The A-League is here! At last! In case you're unsure of the opening round games, they are:
Friday: Adelaide United v Sydney FC, 7.20pm local, 7.50pm AEDT
Saturday: Melbourne Victory v Melbourne City, 7.50pm local and AEDT
Sunday: Wellington Phoenix v Newcastle Jets, 5pm local, 3pm AEDT
Sunday: Brisbane Roar v Central Coast Mariners, 4pm local, 5pm AEDT
Sunday: Perth Glory v Western Sydney Wanderers, 4pm local, 7pm AEDT
To get you in the mood, start off with David Squires' brilliant opening to the season with his weekly cartoon.
And then make sure you read our long read on just who your A-League owner is.
Adelaide United v Sydney FC
'Anything you can do I can do better' sang Betty Hutton to Howard Keel in Annie Get Your Gun!* – and Adam Le Fondre seems to have it as a theme song. He isn't fazed by his predecessor Bobo's 27-goal record from last season and pointed out that he has scored 30 goals in a season (it's unclear in how many games) when playing League Two for Rotherham, although he concedes he was “a lot younger” then. He's looking forward to playing regularly and getting out on the park tonight.
Alex Brosque says there's more than just three points up for grabs, but also the chance to strike a psychological blow to the FFA Cup Final competitors, especially at home. Brosque almost gave the game away in the off-season but “convinced himself to squeeze out one more year” for the sake of continuity and for the players to show that the success wasn't just Graham Arnold's but also the playing group.
A tale of what can happen to a player when a new coach comes in who, for one reason or another, doesn't value you. Enter, Craig Goodwin – going along swimmingly at Sparta Rotterdam in 2016-17 playing 27 games and scoring four goals, but when Dick Advocaat came along, he was “all but banished”. Although he had another year left on his contract at Rotterdam, he says he's happy to be home and settled in Adelaide.
Melbourne Derby
Ray Gatt with another 1960s cultural reference (following on from us mentioning Ben Hur earlier in the week), They're a Weird Mob. He writes that Keisuke Honda thinks ($) we – or rather the A-League – is a bit weird, presumably in a nice way. Honda says the long off-season is weird (tick), having the Melbourne Derby as the opening game of the season is weird (yep, we get that, but we also get why), and having such open training sessions is weird. As if to reinforce the latter, he says if you want to know about Melbourne Victory tactics, come along to training!
Honda also says that he's ready and yet he's strangely not ready for the Melbourne Derby, as he doesn't know a lot about the opposition, other than that Tim Cahill played for them. Honda said that he thinks Swedish international, Ola Toivonen, is one of the best players in the Melbourne Victory squad “but he will need some time”.
Well, Honda may have thought the whole pre-season thing was “weird”, but Melbourne Victory captain Carl Valeri says it was a “gruelling pre-season”, that everyone has worked harder and “more is never enough”.
Melbourne City captain, Scott Jamieson, says they've “turned the page, but we've kept the book” when it comes to the memory of that scorpion kick from Riley McGree which dumped City out of last season's finals series. He says the squad are prepared to tell each other “the hard truths” to make sure they are successful this season.
Brisbane Roar v Central Coast Mariners
Worth recounting the opening few lines of this article on Mike Mulvey's wish to shift attention away from Usain Bolt and on to his team and their opening round game against Central Coast Mariners.
'A reporter had just noted that, while Mulvey’s focus might be on his new team’s away clash with Brisbane Roar, he must surely understand the rest of the world is fixated on only one player. “Absolutely. And I think Ross McCormack will be very helpful in that situation,” Mulvey replied.'
Mulvey went on to make the point that he has 23 players who have worked hard during pre-season and are ready for the season ahead.
Perth Glory v Western Sydney Wanderers
For the Wanderers, Mark Bridge is out of action until December with a recurrence of a long-standing calf injury but Vedran Janjetovic was on the flight that travelled west. For Perth Glory, Brendon Santalab will not play and Matthew Spiranovic is in doubt.
Wellington Phoenix v Newcastle Jets
Nigel Boogaard did the remarkable at the end of last season – returning from a broken tibia and torn calf within six weeks to play in the A-League semi-final and grand final. As a result, he had a “quiet” off-season and realises that the team will be more “hunted” this season than last and welcomes the increased expectation. Ben Kantarovski has been named in the squad, but it's unclear whether he will travel due to “niggling” hamstring and calf injuries.
Johnny Katroumbis
His world was “turned upside down” when given a diagnosis of thyroid cancer, but it's good to hear that 20-year-old Johnny Katroumbis (pictured) is expected to make a full recovery after surgery on Monday and further treatment to come. All the best to you Johnny.
W-League
The W-League gets underway next week.
Lisa De Vanna says the next step is for the W-League to be a full home-and-away series to remain internationally competitive. De Vanna returns to Sydney FC this season, with their opening game a Sydney Derby next Thursday night.
24-year-old Irish international Denise O'Sullivan, who has played for North Carolina Courage in the NWSL, has been signed by Canberra United as a guest player, which means she can play seven non-consecutive games for the season. The new-look Canberra squad will feature players from Ireland, South Africa, Scotland as well as Australia.
Socceroos
Also included in News Corp's 'Football Confidential' are some Socceroos-related snippets, viz:
Australia may play the Pim Verbeek-coached Oman in December;
Rene Meulensteen's 'induction song' at Socceroos camp was a rendition of Sweet Caroline but with Sweet Socceroos instead. It appears to have taken off with the squad heard singing it in the dressing rooms.
In the same report, on FFA Congress issues, it is also reported that the Nominations Committee hasn't yet met, but nominations close on Thursday. They may not have met in person but there are many discussions, permutations and individuals being discussed.
Ange Postecoglou
Speaking of former Socceroos coaches, it seems Ange Postecoglou might be on the move again, departing Yokohama Marinos to coach the nation of his birth, Greece. He is said to be “seriously considering” taking up the offer from next year. His contract with Yokohama Marinos is through to the end of 2019.
Young Socceroos
Ajax player and Young Socceroos captain, Sebastian Pasquali, says he will do everything to make sure Australia qualifies for the U-20 World Cup. The Asian qualifiers get underway tonight. The match schedule is:
Friday: South Korea v Australia, 11pm AEDT
Monday: Australia v Vietnam, 8pm AEDT
Thursday: Australia v Jordan, 11pm AEDT
* Annie Get Your Gun! is a film made in 1950, the musical tale of Annie Oakley.