A-League Images

Despite dominating the entire first half with great play both down the sides and in the middle, the Central Coast Mariners couldn’t put away their chances and ended up losing 1-0 to Sydney FC on Sunday. It was an enjoyable match from my non-partisan view, there was a good atmosphere and I’m sure the A-League establishment will be happy about 41,000 people turning up for the game. Apart from the flare set off (pic below), I don’t think there was any crowd behaviour problems, unlike in the ethnically divisive NSL (National Soccer League) of a few years ago. I went to the Brisbane Strikers vs Sydney United grand final in 1997, and even though the Brisbane team didn’t have a majority fan base from a single ethnic background, the tension with Sydney’s Croatian supporters could have easily descended into a riot on several occasions.

Click on the stadium to see a larger version (~750kb). This panorama was put together using Autostitch.

Again, I’m going to try one with an automatic upload from my hard drive…