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Could the A-League All Stars versus Manchester United become the biggest let-down in Australian sport since Ashton Agar failed to score a ton in his maiden Test innings in Nottingham?
Teenager Agar’s incredible, near-incomprehensible 98 off just 101 balls batting number 11 in his first ever Test innings will go down as one of the great moments in the history of Australian sport.
Only towards the end did the seemingly invincible Agar lose his nerve, when he swiped twice at Stuart Broad in what became his final over before agonisingly holing out to Graeme Swann in the deep with one of the most astonishing Test centuries ever registered in sight.
Not since Robin Hood supposedly terrorised Nottinghamshire has a swashbuckling bandit so brazenly mugged the English and Agar’s selection was surely vindication for new Australia coach Darren Lehmann, who plucked the 19-year-old from total obscurity to hand him his first Test start.
See that, Holger Osieck? Sometimes the kids go alright. I wonder if Mark Schwarzer was looking nervously over his shoulder in Mitch Langerak’s general direction from his new Chelsea FC home base?
Speaking of selections, the news marquee players Alessandro Del Piero, Shinji Ono and Emile Heskey will all be unavailable for All Stars duty against Manchester United has somewhat taken the gloss off the entire concept.
“Alessandro, Shinji and Emile have turned on great performances and brought a huge global and national profile to the A-League, so naturally the fans wanted to see them face Manchester United,” Football Federation Australia chief David Gallop said in a statement about their withdrawal.
Del Piero’s absence will presumably be explained by Sydney FC’s upcoming trip to Japan to face, of all teams, Sagan Tosu in a friendly on July 24.
His likeness is being used to grace the advertising for the match, as the indefatigable – and well-hydrated – Scott McIntyre highlighted on Twitter during the week.
Ono has been shuffling back and forth between Australia and Japan of late himself, while Heskey will probably join him in the stands at ANZ Stadium because he’s simply not good enough to play for the All Stars – just kidding Emile, we still love the English!
But their withdrawal is a blow for an FFA hoping to sell the All Stars concept to an increasingly football-savvy Australian public.
At the end of the day, they have haven’t had all that much difficulty.
The mere presence of Manchester United meant tickets were always going to fly out the door irrespective of who was playing – for either side.
However, the absence of the A-League’s three most recognisable players somewhat makes a misnomer of the All Stars moniker. “Some Stars,” perhaps?
Certainly, when I was asked to pick my All Stars team back in March, I had no inkling that none of the trio would be available.
At any rate, we now have the likes of Nigel Boogaard and Josh Rose set to face the reigning English champions and while the result is largely elementary, one suddenly hopes the A-League team can hold its own.
The entire concept is somewhat of a gamble in terms of potentially introducing newcomers to the A-League, with most of the fans inside the stadium the kind I might politely describe as “Theatre-goers of Dreams”.
There’ll be plenty of my beloved Eurosnobs watching at the ground and back home on television, and given that they’ll largely be unaware that it’s not exactly “the best of the best” running out for the All Stars, one would hope the local contingent holds up.
Ironically, All Stars coach Ange Postecoglou has a better chance of demonstrating his style when his Melbourne Victory faces Liverpool at the MCG four days later.
Both games are fairly light-hearted stuff in an otherwise long off-season stretch.
Let’s just hope they come off, lest – like Agar’s errant century – they turn into the one that got away.
Editor’s Note: To further emphasise Mike’s point, Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has this morning been ruled out with a hamstring injury.