Sydney FC

The A-​League (Australia’s professional football — soccer if you must — league) is now heading into it’s 7^th season. Despite a disappointing finish to last season (they failed to qualify for the playoffs), Sydney FC, with 2 championships, are the most successful team (along with Melbourne Victory) since the inception of the league.
This season sees the exciting addition of Brett Emerton, a regular in the English Premier League with Blackburn Rovers, who has decided to move back home to finish his career. Hopefully this will see an improvement in results as well as attendances, which averaged out at little over 7,500 last season (in a stadium that holds over 45,000).
As the season takes place over the summer, so as not to clash with the two rugby codes and the Aussie Rules seasons, games take place in the late afternoon/​early evening so to avoid the hottest part of the day. The quality can sometimes be found wanting, but it’s a young league and shouldn’t be compared to the major leagues in Europe. It does offer and evening’s worth of entertainment, and with the addition of Emerton and other players with European experience, hopefully it will help build on the quality of the league and keep it moving in the right direction.
Date to watch out for (subject to change):
March 10, 2012 Sydney FC v Melbourne Victory — Sydney’s main rivals usually bring a healthy following, which makes for an electric atmosphere, and with the addition of Harry Kewell, they are expected to entertain this season. If you get to only one game during the season, make sure it’s this one.