The Asian Champions League gets underway tonight.
That probably doesn’t mean much to most readers of motherpedia, so read on to understand a little more –not least because it reminds you of the enormous global appeal of the sport that your son or daughter probably enjoys playing throughout winter weekends.
First, it’s an annual football (soccer) competition involving the best club teams in the Asian region. World football is divided into six regions (known as confederations) and Australia has been part of Asia since 2006. As a result, our teams are able to participate in various Asian level competitions both at country level (the Asian Cup) and club level (such as the Asian Champions League).
Second, Asia is a very large region. It comprises 46 nations including the Middle East (other than Israel which slots into Europe), north to Uzbekistan in Central Asia, and everything in between until you reach the Australian continent! 32 teams are taking part in the 2012 competition divided in eight groups. Each of the four teams in the eight groups meet each other twice on a ‘home’ and ‘away’ basis. So, in light of the geographic spread of the Asian football region, something as simple as a football match can involve very long journeys that are taxing enough for we ordinary folk – let alone for an elite athlete who is expected to go out and perform at optimum level.
Third, Australia’s A-League has three teams in the 2012 Asian Champions League:
· Brisbane Roar who were last year’s domestic champions
· Central Coast Mariners who were runner’s up, and
· Adelaide United who came third.
Both Central Coast and Adelaide United have been in previous editions of the Asian Champions League, with Adelaide going all the way to the Final in 2008 which they lost to Gamba Osaka of Japan.
As well as our three local teams, we also have a few expats represented in other teams. For example, the Socceroos captain, Lucas Neill plays for the Abu Dhabi based Al Jazira team. Two more Socceroos are involved also: Mark Bresciano who plays for Al Nasr in the UAE and Josh Kennedy who plays for Nagoya Grampus in the Japanese J-League. Plus there's Blacktown boy, Milan Susak, playing for Tianjin Teda in China and who are in the same group as Central Coast.
But home attention will be on the three A-League teams with Adelaide United having the toughest schedule. After playing Perth Glory last Thursday night, they were off on a very long trip to Uzbekistan to meet Bunyodkor - a team they have met on two previous occasions in previous campaigns. It is a long and circuitous trip to get to Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan) – just ask those who trod the silk road - but at least Adelaide can be comforted by the fact that, once tonight’s game is over, they don’t have to do it again this year!
Central Coast Mariners are in Tianjin, China (about 120km from Beijing) where they meet Tianjin Teda. Although Beijing is far closer than Tashkent, it still took around 24 hours door-to-door from when the team played their A-League match on Saturday at Gosford to arrive at their hotel in Tianjin. The temperature on arrival was minus 3 degrees. As with Adelaide and Bunyodkor, the teams have met on two occasions previously.
Brisbane Roar has the easiest opening game. They will enjoy home comforts at Suncorp Stadium tonight when they take on FC Tokyo. This is the first time either team has participated in the Asian Champions League. But Brisbane Roar coach, Ange Postecoglou, whose team has been nicknamed ‘Roarcelona’ after the smooth footballing style of Spanish giants, Barcelona, has said he expects to exceed past performances of A-League teams in the ACL and eventually take on the likes of another Spanish giant, Real Madrid, at the Club World Cup (another competition that is the ‘big daddy’ of the regional club competitions and which is an entire other article!).
The match in Brisbane tonight kicks-off at 7.30pm local time. Players to watch include Thomas Broich, Besart Berisha, Erik Paartalu and Henrique for Brisbane, while the danger men for FC Tokyo include Kazuma Watanabe and Sota Hirayama.
UPDATE:
Adelaide won in Tashkent, 1-2 overnight Tuesday; and Brisbane Roar had a loss at home - not a good result! - 0-2. (The convention for giving scores in football is to home team: away team).
Central Coast drew in Tianjin, 0-0 Wednesday night - an 'away' draw is a good result.
- Further information: www.the-afc.com
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