Crikey’s soccer correspondent
Terry Maher writes:

You could have knocked me down with a sky
blue feather. Not only did the crowds flock to the new Hyundai A-League (HAL)
competition at the weekend but they also got to see some succulent soccerball
skills in the Sydney versus Melbourne “old firm” grudge match. At last,
both cities have someone new to hate.

“Ole,
ole, ole, Syd-ney, Syd-ney!” may not be the most
original chant sung on a football terrace but if half the 25,208 mob were
merely theatre-goers intent on a good time rather than a long time, then the
ambiance of the boisterous brouhaha normally associated with the staging of
beautiful game, would have enhanced the experience.

Now for the bad news: it was still a game
of “spot the Aussie” at Moore Park yesterday and the fickle Sydney crowd do not
get to see their Bling Bling Tinseltown Toy Boys again until they play Gosford
in a very pedestrian fourth round fixture on Friday, September 16.

If it is a dark and stormy Friday night
rather than the sunny Sydney
Sunday afternoon we got yesterday, then you wouldn’t bet your house on a repeat
performance. Some reports last night said that as many as 6,000 gained free
entry to Aussie Stadium after the crowd outside started getting restless after
the 5pm kick-off.

The stadium actually seats 41,159 but, hey,
geez – 25,000 for a game of club wogball in Sydney is absolutely terrific. In Brisbane, the HAL match
between Queensland Roar and the Kiwi Klub drew 20,725 to Suncorp Stadium which
seats 52,000. Newcastle drew 13,160 for their
game against Adelaide.
But most disappointing of all was the lousy 11,113 to see boring Perth and boring Gosford going
through the motions.

The real test for John O’Neill’s “build it and they will
come” strategy arrives next weekend when Melbourne’s
Olympic Park and Adelaide’s
Hindmarsh Stadium get to play with the green paintball. O’Neill acknowledged
this yesterday when he said: “It’s a really solid and promising start to the A-League, but we can’t
get carried away”. If soccerball can’t pull a crowd as big as Sydney’s in Melbourne
then half the equation for the new HAL “unite the tribes” strategy is not
working.

Already there is a feeling in the
southern sporting capital that O’Neill’s soccerball revolution is far too
Sydneycentric. Three of the four new Australian HAL franchises are located in
NSW but Victoria
only got one. Perth, Adelaide
and Brisbane are essentially old NSL franchises
and the Kiwi Klub is based in another country closely associated with Sydney’s “East Bondi”
expat community.

Luckily Adelaide
gets to play Queensland Roar in their white change strip. Their color-blind
home strip of orange shirt, royal blue shorts and maroon socks is absolutely
disgusting and should be taken out and shot.

The orange shirt, of course, comes from the
fact that they use to be known as the Dutch-backed Brisbane Lions Soccer Club.
So next time John O’Neill tells you he has ethnically-cleansed all the old
“tribes” from wogball, tell him he’s dreaming.

While we are playing “spot the wog”, here’s
a run down of the ethnic affiliations of the 14 clubs in the Victorian Premier
League: South Melbourne Hellas, Heidelberg Alexander, Oakleigh Cannons and
Bentleigh Greens (all Greek to me); Fawkner/Whittlesea Blues, Bullen Zebras and
Essendon Royals (Italian); Melbourne Knights and St Albans Saints (Croatian);
Green Gully Cavaliers and Sunshine Georgies (Maltese); Preston Lions and Altona
Magic (FYROM) and Frankston Pines (Anglo). Can someone tell me how the Sydney state league clubs
line up?

Team of the week: The Catalano family. Michael Catalano is associated
with Melbourne
Victory FC and is also president of Essendon Royals in the Victorian Premier
League. Also on the Essendon Royals team list are Len Catalano, Michael
Catalano, Ricky Catalano, Tony Catalano and Frank Catalano. Good work boys.

Plays of the week: Alex Brosque goal for Brisbane, Dwight Yorke’s for Sydney
and Archie Thompson’s for Melbourne.