The Central Coast Mariners are all set to enter the AFC Asian Champions league for 2012. This edition will be the 31st, and the second time the Mariners have taken part in Asia’s premier club competition.
For this edition, they have been matched up with a team from each of East Asia’s main leagues: Tianjin Teda of China, Korean Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, and Japan’s Nagoya Grampus. The first game in this group will see the Mariners travel to China on March 7.
Central Coast will be confident leading into this campaign, as they sit comfortably top of the A-League table. Last year’s runners-up in both the league and finals series sit in a group with a distinctive Australian feel.
However, the Mariners’ form has been shaky recently, having to come back from several deficits. The departure of talismanic striker Matt Simon to the K-League will be a big loss to them, and if they make it through to the Round of 16, they will lose Mustafa Amini, who will return to parent club Borussia Dortmund.
Seongnam are a former winner of the tournament, triumphing in 1996 and most recently 2010. They are captained by Socceroo defender Sasa Ognenovski, who won man of the match in the 2010 victory.
Seongnam had a disappointing 2011 though, finishing 10th in the league, and only qualifying as winners of the Korean FA Cup, with the big Australian defender finishing the season as second top scorer with seven goals in all competitions. The man to watch out for is Cho Dong-Geon, with the South Korean international leading the scoring with 11 goals in all competitions.
Next up are Nagoya Grampus, who finished a close second in the J-League, trailing Kashiwa Reysol by only one point. They also reached the round of 16 of the 2011 Champions League, as well as semi-final and quarter-final appearances in Japan’s two domestic cups.
Nagoya has a fearsome forward line, with three players scoring over 10 goals. The biggest threat though is Australia’s Josh Kennedy, who has been prolific at both club and international level, finishing with 19 goals in all competitions for Nagoya, and picking up the J-League Golden Boot award.
Last but not least are Tianjin Teda, coming up from 10th position in the league, but like Seongnam, qualifying as winners of the Chinese FA Cup.
They appeared in last year’s Champions League as a result of a second-place finish in the 2010 Chinese Super League, reaching the round of 16. During this, they faced Melbourne Victory twice, drawing 1-1 at home and losing 1-2 in Melbourne.
With this in mind, I believe that Nagoya will top the group, with the Mariners qualifying a close second. Seongnam and Tianjin are inconsistent teams, and while their last year has shown that on their day they can provide an upset, their poor league record leads me to believe that the runners-up in from the Japanese and Australian competitions will be the ones to reach the round of 16.
Keep checking in in the coming days for detailed previews of Brisbane and Adelaide’s ACL chances.
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