2007–08 A-League

A-League

Season	2007–08
Dates	24 August 2007 – 24 February 2008
Champions	Newcastle Jets (1st title)
Premiers	Central Coast Mariners (1st title)
AFC Champions League	Newcastle Jets, Central Coast Mariners
Matches played	111
Goals scored	223 (2.01 per match)
Top goalscorer	Joel Griffiths (12 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Michael Theoklitos
Biggest home win	Central Coast Mariners 3–0 Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix 4–1 Perth Glory Adelaide United 4–1 Melbourne Victory Adelaide United 4–1 Wellington Phoenix Queensland Roar 3–0 Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix 3–0 Perth Glory Melbourne Victory 3–0 Wellington Phoenix Central Coast Mariners 3–0 Newcastle Jets
Biggest away win	Newcastle Jets 1–4 Perth Glory Perth Glory 1–4 Queensland Roar Central Coast Mariners 2–5 Melbourne Victory
Highest scoring	Central Coast Mariners 4–5 Sydney FC
Longest winning run	4 games Newcastle Jets
Longest unbeaten run	6 games Melbourne Victory
Longest winless run	11 games Perth Glory
Longest losing run	4 games Adelaide United Wellington Phoenix
Highest attendance	33,458
Lowest attendance	6,252
Average attendance	14,610 ( 1683)
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

The 2007–08 A-League was the 31st season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the third season of the A-League competition since its establishment in 2004. Football Federation Australia hoped to build on the success of the previous two seasons and on the interest generated by Sydney FC and Adelaide United playing in the 2007 AFC Champions League, and the Socceroos competing in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

Based on their A-League 2006-07 season performances Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory competed in the 2008 AFC Champions League, making it two consecutive seasons in the competition for Adelaide United. Based on the 2007–08 season of the A-League, the Central Coast Mariners and Newcastle Jets qualified for the 2009 AFC Champions League, as the competition's Premiers and Champions respectively.

Changes included:

• The New Zealand Knights, who folded at the conclusion of the 2006–07 season, were replaced by Wellington Phoenix.^[1]
• An increase of the squad size, from 20 to 23 players, increasing the salary cap from A$1.6 million to A$1.8 million.^[2][3]

Clubs

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Adelaide United	Adelaide	Hindmarsh Stadium	17,000
Central Coast Mariners	Gosford	Bluetongue Stadium	20,119
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne	Telstra Dome	56,347
Newcastle Jets	Newcastle	Energy Australia Stadium	26,164
Perth Glory	Perth	Members Equity Stadium	18,156
Queensland Roar	Brisbane	Suncorp Stadium	52,500
Sydney FC	Sydney	Aussie Stadium	42,500
Wellington Phoenix	Wellington	Westpac Stadium	34,500

Foreign players

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Non-Visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Cássio	Diego Walsh	Bobby Petta		Jonas Salley1
Central Coast Mariners	André Gumprecht				John Hutchinson2
Melbourne Victory	Leandro Love	Carlos Hernández	Joe Keenan	Grant Brebner
Newcastle Jets		Denni	Mário Jardel	Song Jin-hyung		Jorge Drovandi
Perth Glory	James Robinson	Mate Dragicevic			Jerry Karpeh1
Queensland Roar	Marcinho	Reinaldo	Simon Lynch		Seo Hyuk-su1
Sydney FC	Juninho	Patrick da Silva	Terry McFlynn	Michael Enfield		Michael Bridges3 Michael Herbet3
Wellington Phoenix	Cleberson	Daniel	Felipe	George

The following do not fill a Visa position:
¹Those players who were born and started their professional career abroad but have since gained Australian Residency (and New Zealand Residency, in the case of Wellington Phoenix);
²Australian residents (and New Zealand residents, in the case of Wellington Phoenix) who have chosen to represent another national team;
³Injury Replacement Players, or National Team Replacement Players;
⁴Guest Players (eligible to play a maximum of ten games)

Salary cap exemptions and captains

Club	Marquee	Captain	Vice-Captain
Adelaide United	Paul Agostino[4]	Michael Valkanis[5][6]	Travis Dodd[7]
Central Coast Mariners	Tony Vidmar[8]	Alex Wilkinson[9]	None
Melbourne Victory	Archie Thompson[10][11]	Kevin Muscat[12][13]	None
Newcastle Jets	Mário Jardel[14]	Jade North[15]	Ante Covic[citation needed]
Perth Glory	Stan Lazaridis[16]	Simon Colosimo[17]	None
Queensland Roar	Craig Moore[18]	Craig Moore[19]	None
Sydney FC	Juninho[20]	Tony Popovic[21]	None
Wellington Phoenix	Ahmad Elrich[22]	Ross Aloisi[23]	Tim Brown[23][24]

Pre-Season Challenge Cup

The pre-season cup competition was held in July and August in the lead up to the start of the A-League season. The opening round began on 14 July 2007. The competition featured a group stage, with three regular rounds, followed by a two-week finals playoff.

The pre-season cup was won by Adelaide United at the final on 12 August 2007.

