Barcelona scrape through on another night for the dreamers

At the end of another forgettable season for the A-Leagues, here’s some much-needed good news: there are still loads of people who love football in Australia and are happy to pay money to watch it live. The challenge, as it has been for decades, is grabbing their attention.

Could this do it? By far the biggest sporting crowd in Sydney since the pandemic, 70,174 fans, watched Barcelona claim a thrilling 3-2 win over the A-Leagues All Stars at Accor Stadium on Wednesday night - the first in a packed schedule of glamour friendlies that will be played here during the European off-season.

The second-biggest crowd? That was football, too, when 41,582 came to the same venue in March to see Australia’s direct World Cup qualification hopes disintegrate as the Socceroos fell 2-0 to Japan.

These big turnouts show that despite the domestic game’s many and varied woes, there is still a vast appetite for the beautiful game in Australia, and an audience waiting to be tapped into - if only those in charge of the A-League can come up with the right formula to seduce them.

Where are all these people when the A-League’s on? Doing other things, clearly. There’s a grand final to be played in Melbourne on Saturday night, but the vast majority of the theatre-goers who dug out the old “Messi” jerseys from the back of their wardrobes and paid big money to catch a glimpse of Barcelona’s maiden voyage to Australia probably wouldn’t have a clue who’s in it.

Nights like these have to be somewhat helpful. The fear was they might embarrass the A-League’s good name but the All Stars were terrific, coming from a goal behind after Ousmane Dembele’s first-half opener to briefly go 2-1 up through Reno Piscopo and Adama Traore - the Western Sydney Wanderers left-back, not his namesake on the wing for the Blaugrana, who would go on to score the equaliser in the 72nd minute.

Ansu Fati celebrates scoring for Barcelona.Credit: Getty

Traore’s goal - for the All Stars - capped off a mesmerising team move, and it should have been followed by a third from Garang Kuol, the 17-year-old sensation from the Central Coast Mariners who did all the hard work to weave through Barcelona’s defence, but missed the open goal that was at his mercy.

This Barca team, having struggled badly in La Liga and the UEFA Champions League this season, is a long way from the peak of the all-conquering side Pep Guardiola put together last decade. Having landed on Aussie soil barely 36 hours earlier, new coach Xavi named five of the players who started their last official fixture, and as you’d expect at the end of such a long campaign, they did things pretty easy.

As Xavi emptied his bench and injected more recognisable names in the second half, Barca came back into it, and wunderkind Ansu Fati’s 77th-minute strike got them the result everyone had come to see - although Kuol nearly ruined it for them, hitting the woodwork in the dying minutes after another scintillating run.

“I have to congratulate them because they played so good, so good,” Xavi said of the All Stars. “I think it was the main goal that everybody enjoyed [it], especially the supporters. Tactically, very good. They played really well, defend really well, they create chances in transition and the counter-attack, we suffered a lot, especially in the second half. Technically, so good. It’s a good level today.”

Garang Kuol in action for the A-Leagues All Stars against Barcelona.Credit: Getty

This was exhibition football at its finest: big names, no real stakes, a handful of exciting moments, and a huge crowd whose interest dipped in and out. Whenever Barcelona weren’t attacking, the masses sat deathly silent. Then people started shining the torches on their phones midway through the first half, turning Sydney’s Olympic stadium into a galaxy of stars. The first Mexican wave soon followed. It happens. But over the course of the match, you could almost feel the fans who came for Barcelona warming to the All Stars.

Dwight Yorke, in his first professional match as a manager, set up the All Stars to frustrate - a taste of what might be to come when he takes the reins of Macarthur FC in the coming weeks. They sat in a low block, forcing Barca out wide, and posing the occasional threat on the counter.

For the most part, it worked, and on another night, he might have claimed the prized scalp of Xavi in his coaching debut. The fervent hope for the A-League is that the Barca diehards who were almost left shattered come back for another look next season.

“I’m sure that everybody has probably left here pretty pleased,” Yorke said.

“Maybe from our point of view we’re disappointed with the fact we didn’t win the game, but overall, I think it was a terrific performance from the players. For 70,000 people to turn up, as the head coach in my first debut, it was simply amazing. I didn’t think it was going to be this good.

“You can see the talent is on show. A lot of people didn’t see these players [before], they had a great platform, and hence that’s why the fans need to come out and support the A-League a little bit more. After that kind of performance tonight, surely that should be encouraged for every Australian fan around the place to make sure they come out and support their local team?”

Watch football’s biggest superstars in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa Conference League Finals this May on Stan Sport. Liverpool v Real Madrid in Champions League – ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport in 4K and 9GEM on Sunday 29 May from 4:30am AEST. Roma v Feyenoord in the Conference League Final (May 26) – all matches streaming ad-free, live and on demand, only on Stan Sport from 4:30am AEST.