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Scotland 3 Lithuania 1 By Roy Hay Thanks to the good offices of the departing Scottish press officer Andy Mitchell, who helped me with information on my grandfather’s career, I was lucky enough to get a press pass to the Scotland versus Lithuania European Championship qualifying match in Glasgow on Saturday 8 September. A sell-out crowd of 52,000 was there to cheer on the Scots ahead of another tough match against World Cup finalists France on Wednesday. Since the World Champion, Italy, is also in Scotland’s group the magnitude of the task of the Scots is easily seen. Over the years Scotland has had a good series of results against Lithuania, with the exception of the dire period when Berti Vogts was coach of the Scottish team. As expected Scotland lined up in 4-4-2 with Kris Boyd and Gary O’Connor leading the attack. The early signs were good for the home team as Gary Teale of Derby County teased the Lithuanian defenders down the left wing but nothing came of a series of attacks and the visitors led by skipper Tomas Danilevicius who plays with Bologna in Italy began to threaten. On the half-hour Scotland made the breakthrough when Darren Fletcher, standing in as captain for the suspended Barry Ferguson, took a very quick free kick across the edge of the goal area and quicksilver Kris Boyd headed past the stranded keeper Zydrunas Karcemarskas. The crowd raised the decibel level at that and Hampden was set to party, but the Scots could not add to their lead in the first half. The Lithuanian keeper was booked for a foul outside his area, and Teale’s subsequent shot rebounded off him but no attacker could take advantage. The first 15 minutes of the second half saw Lithuania come more into the game, but their equalising goal came as a surprise. Scots skipper Fletcher was judged to have fouled Saulius Mikoliunas who plays with Hearts in the Scottish Premier League and Slovenian referee Damir Skomina awarded a penalty kick. Danilevicius ignored the cacophony from the Scots fans and buried the spot-kick. For a while the Scots looked rocky and might have conceded another goal after the first Scottish change when James McFadden replaced Gary Teale. Spaces opened up on the left invaded by Lithuania, while Fletcher and McEveley could not do any damage from a series of free-kicks in good positions. Then in 76 minutes, Scots coach Alex Mcleish made an inspired double substitution, taking off O’Connor and midfielder Lee McCulloch and sending on Craig Beattie and Shaun Maloney. Maloney cut across to the left and put in a teasing ball which defender Stephen McManus netted from two metres out. In the next Scottish attack there were three forwards facing two defenders but offside prevented an addition to the score. Then McFadden, a great favourite with the fans, came in from the right, took on and beat two defenders and lobbed the ball over the keeper in the 82nd minute. So Scotland could coast home to an excellent victory which set up a vital clash with France in midweek. In that game a moment of sheer genius by McFadden resulted in a one-nil away win for the Scots.
Ross County 1 Airdrie United 1 By Roy Hay Ross County threw away a great chance to win a tightly fought Scottish Second Division match at Victoria Park against Airdrie United on Saturday 1 September, when striker Andy Barrowman had his penalty kick saved by Stephen Robertson in the 89th minute, leaving the teams deadlocked at one-all. The game was like all the ones I have seen since coming back to Scotland, played at high speed with tackles flying in and one-touch football the order of the day. It was into the last minute of the first half before a player on either side took one more than one direct opponent with the ball at his feet. Neither side was able to hold the ball for any length of time or change the pace of the game. Airdrie had the more measured build-up while County relied on a number of long balls over the defence for Barrowman and Sean Higgins to chase. Both the goals scored in normal time came from defensive errors. The visitor broke through in the 31st minute when County lost the ball in midfield and Kevin McDonald fed a pass through to Stuart Noble who kept his composure and beat young keeper Joe Mallon easily. County got back on terms nine minutes later, after Stephen McEown brought down Martin Scott and Iain Anderson’s free kick rebounded off a couple of defenders before Barrowman poked it over the line from close range. The first half ended with a two players involved in a slanging match under the nose of the referee but there was no further score. Airdrie had the better of the second half until County manager Dick Campbell made a triple substitution bringing on Darren Brady, Daniel Moore and Dene Shields. Airdire also introduced tricky winger Stephen McDougall who added some flair to its attack. But despite a number of near things it looked like the game would peter out into a draw until Darren Smith was adjudged to have brought down Brady on the edge of the penalty area. It seemed a soft penalty, but this observer was a long way from the action. Barrowman could not take advantage and so both teams had to be content with the point. Stuart Petrie, who played with Central Coast Mariners last season in the Australian A-League has joined Ross County as player-coach, and though he was listed among the substitutes he did not get a run in this game. Petrie scored both goals the following week in Ross County's win over the league leader Raith Rovers.
