2005–06 A-League

A-League
Season 2005-06 A-League Season
Champions Sydney FC
AFC Champions League Sydney FC,
Central Coast Mariners
Top goalscorer Alex Brosque
Bobby Despotovski
Archie Thompson
Stewart Petrie
(8 goals)
Biggest home win Melbourne Victory 5–0 Sydney FC
(16 October 2005)
Biggest away win Newcastle Jets 0–5 Queensland Roar
(26 January 2006)
Highest attendance 25,557
Lowest attendance 1,922
Average attendance 10,955
← First

The 2005-06 season was the first season of the A-League, a domestic club competition for football (soccer) in Australia. After over 12 months without a national professional club competition, the first match in the A-League was played on 26 August 2005. The competition was made up of a triple round robin league stage before a championship playoff featuring the top four teams.

The first A-League Grand Final took place on 5 March 2006, with Sydney FC becoming the league's inaugural champions, defeating the Central Coast Mariners 1-0. Adelaide United were the named premiers after finishing the season seven points clear at the top of the league.

Contents

Clubs

Of the A-League participants, four come from the National Soccer League (1977–2004): Perth Glory (established 1995), New Zealand Knights (1999), Newcastle Jets (2000) and Adelaide United (2003). The New Zealand Knights had previously entered the NSL as the Auckland Football Kingz, but were significantly restructured and have a vastly different playing roster. The Queensland Roar previously competed in the NSL from 1977–1988 and had competed in the Queensland State League since then as the Brisbane Lions, who are no relation to the city's AFL team, who shared the same name as them.

Further information: A-League#Clubs
Team City Home Ground
Adelaide United Adelaide, SA Hindmarsh Stadium (17,000)
Central Coast Mariners Gosford, NSW Bluetongue Stadium (20,119)
Melbourne Victory Melbourne, VIC Olympic Park Stadium (18,500)
Newcastle Jets Newcastle, NSW Energy Australia Stadium (26,164)
New Zealand Knights Auckland, NZ North Harbour Stadium (25,000)
Perth Glory Perth, WA Members Equity Stadium (18,156)
Queensland Roar Brisbane, Qld Suncorp Stadium (52,500)
Sydney FC Sydney, NSW Aussie Stadium (42,000)

Preliminary Competitions

Two competitions were held prior to the start of the A-League season.

Oceania Club Championship Qualification

This three-round competition was held in May 2005 to determine Australia's qualifier for the 2005 season of the Oceania Club Championship. It consisted of all Australian A-League clubs (i.e. all clubs except for the New Zealand Knights) and granted Perth Glory - the reigning NSL champions - a bye into the semi-finals.

  Round 1
(7 May)		 Semi-finals
(11 May)		 Finals
(15 May)
                           
   
   Perth Glory 1  
     Sydney FC 2  
 Sydney FC 3
   Queensland Roar 0  
     Central Coast Mariners 0
   Sydney FC 1
   Central Coast Mariners (pso) 0 (4)  
 Newcastle Jets 0 (2)  
 Central Coast Mariners 4
     Adelaide United 0  
 Adelaide United (pso) 0 (4)
   Melbourne Victory 0 (1)  

Sydney FC qualified for and subsequently won the 2005 Oceania Club Championship entitling it to a place in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship to be played in Tokyo.

Pre-Season Challenge Cup

The inaugural pre-season cup was held in July and August in the lead up to the start of the A-League season. The competition featured a group stage and a knockout stage. Commentators did not give much weight to the competition as a guide for performance during the season proper, as injuries or club strategic policy ruled that many teams did not use their best players and often used experimental tactics.

Group stage

Group A

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA
Melbourne Victory 5 3 1 2 0 2 1
Perth Glory 4 3 1 1 1 4 4
Adelaide United 3 3 0 3 0 3 3
Newcastle United Jets 2 3 0 2 1 3 4

Group B

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA
Sydney FC 7 3 2 1 0 5 1
Central Coast 6 3 2 0 1 4 3
Queensland Roar FC 4 3 1 1 1 6 3
New Zealand Knights FC 0 3 0 0 3 1 9

Finals

  Semi-finals Final
12 August
 Melbourne Victory 1  
 Central Coast Mariners 3  
 
21 August
     Central Coast Mariners 1
   Perth Glory 0
14 August
 Sydney FC 0
 Perth Glory 1  

The Central Coast Mariners were the inaugural Pre-season Challenge Cup winners.

Regular season

The A-League season commenced on 26 August 2005 with two Friday night fixtures. Games each round were held throughout the weekend, though certain rounds also featured Thursday night games. As there was no concurrent cup competition, midweek fixtures were uncommon unless they were held on Australian public holidays. A three week break was also scheduled in December to coincide with the 2005 FIFA Club World Cup in Tokyo.

Home and away season

# Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Adelaide United 21 13 4 4 35 25 +10sm=n 43
2 Sydney FC 21 10 6 5 35 28 +7sm=n 36
3 Central Coast Mariners 21 8 8 5 33 28 +5sm=n 32
4 Newcastle Jets 21 9 4 8 27 29 -2sm=n 31
5 Perth Glory 21 8 5 8 34 29 +5sm=n 29
6 Queensland Roar 21 7 7 7 27 22 +5sm=n 28
7 Melbourne Victory 21 7 5 9 26 24 +2sm=n 26
8 New Zealand Knights 21 1 3 17 15 47 -32sm=n 6

Rules for classification:1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd goals scored.
# = Position; Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Finals series

After the home and away season, the finals series began, with the top four teams. The finals series used a modified Page playoff system, with the difference that each first round game would be played over two legs. The winner of the finals series, Sydney FC was crowned as the A-League champion. Adelaide United, as the holder of the top position on the league ladder, were named the 2005-06 premiers.

