The Lure Of Asia

There is a common cliche that you hear bandied around a lot, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”. They must be sick of hearing it in the corridors of the FFA at the moment.

Our entry into Asia was seen at the time to be a master stoke of football politics by Frank Lowry and co. It not only provided our national team with a much less heart wrenching path to the World Cup but it also provided our new national domestic competition a pathway to a larger stage in the Asian Champions League. Mike Cockerill of the Sydney Morning Herald and Fox Sports wrote last week of the impact the Asian Champions League is having on the significance of the Final of the A-league. With both teams already qualified for the ACL his contention is that the final has lost its gloss with both teams seeing it as a bonus rather than the primary aim.

There is no doubt that entry to the Asian Champions League is a priority to the A-League clubs. The ACL has come a long way since its introduction in 2004. The inclusion of Australian Team, entry to the Club Wold Championships and the change of attitude of Japanese clubs towards the comp have all contributed to the competition growing in statue in the region. The change in format for 2009 should again take the competition to another level.

With an increase in prize money and exposure to the large east Asian countries, Australian teams can benefit substantially from their time in the ACL. Players also can showcase themselves not only on the Asian stage but use the competition as a launch pad to Europe. But do we really have the talent and competition to compete on this stage? Adelaide’s run last year has, I fear, given fans, clubs, media and bigwigs at the FFA a false sense of where we stand in relation to East Asia.

With our limited ability to buys in talented foreign players and keep talented Aussies due to a very restrictive salary cap I am not sure we have the players n the park that can take it to these East Asian teams that have much larger budgets.

As shown last night by a very under done Newcastle Jets we may be clinging to a dream that we are nowhere near making a reality. I have seen reports today of Gary Van Egmond talking up the Newcastle performance but in reality the Jets were played off the pack last night. Beijing Goan ran rings around them and the score line flattered Newcastle no end. I am sure the old excuse that this was nearly a new team and that they hadn’t played a competitive match in six weeks will be touted around. But also remember that the Chinese team is in preseason and is certainly not in match harden shape right now.

On the evidence last night, Newcastle will struggle to make it off the bottom of the group. The crunch game will come next week when they host Ulsan Hyundai at home, lose that and its good night for their campaign.

Central Coast will kick off their campaign tonight when they host Pohang Steelers in a match they must simply win. The Steelers are arguably the weakest team in a strong group, Adelaide won both of the matches against them in last years ACL competition and to be honest if the Mariners are to have any hope of progressing they must do the same.

Unfortunately I cannot see either team progressing out of their groups. They simply do not have the squads to compete successfully at this level.

,