World Footy News

Last year, this weekend saw AFL teams North Melbourne and the Sydney Swans at UCLA as part of the G’day USA festival. This year however, the match was replaced by an Australia vs England cricket match featuring Steve Waugh alongside Russell Crowe and Mel Gibson taking on Robbie Williams, Simon Jones and Daniel Radcliffe (who Carlton assure us is a fan of the Old Dark Navy Blues).

Sufficient funding was unable to be raised to get AFL clubs back to LA this year (see LA Clash off the Agenda).

Regardless, the USAFL, who played a Revolution v All comers game as the curtain raiser in 2007, were back in LA as part of the preparations for this year’s International Cup. Last year it was the UCLA grounds, but for this year's clash the grounds at Katella High School in Anaheim were used.

A fitness and skills testing session for Revolution hopefuls took place in the morning session. In the afternoon those players, plus a handful of local players made up the Revolution squad which played the all comers. Due to the big response from the Californian clubs it was a full 18 a side game on the field, with full benches for both teams.

The match was played in good spirits and at a high skill level with the Revolution running out winners by just a few goals.

The next Revolution training camp will be held in Atlanta on the weekend of February 8th.

Let’s hope that the AFL can return to G’day USA next year as it is was a great boost for the USAFL in 2007 to have the AFL teams on US soil. Many US (and Canadian) players and club administrators benefited greatly from the activities surrounding last year’s match and the added profile it brings to Australian Football in the USA.

Editor: Alas some of the stars were no shows for the cricket, and the Aussies lost to the Poms. See Cricket goes to Hollywood, and the bad guys win the Ashes.