Round is the Ball

Fossie, Slater lead a dismal week

2012-01-20T03:51:00.000-08:00

A week for reflection on matters round-ball. In Australia, a curious contretemps between former Socceroo team-mates Craig Foster and Robbie Slater. Both now long-time pundits on the game in Australia, they click their keyboards rather like they played their football - brash, gung-ho and a little raw. Foster this week peddled a well-worn theme of his, the disdain for anything from the mother country, or thereabouts, within the Aussie football context. This time it was Melbourne Victory appointee Jim Magilton in his sights. Foster, aided and abetted by flagging football warhorse Les Murray, saw Magilton's appointment as an unwanted pimple on the new face of Australian football - one which has progressively dispensed with its ties to our British past, in favour of more cosmopolitan influences.

Slater, also one not to mince his words, and having spent his English playing days at a slightly higher level than Foster, branded his former teammate as racist for airing such anti-British views. He also managed to throw in some recollection of a Socceroo incident from the distant past which somehow implicated Foster. Irrelevant and tawdry.

If matters football were rather scrappy locally, there was a week of similar untidiness globally. Pepe's stamp on Messi in the latest instalment of the El Classico in Spain, and a reinforcement of the polarity of English football these days - Chelsea's rather odd signing of three young brothers from Luton Town, and the sad near annulment of Darlington FC from the face of football altogether.

Maybe next week we can focus on the positives on the pitch!

The best of times, the worst of times

2011-06-09T05:07:00.001-07:00

With the sun just set on the European season, a chance to reflect on a whirlwind finish as leagues, cup competitions and play-offs came to their conclusion. Undoubtedly the climax and highlight was the UEFA Champions League final, bringing together two stand-out teams in Barcelona and Manchester United to decide the trophy at Wembley. The occasion provided a great match and a great winner in Barcelona. The Catalans were masterful, worthy of every superlative, and a cut above United. Yet despite their dominance, the game remained in the balance for some time. After the Spaniards have taken a deserved lead worthy of their superiority, Rooney stepped up with a superb equaliser to leave the contest level at the break. For an Aussie, it was another example of the great attraction of the code - had it been Aussie Rules, a half time score of Barcelona 11.7, Man Utd 3.2 would have been apt, with the game all over.

Come the second half, Barcelona did exert control and the 3-1 win left even the most one-eyed United fans conceding they had lost to the better team. Having sat through a few of these, the Catalans' dominance took me back to AC Milan's similar superiority with their Dutch trio of Rijkaard, Van Basten and Gullit leading the way some 20 years prior.

What a contrast therefore to witness just days later the calamitous standing of FIFA, with scandalous allegations merely confirming what most thought, that the peak body in world football is a corrupt and lamentable beast. Another blow for those promoting the game in Australia. The naysayers having a field day- not only is the game ruled by cheats at the bottom - the divers, the "simulation" merchants, but it's clearly ruled by cheats at the top!

The juxtaposition of the Champions League final with the ructions of Blatter and co just days later was quite maddening. I hope as the years roll on I'll just be left with memories of the former, a beautiful night in London where the red and blue stripes reigned supreme.

Victory the loser amid Muscat mess

2011-01-25T01:20:00.000-08:00

More than just a few bytes have been consumed in the wake of Kevin Muscat's horror tackle on Adrian Zahra which marred Saturday's bristling A-league derby between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart. At time of writing, the Victory's hardman's crude lunge seems likely to provide a coarse full stop to a career punctuated by a number of violent episodes.

As much as this incident has provoked vitriol towards the man himself, public opinion has also biased firmly against his club. In six seasons Melbourne Victory has established itself as the biggest club in the Australian A-league. Its support is the country's largest and its two titles are only matched by Sydney FC. Its star players such as Archie Thompson and Muscat have attracted as much media attention as any, while Ernie Merrick remains the only surviving A-league coach from season one.

The public statements by coach Merrick following Muscat's act via have been truly lamentable. Merrick forsook the opportunity to denounce Muscat and his action. Post-match he tediously grasped the "I didn't see it" defence before launching into criticism of the referee's performance. The next day he chose to defend Muscat's "professionalism" while bleating that Victory weren't the kind of club that played dirty. This simply provided a green light for the parading of a litany of violent acts perpetrated by Muscat and his team mates over a long period. Finally he had the sheer temerity on Melbourne radio to lambaste the management at Melbourne Heart who had by contrast conducted themselves with quiet decorum since Saturday's contretemps.

For Victory members like me, this has been a gut-wrenching time. For all his faults, Muscat has been a leadership figure at the club and contributed positively to its success. But for me that has been obliterated and more after Saturday. He was due to retire and now should immediately. But more than that the implied endorsement of Muscat by the club is a bitter pill for me to swallow.

In this its first season in the A-league, Melbourne Heart has genuinely struggled to find a point of difference, a unique selling proposition in marketing terms, for it to build a critical mass of support. Melbourne's size and sporting disposition should support two teams, but to date, notwithstanding an attractive squad (and the league's most attractive playing strip) Heart has managed gates often not much more than 6,000.

I'd reckon that after this week, Heart can afford to stop worrying. In a single blow (literally), Muscat - and by association his club - have kick started Heart's recruitment drive. There were over 32,000 at the derby on Saturday, by far the biggest gate for any game in the league this year, and far exceeding the combined attendances of both constituent clubs. For those casual football followers who fronted for the first time this season, there could be only one club that would have their support after Saturday's and subsequent events - and Victory is indeed the loser.

Asian Cup sets twin test for Aussie football

2011-01-07T22:56:00.000-08:00

Australia will be tested in more ways than one at the Asian Cup finals tournament which just kicked-off in Qatar. The first will be to maximise its playing performance in difficult conditions against eager and talented opposition. The second and arguably greater challenge is for Australia to act with grace and respect to towards both its opponents and towards the competition in general.

The 2007 tournament brings back only bad memories for me. In the wake of the Hiddink-led brilliance of Germany 2006, the finals tournament was a substantial let-down. Australia underestimated the opposition and was poorly behaved on and off the field. Most of the fallout followed the 3-1 group loss to Iraq. Immediately after the final whistle TV viewers were treated to the unpopular boss Graham Arnold bagging the playing squad, with Mark Viduka seconds later challenging the boss's comments. Captain Lucas Neill had "led" by example with a red card for dissent.

Following Australia's exit at the hands of Japan, red-carded midfielder Vince Grella in a massive dummy spit scorned the AFC, its referees and each of Oman, Iraq, Thailand and Japan. The net impact left onlookers with the impression that Australia didn't respect the competition, its organisers or its competitors.

Aussie football followers would expect increased respect, particularly in light of the announcement this week that, albeit as sole bidder, Australia had been handed the hosting rights for the 2015 Asian Cup finals. It was rather bemusing to see Melbourne Victory hard-man Kevin Muscat singing the praises of the competition, as he hasn't managed to do so for the confederation's other major tournament, the AFC Champions League. With his club's continuing poor performance in the competition, Muscat pretty well bagged the entire tournament once Victory had achieved rapid fire elimination last time around.

The blanket lack of support from the Asian confederation for Australia's hapless bid for the 2002 World Cup means that Australia must display consistent and committed support of football in Asia. Let's hope the report card at the end of the 2011 version has more ticks than we saw last time around.

