Home Ground Advantage: Not in the A-League
It is a well known fact in football codes of all kinds, that home ground advantage is important.
Why else do Celtic (almost) always beat Man Utd, AC Milan, Benfica and the rest in the European Champions League at Celtic Park? Because they are lucky? Because they have better players? Most likely because they have home advantage.
Why have Arsenal won ten out of eleven home games this year but only four away?
In Spain, England, Germany and Italy the leaders have all got great home records.
Real Madrid 100%. Eleven straight wins.
Arsenal 90%+ Ten out of Eleven wins.
Bayern Munich 70% Seven wins out of ten, but no defeats.
Inter Milan 90%+ Ten out of Eleven wins.
But not in the A-League.
New leaders The Roar have a 4w 2D 3L. Less than 50% home wins and they are Australia's best.
The Mariners have a 4W 1D and 3L home record. 50% wins.
And even last year the Melbourne Victory. Remember them? They ran away with the league, but could only manage a 60% home win record.
And this year of 72 games played only 21 have resulted in home wins. Less than 30%!
Why is this so?
4 comments:
My only theory is that it has to do with the age of the competition. Perhaps home ground advantage is something that grows with age, as teams start developing a stronger supporter base.
But then, the Victory had fantastic support at home last year, but had a comparatively poor return. I think they won more games away than at home!
The water whirlpools the other way in the Southern Hemisphere too.
let's hope Frank knows this or all ye Roar maniac's will be crying in your beer again if you lose the next two HOME games:)
couldn't happen coud it....not too The Roar!
I think its hard to understand the 'lack' of home advantage in the A-League but it could be that its a
pretty even league where everybody can beat anybody and just about anywhere.
However, its interesting to see that at this moment in time (up to round 18) the number of home goals
scored ie 94 in the A-League is exactly equal the number of away goals scored.
But if you now look in the English premier league the number of home goals scored stands at nearly 58%
with 327 home goals scored so far.
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