Shame on you, Sydney fans

Three quality foreign clubs and Sydney FC took part in a four-team round-robin tournament over three match days this week.

Scottish champions Rangers, England’s Blackburn Rovers and AEK Athens of Greece honoured us by choosing Australia as the main point of their pre-season.

However Sydney’s fickle fans unfortunately did not get too excited about the big event that served as a valuable pre-season exercise for all competing teams.

A poor turnout of 14,000 on match day one, 9000 on match day two and 15,000 on match day three would have left organisers shaking their heads in disbelief and wondering if it was worth bringing over such quality teams.

Even though the midweek round was marred by terrible weather conditions, there is simply no excuse for Sydney’s snub especially when one considers that the cheapest adult ticket for any match day was $29. That’s two movie tickets, for goodness sake.

I mean, what did fans expect to get for $29 ... Real Madrid versus Barcelona!

Which is a great shame because the tournament provided some very good football, especially from deserved winner AEK and in patches from Rangers.

Blackburn was at times disappointing but it improved considerably in its last match against Sydney which generally was outplayed in its three matches but was never outclassed.

The Greek side earned the respect of many neutral fans with the way it went about its business from day one.

It scored some wonderful goals and caught the eye with its neat approach and willingness to play on the deck all the time, even when it was under pressure.

The tournament’s final day belonged to Australia really as AEK’s Nathan Burns and Blackburn’s Brett Emerton stole the show with two wonderful goals.

Substitute Burns broke the deadlock against Rangers with a sublime header that flew into the net and Emerton gave Rovers the lead with an acrobatic overhead shot from close range.

To use a worn cliché, they both did Australian football proud.

”I am satisfied with the goal,” Burns said later.

”It is good to score any type of goal. If it’s a tap-in it’s a nice goal too. They are all the same.”

”Maybe people know about this more than I do but I have a contract for two more years,” he protested.

”Obviously I’m trying to impress the coach because I want to be in the starting line-up.

”But I don’t think I’m fighting for a position in the squad. I think the coach is happy to have me here and I have no intention of leaving. I don’t know where these stories are coming from.”

Midfielder Emerton said later he hoped his first-half goal would be the catalyst for a solid strike rate in the coming season.

”It was nice to get on the scoresheet and hopefully there are a few more to come this season,” he said.

”I didn’t see Nathan’s goal today but I thought he played particularly well against us the other night.

”It’s good to see another young Aussie player doing well in Europe. Hopefully he’ll start pushing his way into the national team.”

Emerton also weighed into the matter regarding the poor crowds that attended the festival.

”If I’m honest I would have expected a few more people to come out,” he said.

”Hopefully they will continue to organise tournaments like this to enable the Australian public to watch some top teams.”