As a nine-year-old in 2003, watching Arsenal play in Australia was a pipe dream.
But as football grew in Australia, so did the amount of English Premier League clubs heading Down Under to play in exhibition matches.
Liverpool played Melbourne Victory at a packed MCG, while 95,000 fans sang ‘You’ll never walk alone’.
Manchester United played the A-League All Stars in Sydney, and then the next year Juventus took on on an Alessandro Del Piero-led All Stars.
I’d just walked out of the AC/DC concert at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne on a warm December night in 2016, when I flicked on Facebook and saw that Arsenal would be heading to Australia in July 2017.
After all the sleepless nights as a teenager and into early adulthood watching my beloved Gunners, it was a necessity to jet up to Sydney to see them play live.
Fast-forward to Thursday night, July 13, 2017. Arsenal played Sydney FC in front of over 80,000 people, including myself, decked out in my Arsenal gear.
As the sides emerged from the tunnel, you could feel the atmosphere around the stadium intensify.
Arsenal went into the first 45 minutes with a younger line-up, names not many people would’ve heard of like Joe Willock, Cohen Bramall, Reiss Nelson and Kristian Bielik, alongside the experienced heads of Per Mertesacker, Mesut Ozil, Theo Walcott and Petr Cech.
It was the Gunners’ captain who struck first, with a fantastic overhead kick inside six yards to open the scoring.
Ozil received a rousing reception every time he took a corner kick, and Arsenal were up 1-0 at the end of the first 45.
The second half saw Arsene Wenger make ten changes, as most of the team that played the first 65 minutes was subbed out, bringing on the more experienced heads like Olivier Giroud, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and new recruit French striker Alexander Lacazette blazing around ANZ wearing the number 9 jersey.
Fifteen minutes on pitch, and the Frenchman scored his first in Arsenal colours, courtesy of a great pass assist from Alex Iwobi – hopefully the first of many for the new recruit.
Only two goals were scored, but what a game it was. The Gunners can now look forward to spending some time with their fans before they take on the Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday night, again at ANZ Stadium.
offside
Guest
..... no English players apart from Lampard, A. Cole, J. Cole, Terry, Scholes, Ferdinand, Carrick, Hargreaves, Brown and Rooney that is. Maybe you meant no English substitutes?... or maybe the wish is father of the thought. Man Utd and Chelsea have never played a Champions League game with a completely non English line up, Arsenal probably have though if that makes you feel better!
duecer
Guest
They were great figures, and if on Ch 10 would be a lot harder, but don't forget that all AFL games are on both FTA and Fox, and it's hard to gauge state numbers on PayTV, but combined with Swans around 40-50k, GWS 30k, it would be close with fox added.
Waz
Guest
Well, we were getting 40-50k on Friday night on SBS2 so 210k is not comparable and no indication of what TEN will pull
Andrew Macdougall
Roar Pro
For many supporters of European teams these tours are great for any fan, not many people get the chance to travel and actually see their teams in the flesh. Hope more teams follow the likes of Arsenal, Juve etc...
Midfielder
Guest
lets hope so
Nemesis
Guest
Those are extraordinary figures for Sydney. Far bigger than the combined viewing in Sydney for GWS & Swans on FTA TV & Pay TV on any weekend. And, the football match was a meaningless practice match that doesn't even attract the interest of avid football fans in Australia.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
The biggest clubs in the world are now choosing to regularly play A-League clubs as part of their pre-season preparations, as this sinks into the public conscousness, more and more australians will choose to have more interest in the A-League
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
came 16th in the ratings last night
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
and it was a thursday night, if we can get ratings like that on SBS2 during pre-season, imagine what we'll get on Ten when we're in the thick of the season
Waz
Guest
210,000 watched on SBS2. 80,000 in the ground.
Onside
Guest
In 2008 Chelsea played Manchester United in the UEFA champions league final or was it 2009 (where's Nemesis when we need him) anyway..........a commentor remarked something along the lines of 'the game showcased the best of British Football' . His offsider poignantly remarked, 'there was nothing English about it' There was not one English player in either team.!
Midfielder
Guest
Thu TV Arsenal v Sydney FC #SBSViceland 210k: Metro 160k (Syd 102k Mel 27k Bri 12k Ade 11k Per 8k) Regional 50k
punter
Guest
As above Steve, you are no better, only criticising.
Nemesis
Guest
"I honestly didn’t expect the gap to be so large" Arsenal finished 5th in the world's highest revenue domestic competition & reached the Final 16 in the world's most prestigious continental club competition.. But you thought the gap with ALeague wouldn't be so large? Unbelievable. FYI: The Sydney starting XI last night was missing 6 of the 11 players that won the Grand Final. So, in your deep football wisdom, you expected a team of reserve & youth ALeague players to have a small gap in quality with the final 16 of UCL and the Top 5 of EPL. I can't stop laughing. Steve has taken football illiteracy to a new level.
Lionheart
Guest
I saw England get beat by France recently, in a friendly in Paris. Oxlade-Chamberlain was one of England's best, scored from memory, always aggressive and ever going forward, and fast but France totally outplayed them. It was just a friendly, if there is such a thing between those two (of course there's not) but it really did put the EPL into perspective - they get a rubbish national team out of it,
LuckyEddie
Guest
The event goers have had 11 years to support the A-League, how long do they need. Roar had 50k for Liverpool and the next week Roar were back to the usual 13k. These people are event goers and have little interest in week to week football. FFA is wasting their time if they think games like this will increase HAL crowds. FFA should go all out to increase the standard of HAL nad the first step has to be using our big number to play hard politics at every State and Federal election. It worked for the Cowboys they knew it was a tight election and they played both parties and got a $200m stadium. Interestingly Roar has bigger ave crowds than the Cowboys but good on the cowboys for playing hard politics. The FFA sits back and gets a few crumbs thrown at them. WE need new football stadiums.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Ah, yeah. That's fair enough, and I certainly can't begrudge you for that. In hindsight, probably spoke to soon, because on reflection half time breaks are generally of commercialism, and occasionally there's an entertaining thing. In fact, now that I think about it, I generally only watch half time breaks if I'm blogging for The Roar, like I will be tonight. Can I ask which A-League team you support? I'm genuinely curious :)
Onside
Guest
Some perspective when comparing quality of football as in EPL v A -League . Arsenals squad currently visiting Australia is full of International talent. Only 3 senior Arsenal squad players were born in the UK ,Oxlade-Chamberlain , Wellbeck and Ramsey. Plus 2 under 21 lads. Reiss Nelson, a 17 YO, who tore Sydney apart down the right, and Joe Willock who played well. Both have played under age for England.
clipper
Guest
...and closing the gap.
Nemesis
Guest
Ha! I'm one of those old-fashioned people who only watch sport for the sporting contest. Anything else, I couldn't care less. The only point of the 15 minute HT break is to go to the toilet. In football, the match winning incident can happen if you look away for 1 second.