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One club in Australia has the potential to put the A-League on the map more than any other. Sadly for Gosford-based fans, it is not the Central Coast Mariners.
The Mariners will of course play Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande in their two-legged AFC Champions League round of 16 clash this month.
Graham Arnold’s battle-hardened outfit deserve hearty congratulations for reaching the knock-out stage, particularly as their ACL commitments came in the midst of a run to the A-League championship.
The first leg may still be nine days away but I’m going to throw my hat into the ring as one of the first to call Guangzhou ‘cashed up’ and make countless references to the Cantonese club being one of the richest in Asia.
Never mind there’s been a football club in Guangzhou since 1954, or the Evergrande Real Estate Group has made a priority of signing the cream of Chinese talent since taking charge – including the dangerous Gao Lin, defensive hard man Zheng Zhi and fellow tough nut Huang Bowen.
Instead it seems mandatory to focus exclusively on Guangzhou’s highly-paid bunch of foreigners, just in case the Super League outfit runs up a cricket score and a hasty excuse is needed to explain it away.
“The game promises to be one of the must see football fixtures of the AFC Champions League this year with two of the highest paid footballers in the world, Dario Conca and Lucas Barrios, along with Italian super coach Marcello Lippi coming to Gosford,” says a less-than-subtle advertisement on the Mariners’ website.
It’s almost a shame the first leg is in Gosford on May 15.
There’ll probably be more locals chowing down some Chinese in the Peking Garden Restaurant than actually inside ‘Central Coast Stadium’. And of course the A-League will then be embarrassed when more than 40,000 supporters pile into Tianhe Stadium for the return leg.
To put it bluntly, the Mariners are not the ideal side to showcase Australian football to the rest of Asia – and not just because they’ll need a miracle to reach the quarter-finals.
That mantle should instead go to the Western Sydney Wanderers, despite the fact they’ve yet to even play on the continent.
They hadn’t played in the A-League before the start of the season either, yet Tony Popovic’s side came within 90 minutes of being crowned champions.
And what could make the Wanderers a better ACL representative than others is the potential for them to pack out Parramatta Stadium.
No other Asian side has captured the imagination of Australian fans more than Japanese outfit Urawa Reds and that’s almost purely on the basis of their vociferous army of fans.
It’s interesting to watch Australians heap praise on the Reds, because the club is almost universally disliked outside their home town of Saitama.
Yet the simple fact is Urawa fans are loud, boisterous and travel in number – all of which can be said about Wanderers supporters.
Though the year-long gap between Western Sydney qualifying for and competing in the Champions League is a nuisance, it also gives club officials plenty of time to convince fans the ACL is a worthwhile venture.
Not erroneously referring to the competition as ‘the Asian Cup’ would be an elementary start and developing a culture which sees Parramatta Stadium packed every week regardless of the opponent is the next step.
Building a squad capable of winning the ACL is an even greater challenge, but if the Wanderers proved anything this year, it’s that much can be achieved with some astute signings.
It is time for an Australian team to once again take the ACL by the scruff of the neck as Adelaide United did in 2008.
The Mariners might find the cashed-up Cantonese contenders a bridge too far.
But with plenty of time to plan ahead, the Wanderers should start dreaming of winning the ACL and not be content to simply compete in it.