Australian A-League

I was lucky enough to acquire some highlights of the Australian A-League this week. So rather than watching Match of the Day I took in some Aussie footballing action.

The first thing that strikes you is the sheer garishness and over the top nature of the intro sequence. Balls on fire, crazy music, silly celebrations, you get the picture.


The first match on offer was Adelaide United vs Perth Glory. Glory were coached by ex-Millwall striker Dave Mitchell (above) who is always my favourite answer to the ubiquitous "Footballers with beards" question that gets asked on internet forums all around the land every week - or at least it does in the places I frequent. He was serving a touchline ban for kicking a bottle onto the pitch.

Another familiar face with suspension issues was another ex-Wall player Kevin Muscat who was lining up for Adelaide after a short suspension. He didn't last long, two bookings in a minute and he was walking. A wonderful kick of the Samsung sponsorship later and he was down the tunnel. As someone with a Samsung phone I can only praise Muscat for his exemplary taste.

Other interesting features for a British football follower were that ex-West Ham and Blackburn midfielder Robbie Slater is working as a co-commentator for Fox Sports in Australia (he even has a website: look - http://www.robbieslater.com/). Other notable aspects about the game were that both goalkeepers sported a number 50 on their backs - surely one of the first times ever this has happened - especially when one of the keepers has as excellent a name as Tommy Tomic!

A creditable mention must go to Melbourne Victory who sport a wonderful chevron kit (think Brescia) and to Aurelio Vidmar for having a large a nose as his brother.

The A-League is an odd beast, 7 teams from Australia and one from New Zealand. 8 teams never seems enough for a league. Especially when you consider that means only four games every matchday - the goal of the week at the end of the show was barely good enough to be called goal of the game. But its a slow learning curve that the MLS have already ridden out to become a decent standard league. Only time will tell if "soccer" can stick in Australia, the 80,000 crowds at Sydney this week will help - albeit caused by the David Beckham circus.

For those interested the final score was Adeilade United 1 Perth Glory 1...