Victory are champs one year bottom the next Geelong Advertiser, 13 August 2007, p. 31. By Roy Hay Melbourne Victory’s poor pre-season run continued when it lost by a goal to nil to Sydney FC at Olympic Park on Saturday night. Some thoughts on the Asian Cup By Roy Hay What are we to make of the Asian Cup and Australia’s performance in its first foray into the competition? The tournament was a mixture of the wonderful and the woeful, with Iraq’s triumph over the odds and domestic mayhem the highlight. Though much has already been made of the victory ‘uniting the nation’ it is very unlikely that the civil war in that poor country will be brought to an end by a football triumph, however sweet it was. All the players have to play outside their home country just to survive. The training and warm-up matches which took place in Iraq had to be moved to the Kurdish area in the north to avoid the carnage in the south. So romanticising the victory as a pivotal point in the history of the nation is just wishful thinking. The Iraqi victory was no fluke. It went through the tournament without losing a game. Back in Iraq the celebrations after the teams series of victories against the odds were bloody affairs. Car bombs killed 50 revellers in two separate incidents in Baghdad following the semi-final win over Korea. Four more died from celebratory gunfire after the final defeat of neighbour Saudi Arabia. Almost equally romantic was the notion that Australia would carry its world cup euphoria into Asia and come home with the trophy. We joined the Asian Confederation to get tougher competition and so it proved. Iraq, not Australia, was the seeded team in its qualifying group and Iraq deservedly came out on top. In truth there was very little between the top eight teams in the competition. Half of the knock-out matches in the Asian Cup were decided on penalties. Australia, Korea and Japan all were losers on penalties at some stage. Korea did not score in normal time in the knock-out matches, and it did not concede a goal. It won two penalty shoot-outs and lost one. In all, Korea played six matches and scored three goals and lost three goals. This was with a team lacking most of its European stars. The same was true of Japan. Perhaps one of the lessons for Australia is to be found at home in future. If Mark Milligan and David Carney of Sydney FC can play at this level, why not an A-League based team for the next Asian challenge? Whatever happens Australia has to raise its level of skill and composure on the ball if it is to succeed in Asian conditions. Far too much can be made of heat and humidity. Knowing that you face such conditions means that players have to be comfortable on the ball and able to use it to control the pace, tempo and structure of the game. Too often in this competition the Socceroos handed the ball over to their opponents and then had to expend huge amounts of energy in winning it back. Australia looked most dangerous when it went forward, but in most games it seemed to spend much of the time, pinned back on the edge of its own penalty area. Then there is the coaching issue. Graham Arnold is a fine man and a dedicated Australian with a strong playing career behind him and the respect of the players. Whether he was hard enough or distanced enough from his charges to exert the kind of control of a Guus Hiddink or had the experience to cope with some wily antagonists remain question marks against him. It was always expected that he would be in harness until a new, experienced overseas coach was appointed in the lead up to the next World Cup. The Football Federation Australia needs to hold its nerve and keep Arnold in the system through another campaign, by which time he should have the experience to take and keep the top job.
