we last won 4 in a row.
While the relocation of a club franchise hundreds of miles from one city to another is virtually
unheard of in English football, such rebranding exercises are commonplace in Australia.
All the football codes do it, sometimes even blending two established teams into one and moving the
entire operation to a new home.
The NSL, Australia's now-defunct national soccer league, was no stranger to clubs coming and going
throughout its turbulent 28-year history, and now the same is happening again to its successor the
A-League.
They are inimitable nicknamers, are loved the world over for their seemingly peerless brand of
individual brilliance and have, finally, arrived en masse down under.
It's taken two seasons for the fledgling league to finally wake up to the unique combination of
attributes Brazilian footballers of almost any standard can deliver to a new competition.
Here is another article from gust columnist Martin Cassidy that looked back on an eventful
round of matches from a couple of weeks ago in the A-League. For the many international readers of
this blog, the A-League is a two-and-a-bit year old football competition that is trying to
establish itself in Australia.
Before Fred was exciting play at RFK, he was part of Australia's Melbourne Victory. But despite
assisting in many goals, including four of the five in the final, his former coach Ernie Merrick
doesn't understand why fans and players see him as a legend.
"The Victory coach said it was 'ludicrous that he has become a legend' after being reminded that
veteran Socceroo defender Tony Vidmar, now of the Central Coast Mariners, had said after Sunday's
scoreless draw that without Fred there was no Victory.
The past week has bought victories for Australia's senior side as well as its under-23s who booked
a berth at next year's Beijing Olympics on Wednesday with a hard-fought 1-1 draw in North Korea.
The Young Socceroos, the country's under-20s team, also won three out of four AFC qualifying
matches to guarantee a spot in the 2008 Asian Youth Championships earlier this month.
Well Jacob's soccer was washed out and postponed on Saturday - his team is up to knock-out finals
rounds - so Saturday morning was uncharacteristically un-soccer, though the news that CCM had done
over Sydney in front of the latter's fans gave me a wicked inner glow. Jacob and I went to see The
Simpsons. Truly, I expected the satire to be a bit more.
Well, technically it's Australia, since the newly formed Wellington Phoenix (brilliant crest, by
the way) play in the Australian A-League, which kicked off this weekend. The team took the place of
league laughing stock New Zealand Knights, who were destroyed by the perfect storm of 1) being
incompetent on the pitch, 2) low attendances, and 3) financial problems.
Well when I had a go at analysing our collective results a couple of weeks ago I surmised that we
were collectively less accurate than a random generator might be. I think we've improved overall
but I'm afraid my own predictions appear to virtually guarantee another result. Rue it when I tip
your team to win!
Just to step out of house for a second, for anyone who happens upon this blog, here's a recap.
It's not exactly been the start Juninho-led Sydney FC had anticipated with under-fire coach Branko
Culina wasting little opportunity to continue his war of words with the Sydney media after the
2005/06 champions finally recorded their first win under his charge.
It took a classic backs to the wall away effort, a goal from Brazilian substitute Patrick with his
first touch and an outstanding display in central defence from Socceroos defender Mark Milligan to
snatch a 1-0 victory in Brisbane over the unfortunate Queensland Roar.
It's perhaps a compliment to the A-League that when, over the past couple of weeks, news of the
imminent arrivals of Socceroos big guns John Aloisi and Ahmad Elrich filtered through, there was
some noticeable shrugging of the shoulders.
It wasn't of the 'who cares?' variety because plenty of people do, especially at Aloisi's new home
on the Central Coast of New South Wales where the current league-leading Mariners can't seem to put
a foot wrong despite numerous obstacles.
It's federal election time in Australia, and while the rhetoric and shameless baby-kissing might
not be to every taste there is one aspect which promotes a mildly inquisitive response: the live TV
debate.
Prime Minister John Howard and PM-hopeful Kevin Rudd went at it earlier this month in the battle to
be the next Aussie leader, Rudd conclusively coming out on top according to most.
After a whirlwind start to summer down under, nobody has been left in any doubt the capacity for
football, the world game, to make Australians scratch their heads in befuddlement.
From the celebrity to the downright unknown, from David Beckham to new Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek
say, it's been a confusing time for many.
