Well, that didn't go to plan. Strong favourites Melbourne City, looking to win the big one for the second year running, were outdone by a well organised Western United (west of Melbourne that is) who outplayed and outclassed City to win 2-0. They've only been going for four years, in fact (I may have mentioned this before) I'm a founding member as the original plan was for them to build their home stadium in my neighbourhood but they backed out and our relationship was never the same after that. Still, well played to them, we'll see you later on the year..
Sturridge released by Australian side Perth Glory Not really a surprise. Never fit. Only started 1 game. Actually only played 6! Didn’t score. PG were abysmal this season as well which wouldn’t have helped in the very few games he did play. Might be time to think about hanging those boots up once and for all Daniel
Have to confess I haven't watched any of it this season after being a regular viewer over the past decade. Is Matt Simon still stealing a career?
I follow the MLS but never was bothered about the A league. I assumed it was growing like it is in the states, but the video was really focused on the national side not the A League, so is the league itself struggling? I always thought both Australia and America were the 2 nations where the sport would become much bigger now than its ever been. That's happened in the US, but there are many reasons why some were touched upon on the documentary. Of course the US has one huge advantage...well 2...huge investment (i'm still not sure where the money from the mls is coming from given relatively small amount from a TV deal and ticket prices remaining low) but the biggest advantage is population, a country with more than 10 times the population will always have the advantage over Australia unless one of the Aussie sports suddenly completely drops away which is unlikely. I wonder if the success of the MLS is actually a bad thing for the A league rather than something to aspire to....i.e. they realise they can't compete on that level so why bother????
The season opener kicked off last night with last year's League champions (no one cares apparently), Melbourne City, hosting last year's Grand final winners (that's all everyone cares about) Western United. Melbourne have brought in a few new players and it seems they've gelled early as the dominated Western for most of the game. Match ended 2-1 to Melbourne with encouraging signs that they may defend the title, as if anyone cares about the ladder that is..
Terrible scenes, sad its spread over there also. They don't seem to have the resources to police these large games.
I was at the game tonight. There was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration at the 20th minute where fans of both clubs were going to walk out in protest to the A Leagues decision to award Sydney the Grand final for the next three years. You could see before the kick off that the end where the Victory fans were that there was something going to happen and sure enough at 1-0 down they invaded the pitch and the situation ended up like a 1970s English game. Some random bloke had a go at me (in the city end) for not leaving but when I told him to piss off in an English accent he didn’t pursue it.
Yeah its weird, it seems in Australia and the US they think this is how football fans should behave they seem to have a really skewed idea of it. I wonder if they went to a game over here they'd realise its not like that now and calm down lol.
Tonight should have been a celebration of Matthew Leckie coming home and Australia’s football fans uniting as one, instead the people in charge of the game have put the league and the organisation back about a decade or two.. #shambles
An Australian football match had to be abandoned after fans invaded the pitch and a goalkeeper was hit in the face with a metal bin. The trouble began in the 20th minute of Saturday's Melbourne derby when the referee stopped play after flares were thrown onto the pitch. Video on social media appears to show Melbourne City keeper Tom Glover throwing one of the flares back into a stand of rival Melbourne Victory fans behind him. Within seconds they charge over the barrier and stream towards him, with security unable to stop him being hit with a metal bin filled with white powder. Video shows City players and subs running over to protect the keeper as the referee Alex King also makes a hasty retreat. Former Manchester United player Nani was among the players forced off the pitch and appeared dumbfounded as he watched the melee. Goalkeeper Glover was later pictured lying down as he got medical attention in the dressing room and the club tweeted that he likely had a concussion. Goalkeeper hit in face with metal bin as fans storm pitch during Melbourne derby
Strewth , there's gonna be a few people doing a bit of porridge especially the " bin man " , don't no much about Aussie football but didn't expect crowd trouble being the main talking points .
You would hope so but the aussies dont have a good track record on clamping down on this sort of behaviour, probably one of the reasons its got so bad.
As an aside, I have to say that the City fans were very well behaved. It could have gone horribly wrong if they’d have joined the Victory fans on the pitch..
Probably not. I shouldn’t really cast aspersions and generalise here but I would wager that the people involved in this probably have roots to countries where this sort of stupid shit is still “normal”
I would see your wager and raise it tenfold. There’s a large contingent of supporters in both Melbourne and Sydney (that I know of) that originate from former Yugoslavia. Absolute nutters..
I get the feeling that clubs are (or were) scared of clamping down on the groups because this would mean even less fans attending games. I get that feeling in the states too, that certain incidents are not punished because they fear lower attendances.
Yeah that is what I was hinting at. Guy I know here told me that Perth Glory have had issues with hooliganism in the past and it was East Europeans behind it. He also said there was no way it would be Australians fighting as they are “too lazy”
That’s true to a certain extent, most Aussies I know who do take an interest in the ‘proper’ footie find it completely alien that you would want to fight opposing fans.
