The Hyundai A-League is the top flight domestic league in Australia
Last night football returned to Australia as the Hyundai A-League began it's new season. The league kicked off last night with the Melbourne Derby, in which the Melbourne Heart held off the Melbourne Victory for a 1-2 win, much to this writer's dismay.
My American readers might not be familiar with the A-League and it's clubs, but I'm hoping to change that this year. If you're an MLS fan, there's really no reason why you shouldn't look into the the A-League, as their league and ours have several things in common. The A-League is a young league, going into it's 8th season I believe, and has had a lot of the same growing pains that MLS has gone through. They've struggled with league and FA vs owners issues, they've lost franchises and started new ones. Still, after a couple of years following the league myself, I actually believe the quality of the football is actually a little bit better than where MLS was at that stage of it's development. It's not the Premier League or La Liga, but it's quality professional football and I'm almost always entertained.
Here's a brief round up of some of the major story lines as the A-League kicks off the new season.
1. The arrival of high profile foreign players has begun.
Here's another concept MLS fans will be familiar with. After going on for a few years, the league gained a higher profile and started to attract big name foreign players, albeit they were perhaps in the twilight of their career. The same has happened in the A-League this year. Juventus legend Alessandro Del Piero turned down a few potential suitors, including Liverpool, to sign for the A-League's Sydney FC. This is a big deal, think Beckham signing for the Galaxy. It hasn't just been ADP though, as former England international Emile Heskey has signed for Newcastle Jets.
2. Expansion West Sydney Wanderers begin play.
The last time the A-League expanded a couple of years back, They opened up the Melbourne Heart franchise, creating an in-city derby with Melbourne Victory, one of the league's most successful clubs. As mentioned earlier, they opened the season with this derby last night. This time the league has followed the same course, starting up the West Sydney Wanderers franchise to rival Sydney FC, another one of the league's power clubs. This has not been without some controversy as a dust up between the FFA, league and the former Gold Coast United franchise led to Gold Coast's expulsion and dissolution late last season. Some felt more might have been done to save that existing franchise before adding the new expansion side. Also some fan violence associated with West Sydney has been observed in the preseason, which has not gone over well. The actual football begins now, and hopefully this derby will develop like the Melbourne clash.
3. Championship manager switches sides.
Unquestionably the best team in the A-League the last couple of years has been Brisbane Roar. They've won the last two Grand Finals and at one point had a league record unbeaten run. The manager who led the Roar to those titles, Ange Postecoglou, left the club after last season and took over the manager's role at Melbourne Victory, one of the star franchises of the league that massively failed to live up to their reputation last year. It remains to be seen whether the Roar can continue their winning ways without him, or if he can help return the Victory to prominence. Personally, I wouldn't bet against either of those things happening. The Roar are a superior side, and I'll have to see them beaten in the big game to believe it.
Those are the major stories going into league play, but not the only ones. For folks wishing to check out the A-League, Fox Soccer plays at least one match every weekend, usually live. Of course with the USA/Austrailia time difference, they're usually late at night/early in the morning. Set your DVRs. This weekend's featured match is a rematch of the Grand Final from last year, Perth Glory vs Brisbane Roar, and can be seen on Fox Soccer at 2 AM Eastern Sunday morning.
Of course, there are plenty of ways to keep up with league on the web and through social media. You can check out the official league website at www.footballaustralia.com.au/aleague. The Clubs and the league have a twitter and Facebook presence as well. Finally, check out a couple of my friends. First, the folks over at VictoryBlog provide top notch news on the Melbourne Victory, and they have also launched a new podcast covering the whole league with The A-League Show. Finally my buddy Troy (Twitter: @leaveforthecup) and friends are launching their own footy podcast, Girl's Don't Like Us, as well. Right now it's only available on Soundcloud, but they're hoping to expand into other avenues shortly. Follow them on twitter @GirlsDontLikeUs for updates. They're quality, and hey, Troy is an RSL fan as well!
So, MLS fans and others, check out this growing league and help grow the beautiful game world wide. I think you'll be glad you did.
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