Less glamour, more drama for A-League's 10th season
By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY (Reuters) - David Villa will sprinkle a little stardust on the opening round of the A-League when he turns out for Melbourne City this weekend but Australia's top flight looks like being more about fierce competition than marquee names this season.
Spanish World Cup winner Villa will suit up for City - the former Melbourne Heart newly rebranded after their purchase by English champions Manchester City - when they take on Sydney FC in the harbour city on Saturday.
The 32-year-old striker will play a maximum of 10 matches as a guest player on loan from New York City - also owned by the Manchester club - but his cameo aside, there is less obvious glamour about the 10th season of the league.
Without household names like Alessandro del Piero, Harry Kewell, Shinji Ono and Emile Heskey to put the sport onto the back pages, the league will be more reliant on the general quality of football on show to sustain its profile.
The good news is that championship race looks like being much closer than last season, when Brisbane Roar finished 10 points clear at the top of the regular season standings before clinching their third title in four years in the playoffs.
Asian Champions League finalists Western Sydney Wanderers, runners up for the last two years, and 2013 champions Central Coast Mariners should remain in the hunt but as many as seven of the 10 clubs will harbour serious title ambitions.
Sydney FC, traditionally viewed as the league's glamour club, won their second title in 2010 but look to be a more balanced outfit after the departure of Juventus great Del Piero and the arrival as coach of the organised Graham Arnold.
Melbourne Victory have snared prolific Albanian striker Besart Berisha from Brisbane and will also be there or thereabouts if head coach Kevin Muscat can inject into his defence some of the bite he displayed in his playing career.
The attempt by Adelaide United's Josep Gombau to bring a short passing game to the league better known for more direct tactics has won plenty of admirers and the Spaniard will be looking for a better return than the first round of the playoffs in his second season in charge.
FINANCIAL STABILITY
Melbourne City's investment has not been limited to the loan signing of Villa with former English Premier League midfielder Robert Koren among other players to have signed up for a move Down Under.
They are, however, likely to need a brilliant start while the Spaniard is still around to move from the bottom of the league last season to championship contenders in this campaign.
Wanderers must put aside the distractions of their bid to become Australia's first Asian champions at the start of the campaign but will be as well-organised and difficult to break down as ever under Tony Popovic.
Continued Wanderers success and a resurgent Melbourne City will certainly help to keep attendances rising after both Sydney derbies attracted crowds in excessive of 40,000 last year, while one of the all-Melbourne clashes was played in front of 45,000.
More importantly, perhaps, for a league that used to be marred by regular financial collapses, Football Federation Australia (FFA) expect at least half of the clubs to break even or make a profit this season. The campaign gets underway when Victory host Wanderers on Friday, takes a break in January for Australia's bid to win the Asian Cup on home soil and concludes with the playoffs in May.
(Editing by Peter Rutherford)