Hunger for Victory hasn't been satisfied Geelong Advertiser, 18 July 2007, p. 46. By Roy Hay They say that defending a premiership is harder than winning it and Melbourne Victory may find the truth of that old saw this season. Having lost its three Brazilians, particularly the charismatic Fred, young star midfielder Kristian Sarkies and no-nonsense defender Simon Storey, coach Ernie Merrick has replaced them with some quality players. Ljubo Milicevic has returned to Victoria after a significant career in the Swiss League with FC Thun. Joseph Keenan, a former Chelsea player, Costa Rican internationalist Carlos Hernandez and Adelaide United full back Matthew Kemp have been joined the Victory. Young Socceroo Kaz Patafta who has been starring with the Benfica youth team in Portugal has been obtained on a one-year loan. “We’ve recruited two very good attacking full-backs, Joseph on the left and Matt Kemp on the right,” Merrick said. “Defensively in midfield, at centre-back Ljubo’s a great addition, it will allow Grant Brebner and Kevin Muscat to get forward more.” Skipper Kevin Muscat said despite having won the premiership and championship double last season, the hunger to improve remained strong. “The facts are if you don't want to go out and improve you probably shouldn’t be here,” Muscat said. “Obviously the players that have come in want to equal, if not better, what we achieved last season.” Young defender Daniel Piorkowski has recovered from a leg injury which kept him out for more than half of last season and will challenge Geelong’s Adrian Leijer and Rodrigo Vargas for a place in the backline. Others to look out for include tiny midfielder Leigh Broxham and the unsung midfield utility Steve Pantelidis, who does everything a coach could ask for no matter where he is played. On Sunday in the 2007 Preseason Cup in a replay of last season’s Grand Final, Victory drew one-all with Adelaide United in Launceston, despite being without star striker Archie Thompson, who is on Socceroo duty in Malaysia. Travis Dodd put Adelaide ahead after only 9 minutes, but Daniel Allsopp brought Victory level in 74 minutes. This Sunday Victory will come to Geelong to take on Newcastle Jets at Skilled Stadium on a pitch which is only just being relaid. Given the wet weather recently it is asking a lot of the ground staff to produce a quality surface for the match and the risk of injury must be higher if the turf has not stabilised by then. The Jets lost narrowly in their opening match against Perth Glory, thanks to a Jamie Harnwell goal early in the second half. The match next Sunday kicks-off at 2 pm and a big crowd is expected to attend. Many Geelong fans are among the 10,000 Victory members already signed up for the new season and they can be expected to join the Blue and White Brigade in enthusiastic support for the defending champion. Soccer in Geelong is more than a hundred years old Geelong Advertiser, 1 August 2007, p. 00. By Roy Hay For many years the first evidence I could find of a soccer match being played in Geelong was in 1920, a reference I owed to a former colleague, GaryCotton. I knew this was far too late, but finding earlier games on trawls through the sources, particularly the Geelong Advertiser, had proved fruitless. Then the historian of the World Game, Dr Bill Murray of La Trobe University drew my attention to a brief note in the Australasian which announced that the game would be demonstrated to the students of Scotch College in Melbourne, and the Geelong Grammar School in June and July 1884, thanks to the headmasters of both schools. I asked my friend Steve Radojevic, Bursar of the Grammar School, if he or the school archivist could check their files, but no record of the game could be found. So it was back to the Advertiser to see if the game in Geelong took place. There was an advertisement for the Grammar School on the front page on 1 July 1884 but only about its scholastic performances and a note, which obviously had not been proofread, saying the school would reopen after the holidays in February 1884. But then on page three there was a notice about a game under Anglo-Australian rules to be played on Corio Oval between the Richmond and Carlton clubs from Melbourne—not the footy clubs, the soccer clubs of the same name. The soccer clubs had been founded at least a year earlier and were playing regular matches in Melbourne and the first interstate matches between Victoria and New South Wales were played in 1884. Next day, Wednesday 2 July 1884, the Advertiser carried a lengthy match report, detailing the teams, aspects of the rules which would be puzzling to observers, an estimate of crowd numbers and some critical comment on the code in comparison with the domestic game. ‘Some of the players exhibited much dexterity, but no excitement was created, and nearly all present voted the pastime decidedly slow, after the purely Australian method of playing football’. Spence for the red and whites scored the first goal early in the second half, and Ware equalised for the blues late in the game, so it ended one-all. The anonymous correspondent noted that there were around 300 people present at the start but not more than 100 remained at the end. The writer noted that only the goalkeeper could handle the ball to prevent a goal and he could not carry it forward. A crossbar or tape was in use to mark the height of the goal, a referee and two umpires who patrolled the wings and indicated when the ball was out of play by blowing a whistle. The referee was a Mr. Gibbs, A. E. Gibbs, one of the pioneers of the game in New Zealand and Australia, who was later to be the representative of Australian soccer on the Football Association council in England. Though the correspondent was cutting about the quality of the entertainment, this was quite common among domestic writers on Association Football in the period. It did not prevent the game becoming established as a participatory sport in other parts of Australia in the 1880s, though the depression of the 1890s and the consequent fall in immigration resulted in a hiatus in Victoria. Thereafter the code was reinvigorated in 1909 by Harry Dockerty and others when inward migration picked up again. Subsequently the Dockerty Cup became the state-wide knock-out Cup which was played for until the 1990s. The link between migration and the growth of soccer was re-established in the 1920s and again after the Second World War, and while migration is high at the moment, this is the first period when the expansion of soccer has been driven by the domestic population of Australia.