The $45 million vote

2010-12-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

Australians woke to the news this morning that their $45 million investment in attempting to secure the 2022 World Cup hosting rights had yielded just one vote among the 22 FIFA executives.

For the bid team, the news that Australia was eliminated first in the voting process, failing even to trump either South Korea or Japan came as total surprise. Ultimately, this has simply provided another reminder of Australia's modest status and influence in world football.

Respected FFA chair Frank Lowy may boast a successful track record in influencing local politicians, but world football politics is many steps beyond. The ultimate, perhaps, well beyond even playthings such as the Olympics. Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam demonstrated the benefit of his wide experience at the highest level, directing Qatar to glittering success at the expense of the US.

For FFA chief executive Ben Buckley, success with Australia's bid would have provided the ultimate adornment to his CV and provided a launching pad for greater personal glory. Instead, he along with Lowy will wear much of the blame for Australia's pitiful showing. Others will come in the firing line - Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who stayed away from the final bid presentation ( did she smell failure?) and other less obvious targets such as Aussie Rules chief Andrew Demetriou, cast by Aussie soccer fans as the prime villain for his code's obstruction in the bid process.

The response of the hardcore of Australian football critics within the country will be hard for lovers of the game to bear, but we've been there before, most typically in the wake of past failures by the Socceroos, or with the at times halting progress of the national league. Their pronouncements will be be predictable and painful.

The response of the local populace at large will be more interesting to monitor. There will be those who will crudely dismiss FIFA - and football - as corrupt, dismiss the voting as a simple success for the oil-wealthy, lambast Australia's bid as a total waste of time and effort, and find solace in the familiar, local pursuits which we understand better and with which we have greater success.

Genuine local football followers, devastated, will bounce back. While we will dream of what it would have been like to land the World Cup, and for those of my vintage reflect on the fact that the tournament will now most probably never be hosted in Australia within my lifetime, we are well used to setbacks to our beloved code in our country. As the pundits reflected last night, today feels more than a little like the morning after Iran 2-2 in 1997, and Uruguay 0-3 in 2001. But life goes on, the round ball continues to roll. We keep the faith!

A-league, aged 6, misbehaving

2010-09-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

On a Friday night in December 2006 I was one of 50,333 who turned up to (then) Telstra Dome to witness Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC play out a 0-0 draw. The game itself never reached great heights but the occasion was unforgettable. Long-time watchers of national league football in Australia like myself were simply pinching themselves that night, never ever contemplating that they would witness a crowd of that proportion attending a club fixture in this country, in our lifetime. It was a night we simply celebrated football.

It couldn't last, of course. The following season provided the high water mark, with every A-league team but Perth Glory averaging gates over 10,000 . Now in season six, Melbourne Victory and Perth Glory are the only clubs to average more than 10,000 per game. And just tonight a barren 2,091 watched Gold Coast host Newcastle, the lowest A-league crowd since the hapless New Zealand Knights hosted Central Coast in their final season.

Worse than this, clubs are haemorrhaging financially under the strain of the reduced level of interest. The league model where cashed-up owners seem to single-handedly determine a team's future seems critically flawed. Newcastle, Gold Coast, North Queensland all in recent trouble. Prior to that Adelaide and Brisbane having to be bailed out.

The FFA has taken the brunt of the criticism from media, fans and the football community with bones of contention being the peak body's focus on the 2022 World Cup bid ahead of support for the A-league, and the lack of a separate and independent body to manage the league's affairs.

For Aussie football fans of a particular vintage, the current woes, together with some of the ludicrous suggestions to fix them, sound awfully like the dreadful lurching of the former National Soccer League over its often painful existence from 1977 to 2004. Some themes:

"We need to create a second division" The A-league is struggling to keep 11 clubs afloat, yet there are those who would welcome double the number. The short-lived North and South conferences of the old NSL and the failure rate of so many clubs tells a cautionary tale.
"Old soccer needs to be welcomed back to the fold" An undeniable factor in the A-league's success in cities like Melbourne has been the absence of any ethnic association with the clubs.
"The FFA needs to be run by soccer people again" The most ludicrous charge in the current mess is that FFA CEO Ben Buckley is apparently an AFL-conspired Trojan Horse, set loose in the FFA to inflict damage on behalf of other codes. The best administrators the peak football body has had in this country have been John O'Neill, a rugby man, and Buckley a former AFL man. The eternal petty politics, back-stabbing, conflicts of interest and sheer amateurism of the former NSL administration remains an ugly memory of days gone by.
"We need a national cup competition" Notwithstanding that the FA Cup appears to have shed substantial gloss over recent years, the concept of a national cup competition, where rank amateur suburban clubs could battle progressively through preliminary rounds, later bringing in State League, then A-league clubs, does have a certain romantic appeal. Never mind that similar concepts in the days of NSL never really got off the ground. But the effort required now to make this initiative work would be an unnecessary distraction from making the league work.
"It needs to be on free-to-air television" Unsurprisingly, this notion seems to feature most heavily on the website of SBS, the free-to-air network that most covets the rights held by Foxtel. Possibly, the Ten network might be interested in using its One channel for A-league, but I'd be hesitant in assuming that the grass is greener on the free-to-air side of the fence.

Some may categorise this "crisis" as part of the necessary growing pains of a new league. And there are some that are calling for a reality check on attendances, pointing to the rather meagre followings in selected long-established European leagues. But at the least, the FFA needs to find a way, with the clubs, to inject interest back into the A-league. There are many like me that will be desperate to avoid reversion to the bad old days.

Australia - the wash-up

2010-06-27T00:49:00.000-07:00

In the end, it was as I predicted. Not that I'm wanting to gloat, and I wished it had all ended differently. But Australia's failure to progress from the group stage was always going to be the most likely outcome.

Pundits and Aussie coach Pim Verbeek pointed to our 4-0 drubbing by Germany as the reason for failure. Not sure I agree. After that game we knew wins against Ghana and Serbia would get us through. We didn't achieve that - and didn't get through.

We weren't helped along in our quest by being down to 10 men in two games. Tim Cahill's red card in the second half against Germany was probably harsh, although his tackle was reckless and naive. Harry Kewell's first half red card v Ghana, despite the hysteria in Australia, was merited. It capped a thoroughly miserable campaign for Australia's pin-up boy (well, Channel 9's at least). But we did have chances to put Ghana away, even though we were disadvantaged numerically. Wilkshire, Kennedy and Chipperfield would have wished for calmer heads and a more adroit touch when faced with gilt-edged chances.

Our strike force always looked under-strength. Verbeek chose only three strikers in his squad - Kennedy, Rukavytsya and Kewell - didn't select any to start against Germany or Ghana, and none of them scored in the three group games. Richard Garcia was bizarrely given a forward assignment in the Germany debacle.

In midfield, it was a very mixed bag. Grella totally down on form, then fitness. Bresciano struggled to impress, a victim of an injury-interrupted few months. Culina went missing for long periods. Cahill only showed against Serbia what he was capable of. Valeri certainly wasn't the worst of this bunch. Emerton did quite well given his long absence leading to the finals. The best, incredibly, was the much-maligned Brett Holman. He was sparky in each of his appearances, and scored a wonderful goal against Serbia. In hindsight, Pim should have given him more minutes.

