With United's opening game of the new season around the corner, I've been struck down with an acute dose of football fever.
Highly contagious, and sometimes annoying to friends of victims, the illness bears symptoms such as constant talk of football, an obsession with football games that are two-plus years out of date and kicking every round thing on the floor.
It started as a minor case. Every now and again, I'd pop up with the latest transfer rumours. Then it got bad, in maths class, I would blurt out random statistics, instead of doing my work on standard deviation. Then it got almost unbearable. 99% of my conversations are now dominated by football; local and international.
Others have caught on. Since my diagnosis, people have been joining in with the conversations, even debating my opinion of players, clubs etc. Other people have even been saying that they intend on attending all the United home matches this year.
That's when it hit me. The club may not have done all they can to get new people attending matches, the fans have ample opportunity to get friends and family to attend matches, but it seems that we haven't put the effort in.
So I urge all United fans, if you have friends and family that haven't been to a United match yet, get them along to Sunday's M1 Blockbuster. What's a better way to introduce them to the best sport in the world than a fierce local derby.
Onto the derby itself. Probably one of the most widely anticipated opening round matches, the M1 Blockbuster promises fierce and skillful football. Last year boasted 3-2, 1-0 and 5-1 scorelines in United's favour, and United fans will hope that we can continue our clean sweep of the Meow.
Thanks to Miron Bleiberg, it seems that United may be under pressure again this year. Bleiberg announced United as the A-League's favourites for the title this year. Don't get me wrong; I know we have a team capable of taking the title, but I'm not sure that we have the best team in the league.
Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC are mainstays in the favourites list for the A-League championship, and they are always a threat. New boys Melbourne Heart have a strong squad, and with a good string of results, could easily mount a serious challenge.
In reality though, any team in the competition could win it. Central Coast and Newcastle, although not widely-regarded as part of the 'big boys', both have good squads. Wellington Phoenix were the surprise package last year, and this year it wouldn't be a surprise if they made the finals again.
Obviously, I want United to win, but I am under no illusions that nobody is guaranteed the title. I am sure that United will be either there or there-abouts come the end of the season, and every week I will be looking forward to the 90 minutes of football that will hopefully end in jubilation for United.
Here's to another season of highs, lows, controversies, and surprises in the ever exciting Hyundai A-Leauge, but more importantly, Skilled Park at Robina.
Five days shalt thou labour, as the Bible says. The seventh day is the Lord thy God's. The sixth day is for football.
Anthony Burgess