Old soccer versus new football Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 21 June 2007, p. 00. By Roy Hay Billed in some quarters as old soccer versus new football one of the powerhouses of the National Soccer League, South Melbourne, formerly Hellas, took on the A-League’s Melbourne Victory in a practice match at Bob Jane Stadium last night. Despite its non-competitive status the match attracted around 5000 fans. Free entry probably helped but since South Melbourne has been drawing around 500 to home games in the Victorian Premier League (Foxtel Cup), while the Victory had 55,000 at its grand final earlier this year, the message is clear. New football is what draws the fans. Even on a freezing cold night in the city. There were queues back across Albert Park at the advertised starting time and the match was delayed for ten minutes. Both sets of supporters were in fine voice as the Clarendon Corner of South fans, though outnumbered, kept up a lively response to the Blue and White Brigade behind the St Kilda end goal for the Victory. Like the Victory players there was a little bit of rust in the early chants by the fans, but soon they got their co-ordination going. South is in the middle of its Victorian Premier League season while Victory is just three games into its pre-season. It was an opportunity for both teams to give some younger and fringe players a run. South was without playmaker Fernando de Moraes and former Victory striker Ricky Diaco, but tricky midfielder Andrew Bourakis returned after a long spell out with injury. Victory rested Adrian Leijer, while Grant Brebner started on the bench, but skipper Kevin Muscat was determined to have his run out against one of his old clubs. Up front Daniel Allsopp and Archie Thompson resumed their dynamic partnership which produced Victory’s second goal after Adrian Caceres had opened the scoring. South did hit back with a scrambled effort from Trent Waterston before half-time. Seven minutes after the break Socceroo Thompson mesmerised three South defenders and rounded the keeper for a stunning individual goal and Daniel Allsopp headed another after his initial shot had been parried. Two of the young Victory trialists combined for a goal by Tabor to round off a five-one win for the A-League team. The gulf in class was evident, though South fought hard to show that their ambitions for a spot in the top class have some basis. Unfortunately just after Thompson scored his second goal a flare was thrown from the crowd striking young Bourakis and leading the referee to warn that the game would be terminated if there was a repeat. Last night there were lots of Geelong faces in the crowd, some to barrack for local hero, Adrian Leijer, who unfortunately was rested by coach Ernie Merrick, but most just because they have always wanted a team not identified with a particular hyphenated-Australian community. On the way into the ground I met Ted Smith, former Socceroo before the name was invented, who represented Australia at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956. He was as enthusiastic as the five-year-old grandson he took to Mark Schwarzer’s book launch and football clinic the other day. ‘The World Cup has consolidated the support for the game. For people who have not been involved before they now have a reason to come to games’, he said. Some of the critics of the A-League object to its corporate excess, its commodification of the game, its attempts to manufacture atmosphere and its slick, and sometimes not so slick, commercialism. But the game is what the fans want to see. Attendances have exceeded the dreams of the promoters in Melbourne, though the club lost money in both of its first two seasons. The lesson for Geelong is quite stark. Get your act together. Get one team to represent this city then you have a chance of getting somewhere. Otherwise it is cold paddocks and little support, and less future for our young players.