The concerns in the middle of defence, amplified in the warm-up games, were there for all to see against Germany. Moore, exposed in that fixture, lifted for the Ghana game, which will be his last in the green and gold. Lucas Neill didn't have a great tournament, as player or captain. Beauchamp was an adequate replacement for Moore against Serbia.

Luke Wilkshire contributed throughout, albeit out of his depth on occasion. Chipperfield was poor against Germany, but came back well in his Socceroo swansong. Carney battled gamely.

Pim Verbeek lost his nerve before the Germany game, upsetting team balance with a bizarre line-up bereft of attacking intent. Although pundits such as Craig Foster were totally unforgiving in their damning of Verbeek, the Aussie boss got his tactics more or less right in the last two games. His legacy for Australian football however will be rather anonymous.

Australia now faces a challenging road for 2014 qualification, with the 2006 generation probably all gone by then. Moore and Chipperfield have retired, and Emerton, Kewell, Bresciano, Neill and Grella unlikely to go beyond next year's Asian Cup finals. Culina, Cahill and Schwarzer may last a little longer. Wilkshire, Valeri and Holman may form the basis of the next challenge.

Kiwi joy contrasts Aussie gloom

2010-06-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

A delight to see New Zealand snatch a late equaliser against Slovakia in their first finals appearance since 1982. Most of the football world were expecting the plucky Kiwis to be the whipping boys of the tournament but it became quite plain quite quickly in this fixture that they were not going to be over-awed - well not by Slovakia at least.

The attitude from the All Whites even before they arrived in South Africa was quite refreshing. Simply, they had already achieved their goal - to make it to the finals. Anything in addition to that would be pure bonus. And indeed, the bonus has already been realised, with their first point ever in the finals.

Compare and contrast the teeth-gnashing over in the Aussie camp. They have set themselves a target of getting to at least the final 16. And such expectations have been amplified and exaggerated by the mainstream media and the much of fan-dom back in Australia. So therefore in light of their stunning failure against Germany such ambitions appear stymied, just 90 playing minutes into the tournament.

Over my lifetime there's been a ebb and flow between the respective fortunes of the Australian and New Zealand national football teams. Traditionally set against each other in World Cup qualifying, the Socceroos had the edge over the All Whites in the 1970s, managing outright qualification in 1974.

Come 1981 and the tables had turned. Australia lost its way principally owing to the brief and erratic reign of football journeyman Rudi Gutendorf. After the godlike Rale Rasic had been the victim of petty politics, Gutendorf was the third in line of distinctly unimpressive Socceroo managers - Brian Green, who was sacked after caught shoplifting, then the unknown Jimmy Shoulder who failed miserably.

Meanwhile over in the Kiwi camp, Poms John Adhsead and Kevin Fallon assembled a solid bunch of amateurs and semi-pros. After a 3-3 draw in New Zealand, the united Kiwis managed a historic, deserved 2-0 win in Sydney over a clearly disunited Australia. Gutendorf was sacked on the spot, and New Zealand progressed to final Asian qualifying, which turned out to be an epic tale. Nearing the end of the phase, having copped a late equaliser in a critical tie in Kuwait, the Kiwis trudged to Saudi Arabia needing a 5-0 away win to equal China's record, 6-0 or better to progress. History records they blitzed their opponents in the first 45 minutes, scoring 5 times, aided at this stage by an emerging Wynton Rufer, yet in the second half couldn't find the net again. Thus a play-off against China was required; a 2-1 win got them to Spain.

The All Whites managed to out-do the Aussies 1974 effort by actually scoring in Spain, but they lost their three games (the Aussies had eked out a point against Chile).

From 1986 onwards however, the Aussies were back on top, and apart from an Oceania Nations Cup win in 2002, the Kiwis ambitions were continually blocked by their "West Island" neighbours. This all changed for 2010 qualifying with their path suddenly laid clear with the Aussie defection to Asia.

What the rest of the tournament will bring for Kiwis isn't clear. They will be hoping to avoid embarrassment. They've made a very good start in that regard.

Aussies humiliated in Durban

2010-06-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

It was a night of acute pain for Australians - fans and players alike - as the Socceroos were outplayed and out classed by Germany. The shortcomings of our squad were exposed and amplified by a bewildering team selection by Verbeek, then the despair was completed with the harsh sending off of strongest outfield player Tim Cahill.

If Verbeek has been known for one thing it has been his blind devotion to players and formations. Thus it was a major surprise to see Richard Garcia given an attacking spot alongside Cahill, and for Bresciano and Kennedy to be dropped to the bench. Verbeek stated the latter two hadn't shown good from in the lead-up games, but then neither had Garcia. As it turned out Garcia had a great opportunity in the opening minutes to put Australia ahead, a half-chance that perhaps a Scott McDonald may have taken, but that chance was spurned.

One thing Verbeek can't be blamed for was the very poor performance of Lucas Neill at the back. His attempt to catch the German attackers offside ahead of their opening goal was poorly judged and naive. He gave Klose too much space for the German striker to make it no.2 later in the half, and Neill seemed more occupied with berating the officials than on lifting his team. Reflecting on Neill's pre-match extolling of the German's superiority, one wonders if he had the fight for the contest. Whatever his motivation, like several of the ageing Aussies his form is a fading shadow of 2006.

Brett Emerton provided a rare bright spot for Australia on his return from injury, but apart from Wilkshire and a good second half performance from Holman, the Socceroos were very poor. The options for Verbeek are limited. We simply don't have the depth in the squad to try a lot different to what we saw last night. Kewell and Bresciano will surely play some part going forward. Australia can still make the second round with wins in its remaining games, but the chances of success appear remote.

Yanked back to reality

2010-06-07T01:42:00.000-07:00

And so it comes to this. No more warm-ups, no more what-ifs, no more how-abouts. Aussie boss Pim Verbeek has declared his hand, leading out with the same starting XI for the final two hit outs against Denmark and the USA. With the average Aussie football follower now thinking - is that it?

For the cold, hard reality is this - our best is looking pretty average. Against the US, we were exposed where we feared we would all along - in the soft centre of our defence, and in our lone attack.

The preceding Denmark fixture was, in retrospect, a distraction from the conclusion. An anonymous, somnambulant ninety minutes with players drifting around the park, trying to control the ball, trying to create something. Blame the ball, blame the pitch, blame ... well just blame. And Australia coming out of it with some quiet comfort having edged the game courtesy of Kennedy's scrappy strike.

Compare and contrast the US bouncing out with open, honest intention on Saturday and the Aussies just couldn't live with it. 3-1 should by rights have been 5-1, in any case our first loss ever to the stars and stripes.

Craig Moore was exposed for the second time in three games and Pim's resolve to keep him in the starting line-up ahead of Beauchamp must be wavering. Up front, lanky Josh Kennedy's shortcomings were evident, fluffing two excellent chances to score. Tim Cahill scored a nice goal, but generally has looked ineffective the last three outings. Grella continues to be a liability.

