The contrasting fortunes of Adelaide and Melbourne in the ACL thus far raise some interesting issues. Both teams have now played away against a Chinese team and at home against a Korean outfit, in their two matches to date. The Reds of course are flying high on six points while Victory have a big, fat doughnut sitting in the column that matters.
I shouldn't gloat. But who am I kidding - when it's Melbourne's disappointments we're talking about, there is a certain innate pleasure that is hard to conceal. It comes with being a Reds fan. Anyway, I digress.
It would be interesting to hear Alex Ferguson's response to the question, and I'm sure he must have been asked it, as to which competition he'd prefer to win - the EPL or the Champions League. Given Man U's abilities and ambitions I'm sure he'd say both, but if he had to narrow it down to just one, which of the two would he choose?.
Domestic dominance and bragging rights are pretty important and of course it is EPL success that qualifies a club to participate in the continental competition in the first place. For pure prestige, quality of opposition and inherent standing though, surely the Champions League wins hand down.
The landscape is a little different from an A-League and ACL perspective. The A-League is of course a much newer competition that the EPL and has no long-standing tradition to lean on. But the ACL itself is still very much in its formative years. Thus the lines between the respective merits of our two competitions are a little blurry.
For the Reds there are no decisions to make - courtesy of them earning an A-League wooden spoon for their performances this year. All efforts can thus be devoted to the ACL. The squad has been strengthened, the players are fresh and largely injury free and the focus is clear. So far it shows.
Melbourne on the other hand have divided loyalties and they demonstrated this week, by playing a stronger team against Sydney than they did against Seongnam (onya big Og!), that they value A-League success over ACL progression. Granted we're at the pointy end of the A-League season but one wonders, in the bigger picture, whether they've made the right call.
In Melbourne's defence it's hardly ideal that the ACL games are played smack back in the middle of the A-League finals series. Surely the FFA needs to do something and give our clubs a fighting chance.
Somebody once said that "a choice between two good things is the hardest choice there is." If we're a bit smarter about our scheduling, perhaps in future our clubs won't be forced into making a choice at all.