Fans voting with their feet Australian and British Soccer Weekly, Tuesday 12 June 2007, p. 11. and Geelong Advertiser, Wednesday 13 June 2007, p. 46. By Roy Hay If evidence were needed of the sea change in Victorian football support then the attendance on Wednesday night for a practice match at Richmond when more than 2,000 fans turned up to watch Melbourne Victory is clear enough. According to the Victory website, spectators were ‘climbing trees and sitting on roofs to get a glimpse of the action’. Pictures show the fans crowded four deep around the perimeter of the ground. The figure of 2,000 is more than four times the claimed average attendance at recent games in the Victorian Premier League or Foxtel Cup and more than double that in the New South Wales Premier League this season. It is true that no entry charge was made and the numbers are unofficial but the data is no more rubbery, and probably less so, than the figures estimated by the Football Federation Victoria and Australian and British Soccer Weekly in the case of New South Wales. Those people who have been arguing the urgency of reform of the game at the state level must be distraught that so little has been done to capitalise on the growth in the profile of the game in recent years. Attendance at Victorian Premier League matches received a substantial boost in 2005 when the National Soccer League was terminated and there was a hiatus while Frank Lowy and his team took over the governance of Australian football. Two of the powerhouses of the NSL, South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights, returned to the VPL for the first time since 1977 and 1984 respectively. The league was increased to 14 teams. Crowds rose to an average of 1373 per game, atmosphere improved and the standard of play was boosted. An aggregate of over a quarter of a million spectators attended VPL home and away matches in 2005. Subsequently it does not appear that the VPL has participated in the growth in football spectatorship encouraged by the Socceroos qualification for and subsequent performance at the FIFA World Cup in 2006, the successful launch of the A-League and Australia’s move to the Asian Football Confederation. Crowds for the first five rounds of the 2007 VPL season averaged around 1319 per match according to the data supplied by the clubs to the FFV results service. Too much reliance should not be placed on this information since the figures provided are all rounded and labeled approximate. A well informed source in the FFV commented to me, ‘I have been at games where I would estimate there was a thousand and the report will say 400 – then there are other[s] the opposite way around’. It cannot be assumed that these errors cancel each other out. A president of one of the leading VPL clubs has privately expressed outrage at the inflated attendance figures claimed by some clubs. Since 2005 attendance has plummeted. In Round 12 of the Foxtel Cup in Victoria, estimates were given for only five of the eight games and the average crowd for those was under 500. In New South Wales the average attendance for the first 13 rounds was 779. Clubs cannot survive on these derisory figures and there are suggestions that at least one high profile club in Victoria will shortly fold. In many ways we are repeating the errors of the past. The boom in interest after World Cup qualification in 1974 was soon dissipated and Johnny Warren believed that attendances at state-level soccer matches were actually falling in 1975, despite the World Cup euphoria, as older fans died off and were not replaced by youngsters (J. Warren with A. Harper and J. Whittington, Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters: An Incomplete Biography of Johnny Warren and Soccer in Australia, Random House, Sydney, 2002, pp. 177–8). The year 1975, however, saw the break in the post-war boom and a rise in inflation and unemployment in Australia, which may help to explain the decline in attendance. It is true that television, the rise of globalisation, the internet and generally cheap communication has brought the highest level games into the homes and hotels of the mass of football supporters in this country. Hence the attractiveness of local competitions generally has declined. But it need not be so. Attendances in the second tier, the Championship, in England have risen, despite the global reach of the English Premier League. Late last year the FFV announced plans to replace their Premier League by a new V-League modelled on the A-League at national level. The timescale for implementation was to be by the end of this calendar year with the new league to begin in 2008. Those plans were equally quickly scuppered and in recent months the FFV has been concentrating heavily on the constitutional changes required if it is to have a place in the new structure of football in Australia. So it and its constituent clubs appear to have taken their eyes off the ball at a critical point in the history of the game. Time to refocus, gentlemen and ladies.
