2010–11 A-League
Introduction The '''2010–11 A-League''' was the 34th season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the sixth season of the Australian A-League soccer competition since its establishment in 2004.The home and away season began on 5 August 2010 and concluded on 13 February 2011.The addition of Melbourne Heart brought the total number of teams to 11.Brisbane Roar finished Premiers with two games remaining in the season following an Australian record unbeaten run, and later completed the Premiership and Championship double by beating the Central Coast Mariners in the Grand Final.
Rule changes A new rule at the start of the season allows for two marquee players to be signed without salary cap restraints so long as one is Australian with a certain number of qualifications to be determined by FFA. This replaces the previous ruling of only one salary cap exempt player in previous seasons.
Clubs  Team City Home Ground Capacity Adelaide United Adelaide Hindmarsh Stadium 17,000 Brisbane Roar Brisbane Suncorp Stadium 52,500 Central Coast Mariners Gosford Bluetongue Stadium 20,119 Gold Coast United    Gold Coast Skilled Park 27,400 Melbourne Heart Melbourne AAMI Park 30,050 Melbourne Victory Melbourne AAMI ParkEtihad Stadium 30,05056,347 Newcastle Jets  Newcastle EnergyAustralia Stadium 26,164 North Queensland Fury  Townsville Dairy Farmers Stadium 26,500 Perth Glory Perth NIB Stadium 20,500 Sydney FC Sydney Sydney Football Stadium 45,500 Wellington Phoenix Wellington Westpac Stadium 36,000===Transfers======Managerial changes===TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyTableIncoming managerDate of appointmentCentral Coast MarinersReassigned9 February 2010Pre-season10 February 2010Melbourne Heart ''Inaugural'' 12 October 2009North Queensland FurySigned by Perth Glory (assistant)6 April 20107 June 2010Adelaide United Sacked3 June 20105 July 2010Perth Glory Reassigned, moved to director12 October 20107th 12 October 2010Melbourne VictorySacked12 March 2011Post-season21 June 2011===Foreign players=== Club Visa 1 Visa 2 Visa 3 Visa 4 Visa 5 Non-Visa foreigner(s) Former player(s) Adelaide United  Marcos Flores  Cássio  Dario Bodrušić  Sergio van Dijk  Francisco Usúcar  Joe Keenan3 Andwélé Slory4  Lloyd Owusu  Shin In-seob Brisbane Roar  Henrique  Jean Carlos Solórzano  Thomas Broich  Kosta Barbarouses    Reinaldo1 Central Coast Mariners  Patricio Pérez  Patrick Zwaanswijk  Michael McGlinchey  Chris Doig   John Hutchinson2  Gold Coast United  Anderson  Robson  John Curtis  Peter Perchtold  Adama Traoré  Glen Moss2 Kim Sung-Kil4  Bas van den Brink Melbourne Heart  Alex Terra  Gerald Sibon  Rutger Worm     Melbourne Victory  Ricardinho  Marvin Angulo  Carlos Hernández  Geoff Kellaway  Surat Sukha  Grant Brebner1   Newcastle Jets  Zhang Shuo  Michael Bridges  Marcello Fiorentini  Jeremy Brockie   Ali Abbas1 Tomislav Mišura3  Francis Jeffers4 North Queensland Fury  Mark Hughes  André Kilian  Dyron Daal  Eric Akoto  Eugene Sseppuya  Brad McDonald2  Perth Glory  Robbie Fowler  Andy Todd  Victor Sikora  Branko Jelić  Steven McGarry   Sydney FC  Bruno Cazarine  Juho Mäkelä  Hirofumi Moriyasu  Byun Sung-Hwan  Stephan Keller  Terry McFlynn1  Wellington Phoenix  Toto Cornejo  Paul Ifill  Daniel  Diego Walsh  Chris Greenacre  Manny Muscat2 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 Australian Marquee International Marquee Junior Marquee Captain Vice-Captain '''Adelaide United''' ''None'' ''None'' ''None''  Travis Dodd  Lucas Pantelis '''Brisbane Roar''' ''None'' ''None'' ''None''  Matt McKay  Shane Stefanutto '''Central Coast Mariners''' ''None'' ''None''  Oliver Bozanic  Alex Wilkinson  John Hutchinson  '''Gold Coast United'''  Jason Culina ''None''  Tahj Minniecon  Jason Culina  Michael Thwaite '''Melbourne Heart'''  Josip Skoko  Gerald Sibon ''None''  Simon Colosimo ''None'' '''Melbourne Victory'''  Archie Thompson  Ricardinho ''None''  Kevin Muscat  Adrian Leijer  Adrian Leijer '''Newcastle Jets''' ''None''  Michael Bridges ''None''  Michael Bridges  Ljubo Milicevic  Kasey Wehrman '''North Queensland Fury''' ''None'' ''None'' ''None''  Ufuk Talay  Gareth Edds '''Perth Glory'''  Mile Sterjovski  Robbie Fowler ''None''  Jacob Burns ''None'' '''Sydney FC'''  Nick Carle ''None'' ''None''  Terry McFlynn  Alex Brosque  Hayden Foxe '''Wellington Phoenix'''  Jade North ''None'' ''None''  Andrew Durante  Tim Brown
Regular season ===League table======Home and away season===The 2010–11 A-League season had each team play 30 matches over 27 rounds. The regular season started on Thursday, 5 August 2010 and ended on Sunday, 13 February 2011.The opening game was played at the new Melbourne Rectangular Stadium (AAMI Park) and marked the A-League debut of the new franchise, Melbourne Heart. Mid week games were played to accommodate this extra team. The official 2010–11 fixture list was released on 18 May 2010.====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====
