Fulham Defeat Great For All

Gold Coast’s win over Fulham on Wednesday night has caused quite a stir. With news of the surprising win even making news in the UK. It certainly has given the Gold Coast a huge boast in confidence going into the start of the new A-League season but how important is it to the A-league in general.

Putting aside the fact that Fulham were extremely underdone for this match and Gold Coast meets them at the end of a extensive preseason, and yes the Fulham side was full of reserves and youngsters in the second half when GC scored their winning goals. But remember this is the club that finish 7th in the EPL last season meeting a side that has not played an official match as yet, they would not have been pleased to walk away with the loss.

The result can only have benefits for the A-League across world and especially within Europe. With Fulham, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Celtic all playing matches here this pre-season it will no doubt draw football fans who would not normally go along to watch a A-League game. Perth and Brisbane especially could get a large boost in membership from some solid performances against their English and Scottish opponents respectively. Who knows in a couple of years we may even see A-league clubs talking on the giants of European football. A Melbourne Victory vs Barcelona or a Sydney vs Chelsea, maybe even a Gold Coast vs Real Madrid.

I found Michael Cockerill’s article today to be a very interesting read. To be honest I think the FFA approach here is spot on. Allowing the A-League clubs to organise their own preseason matches has opened up the door to media and public exposure that the league was never going to achieve via their dinky preseason club.

I hope though the FFA never support EPL matches here in Australia. Such matches would not be conductive to the growth of the game here in Australia and would be a backward step. These preseason matchups are the way to grow the game and hopefully a couple more good results will encourage better teams out here for their pre-seasons.

I will be heading along to the Melbourne Victory and Fulham match on Saturday night and have two English friends coming who have never seen the Victory play live. I am not desperate for a win (though it would be nice), what I really want is a great spectacle. There is no doubt that Fulham will come out with a little more vigour after been stung on Wednesday, hopefully the Victory can match and also put on a display. Whatever the result though its great for the game here and I look forward to more and evn better clubs in the following years.

27 Days to Season V

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