Amid the gloom, some brief rays of light. Veteran Scott Chipperfield has added great value overlapping on the left, and game-shy Bresciano has been gathering form. Luke Wilkshire largely remains dependable.

And occupying massive column inches, particularly for the great unwashed (and for his Nine Network sponsors), is the Kewell question. Will he, won't he? Well, even the most optimistic now concede neither he nor the similarly impacted Emerton will start against Germany. I'll wager Kewell will be given 20 minutes at most.

Disgraceful, depressing - apart from that, ok

2010-05-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

Australia's hit out with New Zealand last night was a desultory affair for most of the 55,000 that traipsed to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was a "farewell to the Socceroos" which we Melburnians had a nice taste of four years ago when 95,000 saw Australia host a similar friendly against the visiting Euro champs Greece before heading off to Guus-inspired glory in Germany.

But this time around, rather than spicy souvlaki, the fixture doled out flavourless mutton. Not that the visiting All-Whites weren't fair-dinkum opposition. In the first half the visitors outplayed the Aussies and held a deserved lead until well into the second half and over the 90 minutes contributed an honest open display. No, it was the performance from the home side that caused the teeth-gnashing.

Aussie Pim decided to leave out some of the injured and some of the already qualified to concentrate on the fringe players and those lacking match practice. With underwhelming results. For the first 45 minutes brought home supporters the sight of Australia failing to keep possession, failing to move forward with any zeal, and its only achievements were a series of stud marks left on opposition limbs.

Churlish Kiwi Rory Fallon had stupidly predicted an injury-ridden fixture and Aussie Vince Grella just as stupidly provided a retort. But if the more highly valued Aussie playing stock had sensed the risk of World Cup ruining tackles, the stud was on the other boot as in the space of seven minutes, Milligan, Grella and Cahill had executed a succession of agricultural swipes at the opposition. Leo Bertos of Wellington Phoenix bore the brunt of the two worst challenges, which should have drawn straight red cards for Grella and Cahill. Grella's two footed, premeditated lunge in particular was simply disgraceful. It was to the Kiwis' eternal credit that they showed the self control not to retaliate.

Australia progressed from disgraceful to depressing. Craig Moore woefully out of form at centre-back, Carney more left-footed than ever, Bresciano and Culina struggling in midfield, McDonald marooned up front. How our stocks have fallen. Yes, we were missing the dependable Wilkshire and Chipperfield, and the now less dependable Kewell and Emerton, and the lone beanpole Kennedy. But this is a squad that is older, slower, unfit, with few shining lights emerging.

After half time, on came Holman, Jedinak and others. We looked quicker, and New Zealand, tinkering with its own formation, looked less likely. We buzzed around more in midfield, and fashioned a goal for Vidosic, who was having his own struggles. And from the controversial AZ Alkmaar midfielder Holman, we saw a classic Holman performance. Plenty of buzzing about, incomplete control and poor passing. Surely at some stage Pim would give one final opportunity for Nicky Carle, who has got vision, who can pass, who can make things happen. But no. And to make matters worse, Holman pops up for a winner with the last kick of the night. Maybe that's a bit harsh on him.

Today, Pim drops Carle and McDonald. Depressing. Four years ago, palpable excitement gripped Australia's football followers. After last night, we were gripped with the almost certain prospect of first round elimination.

Aussies may find it tough on the rebound

2010-04-23T06:08:00.000-07:00

The upcoming World Cup finals in June will be the tenth such instalment that I've actively followed. Each tournament marks for me another adorned figure passing in life's rich pageant.

Sadly for me, for nearly all I've witnessed over the years I have been more a bystander than active participant, for my country Australia has walked a dusty World Cup trail for much of that time. After the fairytale of qualification by our distinctly amateur representatives in 1974, the next 32 years saw a parade of under-achievement, near-misses, bad planning, bad luck and ever-present frustration.

The sense of release and relief was palpable when Australia edged Uruguay in 2005, and those feelings gave way to unbridled joy when Japan and Croatia were overcome in Germany, only to be toppled in dubious circumstance by Italy and denied a place in the quarter finals.

With appetites well and truly whetted by the 2006 experience, Australia threw itself into 2010 qualification, this time via the refreshing challenge of Asia - an alluring prospect after the years of tedious boredom in Oceania - and safely negotiated passage to South Africa with only the occasional blip.

So what of the chances for the green and gold in June? Well, the natural pessimist in me thinks that this time the mountain will be harder to climb. Consider

We're not as good this time around. While Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer are at the height of their powers, Australia is struggling for quality. Up front, the ebullient Mark Viduka has disappeared into the ether and his principal replacement Josh Kennedy may have impressive stature, but lacks the guile and touch of the V-bomber. Kewell may be one of Oz's all-time great exports, but sadly is well past his best and can't be expected to provide the moments of impact seen in Germany. Stalwarts Emerton, Bresciano and Grella are all retained from 2006, but the 2010 versions are all of diminished quality and/or fitness. And Australia has problems directly in front of Schwarzer. Lucas Neill and Craig Moore are still around but have had scant exposure at the highest level in recent times.
Our group is tougher this time . In 2006, Brazil was untouchable but Croatia and Japan fair game. As it turned out, we broke even (W1 D1 L1) and progressed. This time around there is another untouchable (Germany), but Serbia and Ghana will prove tough to take points off. Essien's likely absence may slightly ease the spectre of the Ghanaians but only marginally so.
The element of surprise will be missing. In several quarters, Australia was deemed to be deserving of only minnow status in 2006. The US coach damned Australia with faint praise leading up to the tournament, and Croatia heaped scorn on the Aussie's third-world football status before their critical group encounter. Australia benefited significantly from such underestimation, and following the unlucky exit against Italy had garnered a modicum of respect. It's difficult to see its upcoming opponents acting with similar naivety.
Pim is no Guus. Pim Verbeek may have satisfactorily extended Australia's love affair with Dutch managers, but in the face of Guus Hiddink, Verbeek is a mere journeyman. Pim has proved to be reliable, likeable and adroit throughout the qualifying campaign, but will lack the ability to sufficiently raise Australia's performance in the highest company.

Australia's showing in 2006 greatly enhanced football's standing and credibility down under, no mean feat in a country traditionally dominated by two other competing codes. For the first time in a generation, the populace at large gained insight into why the rest of the world is besotted with the round ball game.

This time around, Australia expects. Having had a taste four years ago, the punters are hungrier for more. This makes the stakes rather more compelling. With the opponents tougher but the talent weaker, this will be a task comprising a much higher degree of difficulty. Perceived failure could prove difficult for the nation to swallow.

Reds challenge Reds

2009-03-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

On the cusp of the EPL run-in, the title race has taken an extraordinary turn. With Man United all but bolted on as title heirs apparent, they now could be in danger of being overrun by Liverpool.

The Anfield men have suffered many years of promise without deliverance in the EPL. While the other three of the big four have all shown themselves capable of sustaining performance to win a title, Gerrard and co have failed miserably. Even while they have touched European glory. Over the last three fixtures however, they have over-achieved spectacularly - 4-0 over Real Madrid, 4-1 at Man U, 5-0 over 5th placed Aston Villa.

