Melbourne Victory suffer humiliation at Gamba Osaka
Melbourne Victory's nightmares with the Asian Champions League continued unabated tonight with a thrashing in Japan.
Gamba Osaka humiliated Melbourne 5-1 in the opening game of their Champions League group.
Victory were 3-0 down inside the first ten minutes after giving away two goals and a penalty. Archie Thompson later secured a penalty for Melbourne which Kevin Muscat duly converted from the spot.
But it was a tiny respite as the J-League giants struck twice in the second-half, on the hour mark and in injury time.
While two teams qualify for the next round, Melbourne's dismal start suggests the gap between the A-League and Asia's elite competitions is growing.
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Results & Fixtures
Matches
| Home | Away | Score | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Apr 22nd | |||
| Brisbane Roar | Perth Glory | 2 - 1 | 06:00 |
Tables
| Team | P | W | D | L | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Coast Mariners | 27 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 16 | 51 |
| Brisbane Roar | 27 | 14 | 7 | 6 | 22 | 49 |
| Perth Glory | 27 | 13 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 43 |
| Wellington Phoenix | 27 | 12 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 40 |
| Sydney | 27 | 10 | 8 | 9 | -5 | 38 |
| Melbourne Heart | 27 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 37 |
| Newcastle Jets | 27 | 10 | 5 | 12 | -3 | 35 |
| Melbourne Victory | 27 | 6 | 11 | 10 | -8 | 29 |
| Adelaide United | 27 | 5 | 10 | 12 | -18 | 25 |
| Gold Coast United | 27 | 4 | 9 | 14 | -12 | 21 |
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Comments (2)
Matt, I agree the a-league is actually getting stronger each season & catching up to Asia's biggest leagues. This season with the roar & mariners playing great. Especially the roar who in my opinion has played the best football in the a-league's short history.
I think the reason why they put the big leagues in the same half of the draw against the smaller leagues in the other half of the draw (east vs west pretty much) is so the smaller league clubs can progress through. It doesn't really do the smaller leeague clubs any good becaus the moment they come up against a bigger club form japan, korea, etc. they are beaten easily & are left wondering went went wrong.
I don't know how the group draw works in the ACL, but they should seed the top clubs, so when the groups are finished they should have 2 bigger teams & 2 smaller teams in the group. It makes the competition more interesting & fair for everyone. You don't want to knock out all the bigger clubs out within the group stage & it will also give the smaller clubs more experience & the ability to pull of an upset against a stronger club, like you see in Europe.
"While two teams qualify for the next round, Melbourne's dismal start suggests the gap between the A-League and Asia's elite competitions is growing."
That is a ridiculous statement! the ACL is a stupid competition as the group stages work in eastern and western conferences! that means arguably the 4 strongest domestic leagues in Asia (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Australian) are all grouped together. While the Indonesian, Thai and Singaporean leagues all get MUCH easier groups. That instantly drops the comps credibility. The UEFA CL doesn't start with; Inter, Bayern, Man U and Barca all in group A do they?!?
Also, that statement implys that our league isn't as strong... Unlike the rest of the teams in Asia, we don't send our best 2 performing teams. We send our best two teams from the year before. If we sent Brisbane and CCM then we would have 2 teams in the top 8, no questions asked, and probably a league winner or runner up.
The ACL needs to re-think its group stage, and qualification methods! Australia also need entries into the 2nd division on the ACL, the Asian club Cup (or something like that) I understand that most teams in those comps are from India and Afghanistan. but We only have 2 entries into regional competitions, and we are yet to prove that we deserve 3 in the ACL. But many gulf nations (who are just below, Australia, china, japan and Korea in terms of quality) have entries into both the ACL and the 2nd division. Its time that Bin Hamen took us seriously, and starts to give us a chance at a regional level! This is an issue that the FFA must push harder for, and more Aussie fans and clubs need to be passionate about!
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