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The anticipation for the 2010/2011 A-League stepped up another notch as I tore open my SydneyFC member pack that finally arrived today. The A-League officially kicks off tomorrow and the SydneyFC season proper begins Saturday night with the Grand Final replay against Victory. After their preseason build up SydneyFC has every reason to be confident and, if it all goes to plan, should surely beat Victory come Saturday night.
I made it to most of SydneyFC pre-season games and it has been encouraging watching the boys come together as a team. The most exciting combination being new signings Nicky Carle and Scott Jamieson. In each of the preseason games, when they played, they have managed to pull off some stunning moments either on their own or together. Carle is able to get around most on-comers with his dazzling footwork and that included during the Blackburn Rovers game. The only worrying part was Carle coming off with a hamstring problem which, as far as we know, is all good now.
At the end of last season the Spine of Sydney left the playing team - Bolton, Colosimo, Corica and Aloisi - Corica retired and is now coaching with the club but the rest have moved onto other places. And that was just the start of list of the people who left.
To my mind the progress made in the preseason is all the more remarkable - not to deny the value of McFlynn, Brosque, Bridge, Keller and other players from last season like Foxe and Ryall. With key players removed and new players coming into the team it was looking like it could be a rocky start to the year as Sydney FC found their feet and the players, old and new alike, got into the new rhythms and plays that so many new players would create.
But instead we watched a team that came together very quickly with each game the formation worked a little better, balls were finding people and passages of play were being to put together. The Festival of Football saw the boys work some fantastic results - they scored 3 times against AEK Athens - certainly, they were soft or opportunistic goals and perhaps Athens was not quite firing on all cylinders but 3 goals are 3 goals. The 5 Athens scored against Sydney certainly highlighted the main weakness of the Sydney side and that was that too often Athens could get in behind the defense and when it became a scrambling mess in front of the goal, inevitably Athens scored. But that was an issue last year as well.
A 0-0 draw against Glasgow Rangers and losing only 2-1 to Blackburn showed the quality that Sydney is capable of. And the most important thing to remember is that all three teams, Athens, Rangers and Rovers come from leagues where the average quality would surpass the A-League. Those teams were also in their preseasons but the reality is that Sydney FC performed remarkably well against teams that, on paper, should not have been troubled by the A-League Champions.
That brings me to the elephant in the room - although I know he is sacrosanct I'm going to state that the return of Kofi Danning has not, in any way, lived up to the amount of hype that people have put around it. I hope that Kofi is pleased with his efforts because as someone who has not had much game time in the last year he did very well - but the goal scoring saviour of the Sydney that many seem to want to say he is - not so much.
I am very glad for him that he is back on the paddock, so many missed games must have really had him wondering if his football career was over. It's to Sydney's credit that they have given him time to recover and take his place in the side once more and I am very much looking forward to seeing Kofi once he was found his feet again and finds his place in the team. I hope that he gets given more chances to play in the games to come. So, for now, I am waiting patiently. In my mind you get rated by what we see not what you should have done. And, as of yet, I haven't seen much. I will be delighted to talk him up once he comes good on the field, but not until then.
My last word goes to Brendan Gan - whilst it's all very nice to have a (first) name sake on the field I think Sydney would do well to keep him on the bench until about the 70th minute and bring him on then. Last season I noticed that in a few games when they did that his fresh legs and the change of play the substitution brings about managed to help set up some chances. Which was exactly what happened in the Blackburn game last weekend. He made space and delicately placed the ball at Brosque's feet who put it away nicely in the back of the net. Keep him on the bench and bring him on late as a game changer.
And that brings us up to date. I'm looking forward to more away game trips this year with the trip to Wellington for the Sept 11th away game all booked up. I also have plans to get across to Perth and Adelaide along with the Melbourne, Newcastle and Central Coast trips of past years, which will make for a lot of travelling and a lot of football. It's going to be great!