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FINALLY, The A-League has come back………
The wait is over, the football is back, ‘We Are Football’ and we are as excited as Big Kev that its back. What a way to kick it off with some fantastic fixtures that saw the opening round attendance figures broken, a number judged rightly or wrongly as the biggest KPI in our game.
We had a smorgasbord to look forward to over the 209 days since Henrique put the winner past Joe Marston Medallist Matt Ryan in that epic decider at Suncorp Stadium.
Whilst Harry and Emmo stole most of the spotlight we had some others sneak under the radar. Liam Miller springs straight to mind, who in other seasons would have been top of the recruits listings.
We kicked off on Super Saturday with a team in turmoil after sacking their coach and trying to scissor up a contract of their marquee man get over the top of a team whose coach is now the one under the most pressure in John Van’t Schip. The second least likeable Griffiths boy was outstanding and will need to be for the rest of the year if the Newcastle Jets are going to be serious contenders.
Big ups to our man Mate Duganzic who scored a double for his new Melbourne team. If only the headline ‘Heart Break’ hadn’t been used ad nauseam, it would have been perfect this week after the 93rd minute Byun winner.
The big one on Saturday night pretty much delivered on everything apart from the goals. I likened it to one of those summers BBQ’s where you get all you can drink Coronas and great steaks but someone forgot the tomato sauce.
Harry was sensational whilst Emmo by his own admission was not so good. But ‘keepers Covic and Reddy were brilliant, but I want it to go on the record that Marcos Rojas I think will be the best thing to come out of New Zealand. EVER. This kid is electrifying in the true sense of the word. A serious talent, so watch out Dave Dobbin, your 15 years of fame is just about up.
Brisbane Roar continued to do what the Roar do and that is win, and to no-ones surprise here at The Sack (apart from Chief of Staff Christian Layland). Mitch Nichols was man of the match scoring the winner. I don’t use the man of the match term lightly but anyone who can put one past Matt Ryan is good and deserving. Ryan is a star in the making, a future Socceroo there is no doubt. Hopefully he gets himself a good stylist when he makes it big time because that hair-do aint going to cut it.
I was a little nervous about the first game on Sunday as most of us here predict that the ‘Nix and the Gold Coast will be holding up the table but it turned out to be a half decent contest. Didn’t the sub editors ‘Feel good’ when James Brown scored the equaliser. James Brown was even trending on Twitter Sunday night. I for one hope he scores plenty and then becomes ‘the godfather of goals’. Yeah I went there.
The closing game wasn’t too bad either. The Glory’s finishing in the first half was worse than this but at least they were creating chances. Billy Mehmet is a big bad lad and will get under the skin of plenty of opposition fans as the year goes on and he will score plenty too. Get him in your fantasy league first thing Monday morning, trade him in for either Archie Thompson or Paul Ifil who both wore studs to the shin this weekend.
What snuck under the Crossbar and into The Sack?
1. Its back, the A-League is bigger and better than ever before. An Hyundai A-League player double page poster in Melbourne's Herald Sun was unheard of seven years ago but now it’s a reality. 79,850 people attended a game, 40,000 of them at the Victory vs Sydney grudge match. Some will be glass half empty on this one - we’re going with the glass half full.
2. The new kits, most of them winners. For me, the Wellington away strip is the early winner followed by the Victory home strip and the Reds black kit. Newcastle getting rid of that god awful gold kit was a good move. Plenty of love out there for the post-Reebok era.
3. Jacob Burns encroaching on a free kick and earning himself a yellow card on 50 minutes and earning me a slab of Pure Blonde for closest to the pin in the ‘Which Minute will Jacob Burns get a yellow card' game.
4. The quality of signings coming into the league. We all know about the big two, but what about Liam Miller, Billy Mehmet, Issey, Griffiths, Fred.
5. Fans in the eastern stand on the Gold Coast, they may have only found 679 more fans in 8 months which is 84 per month or three per day, but the progress is noted (@kingawesomeness).
6. Fans in Vans, check it out on the FFDU website and on facebook, featuring our own Neil Sherwin. Great concept, good times. Safe driving, responsible drinking.
7. James Brown's goal of the week. Next best thing would be when James Brown goes down in a tackle and the crowd breaks into ‘get up, get on up’
Special mention, back to the white goal nets (@DavidManuca)
What went over the Crossbar?
1. Round One hair-dos were not up to A-League standard, Leigh Broxham, yours is the worst, Pascal Bosschaart yours isn’t to far behind. Shane Smeltz, Mullets went out with John Farnham, Matt Ryan, only Carson Kressley can save you. Nicky Carle, its time.
1. Round One hair-dos were not up to A-League standard, Leigh Broxham, yours is the worst, Pascal Bosschaart yours isn’t to far behind. Shane Smeltz, Mullets went out with John Farnham, Matt Ryan, only Carson Kressley can save you. Nicky Carle, its time.
2. Not going to turn this coloumn into a ref bashing, so I’m going to say this once and hopefully I don’t have to repeat myself. Assistant referee’s please give the benefit of the doubt with offsides, don’t guess and don’t get scared. Call 'em when they are there and keep the flag down if they’re not. Otherwise good job in the opening round refs.
3. The official twitter hashtags. Please leave it to the experts i.e. @TheFootballSack #cnfusd #kiss
4. The high quality goalkeeping. Too many saves, not enough goals - lower your standards number 1’s and 22’s!
5. Mark Bridge’s stupidity. You don’t raise your arms mate, you don’t raise your arms whilst the ref is looking straight at you, the match review panel should throw in a week for blatant stupidity.
6. The new Fox Sports score graphics. A for effort, E for application.
7. The goalkeeper chant at both Perth and Brisbane. It wasn’t funny in season one and it's bloody annoying season seven. Stay classy.
Special mention, no replays on the big screens on match day (@simKaiYo).