Melbourne Victory v Adelaide United

Melbourne Victory are the local Soccer team. I saw that they were top of the Australia Hyundai-A League, with 7 wins out of 7 games, and that they were playing at the Telstra Dome this evening. So I thought I'd go and see what they were like.

The stadium is quite impressive with its sliding roof and seating for 50,000. I went along quite early, but I needn't have worried - buying a ticket was quick and easy and I could choose wherever I wanted in the top tier of the stand for my General Admissions ticket ($AUS20 - about £8 Sterling).

The supporters club arrived waving flags and cheerfully singing derogatory comments about the opposition.

As I climbed up towards the 3rd tier, I encountered a pervasive smell. I soon identified what it was as a passed the food outlets - meat pies.

The game was against Adelaide United, fierce rivals, who Victory have beaten only once in the last several encounters. There were only a handful of identifiable Adelaide supporters in the stand, but it's a bit further for away fans to travel than games in the UK.

The crowd built up to about 2/3 fill the stadium - attendance was 32,368. I was sitting on the east side of the ground so got a bit of evening sunshine for the first half.

The game started. Within a minute there was a fracas involving just about every player on the pitch. Cue a flurry of yellow cards and much hilarity among the crowd. This could be fun, I thought.

But, despite much endeavour, the first half was fairly lacking in goalmouth incident. There was one outstanding player on the pitch, to my mind, Victory's Fred, (from Brazil). He seemed to get all over the pitch and had a number of lovely touches.

In the second half Victory pressed forward more and had a fair few opportunities. This free kick had the goalie stretching.

But that was about as close as Victory came to scoring. Seconds later, after a quick break, Adelaide scored at the other end.

It was getting quite interesting now. The ball went out of play and the Victory captain collided with the Adelaide coach in the technical area. The coach was promptly sent off, much to the delight of the home fans. But, press as they might, Melbourne Victory couldn't conjure up an equaliser.

Result : Melbourne Victory 0 - Adelaide United 1.

By no means the same class as the English Premiership, I thought, but not bad entertainment.