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well, t. tickletooth, the revamped ap-league is going a right treat! the final, won by sydney fc featuring dwight yorke, was a cracker watched at the stadium by over 30 000 people. the world game has/had highlights each week of the games a longish segment dissecting the round, but the rights are with a pay tv mob - fox? - and so no games are live free tv, dammit. but the cash input of something like 12 million a year is a boon the australian fa couldn't knock back and i wouldn't want them to. cash will go into team and youth development and eventually, i hope, lead to greater coverage and acceptance of football here.
you're right, i suspect, that les, fozzie, mr palumbo and the lads and lasses at sbs (great they always have women on their teams and tracey holmes was on last week, popping by the studio on a trip from her now-home china, telling us she'll be on the sbs world cup team. very astute observer, her!) were keen to educate the great unwashed. but they did this with a fair degree of rigour and tact and made it accessible to even us learned few...
the a-league is a remarkably high standard of football, considering it is the first year, many teams were underdone and will only get better, especially as we start the long road to pitting our club teams against the rest of asia's established competitions, like the j-league in japan. (funnily, the sportsbet pop-up on the soccernet site i usually visit had rolling odds yesterday for the first games of the world cup and had us at 2.3 & japan at 2.7!! they think we'll win!!) but the crowds were huge - average 15 000 a game, which including the small attendances at the disappointing nz kings was a fabulous result - and the general buzz was 'what a killer! finally, football in australia worth watching' and now moves to get ageing socceroos and other dwight yorke-like players to attract the shallow unwashed. (i think i described the final and the league upthread a little, so trawl back up for a broader write-up)
and the supplementary question for ten: sbs put out 'mr and mrs soccer' about les murray and johnny warren that has a good background on what and where socer is here. i also think there was another johnny warren book on soccer here, but i'll check and get back. or you and i could write one together and we'll make a motza!
ta the description of football overload - if you can pay - in the uk. i remember growing up with match of the day, then more recently the premier league highlights package, but this was sold to pay-tv last year, so the only vision of top flight english football is the goal highlights on the sbs sports show at 7pm each evening. (and because sbs is a world tv broadcaster, their sports show is also non-australian only sport based. good upon it! hate parochialism in sport...)
anyway, thanks for chatting; which team/s do you follow, anyway? do you go see much football in london? did you in australia? i am a bit miffed canberra didn't get an a-league team, but i hope we might in the next five or six years. wanna go up see some sydney games this year... nothing to replace crystal palace, but, who will be promoted - you watch!!  |
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