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FFA Cup brings a little imagination and fantasy to football

3rd August, 2015
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Does Australia's football future sit with the FFA cup? (AAP Image/Ben Macmahon)
Expert
3rd August, 2015
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As the FFA Cup begins to heat up, football fans across Australia are warming to the prospect of witnessing regular competitive action once again.

Sure, having the likes of Real Madrid and Liverpool in the country during an otherwise dormant period in winter was fantastic, but the lack of any real meaning to their results meant there was an element of the game missing.

That won’t be the case in any of the FFA Cup round of 32 ties this week and next.

Watching these knockout games could be seen as a case of taking a step down from seeing Cristiano Ronaldo et al, and from a technical point of view it certainly is. Indeed, this was highlighted when the two sister City clubs clashed on the Gold Coast. Manchester City went on to play Roma and Real Madrid, while Melbourne City got on with their preparations to face Edgeworth Eagles from Newcastle’s outer-west suburbs.

However, with more than just pride on the line in this fledgling cup competition, A-League fans can once again throw themselves into the routine of spending far too much time and money supporting their club – as any self-respecting football fan does.

A few A-League clubs will clash early on, with Newcastle Jets and Perth Glory doing battle on Tuesday August 11, the same evening Central Coast Mariners and Wellington Phoenix, as well as Western Sydney Wanderers and Brisbane Roar face off.

But for the other four A-League outfits, status is very much on the line against state league opposition.

City’s trip to Newcastle should be comfortable enough, despite Edgeworth currently topping the table in Northern NSW. Their Melbourne counterparts the Victory, meanwhile, will also journey into NSW, as they lock horns with Balmain Tigers.

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Adelaide have the awkward trip up to Darwin in front of them, before they face Olympic SC. Sydney FC will also be spending plenty of time on the road, bound for Sorrento in Western Australia.

Blockbuster fixtures they may not be, but this bringing together of grassroots football with the professionalism of the A-League in a meaningful way is exactly the sort of thing to lift football’s collective temperature at the moment.

And, let’s face it, in an off-season devoid of a World Cup or Euro Championship – not to mention a dearth of big-name signings in the A-League – football needs to make some noise heading into the second half of the year.

While the stars on show in Melbourne last month certainly stole the headlines, the lure of a true contest will have the die-hard fans excited in August. That’s the sort of thing the game needs if it is to make any sort of impact leading in to NRL and AFL finals time.

This is the time when you see upsets occur, and where careers are born from one audacious strike. That’s not because of the size of the global audience, nor because sponsors are throwing cash at the event. It’s because these games, played from run-of-the-mill local parks to state-of-the-art stadia, actually mean something.

For football to continue to grow in this country, a vibrant sudden-death cup competition is essential. Every player, coach and official involved in this round of the FFA Cup knows it.

For professional and semi-professional clubs alike, there’s plenty on the line, and that may be the best way yet for the game to capitalise on the attention it has recently received.

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It seemed a fantasy that so many of world football’s stars would gather in Australia over the past month. And after the glitz and celebrity that came with the International Champions Cup, it’s back to reality for Australian football.

The truth is, that reality could well be better than the dream.

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