Finals series === Semi-finals ======Preliminary final======Grand Final===
Season statistics === Top scorers ===RankPlayerClubGoals1 Sergio van DijkAdelaide United162 Kosta BarbarousesBrisbane Roar11 Robbie KruseMelbourne Victory Matt SimonCentral Coast Mariners Jean SolórzanoBrisbane Roar6 Bruno CazarineSydney FC9 Bruce DjiteGold Coast United Robbie FowlerPerth Glory Adam KwasnikCentral Coast Mariners10 John AloisiMelbourne Heart8 Marcos FloresAdelaide United Chris GreenacreWellington Phoenix==== Own goals ====PlayerClubAgainstRound   Ben Kantarovski  Newcastle Jets  Melbourne Heart  2   Brett Studman  North Queensland Fury  Adelaide United  4   Michael Marrone   Melbourne Heart  Perth Glory  4   Daniel McBreen  Central Coast Mariners  North Queensland Fury  9   Shannon Cole  Sydney FC  Adelaide United  9   Matt Smith  Brisbane Roar  Newcastle Jets  10   Naum Sekulovski  Perth Glory  Central Coast Mariners  12   Rodrigo Vargas  Melbourne Victory  Gold Coast United  13   Clint Bolton  Melbourne Heart  Adelaide United  15   Alex Wilkinson  Central Coast Mariners  Brisbane Roar  16   Matthew Kemp  Melbourne Victory  Brisbane Roar  17   Sebastian Ryall  Sydney FC  Central Coast Mariners  17   Wayne Srhoj  Melbourne Heart  Melbourne Victory  18   Sergio van Dijk  Adelaide United  Central Coast Mariners  20   Hayden Foxe  Sydney FC  Adelaide United  20   Adrian Leijer  Melbourne Victory  Central Coast Mariners  21   Tando Velaphi  Perth Glory  Wellington Phoenix  24   Nick Ward  Wellington Phoenix  Sydney FC  26=== Attendance ===These are the attendance records of each of the teams at the end of the home and away season. The table does not include finals series attendances. ''Updated to the end of season. ''* A Gold Coast United match held on 19 December 2010 was postponed due to the poor playing surface of the pitch and torrential rain after the 21st minute of the game had been played. Spectators were allowed free entry prior to the postponement, of which there were 10,146 in attendance of the 21,000+ who applied for the free tickets. The abandoned game's attendance is not taken into account.====Top 10 Attendances==== Attendance  Round  Date  Home  Score  Away  Venue  Weekday  Time of Day 50,168  GF  13 March 2011  Brisbane Roar  2–2 (4–2 pen.) Central Coast Mariners  Suncorp Stadium  Sunday  Afternoon 32,321  24  22 January 2011  Melbourne Victory  2–2  Melbourne Heart  Etihad Stadium  Saturday  Night 25,897  9  8 October 2010  Melbourne Heart  2–1  Melbourne Victory  AAMI Park  Friday  Night 25,168  SF Leg 2  26 February 2011  Brisbane Roar  2–2  Central Coast Mariners  Suncorp  Saturday  Night 23,059  18  11 December 2010  Melbourne Heart  1–3  Melbourne Victory  AAMI Park  Saturday  Night 21,083  27  11 February 2011  Adelaide United  2–1  Melbourne Victory  Adelaide Oval  Friday  Night 20,831  27  12 February 2011  Brisbane Roar  4–0  Gold Coast United  Suncorp  Saturday  Night 20,358  2  14 August 2010  Melbourne Victory  0–2  Perth Glory  AAMI Park  Saturday  Night 18,558  22  9 January 2011  Melbourne Victory  1–4  Adelaide United  AAMI Park  Sunday  Afternoon 17,299  10  16 October 2010  Melbourne Victory  3–0  Sydney FC  Etihad Stadium  Saturday  Night===Discipline===The Fair Play Award will go to the team with the lowest points on the fair play ladder at the conclusion of the home and away season. It was awarded to Premiers Brisbane Roar who beat last year's Champions Sydney FC by 6 points. ''Updated to End of Week 27 (End of Regular Season)''
Awards ===End-of-season awards===* '''Johnny Warren Medal''' –  Marcos Flores* '''NAB Young Footballer of the Year''' –  Mathew Ryan* '''Golden Boot Award''' –  Sergio Van Dijk* '''Goalkeeper of the Year''' –  Michael Theoklitos* '''Manager of the Year''' –  Ange Postecoglou* '''Fair Play Award''' – Brisbane Roar* '''Referee of the Year''' – Matthew Breeze* '''Foreign Player of the Year''' –  Marcos Flores* '''Solo Goal of the Year''' –  Erik Paartalu''Source:''===All-Star team==='''Formation: 4–3–3'''PositionNameClub GK  Michael Theo Brisbane Roar RB  Ivan Franjic Brisbane Roar CB  Luke DeVere Brisbane Roar CB  Joshua Rose Central Coast Mariners LB  Cássio Adelaide United CM  Marcos Flores Adelaide United CM  Matt McKay Brisbane Roar CM  Thomas Broich Brisbane Roar RF  Kosta Barbarouses Brisbane Roar CF  Sergio Van Dijk Adelaide United LF  Robbie Kruse Melbourne Victory Coach  Ange Postecoglou Brisbane Roar
See also * 2010 Australian football code crowds* 2011 Australian football code crowds===Team season articles===* 2010–11 Adelaide United FC season* 2010–11 Brisbane Roar FC season* 2010–11 Central Coast Mariners FC season* 2010–11 Gold Coast United FC season* 2010–11 Melbourne Heart FC season* 2010–11 Melbourne Victory FC season* 2010–11 Newcastle Jets FC season* 2010–11 North Queensland Fury FC season* 2010–11 Perth Glory FC season* 2010–11 Sydney FC season* 2010–11 Wellington Phoenix FC season*  Official season draw
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