A-League Round 5 - Facts & Figures

Allsopp’s milestone appearance

Melbourne Victory striker Daniel Allsopp is set to make his 250th appearance in all national league competitions this Sunday when the Victory host Newcastle Jets at Olympic Park Stadium.

Allsopp, who commenced his national league career at South Melbourne in November 1995 just after turning 17 years old, has made 20 league appearances with South Melbourne (Australia), 16 with Carlton (Australia), 29 with Manchester City (England), 108 with Notts County (England), three with Wrexham (England), six with Bristol Rovers (England), 64 with Hull City (England) and three appearances so far for Melbourne Victory in the Hyundai A-League.

The 27 year old striker, who scored his first A-League goal last week in the 1-1 draw with Queensland Roar, has an impressive strike rate in national league competitions with 79 goals scored so far in 249 appearances.

His goalscoring feats include a Golden Boot award at the 1995 FIFA U-17 World Championship (five goals for the Joeys) and a 20 goal season haul at English Division Two side Notts County in 20001-02.

Australia’s most prolific striker returns to the big time

During the week Perth Glory signed sharp-shooter Damian Mori on a short term contract.

Mori holds the all-time goal scoring record for Australia’s former national league, with a phenomenal 225 goals in 411 appearances over 15 seasons. His career also included a short stint in Germany (Borussia Moenchengladbach 1996-97).

The Melbourne-born striker, who turns 35 on September 30, was the national league’s top goal scorer on five occasions, the player of the year twice (1995-96 and 2002-03) and won two Championship medals (2002-03 and 2003-04). He also had at one stage held the world record for the fastest goal after scoring just 3.7 seconds into a match whilst playing for Adelaide City in December 1995.

Mori also holds the all-time record for most goals scored for the Socceroos in A internationals, scoring 29 goals in a national team career which spanned from 1992 to 2002.

The world’s longest road trip

Perth Glory travels to Auckland to face the New Zealand Knights this Thursday in what is currently the world’s longest road trip in a domestic football competition.

Almost 5400 km separates Perth from Auckland, meaning a flight of over eight hours and a time difference of four hours for the travelling team.

It appears that the only time teams had to travel a longer distance in a top-level domestic football competition in any part of the world was when Luch Vladivostok and Okean Nahodka played their only season in the Russian first division in 1993. One-way trips involving far-eastern Russian teams regularly meant a flight of over 6000 km, with the furthest distance being a 7114 km trip between Okean Nahodka and Black Sea port team Zhemchuzhina Sochi.