2006 A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup

The 2006 A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup was a series in the Australian A-League football competition held in July and August in the lead up to the start of the main season. The opening round was 15 July 2006. The competition featured a group stage, with three regular rounds and a bonus round, followed by a two week finals playoff. The bonus group round matched up teams against opponents from the other group, and also offered the incentive of "bonus points" based on goals scored (1 point for 2 goals, 2 points for 3 goals, 3 points for 4 or more goals).

The Pre-Season Cup was used to enhance the A-League's profiles by playing pre-season games in regional centres including the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Launceston, Canberra, Wollongong, Port Macquarie, Orange and Tamworth. ^[1]

Pre-Season Cup group stage

Group A table

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	BP
Central Coast Mariners	8	4	2	2	0	5	2	0
Adelaide United	8	4	2	2	0	2	0	0
Melbourne Victory	6	4	1	1	2	5	7	2
Perth Glory	2	4	0	2	2	2	6	0

Group B table

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	BP
Sydney FC	12	4	3	1	0	7	2	2
Newcastle Jets	3	4	0	2	2	4	6	1
New Zealand Knights [2]	3	4	0	3	1	2	3	0
Queensland Roar [2]	3	4	0	3	1	2	3	0

Pre-Season Cup finals series

The finals series will be held over two weekends - 11 August to 13 August, and 18 August to 20 August.

	Playoffs					Finals
							Grand final
	A1	Central Coast Mariners	2				Central Coast Mariners	1 (4)
	B2	Newcastle Jets	1				Adelaide United (PEN)	1 (5)
							Third place playoff
	A2	Adelaide United	2				Sydney FC	2
	B1	Sydney FC	1				Newcastle Jets	0
							Fifth place playoff
	A3	Melbourne Victory (PEN)	0 (4)				Melbourne Victory	1
	B4	Queensland Roar	0 (2)				Perth Glory	0
							Seventh place playoff
	A4	New Zealand Knights	0				New Zealand Knights	1
	B3	Perth Glory	1				Queensland Roar	2

Pre-Season Cup attendances

Round	Games	Average	Highest	Lowest	Total
Pre-Season Group Stage	16	4,954	12,006	804	79,252
Pre-Season Finals	7	4,715	10,463	1,104	33,002
Totals[3]	23	4,881	12,006	804	112,254

Top goalscorers

3 goals:

• Carl Veart (Adelaide United)
• Danny Allsopp (Melbourne Victory)
• Alex Brosque (Sydney FC)
• Sasho Petrovski (Sydney FC)

2 goals:

• Adam Kwasnik (Central Coast Mariners)
• Paul O'Grady (Central Coast Mariners)
• Stewart Petrie (Central Coast Mariners)
• Archie Thompson (Melbourne Victory)
• Stuart Young (Perth Glory)

1 goal:

Travis Dodd (Adelaide United) Kristian Rees (Adelaide United) Andre Gumprecht (Central Coast Mariners) Noel Spencer (Central Coast Mariners) Kevin Muscat (Melbourne Victory) Darren Bazeley (New Zealand Knights) Jonti Richter (New Zealand Knights) Dani Rodrigues (New Zealand Knights) Mark Bridge (Newcastle Jets Nicky Carle (Newcastle Jets) Vaughan Coveny (Newcastle Jets)

Jade North (Newcastle Jets) Leo Bertos (Perth Glory) Spase Dilevski (Queensland Roar) Reinaldo (Queensland Roar) Tim Smits (Queensland Roar) Dario Vidosic (Queensland Roar) David Carney (Sydney FC) Robbie Middleby (Sydney FC) Mark Rudan (Sydney FC) Nikolai Topor-Stanley (Sydney FC)

References

1. "A-League Pre-Season Schedule Confirmed". 1 June 2006.
2. As the New Zealand Knights and Queensland Roar were tied on points, goal difference, goals for, goals against, and points earned in the "Bonus Round", the sixth degree of disambiguity, number of red cards received, was used. See official A-League press release for more details.
3. "Totals" regarding attendances for Pre-Season Cup, including highest and lowest crowds, are excluding the unknown figure for 7th Place Playoff match.