All Smiles.. Will the Heart beat on their debut?

Tonight we begin with the curtain-raiser to the Australian A-League season with new Victorian side Melbourne Heart debuting against the Central Coast Mariners.

If you’re interested on some info on the two teams tonight read on, but if you’re only interested in the match scroll right down for the LIVE! coverage!

Melbourne Heart

The Heart, whilst competing in their first A-League season, are coached by John van’t Schip and feature many seasoned veterans from other A-League clubs. Some of this talent includes former Sydney FC trio Simon Colosimo, Clint Bolton and John Aloisi, Socceroo Michael Beauchamp and young Dutchman Rutger Worm.

Central Coast Mariners

Meanwhile, the Mariners are coming of an inconsistent season in 2009/10 where they failed to qualify for finals. This led to Lawrie McKinna stepping down and being replaced with former Australian National coach Graham Arnold. However, they haven’t done any outstanding transfers and whilst Jess Vanstrattan comes in for Danny Vukovic there were not many other big moves.

TAB Sportsbet

Heart             $1.70
Draw             $3.40
Mariners        $3.70

The Heart’s roster obviously has bookies convinced with the Melbourne side massive favourites to win their debut game.

Prediction

Heart 2 – 1 Mariners

Melbourne Heart have us convinced as well. The acquisition of guys like Simon Colosimo and Michael Beauchamp in defence, Jossip Skoko in midfield and John Aloisi up front all points to a win. However, it’s the big occasion and we’ve seen other Melbourne sides fail at this stage before.

Cahill is currently in Australia with his Everton teammates.

Spearing a little of his time at a signing session for Optus, Cahill took a minute to talk to us.

We asked him about his thoughts on the A-League to start with.

“Yeah look, I support all the teams in the A-League and hope they do well,”

“Football in Australia is growing, as you can see,”

Speculation had of course been rife now for a few years about Cahill launching an A-League side in Sydney around Wollongong. But Cahill quashed those rumours, for now at least.

“Not too sure mate, but we’ll see what happens in the future, though,”

“Like I said, I just hope the teams do well,”

We couldn’t let him escape without one question about the World Cup though, and what better than his thoughts about all the Jabulani controversy.

“It’s different!” he said with a smile as he signed a Socceroos scarf for us.

TIM CAHILL and his Premier League side Everton are currently in Australia for three pre-season matches. They face Sydney FC (July 10), Melbourne Heart (July 14) and finish with a clash against Brisbane Roar (July 17).

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Play Every Minute!

Champions.. Sydney reign supreme.

Sydney FC have won their second A-League Premiership, beating Melbourne Victory 4-3 on penalties after the game finished locked up at 1-1 after 120 minutes. Mark Bridge netted an amazing goal after Rodrigo Vargas thought he had scored for the Victory at the other end, but Adrian Leijer equalized with nine to go as the game went into extra time. But Sydney left-back, Byun, was cool under pressure to slot home the winning penalty and send of retiring captain, Steve Corica, with a Premiership medal.

Clint Bolton was the hero though in his last match for the Sky Blues, saving one and watching Kevin Muscat hit the post as the Victory capitulated at the final hurdle.

Sydney though, might count themselves lucky to have won after the Victory pushed them all the way in the final five minutes of normal time after Sydney looked unbeatable at 1-0 up.

However it was the news that former Victory-man, Seb Ryall, had won the right back position over Shannon Cole, who started on the bench, which won early headlines. Meanwhile, Melbourne were arguably at full strength with Archie Thompson, Carlos Hernandez and Robbie Kruse leading a potent attack.

The game started with Muscat offering youngster, Chris Payne, some early attention. Both teams tried to find their passing game in the initial minutes as a few shots were fired by Sydney.

In the 14th-minute though, Melbourne suffered a major setback as Archie Thompson tore his anterior cruciate ligament, forcing him to make way. Young Costa Rican Martin Angullo stepped in for the influential striker.

However the first half really had limited chances for both teams in a period where the ball spent most of the time being battled in midfield.

But it was after the break when the game’s momentum began to pick up.

It took all of sixty-one minutes for the majority of Etihad Stadium to go from jubilation to shock. A cross from Melbourne resulted in Rodrigo Vargas tapping the ball past Clint Bolton in goal, but the linesman was on the mark, correctly ruling it out for offiside.