International poaching of players Edited version published as 'Poaching when the boot's on the other foot' Geelong Advertiser, Friday 6 April 2007, p. 31. By Roy Hay The news that the Croatian national football team has been trying to persuade Geelong’s Matthew Spiranovic to play for the country of his parents’ birth rather than Australia once again raises the issue of poaching players. Australia has a track record of attracting and selecting overseas sports people from Kostya Tzu, Hanna Mandlikova, to half the FC Austria soccer team in the 1950s. So it does not have the moral high ground to say that other countries may not try to poach our young stars, as they did with Joey Didulica, Geelong’s star keeper, who finally succumbed to invitations from Croatia, though he was desperate to play for Australia. The then Australian coach, Frank Farina, failed to pick Didulica for Australia because he had two established keepers in Mark Schwarzer and Zeljko Kalac, and several other good, experienced competitors. Farina had a responsibility to the future of Australian soccer in bringing on the next generation but he resisted all pressure in Didulica’s case. The current coach Graham Arnold is much more receptive to the argument however and has spoken to Spiranovic about his plans for the youngster, with the prospect of a cap in a forthcoming friendly international. Matthew Spiranovic came through the juniors at North Geelong, and then Melbourne Knights before joining the Victorian and Australian Institutes of Sport. He had a number of pre-season games with Melbourne Victory, where coach Ernie Merrick had always had his eye on him as a future Socceroo. Matthew won the Weinstein medal as the best young player in Victoria and represented the Joeys (Under-17s) and Young Socceroos (Under-20s). From the AIS he went to FC Nurnberg in the Bundesliga in Germany, making his debut earlier this season against the mighty Bayern Munich. As readers of this column will know I predicted some time ago that down the track the Socceroos central defensive pairing will be Victory’s Adrian Leijer and Spiranovic, two highly skilled and thoughtful modern defenders. Let’s hope that they get the chance to play together for their country—Australia.
Victory stripped of talent Edited version published as 'Reds snare Sarkies' Geelong Advertiser, Monday 2 April 2007, p. 27. By Roy Hay Melbourne Victory is being stripped of more of its championship winning talent with the news that Olyroo midfielder and playmaker Kristian Sarkies has moved on a one-year contract to Adelaide United. Adelaide already has two of the most exciting young attackers in Australia in Nathan Burns and Bruce Djite, who has just agreed to a further two-year contract with the club. Victory’s loss follows that of Brazilian star Fred who has gone to Washington DC United in the United States when Victory could not match the salary on offer. Simon Storey, an ever present full back, has set off to seek his fortune in Europe, while a number of players who figured largely in the first season, though not so much last year, have also gone including Michael Ferrante, Mark Byrnes and more recent signing James Robinson. At the end of last A-League season, Ernie Merrick talked about the break-up of any winning team and the need to improve if the club were not to go backwards, but what has happened since then has been worrying. He has picked up an excellent, experienced defender in former Melbourne Knights player Ljubo Milicevic, a new wing back in 24-year-old ex-Chelsea player Joe Keenan, and a talented young keeper in Mitchell Langerack. But the loss of Sarkies, who had few chances to shine in 2006–07 as Grant Brebner, Kevin Muscat and Fred held down the midfield places, is a real concern. Merrick has been a strong supporter of the 20-year-old since he first brought him into the Victorian Institute of Sport squad at thirteen. He said then that Sarkies was one of the most talented players he had spotted. On Saturday he said, ‘Kristian has walked into the Australian Under-17, Under-20 and now the Olyroo teams, but it is much harder to play regularly and consistently in a senior team when you are competing with the likes of Fred, Brebner and Muscat’. ‘In 2005-06 our midfield was Sarkies, Steve Pantelidis and Ferrante and we finished last’. ‘In 2006-07 it was those three and we broke every record.’ Sarkies had the opportunity to take over Fred’s role and blossom in the creative freedom he has shown in recent matches for the Olyroos, where he has both set up and scored goals against Saudi Arabia. Sarkies obviously harbours ambitions of a career in Europe for he has only signed a one-year deal with Adelaide. Merrick told me he thought Sarkies’ decision to stay in Australia for another year was wise. ‘The Olyroos squad is heavily weighted towards Australian-based players, given the difficulty that youngsters seeking to establish themselves in Europe find in getting leave to play in Australia or Asia and the travel involved’, he said. Sarkies will have a more lucrative contract at Adelaide but the youngster told Melbourne Victory that he felt the need for the change at this stage in his career. There is a fair amount of time before Victory embarks on its third season in September, but one of the features which underlay its success in the past year, was the extended and thorough pre-season training and planning which Merrick put in place. As a result of its championship winning performance Victory will then go into the Asian Champions League in 2008 and for that it will require an experienced squad, so the club will have to move fast if it is to attract players of even higher quality than the ones which it has lost in the last few weeks.
