2003–04 National Soccer League Explained

2003–04 National Soccer League
League:National Soccer League
Sport:Soccer
Duration:2003–2004
No Of Teams:13
Season:NSL season
Season Champs:Perth Glory
Season Champ Name:Champions
Top Scorer:Ante Milicic (20)
Seasonslist:List of NSL seasons
Seasonslistnames:National Soccer League
Prevseason Link:2002–03 National Soccer League
Prevseason Year:2002–03
Nextseason Link:2005–06 A-League
Nextseason Year:2005–06 A-League

The 2003–04 National Soccer League season was the 28th and final season of the National Soccer League in Australia. Perth Glory were crowned both premiers and champions after winning both the league and grand final.[1]

Overview

The season was remembered as the end of an era for the national league, following the announcement in 2003 that the national competition would be wholly scrapped in response to the Crawford Report into soccer in Australia. The end of the NSL led to the formation of the A-League, a new national competition that began in 2005.

The season was played as a single league, home-and-away format with top six teams qualifying for a finals series. Adelaide City withdrew from the competition shortly before the start of the season, leading to the hasty formation of Adelaide United to take their place.

At the beginning of the season, it became obvious that the title would be fought between Perth Glory and Parramatta Power. The Champions Glory lost several of their title-winning squad, most notably their dominant midfield, most of whom to the Power. Parramatta, backed by the Leagues Club, bought big for the last year including notably Ante Milicic and Sasho Petrovski, looking to simply buy the title.

This tactic seemed to be working for a large part of the season, as Power held off major challengers Perth, including a memorable 6–0 hiding, Glory's worst-ever loss. However, a turning point came and Perth began to close the gap both in results and performance terms, and won the Premiership by 6 points in the end. Neither of these sides were ever really matched by other sides during the season. Perhaps the surprise of the season was Adelaide United, who surprised all by making the finals and nearly breaking Perth's all-time average season record attendance in the process, with the biggest crowds of the season. This was most notable as the club was thrown together just a few weeks before the season to take the place of former heavyweight Adelaide City.

In the finals series, notably Perth were comprehensively beaten in both legs of the major semi-final, while Adelaide progressed to the minor semi-final in their first ever season, only to be thrashed by Glory, just highlighting the gap between the top two sides and the rest of the league.

The last ever NSL Grand Final was held at Parramatta Stadium, due to Power winning the major semi-final. The Final was attended by a very measly crowd of just over 9,000, and played in thick rain from kick-off. Power's slick passing game was somewhat hurt by the poor conditions, and the game turned into something of a scrap. No goals were scored in 90 minutes of football, so the game went to extra-time where young Glory striker Nik Mrdja slotted to give Glory their fifth National League title and second NSL Championship, while Power finished the season with nothing to show for their quality and dominance.

Regular season

Home and away season

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 7

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Round 8

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Round 9

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Round 10

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Round 11

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Round 12

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Round 13

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Round 14

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Round 15

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Round 16

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Round 17

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Round 18

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Round 19

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Round 20

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Round 21

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Round 22

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Round 23

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Round 24

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Round 25

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Round 26

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Finals

Elimination Final 1 (3rd v 6th)

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Elimination Final 2 (4th v 5th)

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Major semi Final (1st v 2nd)

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Minor semi Final

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Preliminary Final

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Grand Final

See main article: 2004 National Soccer League Grand Final. ----

PARRAMATTA POWER:
GK 1 Clint Bolton
DF 3 Alvin Ceccoli (c)
DF 4 Simon Colosimo
DF 5 Michael Beauchamp
FW 7 Travis Dodd
MF 8
FW 9 Ante Milicic
DF 13 Paul O'Grady
FW 14 Sasho Petrovski
FW 21 Ahmad Elrich
MF 22 Peter Zorbas
Substitutes:
GK 20 Daniel Beltrame
MF 6 Matt Thompson
MF 10 Fernando Rech
MF 11 Lucas Pantelis
DF 16 Jacek Sobczyk
Manager:
Nick Theodorakopoulos
Joe Marston Medal: Ahmad Elrich

Assistant Referees:
Fourth Official:

PERTH GLORY:
width=25!width=25
GK 1 Jason Petkovic
DF 3 Matthew Bingley
DF 5 Shaun Murphy (c)
FW 10
MF 11 Jade North
DF 12
MF 15 Tom Pondeljak
FW 16 Damian Mori
DF 19 Jamie Harnwell
FW 21 Adrian Caceres
DF 24
Substitutes:
GK 20 Vince Matassa
MF 4 Bradley Hassell
MF 6 Wayne Srhoj
MF 8 Anthony Danze
FW 9 Nik Mrdja
Manager:
Mich d'Avray

Individual awards

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Golden goal earns Perth NSL glory . ABC News . 4 April 2004 . 15 February 2024.