Pre-season information · Yellow Fever Nga Wana Kowhai · Supporters of the Wellington Phoenix

Here is some pre-season information for you all

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Go the MIGHTY WELLINGTON PHOENIX

After another very long off-season and some uninspiring transfers the A-League gets serious again this weekend with the Pre-Season cup kicking off on Saturday. With the exception of the Olympians who will be sweating their arse off in some Asian backwater, most clubs will have a majority of their senior players fit and ready for the first serious A-League hit out since Jade North and GVE lifted that stupid looking trophy back in February.

Perth Glory and the A-League champs the Newcastle Jets will kick off the comp in the seaside city of Mandurah on Saturday afternoon with Glory looking to repeat their brave run to the final last season. Glory's golden boy Nikita Rukavystya will be off with the Olympic squad along with error prone keeper Tando Velaphi and the hyphen himself Nikolai Topor-Stanley. Glory should have newbies like the South American midfielder Adrian Trinidad and along with ex Melbourne Knights keeping hero Frank Juric but players like Harnwell and Rizzo are out injured. Eugene Dadi is also likely to be rested.

The Jets have been gutted of half of their title winning XI in the off-season but still have a host of fit youngsters that will give the underachieving Glory a run for their money. Want-away captain Jade North and is with the Olympic side so will miss out. The match kicks off at the Hyundai Stadium at 3pm local time.

Sydney FC will begin their pre-season campaign with a home match against the toothless Queensland Roar on Saturday night in Cambeltown. Sydney have their injury problems with Aloisi, Popovic, Santalab and (suprise suprise) Enfield all out. New boys Musialik and Bridge are both on Olyroo duty to make it even more difficult for Kosmina.

Queensland Roar don't have many injury problems but they do lack some potency up front with the depature of Reinaldo, Lynch etc. Charlie Miller has come in from the cold to play with Roar this season and they will also be relying on Dutchman Sergio Van Dijk (great name) to put them away. This match kicks off at 7pm local time at the Campelltown Stadium.

2007 A-League Grand Finalists Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United will be looking to bounce back from their poor-arse 07-08 seasons when they battle it out in Tassy on Sunday. Victory's midfield has been gutted with Muscat and Brebner injured yet again while Archie is off with his good mate Arnie and the other Olyroos. New boy Billy Celeski is also with the Olyroos and Carlos Hernandez is again injured. The new boy from Costa Rica isn't expected to play but Fabiano will definately take to the field.

Adelaide won this comp last season and made history in recent times with their table topping efforts in the ACL. United will lose some potency with Pantelis suspended and Sarkies with the Olyroos while Sasa Ognenovski is also out. United so have some luck with Cassio fit once more along with the availability of their two new Brazilian boys Alemeo and Christiano. The match kicks off at 1pm local time at the Aurora Stadium in Launceston.

The Cake Tin will host the final match of the first round with the Phoenix playing those chokers in fluro yellow the Mariners. The Phoenix have recruited well and will only be missing the deadweight Jeremy Christie and ex Jet Tim Brown. New boys like Durante, McKain and Kwasnik (against his old side) should all play.

The Mariners have some tricky injuries that may leak into the main season with Jedinak, Owens and O'Grady all crocked and MIA. Boorgard and Simon are off representing Australia. The match will kick off at 4pm local time at Westpac Stadium.