We must not overlook the small, skilful players Geelong Advertiser, Tuesday 13 March 2007, p. 41 By Roy Hay Is it about time we started examining the processes by which we select and develop our young sports people? One concerned coach, Peter Richardson, has been observing the way young players are selected for regional and state junior representative teams in football (soccer) over many years. He has noted that bigger, faster and older players tend to be preferred compared with smaller, younger and more skilful ones. This tends to set up a self-reinforcing process in which the selected ones get the support, training and encouragement denied to those whose talents might warrant encouragement. This, he argues, deprives the children concerned of opportunities and the rest of us of some of the best and most entertaining players to watch. The sports scientists would not necessarily agree. They argue that games at elite level now are played at such high speed and intensity that if you are not lightning fast and do not have enormous endurance you will be unable to perform your skills. You will simply never get near the ball to play. Yet some of the most influential players of the current and past generations didn’t fit this mould. Gianfranco Zola starred at Napoli and Parma in Italy, and at Chelsea in England where he was voted the best player in the club’s history by its fans. He now coaches the Italian Under-21 side and recently visited Australia for a match between two Sydney clubs, Apia and Marconi, playing one half for each. He is small, nippy but not very fast, and has the most marvellous technique which enables him to score fantasy goals with back heels and curling shots and lobs. Teddy Sheringham won club and international honours for Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, including a celebrated European Champions League win over Bayern Munich with the Red Devils. Notoriously slow, he thought quicker than those around him and is still playing for West Ham, the oldest player at 40 in the English Premiership. These may be the exceptions which prove the rule, but all the great sides have had players whose abilities were not simply athletic. Jose Mourinho, current coach of Chelsea and former winner of the Champions League with Porto, talks about his ‘miracle players’ the ones who can change a game by their pure skill and technique. He also nominated the Brazilian superstar Kaka of AC Milan as a similar talent. Kaka exploited one opening for his club to take it through against Celtic after 180 minutes of high quality but goal-less action. It was notable that after that game the Celtic manager, Gordon Strachan, another tiny player himself, enthused about the quality of the offering, stressed that his team had the heart and the fighting qualities to match their opponent, but needed to improve their technique. Some readers will remember an iconic moment at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 when Strachan tried to jump over the advertising hoardings after scoring against West Germany, only to desist when his little legs wouldn’t let him! There are encouraging signs in indoor soccer (futsal) where games on small pitches with a limited number of players put the premium on skill development. Youngsters under the age of 12 should not be playing on full size pitches outdoors. At the local level too, things are changing. North Geelong’s coach Ian Williamson and Geelong Rangers’ Danny Beranic sent out teams in the Community Shield final at the weekend which had several highly talented teenagers in their ranks. Some are physically imposing specimens already, but others are more dependent on technique rather than physique for their opportunities. Coaches and fans need to have patience with these youngsters when they make the mistakes, sometimes costly, which are part of learning in all walks of life and sport. That way we will not lose the talent on our doorstep and can look forward to some exciting games in future.