Over at Old Trafford however, a momentary blip - the 4-1 reversal against Liverpool - was dramatically compounded by a 2-0 loss at Fulham, whose previous two home fixtures had produced losses to Hull and Blackburn Rovers. And sendings off for Scholes and the irascible Rooney.

United remain a point clear with a game in hand. A return to normal transmission should still see them head over the line in front. But will they hold their nerve?

Trampled Tykes echoes of shattered Palace

2008-04-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

Barnsley's brave run in the FA Cup came to a sad, but predictable end last night as they fell out at the penultimate hurdle at the hands of fellow tier-two Cardiff City. Having climbed death-defying twin peaks to knock off Liverpool and Chelsea, the Tykes lamentably stumbled on the gentler hills of North Wales.

For Barnsley, the balance of the season becomes no longer a quest for fame and glory but a grim struggle to stay in the Championship, for when Sheffield Wednesday grabbed a point at Scunthorpe on Saturday, Barnsley quietly slipped into the relegation zone on the eve of their semi-final.

I'm reminded of 32 years ago, when my team Crystal Palace became one of few third division teams to reach the semi finals of the Cup. A glorious, breathtaking run had brought unlikely away victories at Leeds, Chelsea and Sunderland, and the Eagles soared into the giddying heights of the last four, where they met second division Southampton, with a real chance of a Final berth against Manchester United or Derby. After playing well above their station in the previous rounds, third division Palace put on a semi-final performance worthy of a ... third division club. A straightforward 2-0 win for the Saints, who subsequently proceeded to cause a boil over and beat Man U at Wembley.

For Palace, the Cup run inflicted great damage to their Div.3 promotion aspirations. The Eagles had soared through the first half of the season, and turned into the New Year of 1976 with a comfortable buffer at the top of the table. The distraction of the Cup saw their league form falter, and by the time of their cup exit they were in a gritty race to grab the third promotion spot. Notwithstanding huge Division Three crowds at Selhurst Park to watch their run in, a series of stumbling home draws and away losses condemned them to another season in the third tier.

I hope Barnsley can pick their season up, and for their heroic efforts in the Cup translate into status-saving league success. But like Palace 32 years ago, I'm afraid that the suffocating anti-climax they will now undoubtedly suffer may work against them with potentially miserable consequences.

Tykes in dream land

2008-03-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

The words "FA Cup" and "romance" have been inextricably linked over the years. And if you think that this has been rather cliched, well it's not about to go away this year.

Barnsley FC has written its own chapter in the Cup's rich history this season by eliminating two of the Big Four. On Saturday it followed up its thrilling Anfield elimination of Liverpool with a home success over Chelsea.

And so the Cup this year will have a winner from outside the despised top four clubs for the first time since Everton's success in 1995. And with three of the four semi-finalists being from outside the Premiership, there are good chances of a winner from outside the top flight for the first time since West Ham in 1980.

The Barnsley captain remarked before the Chelsea fixture that if they achieved scalps of two of the top four they should be just about given the Cup in recognition. Their semi-final opponents will be known tonight, but I'm tipping the Tykes to be knocked out at the final hurdle. In my view, it will be too hard for them to mentally prepare for a fixture against a lesser light, even if it is lowest-ranked Cardiff City. But we'll see.

I'll be watching keenly to see the response of the mainstream media to the final stages of the competition. In recent times , the press has become so top-four and Premiership focused. Today's coverage in the Melbourne Age concentrated more on the all-Premiership clash at Old Trafford, rather than Barnsley's heroics at Oakwell.

I'd love the Tykes to go all the way. But I'll just enjoy seeing teams other than Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Presumably, eight isn't enough

2008-02-22T02:13:00.000-08:00

Football Federation Australia announced this week conditional approval for two new Queensland teams to compete in the A-league from season 2008-09. Provided the backers behind each of Gold Coast Galaxy and the Townsville-based Northern Thunder can jump financial and other hurdles in the next two weeks, then the eight-team A-league will become ten, with the FFA apparently planning to go to 12 teams at some point before too long.

The eight-team league has proved frustrating for football fans, serving up only 21 rounds plus finals. Frustrating also for players, who find the lengthy off-season detrimental to career progression.

And so the A-league, the great white hope of Australian league football after 28 highly-flawed seasons of the old National Soccer League, appears set to tweak itself for the first time. World-weary cynics like me shudder a little, remembering the former NSL managed to tweak itself about 20 times over those 28 seasons.

A primary concern is that the playing standard will be diluted. Adding another 45-50 players to fill out the two new squads will be achieved either by raiding existing A-league clubs or by importing players of the ilk that has so under whelmed expectant supporters in the past three seasons. Fair weather Australian football supporters who turn up only for the big World Cup qualifiers, who presumably are nourished on a TV diet of English Premier League, and who often complain of the relatively poor standard in the national league will hardly find greater attraction under this scenario.

A corresponding concern is the financial well-being of the clubs, old and new. Odd that Queensland clubs will account for 30% of the new league. It's hard to see the Gold Coast team not taking supporters away from Queensland Roar, which will surely revert logically to a Brisbane moniker. Funny to think that in the old NSL there were several seasons in the late 80s and early 90s with no team north of Tweed Heads.

The old NSL saw no fewer than 42 clubs breeze in and out over its lifetime; 15 of those are now defunct and the carcasses of most others litter lower state leagues. The A-league has brought a new level of professionalism and excitement to Australian football that was never present under the old spluttering model. Let's hope the survival rate this time around is appreciably higher.

On the road to find out

2008-02-03T03:19:00.000-08:00

This Wednesday sees the start to another World Cup qualifying campaign for Australia. Rather like ring marks on a tree, I often muse on marking my life as a series of Aussie qualifying campaigns - how many left for me, I wonder?

This time around has a particular resonance, since it has the somewhat novel distinction of coming off the back of a successful campaign last time . Somewhat novel, but not unique, as I remember the last time this happened, with the qualifying campaign for the 1978 World Cup.

There was a similar euphoria when Australia qualified for and played in the 1974 World Cup. The buoyant mood helped provide the momentum to kick off a national competition, the Philips Soccer League in 1977.

With the national team, things were less rosy. Political infighting (largely NSW versus the rest of Australia) had contrived to produce a new national coach that in fact none of the states wanted - a Mr Nobody from the north of England called Jimmy Shoulder.

And thus we entered another qualifying campaign through Asia. First of all, there was the matter of dispensing with Taiwan, Fiji and New Zealand, then into the final qualifying group comprising South Korea, Iran, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Australia. In July 1977 I tripped along to Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide to see the Aussies breeze past Hong Kong 3-0, with local boy John Kosmina scoring twice. The Aussies were untroubled but not terribly convincing.

Fast forward 31 years, and Australia faces a rather different challenge in its hopeful path to South Africa in 2010. It's back in Asia for WC qualifying for the first time since 1977. (It would have faced Asian opposition in 1981 had it been able to get past New Zealand).

It's been slightly surreal to see Australia's first-up opponent Qatar training assiduously in Melbourne with its entire squad intact, while Australia has a most splintered build-up for this qualifier. It appears likely that nearly the entire eleven who kick off on Wednesday will have arrived only one or two days prior to the match, and be subject to the tactical desires of a new coach for the first time.