Regular season

The league season took a triple round-robin format over 21 rounds between 24 August 2007 and 20 January 2008 with each team playing the other seven teams three times.^[25]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Central Coast Mariners	21	10	4	7	30	25	+5	34	Qualification for 2009 AFC Champions League group stage and Finals series[a]
2	Newcastle Jets (C)	21	9	7	5	25	21	+4	34
3	Sydney FC	21	8	8	5	28	24	+4	32	Qualification for 2008 Pan-Pacific Championship and Finals series
4	Queensland Roar	21	8	7	6	25	21	+4	31	Qualification for Finals series
5	Melbourne Victory	21	6	9	6	29	29	0	27
6	Adelaide United	21	6	8	7	31	29	+2	26
7	Perth Glory	21	4	8	9	27	34	−7	20
8	Wellington Phoenix[b]	21	5	5	11	25	37	−12	20

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

Semi-finals

Preliminary-final

Grand Final

Season statistics

Leading 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
12		Joel Griffiths	Newcastle Jets		1						1	1	1		1	1		1		2		1	1	1
9		Shane Smeltz	Wellington Phoenix	1				1	1	1			1						2	1	1
8		Alex Brosque	Sydney FC		1				1		2		2									1		1
8		Jamie Harnwell	Perth Glory				1				1	1	1				1	1					1	1
7		Daniel Allsopp	Melbourne Victory	1						1							1				2	1		1
7		John Aloisi	Central Coast Mariners												2			1	1	1	1			1
6		Sasho Petrovski	Central Coast Mariners	1				1	1			1		1						1
6		Reinaldo	Queensland Roar		1									1	2					1	1
6		Archie Thompson	Melbourne Victory					1	1		1	1									1	1
6		Lucas Pantelis	Adelaide United								1	1	1					1				1		1

  Goal scored from penalty kick

Attendance

The attendance records of each of the teams at the end of the home and away season, does not include finals series attendances.

Team	Hosted	Average	High	Low	Total
Melbourne Victory	10	26,064	31,884	20,938	260,642
Queensland Roar	11	16,951	31,933	8,815	186,456
Sydney FC	11	16,373	33,458	10,732	180,107
Newcastle Jets	11	13,209	16,433	8,112	145,303
Central Coast Mariners	10	12,741	19,238	8,113	127,409
Adelaide United	10	12,697	25,039	10,256	126,966
Wellington Phoenix	10	11,683	18,345	8,039	116,833
Perth Glory	11	7,596	9,614	6,252	83,557
{{{T9}}}	0	0	0	0	0
{{{T10}}}	0	0	0	0	0
{{{T11}}}	0	0	0	0	0
{{{T12}}}	0	0	0	0	0
League total	84	14,610	33,458	6,252	1,227,273

* Adelaide United played a one off match at the Adelaide Oval against Sydney FC in their Round 18 match. This is why Adelaide United's Highest single attendance exceeds the capacity of Hindmarsh Stadium.

Top 10 attendances

Attendance	Round	Date	Home	Score	Away	Venue	Weekday	Time of Day
36,354	Grand Final	24 February 2008	Central Coast Mariners	0–1	Newcastle Jets	Sydney Football Stadium	Sunday	Day
36,221	Finals – Week 2	8 February 2008	Queensland Roar	2–0	Sydney FC	Suncorp Stadium	Friday	Night
33,458	Round 21	20 January 2008	Sydney FC	2–2	Melbourne Victory	Sydney Football Stadium	Sunday	Day
31,933	Round 20	13 January 2008	Queensland Roar	0–0	Sydney FC	Suncorp Stadium	Sunday	Twilight
31,884	Round 12	10 November 2007	Melbourne Victory	0–0	Sydney FC	Telstra Dome	Saturday	Night
31,545	Round 2	1 September 2007	Melbourne Victory	0–0	Perth Glory	Telstra Dome	Saturday	Night
27,351	Round 4	16 September 2007	Melbourne Victory	0–0	Central Coast Mariners	Telstra Dome	Sunday	Afternoon
27,123	Round 10	26 October 2007	Melbourne Victory	0–2	Newcastle Jets	Telstra Dome	Friday	Night
25,622	Round 6	28 September 2007	Melbourne Victory	2–0	Queensland Roar	Telstra Dome	Friday	Night
25,598	Round 9	21 October 2007	Melbourne Victory	2–1	Perth Glory	Telstra Dome	Sunday	Afternoon

Disciplinary

The Fair Play Award was awarded to Newcastle Jets, the team with the lowest points on the fair play ladder at the conclusion of the home and away season.

1 point		Yellow Card
2 points		Second Caution Red Card
3 points		Direct Red Card

Team				Points
Newcastle Jets	44	0	0	44
Perth Glory	34	1	3	45
Sydney FC	42	1	2	50
Queensland Roar	45	3	0	51
Wellington Phoenix	46	1	2	54
Adelaide United	45	3	1	54
Melbourne Victory	43	1	3	54
Central Coast Mariners	44	3	4	62
Sydney FC	0	0	0	0
Wellington Phoenix	0	0	0	0
Melbourne Heart	0	0	0	0
Sydney Rovers	0	0	0	0
Totals	343	13	15

Awards

• The Premiers' Plate was awarded to Central Coast Mariners, who finished on top of the ladder after the regular season.
• The Championship Trophy was awarded to the Newcastle Jets.
• The Johnny Warren Medal was awarded to Joel Griffiths from the Newcastle Jets for the best player in the league.
• The Coach of the Year was awarded to Gary van Egmond of the Newcastle Jets.
• The Joe Marston Medal was awarded to Andrew Durante of Newcastle Jets.
• The Reebok Golden Boot was awarded to Joel Griffiths of Newcastle Jets (12 goals - regular season).
• The Rising Star award was awarded to Bruce Djite of Adelaide United.
• The Fair Play Award was awarded to the Newcastle Jets.

See also

• 2007 Australian football code crowds
• Adelaide United season 2007-08
• Central Coast Mariners season 2007-08
• Melbourne Victory season 2007-08
• Newcastle United Jets season 2007-08
• Perth Glory season 2007-08
• Queensland Roar season 2007-08
• Sydney FC season 2007-08
• Wellington Phoenix season 2007-08

References