After losing to Brisbane in Toowoomba and Newcastle in Morwell, Melbourne Heart debuted in Melbourne tonight. They lost 2-0 to Everton in front of 19,261.

That seems like a pretty respectable crowd for a midweek game although ticket prices had to be slashed in order to get them there and I imagine a large proportion of the crowd would be there for Everton not Heart - and this is the problem. Friendlies against glamorous overseas clubs, especially if they are English, always attract much bigger crowds than A League games. Gold Coast got 10k for a pre-season game against Fulham last year and struggled to get half that in the A League.

Melbourne Arab wrote:
Huddersfield must have a pretty extensive scouting network

Dean Heffernan probably told us about him.

Although the rugby league team that 'shares' our stadium probably has a few Aussies in it - perhaps one of them and Lee Clark have a regular lunch meeting or something.

The Age reporter at last night’s Melbourne Heart – Everton game has described the official attendance of 19,261 as “creative.” The match was apparently played in almost total silence apart from some “murmurings” from the small crowd and the “doleful blowing” of a single vuvuzela (that’s disappointing – I was hoping vuvuzelas would be everywhere in the A League this season. I’m not sure I can bear to watch football without them now).

It was also confirmed that Everton fans were “certainly” in the majority. The decision to play at Etihad Stadium is bewildering and Melbourne Victory are joining in the stupidity on Friday against Boca Juniors.

You shouldn't have a problem. Boca got trashed over here by Seattle, if I remember right.

there's an australian keeper, Danny Milosevic, currently on trial with Vancouver Whitecaps

Everton are up in Brisbane this Saturday, tickets are twenty dollars each, not sure I'd be willing to pay that much to see either team.

Wonder how long Danny will last on that trial.

Melbourne Victory lost 1-0 to Boca Juniors last night at a near empty Etihad Stadium. The match was live on Setanta but I was certainly grateful for the opportunity to switch over to Adelaide - Geelong at the 40 minute mark.

The first half was pretty bad tempered and Victory looked very poor. Nobody has yet been signed to replace Archie who will be out until the new year and Victory could well fail to score before then. Once the novelty of the new stadium wears off, I think this new season could get ugly.

Turns out that Shane Smeltz doesn't like China and after 5 days has returned to Australia.

Reported on 442 that the GCU fans will welcome him back with open arms..ha ha, the masses will be giddy with excitement at Skilled Park!

Jonas77 wrote:
the masses will be giddy with excitement at Skilled Park!

You're not wrong - they've just signed Glen Moss.

YYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Adelaide striker Sergio van Dijk has decided that he would quite like to play international football for Indonesia- so he has taken himself off to Djkarta to complete the necessary paperwork... much to the displeasure of new Adelaide coach Rini Coolen, who would rather have appreciated van Dijk's attendance at his first training session.

Adelaide could be about to sign Iain Ramsay from Sydney. He is 22, and apparently spent several seasons at Gretna without making their first team.....

Jon Bon Jovi has purchased 4 Melbourne Heart memberships and been appointed "number one international ticket holder." He said:

"I like to think I pour my heart into whatever I do, so supporting Melbourne Heart FC seemed pretty natural."

Heart's membership is less than half the number the club were predicting just a week and a half from the start of the season. Melbourne Victory's membership is more than 20% down on last year (and season 5 was well down on the peak of season 3) although there is an extra week before Victory's first home game.

Any Sydney-siders watching the Festival of Football tournament games over the next few days? I was wondering how much they were charging for admission, as the stadium looks sparsely populated at the moment. Just saw AEK Athens beat Sydney FC 5-3. As is often the case with these sort of games here, looks like more AEK supporters in the crowd than Sydney supporters!

Rangers vs Blackburn Rovers coming up next, apparently... ground is in pretty poor condition already.

Danny Allsopp got a hat trick tonight against the touring shambles that is Portsmouth FC. First goals for him in a couple months.

Melbourne Victory drew with CCM in Launceston today (where were Adelaide United?)- the last pre-season game. It was 0-0, highlighting again Victory's desperate need to find a replacement for Archie.

There are still 2 places available in the Victory squad and Archie has been injured for months - I've no idea why they are finding it so difficult to sign someone but they have no chance of being contenders this season with the current squad.