Back 31 years ago, Australia drew strength from its playing squad, all home-based, getting very used to playing with each other. These were the days when it was still not unusual for the national team to organise tours around the world to help the playing group gel.

I recall the first time that Australia made a particular point of rushing back overseas players, in this instance player, in the case of Eddie Krncevic for the critical qualifier against Israel in 1989. It failed - Krncevic, our most credentialled player, failed to spark, and Australia disappeared from the qualifying race.

So it's not the ideal set up for the Aussies in their first hit out. And frankly, there's not much latitude for Australia to have a shaky start, with Qatar nominally the weakest of our three opponents in this group. A draw at home would put pressure on from the outset; a loss, even scarier to contemplate.

Pesky Sydneysiders will point to Melbourne being a "bad luck" venue for the Aussies, harking back to the failed play-offs in 1997 and 2001, although Melburnians could point to Sydney playing its part in failures in 1981, 1989 and 1993! Thinking of Asian opponents and that 1977 campaign, I recall the wheels started to fall off in Melbourne when Dave Harding missed a penalty against Iran, who won 1-0.

By all accounts, the Qataris will be defending solidly and hoping to catch Australia on the break. It's likely to test the patience of Australia to find a way through Qatar's defence. Celtic's Scott Macdonald could be key to converting whatever chances Australia can manufacture. Tim Cahill will be another important element.

The road to determining Australia's 2010 destiny starts on Wednesday. It could be a nervy night.

FFA's telling, foxy ways

2008-01-27T22:22:00.000-08:00

Frank Lowy is a man of integrity. Aside from his major achievements in the corporate world, he has been the single biggest factor in the rise of Australian football and its administration from its tawdry NSL days.

It's a pity then to see the FFA demonstrating a lack of integrity on two fronts in the A-league in recent days, in both cases compromising fairness in favour of commercial interests. Firstly, we had the exciting prospect of the top four teams going into the final round level on points, with everything to play for. With such a close situation then, it was astounding that the FFA had scheduled the final four fixtures all at different times.

Listening to Simon Hill of Foxtel being interviewed on ABC radio about this aspect, it was quite clear from his comments that it was Foxtel dictating that the last round the matches remained staggered. This is extraordinary. Any league or other football competition with any integrity would ensure that the last round is played with the same kick-off times. And why? Because there are several well-noted cautionary tales regarding the "convenient" results that come about when it's not done that way. The "day of World Cup Shame" at Gijon in Spain in 1982 is perhaps the most poignant example of what happens when a result can be engineered to the satisfaction of both teams, in this case Austria and the former West Germany at the expense of Algeria, but there are plenty of others.

Another decision made last week which was all about boosting the FFA coffers in favour of treating all teams fairly was the decision that should Newcastle or Central Coast win the major semi-final, then the grand final would not be held at either's home ground, but in Sydney instead. This because the Sydney venue can hold a lot more than the other venues. Again, a rubbish decision of which the FFA should be ashamed. So we have the prospect at time of writing that should Sydney FC reach the final, they will be at a decided advantage despite their being ranked lower then the team they will be facing. For football followers outside Sydney, this would leave a bad taste similar to what occurred in the A-leagues' first season when the FFA bailed out Sydney FC's losses at the end of their title winning season.

The FFA finances are presumably not in a great state at present. But that is no reason to devalue the A-league competition by putting the dollar above all other factors.

Aussies world cup downer

2007-11-26T02:18:00.000-08:00

To everything there is a season, so the good book says. Well, reflecting on the sixteen months since Australian football was basking in the glorious German sun in 2006, you'd say that that particular season has turned distinctly and definitively. If the disaster of the Asian Cup finals was our autumn, then all of the portents for the upcoming qualifying season for South Africa in 2010 point to a rather more bleak mid-winter.

And in the last two weeks, Australian football has been hit with a triple onset of gloomy weather. First was the desultory spurning of the national team coaching position by the experienced Dutch manager Dick Advocaat. With many Aussies hoping that with Dick at least matching Guus Hiddink's nationality, that might put him at least part way to matching Hiddink's magic. But we weren't given the chance to find out, as Dick cocked his leg at the FFA and merely used the offer to extract some more roubles out of Zenit St Petersberg.

And in the last week, we have learned that several of the Asian qualifying ties don't fall on FIFA sanctioned international dates, meaning we will likely be denied the services of the bulk of our Europe based stars.

Finally, in last night's World Cup draw from Durban, Australia learned it had earned a spot in the Asian "Group of Death", alongside China, Qatar and its Asian cup nemesis Iraq.

Frank Lowy, godfather of Australian football, had nicked some pretty impressive chinks in the armour of the political juggernaut that is FIFA. Yet the happenings of the past two weeks just serve again to remind Australia how much progress it hasn't made in world football terms.

Not only can't we hold an experienced manager at his word, it is now any one's guess who we can recruit to steer the Socceroo ship through the qualifying campaign. Next, from the crazy match dates, Australia suffers the most of any of the Asian countries, with so many of its players in Europe. Don't expect any favours from Tim Cahill's gaffer at Everton, the anti-international terrorist David Moyes. And to cap it all off, Australia (and China) become the victim of the weird notion not to seed current Asian champions Iraq.

Australia found it tough enough to come to grips with the Asian challenge at this year's tournament in Malaysia and Thailand. The next lesson in its Asian football education looks like it just got a whole heap harder.

Australia made giant, joyous strides in its football journey heading to WC'06. It now faces a perilous path and will be desperate to avoid a slippery slide back down the hill.

Unlucky thirteen

2007-11-05T03:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a fascinating season for Melbourne Victory. The mantle of "champions" is indeed a burdensome one to carry. And typically there's only one way for a current champion to go - down.

Victory manager Ernie Merrick is wise enough to understand that to attempt to stand still is in fact a recipe for being carried backwards in the current. So his 2006-07 squad has faced several changes. A number of fringe players out - Lia and Ferrante to Wellington, Sarkies to Adelaide. And, as stated before in these pages, the enforced loss of Fred to DC United.

All eyes, therefore, on the newer-looking combination as they kicked off the season. And stupefyingly, a run of five straight draws. And since then there's been a range of ups and downs. Until yesterday, when there was an almighty down, albeit in the context of a dramatic, traumatic contest.

One of the stand-out games of last season was the 3-3 draw when Central Coast came to Melbourne. And in yesterday's fixture at the deliciously named Blue Tongue stadium in Gosford, the same combatants fought out 90 minutes of similar ingredients to the Telstra Dome blockbuster 12 months back.

The sending off of Victory wing-back Keenan in the 21st minute proved a defining moment for this fixture. For the next hour of play, the visitors, in the same manner as when two players down a year ago at the Dome, played out of their skin. While the Mariners had their moments, hitting the woodwork twice, it was the disadvantaged Victory which produced its best football of the season. Muscat and new boy Pace holding firm at the back, ring-in Vasilevski proving to be a revelation, and the forward trio of Hernandez, Allsopp and Thompson looking as menacing as at any time this year. And the controlled way Victory brought the ball out of defence and into attack was exacting and admirable.

Reward was due, and finally arrived on 77 minutes when Hernandez finished off a concise move. Surely that would be that.