Standard cup rules - such as the away goals rule (two-leg ties only), extra time and penalty shootouts were used to decide drawn games.

  Semifinals Preliminary final Grand final
    L1 L2    
    February 10 & 17                        
1  Adelaide United 2 1     5 March
2  Sydney FC 2 2     26 February          Sydney FC 1
       Adelaide United 0      Central Coast Mariners 0
  February 12 & 19      Central Coast Mariners 1  
3  Central Coast Mariners 1 1
4  Newcastle Jets 0 1  

AFC Champions League

Although Australia became a member of the Asian Football Confederation in 2006, Australian teams were not invited to participate in the 2006 AFC Champions League competition.

The AFC later determined that qualification for the 2007 AFC Champions League would be based on the 2005–06 A-League competition, despite that ACL matches will commence after the completion of the A-League 2006–07 season. Adelaide as Premiers and Sydney as Champions represented Australia.

Attendance

Team Hosted Average Highest Lowest Total
Sydney FC 11 16,669 25,557 9,132 183,355
Queensland Roar 11 14,785 23,142 8,607 162,636
Melbourne Victory 10 14,158 18,026 10,078 141,578
Adelaide United 10 10,947 14,068 7,013 109,473
Perth Glory 11 9,734 13,157 5,033 107,075
Newcastle Jets 11 8,912 13,000 5,868 98,027
Central Coast Mariners 10 7,899 17,429 5,194 78,989
New Zealand Knights 10 3,909 9,900 1,922 39,086
{{ALeague {{{T9}}}}} 0 0 0 0 0
{{ALeague {{{T10}}}}} 0 0 0 0 0
{{ALeague {{{T11}}}}} 0 0 0 0 0
{{ALeague {{{T12}}}}} 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 84 10,955 25,557 1,922 920,219

Highest attendance

League records

The following league records are from the regular season only. It does not include records from the finals series.

Awards

Award Recipient
Johnny Warren Medal (Player's Player of the Year) Bobby Despotovski (Perth Glory)
Reebok Golden Boot Award (Top Goalscorer) Four players (see below)
Hyundai Rising Star Award (U-20 Player of the Year) Nick Ward (footballer) (Perth Glory)
Hyundai A-League Coach of the Year Lawrie McKinna (Central Coast Mariners)
Zurich Referee of the Year Mark Shield
Joe Marston Medal (Best player in Grand Final) Dwight Yorke (Sydney FC)

Leading goalscorers

Further information: A-League top scorers
Total Player Team Goals per Round
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
8 Alex Brosque Brisbane Roar 1
Bobby Despotovski Perth Glory 1
Archie Thompson Melbourne Victory 1
Stewart Petrie Central Coast Mariners 1
7 Carl Veart Adelaide United 1
Dean Heffernan Central Coast Mariners
Dwight Yorke Sydney FC 1
Ante Milicic Newcastle Jets 1
Sasho Petrovski Sydney FC
Damian Mori Perth Glory

Goal assists

Player Team Assists
Alex Brosque Queensland Roar 5 not
David Carney Sydney FC 6
Nick Carle Newcastle Jets 6
Qu Shengqing Adelaide United 6
Tom Pondeljak Central Coast Mariners 6
Dwight Yorke Sydney FC 5
Kristian Sarkies Melbourne Victory 5
Sasho Petrovski Sydney FC 5
Andre Gumprecht Central Coast Mariners 4
Carl Veart Adelaide United 4

Fouls conceded

Player Team Fouls Conceded
Stewart Petrie Central Coast Mariners 60
Ross Aloisi Adelaide United 50
Andrew Clark Central Coast Mariners 49
Sasho Petrovski Sydney FC 49
Steve Pantelidis Melbourne Victory 47
Terry McFlynn Sydney FC 42
Noel Spencer Central Coast Mariners 41
Carl Veart Adelaide United 40
Richard Johnson Newcastle Jets 40
Travis Dodd Adelaide United 39

Disciplinary records

Player Team Yellow 2YC Red
Terry McFlynn Sydney FC 7 0 0
Matt McKay Queensland Roar 3 1 1
Kevin Muscat Melbourne Victory 4 1 0
Ross Aloisi Adelaide United 6 0 0
Remo Buess Queensland Roar 6 0 0

Biggest victories

5 goals

Score Date Round
Melbourne Victory 5-0 Sydney FC 16 Oct 2005 8
Queensland Roar 5-0 Newcastle Jets 26 Jan 2006 20

4 goals

Score Date Round
Perth Glory 5-1 Newcastle Jets 8 Oct 2005 7
Sydney FC 5-1 Central Coast Mariners 5 Nov 2005 11
Newcastle Jets 4-0 New Zealand Knights 18 Sep 2005 4
Central Coast Mariners 4-0 Perth Glory 8 Oct 2005 8

Highest aggregate scores

Score Date Round
Perth Glory 5-1 Newcastle Jets 8 Oct 2005 7
Sydney FC 5-1 Central Coast Mariners 5 Nov 2005 11
Newcastle Jets 4-2 Adelaide United 14 Oct 2005 8
Newcastle Jets 4-2 New Zealand Knights 4 Nov 2005 11
Perth Glory 4-2 Adelaide United 6 Nov 2005 11
Adelaide United 4-2 Queensland Roar 1 Jan 2006 16

Honours

League Milestones

League statistics

See also

External links

National teams
Current national leagues
Former leagues
Cup competitions
Australian Cup (defunct) • FFA Cup (proposed)
Domestic leagues
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2011–12 Clubs
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