ACL success should spur more support for A-League

Roar Pro

By Paddy Higgs, 26 Mar 2010 Paddy Higgs is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: A-League, ACL, Adam Hughes, Adelaide United, football, Lloyd Owusu, Melbourne Victory, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Socceroos

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Adelaide United's Cassio is jubilant after scoring the winning goal against Sanfrecce Hiroshima during their AFC Champions League soccer game. AP Photo/David Mariuz

Put your allegiances aside. It’s time to support Australian football, and not just the Socceroos. It got scant satisfaction from its A-League season, but Adelaide United’s adventures in Asia continued this week. And regardless of your domestic followings, isn’t it good to see an Australian club do well in the ACL?

While Melbourne Victory’s woes worsened this week, Adelaide’s dalliance with the region’s continental competition took another romantic twist with its come-from-behind defeat of Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Wednesday night.

Aurelio Vidmar’s three-year reign as United coach had looked shaky as his side finished last in the A-League, but – despite the fact that he’s not officially able to take charge of the side in the competition – the undefeated start to the ACL has gone a long way to rejuvenating his standing among supporters.

The Reds’ run through last season’s competition was an occasionally charmed one, but they still deserved every plaudit they received.

And while the lessons learned in the two-leg final against a clearly superior Gamba Osaka outfit need to be heeded, there are no indications as to why United cannot emulate those successes again.

If those lessons really hit home, maybe those successes could even be bettered.

Although early in both campaign and career, the contrast between the club’s A-League and ACL fortunes mirrors Adelaide’s signings for both.

Lloyd Owusu, Adam Hughes and Inseob Shin failed to win over either Vidmar or Reds fans since their capture for the 2009/10 A-League season.

Proven goalscorer Sergio Van Dijk and midfield schemer Marcos Flores – signed for the ACL and beyond – have perhaps already added more to the Reds squad than the aforementioned did all season.

Flores has released skipper Travis Dodd, so often entrusted to be the side’s only creator. Van Dijk can be as infuriating as he is talented, but 26 goals in 53 appearances for former club Brisbane Roar and the structure he had added for his new team say enough.

Fellow signings Nigel Boogaard and Adam Griffiths are proven domestic performers and are unlikely to bring simply depth to Vidmar’s list of options.

Melbourne sealed its fate with a gut-wrenching 4-0 loss to Kawasaki Frontale on Tuesday, much to the joy of many a rival supporter.

It might be hard to support a team normally despised domestically, but the success of Australian teams only benefits the rest of our domestic league.

Better results will equal more spots, and increased opportunities for other clubs to get their own taste of the region’s premier club competition.

So while Melbourne’s journey grinds to a somewhat premature halt, Adelaide’s run is gathering momentum. Let’s hope it picks up a few supporters – Red or just plain old Australian – along the way.

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The Crowd Says (11) | Page 1 of Comments

whiskeymac said | March 26th 2010 @ 7:56am | Report comment

some good signings (at last) for Adelaide and some new found confidence in themselves will hopefully create a better domestic performance – they have great supporters and i wish them all the best. also note that Adeliade seem to unearth or take a punt on a good number of yuong players – first djite and burns, then mullen and jamieson, now marrone and leckie.

How will the Reds cope though with 2 new melbourne franchises? will the contempt be doubled, halved or shared equally? time will tell i guess.

fantastic to see the Reds get 3 from 3 though in Asia. respectability again, and a bit frustrating for their supporters i imagine to thik f what might have een if they had had a striker and playmaker to begin last season with.

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- dasilva said | March 26th 2010 @ 1:06pm | Report comment
  
  I guess it shows the evenness of the competition
  
  Just 1-2 players can change a bottom place team into a title contender.
  
  Really you could pretty much say this for virtually all the teams in the A-league.
  
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Midfielder said | March 26th 2010 @ 1:35pm | Report comment

Agree but I think we do when the Inbreds (AU) play I think every football fan is going for them… Same with the Tards …

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Football Person 2 said | March 26th 2010 @ 3:34pm | Report comment

its should get us more support but only if people know about it. I guarantee im the only person at my school who knows the score between Adelaide and Hiroshima or that they or United even exist.

We have a show in Brisbane (at least I think its a Brisbane show) called sports tonight, a show that shows one minute epl or
A-league semi / grand final per week. Im sure the epl followers would love to hear about how a club from their tiny country just sent a team from the land of the rising sun back home with their tails between their legs but they have no chance

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Ben of Phnom Penh said | March 26th 2010 @ 6:12pm | Report comment

It is great to see how much the city of Adelaide has embraced the ACL. There is a real feeling about the place and the best thing about the premiership plate is the fact it guarantees you a place in Asia.