But several of the travelling party were just exhausted by that stage. And that, combined with the mental relaxation and attack-into-defence transition, meant that roles were suddenly reversed, with the Mariners pushing concertedly for an equaliser. It arrived only minutes later through the persistent Petrovski. On a day when new boy John Aloisi seemed plainly ineffective, it was always Petrovski most likely to be incisive.

Worse, much worse, followed for Victory, with Pondeljack finishing off a smart move in the 88th minute to leave Melbourne 2-1 down. And their misery was completed on 90 minutes with Vargas sent off for retaliating on the pesky Petrovski.

So in the space of 13 minutes, the champions forsook the chance to go equal top, instead find themselves sixth, and now with their defensive options decimated face the immediate prospect of a surging Sydney FC . Their backs are now truly against the wall, and require a turnaround of truly championship quality.

Coasting it

2007-09-07T01:09:00.000-07:00

The new A-league season is well underway and at time of writing we have the quite remarkable situation of nine games played (two full rounds and the first game of round 3) and only one team has won any game – Central Coast, with 3 wins from 3, with the other six fixtures all drawn.

If the A-league was in England, Central Coast wouldn’t have a chance. They would be the Fulham or Derby County of the league. Sydney FC would undoubtedly be Chelsea and Melbourne Victory Man United. The salary cap, the two-headed monster of the fledgling Aussie league, is the saving grace. While it is the reason that the league can’t hold onto players like Victory’s Fred, or fails to lure the still out-of-contract John Aloisi, it’s also the reason that every team has at least on paper a decent chance of winning the thing.

And so it’s the unlikely Central Coast out of sleepy Gosford that rules the roost at present. And they’ve done so to date with a sparkling brand of football. One of the most enjoyable and absorbing games I saw last year was their visit to face an all-conquering Melbourne Victory at the Telstra Dome. A blistering opening 12 minutes saw four goals, and by half time Central Coast led 3-2 and Melbourne were down to nine men. The second half with only one albeit gloriously late goal from Danny Allsopp was just as compelling as the first, as the visitors piled on early pressure but couldn’t convert and Victory slowly made their way into the game and managed that memorable late reward.

In Lawrie McKinna the out-of-towners have a canny coach and they certainly make the most of their resources. They have every opportunity of matching their first season effort in reaching the final before the Lowy-propped up slickers from Sydney gained an unpopular victory.

But of course, it’s too early to rule out the balance of the challengers. While Melbourne Victory has been decidedly unimpressive to date, and Allsopp and Thompson are missing Fred terribly, the champions deserve to be considered strong contenders. Adelaide United has cast aside the traumatic end to its fine season 2 with Aurelio Vidmar assembling a fine squad behind the brilliant Nathan Burns. Queensland Roar will be nothing if not interesting with the two returning stalwarts Craig Moore and Danny Tiatto in their mix, albeit clothed in one of the football world’s most garish colour combinations. Tiatto announced his arrival with a hideous two footed tackle which was the most vile piece of thuggery I’d seen since, er, Tiatto the last time I saw him playing for Australia. Newcastle looks as though it’s going to be highly competitive again this year despite the absence of Nick Carle, while Perth Glory is showing some signs of an overdue return to the, er, glory days. Wellington Phoenix, hopefully, will be able to maintain its hopeful start to the season by shedding the forgettable memory of the Knights. I think it was a wise step to maintain a franchise in the shaky isles ahead of the frankly uninspiring Townsville bid. Surely there has to be more potential in a much bigger market, and Wellington strikes me as the kind of place that could get behind even a mildly successful outfit. They looked very engaging in their first round clash against Victory, and hopefully their game 2 blow out in Gosford will be a blip and not a trend.

That leaves Sydney, which remains an enigma. Their penchant if not hell-bent demand for glamour marquee players has seen Juninho pull on the mid-blue shirt this season. It’s not clear that Mark Milligan will be around all season following his premature sortie in Europe, while the returning Tony Popovic looks twice as slow as he did two seasons back when he looked awfully slow when I was cheering him on in a Crystal Palace shirt. Surely the harbour town team will be a better bet under Branko Culina than during the hapless Butcher era, but no doubt they’ll remain the team everyone else loves to hate!

A pack of Rothmans

2007-06-20T01:03:00.000-07:00

Rothmans Football Yearbook has been a significant part of my footballing life for thirty years. Over all those years I've not really tired of the annual digest of over 900 pages of English-flavoured football statistics.

And just recently, via eBay and some online second-hand booksellers I completed my collection by backfilling with the first four editions, 1970-71 through 1973-74. And thumbing through those early editions brought home – lo and behold(!) – how much the game has changed in that time.

Back then, the Football League cocooned a comfortable collegiate of 92 football league clubs, where the Fourth Division teams boasted a legitimacy that meant they could be referred to in categories analogous with top flight clubs. The closest you got to “Johnny foreigner” in either playing or managerial ranks were Scottish, Welsh and Irish folk. Two points for a win, competitive and highly credentialed cup competitions. Stadia or “football grounds” bore the name of the location, not the sponsors of the day. Plain playing strips, which barely carried the manufacturer’s badge, let alone that of the league or principal sponsor.

The Rothmans also had a much stronger domestic flavour. Internationals carried heavy coverage of the now long-defunct Home Internationals, which carried as much weight as European Championship qualifying. The European Cup sat nicely alongside the UEFA and Cup-winners Cups. World Cups were covered well, even in 1974 when England didn’t make it – and Australia did.

These days of course, companies such as Rothmans are on the nose, or more pointedly the lungs, and it’s been a few years now since Sky Sports took over the mantle of sponsoring this fact-fest. “Sky Sports" somehow typifies 21st century football rather than Rothmans of Pall Mall.

And while England, home to groups such as the Association of Football Statisticians, continues to do this sort of thing quite well (eg. Wisden), a look elsewhere in Europe also bears fruit. For many years I've been a fan of excellent publications of Kicker, the German football magazine. For example, grab a hold of the 40-year round up of the Bundesliga. And on my travels last year I purchased the greatest value-for-money football yearbook in Europe, if not the world – Marca’s annual publication Guia de la Liga which covers not only Primera Liga but the rest of the world’s football with a terrific emphasis on South America and Europe. All this for a massive five euros - cheaper than a packet of smokes!

MCG ado about nothing

2007-06-03T22:41:00.000-07:00

Football followers in Melbourne are set to be mightily short-changed with the news that the Australia-Argentina international friendly has been rescheduled for Tuesday 11th September. The story behind this game embodies a few salient themes – the perpetual challenge for Australia to rise above its geographical isolation and lack of political influence, and the power shift over the last year or two in favour of its Sydney cousins.

The game was originally set down for June 6th, which was well placed since it post-dated nearly all significant European league action but pre-dated Australia’s upcoming involvement in the Asian Cup finals. So a good chance to have at least a smattering of first-choice Aussies and not too many excuses for the Argentineans save those on Primera Liga duty. Distressing then, that a few months back, having sold the bulk of the tickets for the June encounter, the FFA announced Argentina had gazumped the Aussies by signing up instead to play friendlies in Europe, notably choosing to front up against the fairly anonymous Swiss in favour of our boys.

