The Phoenix aren't creating a ripple

BY FRED WOODCOCK

The Sydney cabbie quickly put things in perspective.

He gave an informed account of Sydney FC's extra-time A-League semifinal loss to Melbourne last Sunday yet had no idea who the Sky Blues were playing tonight.

"Wellington", I informed him.

"Ah, you're from New Zealand?"

"Yes."

"Is this game part of the A-League?"

"Yes."

"So you've come across from Auckland?"

"No. Wellington."

"Oh, not Auckland?"

He was struggling to get his head around it so we didn't talk football again, but the brief conversation highlighted one thing – tonight's Sydney-Phoenix showdown, for a spot in next week's grand final, is hardly a big drawcard for your average Sydney sports fan.

About 24,000 people attended last weekend's high-profile Sydney-Melbourne clash at the Sydney Football Stadium, but club officials are expecting a crowd of just 18,000 for tonight's preliminary final – 15,000 fewer than were at Westpac Stadium for the Phoenix-Jets match last Sunday.

The lower hype in Sydney is suiting the Phoenix just fine.

The team spent yesterday morning wandering around the city, almost unnoticed, before a training run in the northern suburbs.

The media is hardly excited by a New Zealand-based football team in town for what is, in essence, Sydney's biggest game of the year so far.

The headlines have naturally been dominated by the start of the National Rugby League season, with coverage verging on saturation in this rugby league town.

Buried inside most back pages are cricket – Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke's relationship with celebrity Lara Bingle is still a hotter topic than Australia's tour of New Zealand (The Australian newspaper ran a large photo of Clarke just sitting in his Range Rover at Bondi), rugby, and finally, some football.

The coverage is obviously Sydney-focused and few punters are giving the Phoenix any chance of progressing to meet Melbourne next weekend.

There was a provocative column in the Sydney Morning Herald aimed at stirring up trans-Tasman rivalry, one theme being that "less entitled" Kiwi sports teams are "almost ridiculously pleased with what modest sporting success they achieve".

However, after the good old standard sheep jokes, the columnist concluded that any neutral Australians will be supporting the Phoenix, basically because nobody outside of Sydney likes Sydney.

And there's another positive for the visitors – controversial former Sydney coach John Kosmina, tipping in the Sydney Moring Herald' has picked the Phoenix to win tonight. So has "The Dribbler", some guy in a monkey mask.

- © Fairfax NZ News