Stars in World Cup race, marquee arrivals, all access and more: get pumped for 2022-23

New signings and would-be Socceroos have every incentive to light up the landscape, writes Tom Smithies

If the darkest hour is just before dawn, the brightest, most optimistic point is always just before kick off.

On the eve of the season, everyone is confident. There are nerves and concerns, but every team is unbeaten going into the first round.

After three years of COVID disruption, there is more reason than ever to anticipate good football, with a regular rhythm, and all the storylines that unfold once the talking stops and the football finally starts. The A-Leagues are back.

From the moment of Shaun Evans’s first whistle on Friday night, we’re back in the old routine. Finally, 133 days of off-season are over. Everybody’s dreaming of winning the league.

Western United celebrate with the A-League trophy in May.

Conversations with players and coaches in recent weeks all have an optimistic hue. The new imports are still acclimatising, but revelling (for those coming from Europe) in the relative warmth at training every day. The coaches all back themselves to find the footballing alchemy you need to win the league. The fans just want to believe.

Across the league, there are reasons – more specifically, there are players – to move the needle on the excite-o-meter. Some of the signings seem genuine class acts, the sort people pay to see. The headlines are taken by Nani and Charlie Austin – the latter a bundle of old-school laughs and goals, the former with a technique still as smooth as ever.

But there are others with the potential to make any fan catch their breath – Bozhidar Kraev at Wellington, for instance, who carries himself with the confidence of a very good player. Some at Phoenix are joking that he and teammate Yan Sasse – the Bulgarian and the Brazilian – could be the A-League’s answer to Stoichkov and Romario at Barcelona in the 1980s. The sheer nerve of it is engaging.

After years of tucking in, Sydney FC have brought in two genuine wide men – dribblers with an eye for goal in Robert Mak and Joe Lolley. Across town, French-born attackers Romain Amalfitano, Yeni Ngbakoto have pedigree in Europe’s elite and are now wearing the red and black of Western Sydney. Newcastle struck gold last season with one Georgian and have brought in another in Beka Dartsmelia.

Graham Arnold will be in the crowd at four A-Leagues games this week, checking players’ form.

It’s the homegrown talent, though, with the perhaps the biggest incentive to shine in the first few weeks. Socceroos boss Graham Arnold will be in Melbourne on Friday night to watch Melbourne City v Western United, then back to NSW the next morning to watch three games in two days – well , almost, having to leave the F3 derby on 70 minutes to race down the freeway to catch the bulk of the Big Blue.

His mind will be racing just as fast as his car, sifting the claims of Socceroos aspirants ahead of the World Cup. Every minute of game time will count, for Arnold has to submit a long list of some 55 names to FIFA by mid-October – with two rounds of the A-League played. The local names that get on to that then have another four week to make a compelling case for inclusion in the final 26 who go to Qatar. No one can afford a slow start.

With the league breaking after seven rounds for the group stages of the World Cup, maybe no one can afford a slow start, players or coaches – that break will be a natural point of reflection with a quarter of the season gone. For now though it’s the future that preoccupies us. The A-Leagues are back.

Club by club: your guide to the 2022-23 Isuzu UTE A-League season

There’s an unprecedented A-Leagues All Access, official A-Leagues Fantasy and Tipping, more games on free to air, marquee stars and family-friendly kick-offs.

With the 2022-23 Isuzu UTE A-League season upon us, here’s everything you need to know about your club.