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In a post-match interview with Aurellio Vidmar, Simon Hill referred to the Adelaide United Football Club as the Manchester United of the A-League. Is that some sort of praise or largely due to Adelaide United’s involvement in the Asian Champions League and their very busy match schedule of the past few weeks?
Adelaide have played six games of professional football in twenty one days and are set to play another five games in three weeks as they try to fit in the home and away semi-final legs of the ACL.
This is not the norm for A-League clubs who usually play once a week for about six months and get the occasional FIFA sanctioned weekend off for international games.
Adelaide United had made a special request to the Football Federation of Australia to have some of their A-League games postponed to lighten their workload and give them a greater chance of success in Asia’s premier club competition.
Federation chief executive Ben Buckley declined and said such a move would have adversely affected teams not participating in the ACL.
“It would not be possible to move multiple games around … if this situation occurred in future,” Buckley said.
Adelaide United chief executive officer Sam Ciccarello said the club would not protest against the ruling. “We’re very disappointed that our request couldn’t be accommodated in what is an increasingly busy and very difficult schedule,” he said.
“We’re delighted to have progressed so far in this prestigious competition, but certainly this is a bit of a setback in terms of our ability to get the best out of our playing squad.
“We know the FFA have looked at this from every possible way and we’re disappointed with the response that we did get, but we need to get on with it and that is what we are doing.”
Buckley did, however, say that the FFA would offer financial support to United to help offset the costs of business class airfares with its main sponsor. Qantas.
It’s disappointing for the Adelaide fans that they didn’t get some help from the FFA, but let’s not forget Adelaide’s achievements in the Asian Champions League to date, without any special treatment.
They finished top in their qualification group and beat the favourites for the ACL title in their quarter-final match.
Adelaide United have sent a warning shot through the rest of Asia with its elimination of Japanese champions Kashima Antlers and proved that Australian clubs can mix it with the continent’s best, despite having only a fraction of their financial resources.
They have every right to expect they can go on and reach the final and challenge for the Asian Champions League title.
The South Australians will now face big-spending Uzbekistan club Kuruvchi in the two-legged semi-final.
Kuruvchi are coached by Brazilian legend Zico and have former World Player of the Year and FIFA World Cup winner Rivaldo in their team.
The home leg is at Hindmarsh Stadium tonight, and will be broadcast live at 8:00pm on Fox Sports.
The all important second away game is played in Tashkent — scene of the Socceroos’ recent World Cup qualifying match victory over Uzbekistan — on Wednesday October 22.
Win lose or draw, Manchester United of the A-League or not, the whole of the Australian football family will be cheering on United with pride in their historic quest for the ACL title.
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