A reality check therefore for those of us Aussies who thought that a great ten minutes against Japan, a sterling draw against Croatia and a narrow loss to the world champions may have caused a swing shift in the level of respect for our football credentials. I suppose casting my mind back to the Charlie Yankos-inspired 4-1 Bicentennial Gold Cup win over the Argies in 1988, that didn’t cause much of a ripple either. Our entry into Asia means we might feature a little more regularly on the FIFA website results page, but may not count for a lot more.

Once the FFA had meekly copped Argentina’s ill-mannered blow on the chin, it has been no doubt prodded incessantly by the Victorian Government Major Events folk to find a new date - those capitalised terms in deference to those who continue to smother the Melbourne public with an exaggerated diet of attention-seeking sporting events of every kind. Such as the World Swimming Championships in February that no-one attended.

And so we ended up with the all-too-gushing announcement yesterday of the rescheduled date, plonked at the MCG right in the middle of the AFL finals series. Mid-September also being one month into the new English Premier League season and around the time that a new Serie A season – and domestic A-league - will have kicked off. The FFA press release, including a hyperbolic Victorian tourism minister Tim Holding’s blather containing words such as “terrific”, “world’s number one team”, “boost the sport at a grassroots level”, “inspired”, claimed that this “unique international major event” would have the “players … looking forward to another huge crowd in Melbourne.”

I can just imagine the conversations in managers’ offices at Anfield and Goodison Park in late July. Rafael Benitez and David Moyes, having put up with the injured absences of Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill for a full season and half a season respectively, and having watched their employees in action at the Asian Cup finals in July, will no doubt be of resolute minds when faced with a request for a leave pass to spend 50-plus hours flying back for a meaningless friendly. Moyes in particular, notwithstanding Graham Arnold’s reports of congenial cups of tea, has been particular in his distaste for such international sojourns.

So the chance of any of Cahill, Kewell, Viduka, Schwarzer, Emerton, Culina, Bresciano or Grella darkening the dressing room doorway at the ‘G must be remote. Similarly, one wonders where the incentive will be for the Argentineans for whom the distraction isn’t even conditioned by the bonus of a return to home comforts.

The likelihood then of a meeting of B team against B team will merely be the latest chapter of a book that stretches back some distance for Melbourne football fans. I'm old enough to have experienced first hand the variously touted blockbuster fixtures that have turned out to be anything but. I recall a friendly between Manchester United and Nottingham Forest at the MCG in the early 1980s where barely a face was recognisable - Tommy Hutchison’s guest appearance for United was his first and last game for them! Younger readers will remember the embarrassment of the Man United Socceroos fixture in 1999 where massive admission fees were dismantled at the last moment in order to boost numbers.

A bitter pill for Melbourne folk to swallow is the loss of meaningful fixtures to Sydney. Those who lived through the epic World Cup qualifiers at the MCG in 1997 and 2001 looked on more than enviously when the vital 2005 decider moved to Sydney, and squirmed when the NSW government gleefully announced that they had garnered the fixtures that matter for the next few years, thus relegating the Victorian major event folk to sell up more of those useless friendlies. The massive crowd at the ‘G for the Australia-Greece game last year cheered on its to-be World Cup heroes, but was mightily disappointed with the couldn’t-care-less attitude of the visitors. The faithful who front up in September will prepare themselves for disappointment, while the Victorian marketing folk scurry off to find the next fish to fry.

Cold Porridge

2007-05-20T05:44:00.000-07:00

Many Australians holidaying in the northern hemisphere contrast the respective culinary experiences of United Kingdom and mainland Europe. Compare Spain and England for example. A dining experience in Madrid, Barcelona or say the Basque country is a delight – an adventure, a collision of exciting flavours, a flamboyant feast worth every measly $A. Conversely, eating in England is by and large a grudge purchase – a necessity, expensive, and definitely subtitled not to be enjoyed.

We’re in the middle of the cup finals season in Europe. And over the past four days, we’ve had the opportunity to sample fare of two distinctly different flavours. The UEFA Cup final last Wednesday featured the Spanish adversaries Sevilla and Espanyol, while Saturday’s English FA Cup final featured leading clubs Chelsea and Manchester United.

The UEFA Cup is a damaged brand these days, largely inflicted by UEFA itself. It’s true to say that ever since it was born out of the curious Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in the 1960’s, it’s been by definition the poor cousin of the European Cup, now Champions League. The competition for those not quite good enough for the other comp. And yet it’s produced its fair share of brilliant football memories over the past 40+ years. But in most recent times, it’s become another plaything of the top clubs, the so-called G14, which wraps UEFA around its bloc-style little finger. And now it’s set up so that any of the big boys prematurely knocked out of the Champions League can get a “lucky loser” go in the UEFA Cup.

Yet, despite its lower status, it still throws out memorable finals. Liverpool edging Alaves 5-4, no, not on penalties, but after extra time a few years back a special case in point. And last Wednesday, at Hampden Park Glasgow, was another open, brilliant end-to-end affair. Sevilla, last years winners, and aspirants for this years Liga title as well as the Copa del Rey, were deserved favourites against their countrymen Espanyol from Barcelona, the club forever in the shadow of their city rivals, and with barely a highlight interrupting their long existence. But Espanyol and Sevilla put on a dazzling display, which finished 2-2 after extra time and saw the dogged Catalonians again playing bride after penalties has decided the matter in Sevilla's favour.

Contrast this with the English final, with the much awaited new Wembley on display for a global audience to take in for the first time. And the opponents couldn’t have boasted a higher pedigree. Chelsea and Man United, at each others throats all season in the league and Champions League, now fighting for the last piece of domestic silverware.

And what a sad bore-fest in turned out to be. Or, in my case, snore-fest as I struggled desperately to keep awake. With the opponents having clocked up an aggregate of over 120 competitive fixtures this season, this unfortunately played out as one of the worst of them. The all-star cast, primed for a chefs-hat feast, served up cold porridge. Defensive formations, scared to make a mistake, no way through crowded defences. On a night where many Australians are staying up late to watch the “spectacle”, this was a terrible advertisement for the world game.

The cup final has served up many substantial dishes in the past and over my lifetime it’s been a delight to savour such tasty morsels as 1973 Leeds-Sunderland, 1979 Man Utd-Arsenal, 1987 Coventry-Spurs, 1990 Palace-Man Utd and 2006 Liverpool-West Ham. In the greater European scheme of things, the FA cup has lost its lustre in recent years, with the inevitable domination by the same clubs that dominate the EPL. But there's still the chance of a great game to justify the great occasion. But not this year.

The English like to occasionally bang on in Gordon Ramsey style about their league being Europe’s premier. By such bland measures as Euros invested across their top clubs, they have an argument to mount. But much too often its top ingredients still end up with a result that’s no better than lukewarm mush. How to change the recipe?

Kicking off

2007-05-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

A football blog? How unremarkable, you may think. This is a football blog with an Australian flavour. Not a blog on Australian football, but a commentary on the world game from someone unable to avoid an Aussie orientation. Maybe still unremarkable, but with the intent that the ebb and flow of the blog may divert or stimulate. Anyway, we're just seconds after kick-off, and the movement and pattern in this fixture is yet to take shape. Looking forward to 90 interesting minutes!