Round One Report

Bumper crowds and expectant atmosphere? Check. Top-notch goals and plenty of them? Check. Quality attacking football? For the most part, check. Wholesome family entertainment? Aside from the half-time burst of crowd thuggery marring the Sydney vs Melbourne match, check. It seems the feedback from the masses who simply want to watch some beautiful football has thus far been extremely positive. Without a doubt the opening weekend of the Hyundai A-League has been a brilliant success. The FFA must surely be pleased.

First up, the amazing crowds. On Sunday, first the Queensland and then the Sydney audience broke the previous regular season attendance record. The turnout of 20,725 at Suncorp Stadium bettered the 1988 debut of the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL. Two hours later, 25,208 people entered Aussie Stadium with tickets, with another estimated 1,600 (some reports say 6,000) pouring into the ground as the gates were flung open just twenty minutes into the match. Traffic jams and a limited number of ticketing windows meant long queues for Sydney-siders. Ground staff didn't expect such a large walk-up audience! Thankfully, the press coverage about this has been positive, and the fans haven't really kicked up too much of a fuss (at least the stragglers got in for free). The lost sales figures may have hurt the club a little: 1,600 x $15 = $24,000. Unfortunately, what it proves is that the real average audience for Sydney games might be substantially lower. Walk-ups do not own memberships so they are not as likely to return. Hopefully, memberships will increase a touch and some of the walk-ups will at least pre-purchase in the future. Two other records were also broken on the weekend: highest average attendance (17,551) and highest total attendance (70,206!) in a regular season round.

Several of the league's top sharpshooters were in great form, with Dwight Yorke, Archie Thompson, Alex Brosque, Michael Baird and Carl Veart all opening their accounts in good style. Sean Devine was only denied by a somewhat dubious refereeing decision and, had he been on the pitch, the chances were good that Nick Mrdja would have scored too. In-form forwards are another encouraging sign for the administrators. Most of the goalkeepers did their utmost to deny the goals the FFA so desires, with Clint Bolton and Tom Willis especially good. Jason Petkovic was lucky to have a woeful punch into the back of his own net ruled out due to a non-existent foul, but there was nothing he could about Noel Spencer's long range smash. What a goal! The Mariners' captain was probably under a bit of pressure to hold his spot in the starting eleven, and although he had a quiet game his wonder goal should silence the critics for quite some time. As a tall, rangy foil to stocky Andre Gumprecht and sublime Tom Pondeljak in the triangular Mariners midfield, Spencer seems perfectly well placed to me.

Newcastle, Perth and New Zealand fans have commenced ringing alarm bells after witnessing their teams' losing performances. Surely it's too early to judge. The Jets probably needed to give Ante Milicic a solid run, and Adelaide's speedy flankers are will cause everyone concern. If any of the quality-on-paper teams is a touch rusty, it's Newcastle. Perth fans want coach McMahon gone, even more than they want McMahon Jr on the bench. The exclusion of Matt Horsley from the starting lineup raised eyebrows everywhere. If it's true that personal issues with McMahon are the root cause, both Horsley and Stuart Young might have to start looking for work elsewhere in the forthcoming weeks. Simon Colosimo needs to stop thinking about his declining Socceroos opportunities and focus on playing well for Glory. (The same goes for Newcastle's Ned Zelic.) Whining about non-club matters is inappropriate for atheletes aspiring to professionalism. Results must come first (unless you are Harry Kewell). The Knights can count themselves unfortunate: they encountered a speedy Roar side fired-up by a massive crowd and did well to hang on for 80 minutes. The injury to John Tambouras derailed their defensive efforts and sent them spiralling downhill, not unlike the national team losing Tony Popovic against Germany. What doubly hurts the Knights is that a loss to Sydney next week might consolidate a long period at the bottom of the cellar. Fortunately, they won't have to contend with Yorke and Sasho Petrovski (called up for national duties). But how will the loss of Late Night Dwight effect the size of the crowd?

It was a great opening round. Impartial observers must have been impressed. For the FFA, it's mission accomplished for round one. But they and we have to consign it to history, because as I write this we're just a handful of days away from round two. The A-League has definitely captured the attention of its target audience. The task now is sustaining the momentum.

Best of Round One:

Player: Alex Brosque (pictured) - kicking into top gear at just the right time

U-20 Player: Billy Celeski - running things in midfield for an AWOL Simon Colosimo

Coach: Ernie Merrick - switching fullbacks (Muscat on the left!?) and bravely starting Pantelidis rather than import Kitzbichler

Match: Sydney FC vs Melbourne Victory

Referee: Mark Shield

Goal: Noel Spencer - a 30 metre Steven Gerrard-like piledriver

4-4-2 Team of the Week:

Alex Brosque - Archie Thompson
Lucas Pantelis - Tom Pondeljak - Seo Hyuk-soo - Jonathan Richter
Ronnie Bull - Chad Gibson - Danny Hay - Carl Recchia
Clint Bolton

Subs: Richard Johnson, Andre Gumprecht, Carl Veart, Tom Willis