Adelaide lost 3-1 to Perth Glory at Hindmarsh on Friday night- so looks like no trip to Launceston this year! Michael Baird, who trialled at Adelaide at the end of last season, scored twice for Perth. Adelaide beat Wellington 2-0 the previous week. New coach Coolen has now arrived.. he doesn't like "long ball football", apparently.....

Aye, Trimster - we went to the "Festival of Football" yesterday.

The missus had enjoyed the world cup so fancied seeing a live game (she said afterwards it was nice to watch the game without the constant whine of vuvuzelas, while the noise from the Rangers fans lulled her to sleep towards the end)

In terms of the football - nothing spectacular, typical pre-season friendly stuff really. The pitch wasn't in the best condition either

First game - AEK were several classes above Sydney, played some nice football and gifted the locals their first two goals (a stupidly conceded penalty and goalkeeping error - to much amusement from the Greeks around me)

Second game - Rangers were the better team over Blackburn and deservedly won...although apparently Blackburn only arrived in the country on Saturday so I'd imagine they'll get better as the week progresses.

The crowd? Just over 14,000 according to todays paper - local Greeks and Rangers fans largely from what I could see. And most of the Greeks left after the AEK game.

Admission is $29 upwards (for both games on the day) So I'd recommend it.

With the A League season starting next week, is anyone game enough to come up with some tips?

Last season I was the only poster to not tip NQ Fury to finish bottom. But I spoilt that effort by tipping Wellington to finish bottom... they ended up fourth! I think Rory Bunk and Fat Cockney were the only posters to tip Sydney to win.

This season I've gone for:

1. Sydney
2. Heart
3. Victory
4. Perth Glory
5. Gold Coast
6. Wellington
7. Newcastle
8. Brisbane
9. Adelaide
10.NQ Fury
11.Mariners

I haven't been following pre-season events that closely, but Sydney FC held Rangers to a draw recently, so surely that is a good form guide (!?) Heart seem to have a good list of players- if Van't Schip can mould them into a team quickly they will do well. Victory fans have been lamenting their lack of firepower up front without Archie.. if they can sign Djite they may still do well, although he is not quite the same type of player as Archie.

I don't know much about the other clubs, really. Not much different at Adelaide this season- except for the coach. They have played friendlies against three other A League clubs- and won one and lost two. Scott Jamieson has gone to Sydney; Galekovic and Cassio, who were both rumoured to be on their way, are both still here. Leckie is currently on duty with the national Under 19 team. Might still be a battle to avoid the wooden spoon- and Galekovic will surely leave for a better club soon.

When the A League fixtures were announced, Melbourne Heart predicted they would get 20,000 to their first game. With memberships tacking well below expectations, they now say they would be happy with 10k, delighted with 15k but concede that closer to 5k is a real possibility. What a disaster that would be for the FFA given that last year’s 2 new teams were hardly a raging success.

The big difficulty with doing A League predictions is the huge amount of player movement between seasons (Melbourne Victory, this year, being the exception). I’ve just checked the ins and outs and discovered that I was unaware of about 90% of them. Apart from one completely new club, it looks like NQF, Brisbane, CCM and Newcastle have almost completely overhauled their squads. I didn’t even know that Simon Storey, a regular in Victory’s greatest ever team in season 2, had returned from Scotland and signed for NQF or that Newcastle have signed Jeremy Brockie surely the worst player in A League history alongside Leandro Love.

Victory go into the season without the injured Archie and Matthew Kemp and with the excellent Mitchell Langerak in Germany. The creaky defence is a year old older and couldn’t possibly get any slower. I expect Kevin and Roddy Vargas to be horribly exposed. Up front, the strike pairing will be weak as piss Robbie Kruse and 12 year old Mate Dugandzic. The midfield, at least, looks good with Billy Celeski back from injury to join Carlos and ex Dundee United man, and now fellow Australian citizen, Grant Brebner.

Predictions:

1 Melbourne Heart
2 Perth
3 Gold Coast
4 Sydney
5 Wellington
6 Adelaide
7 Newcastle
8 Melbourne Victory
9 Central Coast
10 Brisbane
11 North Queensland

Predictions:

1 Perth
2 Melbourne Heart
3 Sydney
4 Gold Coast
5 Wellington
6 Melbourne Victory
7 Adelaide
8 Newcastle
9 Central Coast
10 Brisbane
11 North Queensland