It was a Saturday A-League triple-header that went very well for the city of Sydney. Three games, three identical scorelines and many ramifications.
And it continues this stellar season of football where the fans, the players, the administrators and the quality all seem to be in accord.
Sydney FC won their fifth home game in a row – a club record – with their 2-1 defeat of Adelaide United.
Back in the 90s, when local basketball was at the height of its popularity, the Sydney Kings were known as the Cardiac Kids, for their propensity of making a comfortable game a nail-biter.
Sydney FC have assumed that mantle. Cruising at 2-0, they let Adelaide back into the game via a debuting Tomi Juric and an out of position Vedran Janjetovic.
In the last 12 minutes, Sydney barely hung on, with signs of panic ensuing at the end. But hang on they did, and backed it up less than 24 hours later with the unveiling of Lucas Neill as a guest player until the end of the season, which for the Sky Blues now might include the possibility of play-offs.
So, a win, the jettisoning of one Socceroo and the signing of another. Life’s never dull at Sydney FC.
While there may be many ups and downs for the Sky Blues, the one constant is a star shining brighter each week in Alessandro Del Piero.
No need to harp on, even non-football fans know how good Alessandro Del Piero is.
Straight after that, two of the success stories of the A-League faced off in a scintillating match played in a white-hot atmosphere at AAMI Park.
Melbourne Victory are the club all others should aspire to be and the Western Sydney Wanderers are doing so in their debut season.
How many of us would have predicted that the Wanderers would sit one point off first place with six games to play?
The Victory missed Archie Thompson and suffered from an uncertain display from Marcos Flores, who should have equalised soon after Western Sydney took the lead, after great wing play from Marco Rojas.
The Wanderers built their win on a resolute back four, with Jerome Polenz outstanding, especially given he “carried” a yellow card for 89 minutes. Youssouf Hersi was quieter than in recent weeks but still made the second goal for Shinji Ono.
And it turned out to be the winner as the Victory came steaming home, spurred on by a magnificent crowd, only to fall short.
Win achieved, the Wanderers then sat back and watched last-placed Perth Glory turn the form guide on its head by beating leaders Central Coast. New coach Alistair Edwards became the first mid-season appointment to taste a win in his first attempt.
The loss meant the Mariners sit a point ahead of the Wanderers, and entertain both they and the Victory before the end of the season.
There’s lots to love about this A-League season.
Rob
Guest
Need high profile marquees to sign for PG and Roar. The numbers will increase!
striker
Guest
Gotta agree the football the Roar played in last two seasons under Ange deserved alot better crowds,perhaps football up in queensland doesnt have the support the game has in NSW,VIC.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Well the football on display at Brisbane and Perth recently hasn't exactly been the type of stuff to walk over hot coals to see. I think Brisbane have big problems off the field as they never got the spike in attendance that the football deserved over the last two seasons and there is trouble brewing over how sterile the atmosphere is. The latest issue where a fan made banner was confiscated is a good example of what the club is doing wrong. Perth should do better now under Edwards. They were much better to watch on Saturday than they have been for a long time and the club now has a local flavour with the promise of more to come. Seemed to have a good atmosphere Saturday night. They also have an issue with the stadium renovations. I am not sure on the details but it looks like one side of the ground is closed.
Cameron
Roar Guru
I hate to say it J Binnie, but I believe fans are the quick fiddle type. You'll find when performances have fallen, the 'core support' in my eyes remains, you would think the culture of football is starting to etch itself in the minds of football supporters, but even our largest club in the A-league has experienced such drops before, what makes people don't look into such drops in previous seasons is the numbers that still turn up look impressive. Success has shown how numbers can be effected, Victory due to success, scheduling of matches, whatever, have experienced an increase in attendance @ AAMI park as the season has moved on. Their first two attendances were 17,676 (rd 9) & 17,128 (rd 11) with six matches now played an increase to the now settled average of 20,497 has occured - an increase of 18%. It happens on both parts and trying to ensure our fans become less fickle is the way to move forward and build. Memberships which provide the base is key to evaluating how we off the club should be for the season. By the start of the A-league season, Victory had 17,500 members roughly and average 22,648. Just goes to show what success can do. You even noted this for the wanderers recently with an 'upward tend'
jbinnie
Guest
Mid- Isn't it a pity that other occurences outside the direct control of the fans saw that despite 3 magnificent crowds last weekend our overall seaonal HAL average only increased by a meagre 7, yes the average went from 12,611 to 12,618. Roar and Perth played, and won, in front of only a combined 15,190 while the other 3 drew 48,636 !!!!!!.Such a differential ,explicable at Roar where the crowd was almost 35% lower than their season's average (in fact their worst crowd of the season). Glory's crowd was 28% below their average. Weather at both stadiums was ok so no excuse there. Why the drop??????jb
jbinnie
Guest
Dave - Having discussed this problem before with Fuss I am surprised at the state of affairs that see people turned away from a game because of many "members" seats lying empty.I know of one case where the "member" had to let the club know of his or her intention to use the allocated seat on or before the Thursday preceding a Saturday match, & if he or she did not do so, the said seat was put into the public area for sale.This was happening in a 50,000 seater stadium and didn't seem to cause any unrest among the purchasers of the said ,season tickets. I gleaned this information many years ago so it is not exactly a new idea,but the loss of revenue caused by the existing situation must be quite disturbing for the "money men" behind Victory. jb
Midfielder
Guest
Ratings were not bad either ... muck more to say on this latter... SYD v REDS 102k PG v CCM 55k MV v WSW 82k
MV Dave
Guest
This season does keep getting better and better. It was a fabulous atmosphere at AAMI Park on Saturday evening...we were sitting not far from the WSW supporters and they were very noisy. It should also be pointed out there were quite a few WSW supporters scattered around the ground with their very distinctive tops standing out from the sea of blue and white. MV did not perform to their peak but the game was still close and tense. That one team is only 8 years old and the other not even 1 season old it was a remarkable occasion for Football in this country. Another rivalry for MV fans to whet their appetite with hopefully chance of redemption against WSW in the finals. It was a shame that many were turned away from the ground because the public tickets on sale were sold out. The capacity for Football is 28,600 so it is disappointing not all the members and corporate seats were filled but 21,600 in that stadium so Saturday had the ground rocking.