The latest installment of the AFC Champions League kicks off tonight and I for one cannot wait.

Hopefully will be a cracking night at the Dome. According to Aaron Healy on Fox Sports News last night we sold almost 25,000 tickets (not sure how accurate that is though).

Really looking forward to my first taste of continental Football, and I am very confident that we can get the job done. Chunnam have been struck by injury and hopefully the warm weather will make it unpleasant for them.

I'm going to tip Melbourne to win 2-1.

Of course Adelaide also kick off their campaign tonight away to Pohang Steelers, who beat Chunnam 2-1 on the weekend. If they can come away with a draw they are doing well.

Has there been much promotion for the game in Melbourne?

I remember in Sydney this time last year there was absolutely stuff all as the match comes under the auspices of the AFC.

Also expect a clean stadium inside.

Not a massive amount of promotion, only really in the last few days.

There was an advertisement in the Herald Sun on Sunday and no doubt in The Age too, ads have been on SEN promoting both the game and SEN's coverage.

That is about it really in terms of actual advertising. There has been at least one article in the paper for probably the last week or so. The Age had a terrific double page spread today, whilst their wasn't a great deal in the Sun.

Promotion of these games really need to improve, however until A-League clubs start having large sums of money to spend on marketing I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Here in Sydney they are reporting an expected crowd of 40,000 for the game in Melbourne tonight. That would be an awesome turn out. Was just wondering how true these reports are.

looking forward to watching these games. It's a nice extension to the season.

How does the group stage work this season? Is it the top two or top one that goes through to the next round?

IMO not very accurate. I will be doing cartwheels down Bourke Street if we get 40k or even close to it.

I think you're looking at 25-27k. If we can get up to, or over 30k, it will be an amazing effort.


In the group stage there are 7 groups of 4. The top team from each team continues on to the Quarter Finals where they are joined by Urawa Red Diamonds, making 8 teams.

Pumped! I'm predicting 35k & a 3-0 win. Go Melbourne!

This is the last year that only the top team goes through, in 2009 there will be 8 groups with the top two from each side going through - much like the UEFA Champions league.

Great start for the two Australian clubs, both recording 2-0 wins and going top of their respective tables. 23k at Telstra Dome, would have been good to get over 30k, but still, not a bad crowd and just follows the trend of lower attendances for ACL games (for some reason). Anyway, was a great atmosphere and can't wait for the next game!

Top results for Melbourne and Adelaide.

Watched the whole of the Melb- Chunnam game.

Boy, was the Korean side soft in the 1st half. Not soft in that they'd flop and look for frees but they have a more fundamental weakness in that they didn't put in tackles. They'd try and close the Melbourne players down by blocking rather than challenging. Weak. And they'd be bundled off the ball easily when they had possession.

MVFC took full advantage of the frailty with excellent movement and passing to create a lot of opportunities. When Chunnam had attacking possession they'd invariably have a wild shot from well outside of the box. They were barely threatening in the 1st half.

MV's penalty was stone cold. Kemp(?) was lucky in that his first touch when running onto the ball was way too heavy but it sucked the Korean defender into making a challenge which turned out to be too late, missing the ball and putting the Melbourne player on the ground instead. 1-0.

2nd half started better for Chunnam as they kept possession and started earning territory. But MV scored a second. Roddie Vargas completely unmarked in the box had all the time and space in the world to knock in a header from a corner. More piss-weak manning-up from Chunnam.

Can't remember that much of the game but the ref did miss an obvious penalty for Chunnam in the final few minutes. But he was pretty good for most of the match.


Saw only part of the Pohang-Adelaide game. I'm guessing they put in a classic away team performance. Pohang dominated possession but Adelaide got an early goal and a late sealer. The 2nd was pretty damn lucky. Can't remember the kids name but in attempting to control a ball coming in from behind as he was running towards goal he miscued and knocked it diagonally between the onrushing keeper and the covering defender and straight into the path of Bruce Djite who tapped in. Classic.

23k + all the u/18 hoolz = MV's average crowd. So could do with a bit of proper marketing/permission slips

You weren't wrong mate!!

Even on the scoreboard where it normally has the "Telstra Dome" logo was covered up! I did like seeing all the AFC advertising hoardings around the ground, good to see something different.

And speaking of seeing something different, great to see an opposition that wasn't in white!!

Great results for both teams.

I laughed my head off in the way the Poohang player got sent off late in the second half.

Apologies, I posted on an old thread about next weeks Melbourne Victory game against Japanese powerhouse Gamba Osaka. Looking forward to the game, we desperately NEED to win the game to stand any chance of topping the group! Come On Melbourne...come on Melbourne!