In many ways I wish that another A-League team would have a similar experience that Adelaide seems to enjoy as it would be great to see more engagement with this competition not just from core supporters but from the sporting public in general.

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- dasilva said | March 26th 2010 @ 8:46pm | Report comment
  
  Yeah I agree
  
  As much as I love the success of Adelaide. No one outside South Australia and football fans had heard of Adelaide’s achievement.
  
  I believe that ACL is the potential saviour of Australian domestic football and is the only thing that could offer serious competition to the other codes if it catches on. It just needs one blockbuster quarter finals or semi final match involving a Melbourne or Sydney club.
  
  If Adelaide’s achievement was replicated in Melbourne and Sydney where one of the teams make the semi-finals of the ACL then it would do wonders for the game and prestige of the ACL in the Australian public.
  
  Suddenly ACL would be part of the national consciousness and that any future achievement by other Australian sides would be notice
  
  Unfortunately right now, crowds for ACL matches are currently below the A-league average due to the lack of prestige this competition has for the Australian public (except Adelaide)
  
  That’s why I’m pretty disapointed that Melbourne go out with a whimper. I would have loved to beat them in the final of the ACL.
  
  Next year ACL where Melbourne and Sydney will be playing will be one of the most critical ACL campaign ever. If they do well, suddenly the mainstream media will take the competition seriously. If not, well we back to square one.
  
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Australian Football said | March 27th 2010 @ 10:15am | Report comment

I enjoyed your article Paddy. The problem with Melbourne Victory is that they are imbedded in a culture of Grand Final fever––where as Adelaide United FC are not. Melbourne Vic FC with its fans, administration and a chairman who come from an AFL Victorian culture.

I have finally come to realise that’s where Melb Victory’s problem lies is an obsession with winning a Grand Final to the detriment of other Football Tournaments. One senses that Adelaide U FC have placed their focus on regular ACL participation and so has SFC now with an interesting article in the SMH last week with their CEO Scott Barlow––who stated that the club’s philosophy will be to participate regularly in ACL Tournaments.

Adelaide United FC have prepared magnificently for the ACL where as Melbourne Victory FC have not, because of the states Grand Final Fever obsession.

Until they realise that the most important tournament in Australian Football is the Prem-Plate with its automatic inclusion into the ACL they will continue to fail. I sense a different philosophy with the new club in the making, the Melb Hearts FC who are building their club on real Football men, and this may serve a lesson to those who support the Victory––I hope so for the good of Australian Football in Victoria.

——–
AF

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- Mister Football said | March 27th 2010 @ 10:22am | Report comment
  
  Obviously you are less likely to catch grand final fever with each successive finals defeat.
  
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  - Australian Football said | March 27th 2010 @ 12:05pm | Report comment
    
    Rather be in Adelaide United’s shoes at present with no “Grand Final Fever” then in Melb Victory’s shoes suffering from “Grand Final Fever”.
    
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- Axel V said | March 28th 2010 @ 11:08am | Report comment
  
  I completely disagree with most of what you just said, I get the feeling that you don’t understand Victorian sporting culture and that you’re just making assumptions based purely on the past 2 months.
  
  Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia (Tasmania too despite not having national clubs), are all crazy about AFL and is by far the most popular sport in these states, however their is also an open mindedness to all other sports, and it is common for people to follow several different sports at once, go to their events and have a good knowledge of them.
  
  AFL Grand Final fever is as big if not bigger in Perth and Adelaide(as most of the city really only follow 1 club) than it is in Melbourne (10 clubs).
  
  People seem to have a very short term memory and they don’t realise that it was only 2 season’s ago, where only ONE team of per group could progress to the next round, now it’s 2 out of the 4 per group, which is twice as easy to qualify. In ACL 2008 Melbourne Victory finished second in their group, only to Gamba Osaka, who beat Adelaide United in that same year in the final. All this crap about Melbourne never winning ACL games and not getting crowds is utter bull, I went to 2 of ACL games in 2008 and despite having 24,000+ people the NT and SE produced some of the best active atmospheres i’ve ever seen from them.
  
  This season has had crowd drops all across the League, there has been close to zero promotion, Melbourne Victory narrowly missed out on the Premiership, which meant that they had to fight both the A-League Finals and ACL at the same time rather than just focusing on the ACL. The scheduling has been an impractical joke, Melbourne Victory have been tired and below par with a mountain of key injuries has spelt disaster. If the FFA has a quarter of a brain, they should ensure that this will NEVER happen to an Australia club ever again.
  
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ajb said | March 27th 2010 @ 8:47pm | Report comment

been following every australian team in the ACL since it began, especially adelaide united and sydney fc who have both achieved some stunning results.. melbourne on the other hand.. need a new coach

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