A League - First Week Review

Maybe it’s because we are in an opposite hemisphere but Australian football seems to be in a parallel universe to Irish football. Whereas the Irish national team are on a bit of a roll and the domestic league struggles for life with its CEO proclaiming it is “a problem child”.

Down here we have an Aussie national team on a run of ten matches without a win but with a domestic league in rude health. We even have a CEO who is proud of his product even if his method putting over that pride took us down a rather bizarre path.

David Gallop proclaimed that the A League was the “meat filling in the hamburger of Australian sport”, nuts but at least he sounded upbeat and passionate about it.

The first weekend of the A League has drawn to its natural conclusion. So what happened I hear you breathlessly ask? Well draw up a tall stool ask Bernard behind the bar for another and settle in.

Friday night opened up with Melbourne Victory hosting Western Sydney Wanderers. Much like the Spanish inquisition no one expected this result, 4-1 to Victory. Maybe the exertions of reaching the Asian Champions League final has taken its toll on Wanderers but their usual defensive meanness was nowhere to be seen, 3-0 down after half an hour and any hope of a positive result extinguished. 

Victorys new centre forward Besart Berisha scored a penalty and made the fourth goal for Archie Thompson. New centre half Matthieu Delpierre also got on the score sheet so Victory coach Kevin Muscat will justifiably be a very content man. Just a word about the remarkable Archie Thompson, in getting a goal on Friday he became the first player to score in each of the leagues 10 seasons of existence.

Saturday afternoon brought us Central Coast Mariners against Newcastle Jets.  An injury time winner for Mitchell Duke stole the points for the Mariners. It was a little harsh on the Jets who opened brightly and with better finishing would have made their short trip home with a valued point. Mariners followers will have been impressed by the direct, powerful running of Senegalese striker Malick Mane.

The evening brought the blockbuster game of the weekend in the form of Sydney v Melbourne City. The game brought a point apiece after a beautifully struck opener from Corey Gameiro for Sydney was cancelled out by Spanish World Cup winning superstar David Villa. Irelands own Damien Duff pulled a ball back from the right to the edge of the box where second half substitute Villa took two touches to gain a yard of space before drilling the ball home with his third.

On to Sunday’s action and across the ditch to New Zealand as Wellington Phoenix hosted Perth Glory. The Western Australian team took the points home with them, Irish international Andy Keogh opened the scoring with a delicately placed glancing header. Phoenix didn’t take the goal lying down and got themselves back in the game when Michael McGlinchey finished of a well-constructed move down their right. Jamie McLaren stole the points for Glory when he thumped home from the edge of the box following a defensive error by Ben Sigmund.

The curtain was brought down on the opening weekend with Brisbane Roar taking on Adelaide United. The defending champs opened the scoring through a Thomas Broich free kick from the wide left that managed to avoid everyone en route to the far corner.  Bruce Djite scored my favourite goal of the weekend to hammer home from 25 yards out to get the reds back on level terms.  The winner came via an own goal from Brisbane left back James Donachie making a hash of trying to slide a cross to safety at the far post and instead diverting the ball into the net. Matt McKay saw red for unleashing  a verbal assault on the ref that first brought a yellow and then as he continued his tirade a red to get first use of the bath soap.

So what have we gleaned from the first weekend of the A League?

Coaches will be happy that many of their new signings shone, Duff and Keogh very much to the fore.

Chairmen and A League administrators will be delighted to see over 90,000 fans through the gates and large crowds are expected again this coming weekend.

Defensive weaknesses will hopefully be plugged by the returning Socceroos.

This weekend’s fixtures

Adelaide United v Melbourne Victory

Central Coast Mariners v Wellington Phoenix

Sydney v Western Sydney Wanderers

Melbourne City v Newcastle Jets

Perth Glory v Brisbane Roar