Bolton was aware of the situation though, unlike the Victory – who completely switched off. Byun ended up with the ball and fed Alex Brosque down the left hand channel. Vargas attempted to block the Socceroo’s cross but all he could do was deflect the ball high into the six-yard box. Langerak was left retreating, and Mark Bridge easily headed in to put Sydney into the lead. It was the second time Bridge had scored in an A-League Grand Final.

And minutes later, Payne should have finished the game off. Brilliant Brosque exploded into the penalty area and unselfishly squared for the waiting Payne. But he scuffed his shot well wide with the goal at his peril. You got the feeling that if Sydney didn’t kill the game, that miss might come back to haunt them.

It nearly did too, as in the 81st-minute, a quick free kick by Muscat led to the Victory equalizer. Delivering into the box, Adrian Leijer swooped on a sleeping Simon Colosimo to head in for 1-1.

The former Fulham-man should have won it for Melbourne as well, firing an easier free header over the top from a corner, with minutes remaining.

There was time for one more test for Bolton, Hernandez hitting a decent free kick, but the keeper making sure the game would go beyond the distance.

Extra time, as it does these days, ceased Melbourne’s momentum, and was really a pointless half hour of extra football.

Hernandez though nearly scored in the last minutes as he scrambled through the FC defence but fell over the ball as he went to shoot.

But it went to penalties.

The ‘reliable’ Muscat went first, but this time he found the upright, even with Bolton beaten. Colosimo and Brebner both scored before Langerak produced a blinder to stop Shannon Cole’s effort. But it was Bolton’s save from Angullo that allowed Byun to win it.

It caps a historical year for Sydney as they ‘did the double’ by winning both the Premier’s Plate and the Championship.

Colosimo picked up the Joe Marston Medal for best on field, as on-field captain, Terry McFlynn lifted the premiership trophy with now-retired club captain, Steve Corica.

Melbourne, meanwhile, will have to drown their sorrows of a first ever Grand Final lost on a plane to Japan as they gear up for a Asian Champions League match with Kawasaki.

Sydney will now hope some of their now championship-winning team will decide to stay at the Football Stadium come next season, but for now its congratulations to the Sky Blues, 2009/10 A-League Champions!

When I say ‘big’ I don’t necessarily mean playing one of the so-called ‘bigger’ teams like a Melbourne for example’s sake. More so I imply the games in which Sydney had the chance to establish themselves as the title favourites, or close to it.

We’ve just seen them lose to Gold Coast, at home – something that hasn’t happened much this season. This game was a chance for Sydney to really consolidate their position on top of the A-League ladder, but the Sky Blues flopped, again. This is the third time this season United have beaten Sydney, it’s starting to become a hoodoo for Viteslav and his men.

Other big games like the loss at Perth and at Adelaide when Barbeiro was given his orders very early and Sydney still couldn’t manage to see the Reds off resemble how Sydney has struggled when they had the chance to push on.

The result on Sunday afternoon sees Sydney drop down to second, sandwiched one point either side from Gold Coast (1^st) and champions, Melbourne (3^rd), respectively. However, the Victory has a game in hand, and after their crushing of Perth, a draw will take them above Sydney.

So after one bad result Sydney could potentially drop down to third. Yes, they were missing the influential Brosque, but no excuses can be offered. With the minor premiers qualifying for the Asian Champions League and second spot having a relatively good chance to qualify as well, Sydney might be doing a bit of nail-biting.

Sydney has a demanding following, and most would expect that when Viteslav, the board and the team set goals for the season, qualifying for the Champions League would have been one of them. They deserve to be at least in the top two this season one might say, but really they have to start performing in the most crucial of games. With four regular season games remaining Sydney will be looking to muscle their way back into that top two.

They’ve got Newcastle, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne in the run in, so by no means will that be an easy task. In fact, they lost to Newcastle and drew to both Perth and Melbourne the last time they played, so season history isn’t exactly with them. However, Perth and Melbourne are both at home so they’ll look to take advantage.

The final round fixture against Melbourne is looming as a clash of extreme proportions with both teams so close on the ladder. So if Sydney can overcome their big game jitters and get some form against the Jets, Brisbane and Perth it would set up a surely mouth-watering ‘Big Blue’ derby.  It might only be a matter of time before they’re back upon the summit of the A-League.