The future of Australian football Australian and British Soccer Weekly, Tuesday 27 February 2007, p. 4 Also published as 'There's room for all the football codes' in Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 24 February 2007, p. 93 By Roy Hay In the aftermath of the extraordinary A-League Grand Final when 55,000 fans turned up at Telstra Dome to see Melbourne Victory trounce Adelaide United by six goals to nil there has been a fair bit of media comment about the future of the various codes of football. Much of this has been sensationalist with extravagant predictions that Australian Rules might be overtaken by soccer or world football or that the soccer bubble would soon burst like the basketball one of the 1990s. Prediction is never easy but there are some pieces of evidence which can throw light on what is happening and what is most likely to occur in future, locally and nationally. The first point to make is that the current growth in the popularity of soccer is based on the domestic Australian population. This is the first time in Australia’s history that a soccer boom has not been carried by a wave of inward migration as happened in the 1880s, the 1920s and in the thirty years after the Second World War. Though data for participation rates in the various codes are notoriously rubbery the evidence from Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that soccer is outstripping the other codes of football among boys and girls up to the age of 15. After that age there is a sharp drop-off for all codes and so far soccer is doing less well than Australian Rules. The World Cup qualification and excellent performance in the final tournament by the Socceroos in 2006 has given a huge, if possibly temporary, boost to public interest in the game. It has been estimated that some 60,000 Australians were in Germany during the World Cup, the largest outward movement of Australians since the Second World War. Most of these will have returned with experiences they will never forget and an appreciation of the way the rest of the world regards the round ball game. Australia’s shift from the Oceania Confederation, in which it was a big fish in a small pond, to the much more competitive Asian Confederation with its huge soccer markets in Japan, South Korea, China and India, will transform the international side of the game. The Socceroos will have regular competitive matches against quality teams with a media exposure which will be eye-opening. It is no coincidence that the Federal Government invested $15 million to clear off the debts of the old Australian Soccer Federation to enable the current President of the Football Federation of Australia, Frank Lowy of Westfield Shopping Centres to take over with a clean slate. John Howard may have been roundly booed at Telstra Dome the other night but he is well aware that soccer can be huge vehicle for Australian promotion and policies among its Asian neighbours. One consequence of the Lowy take-over is that for almost the first time the administration of Australian soccer owes more to business practices than to internecine politics. The setting up of the new A-League is showing signs of paying off. Weak spots remain with several clubs only being kept afloat by FFA invesment, though Perth Glory has just found new owners and the troubled New Zealand experiment may be resolved by a joint effort between the New Zealand FA and private interests. But largely thanks to Melbourne Victory’s extraordinary appeal to Victorian fans crowd numbers in the second season have exploded. The Victory has drawn an average home crowd of 31,376 this season, despite the fact that three of its 13 games were played at Olympic Park which only holds 18,000. Victory has nearly 12,000 members, a substantial base on which to build for the future. My colleague Heath McDonald’s survey of Melbourne Victory members in the first season found that the demographic profile which emerged was one of young, professional males. ‘The membership is significantly younger than most AFL clubs, which augurs well for the club’s future. However, female membership seems low, and this represents a strong opportunity for the club, given the reported “family friendliness” of both the venue (Olympic Park) and the club itself.’ It will be fascinating to see what results emerge from a study of the membership in 2007 when Telstra Dome has been the venue. Australian Rules has huge advantages and the AFL only needs to balance its heavily Melbourne-centred club distribution to become the truly national game, resistant to globalisation and offering a real and continuing alternative to the world game. Though we do not know for certain, probably the majority of people attending Victory matches in Melbourne are supporters of Australian Rules teams. Having settled on summer and winter seasons for their league games, the major fixture clashes which are likely to arise will occur when the Victory is engaged in Asian Champions League matches in autumn 2008. So there is promise of a healthy future for soccer but this will require thoughtful efforts by those who are involved in the game and an appreciation that there is room in the Australian sporting landscape for all the football codes.
Victory fans win off the field as well Published as 'Easy Melbourne Victory in the battle of the signs' in Geelong Advertiser Tuesday 20 February 2007, p. 38 By Roy Hay The Melbourne Victory team won the Grand Final of the A-League comprehensively on the field on Sunday night, and the Victory fans won off the field as well. Their superb, noisy, passionate and generally very well behaved support carried the team throughout the season, but was extraordinary in the final game. Thanks to the Blue and White Brigade all the denizens of the lower deck at the Coventry end of Telstra Dome were supplied with blue or white balloons prior to the game which they inflated, waved in unison and then released in co-ordinated fashion as the Victory team came out. It was a spectacular example of the kind of choreographed display which is the good side of football support in Europe, especially in Italy. The Victory banners were also far superior to those of the travelling Adelaide United fans for inventiveness, humour and presentation. Up on the mid level was one which had an H in front of Geelong star Adrian Leijer’s name, followed by Victory’s Wall—Hadrian Leijer Victory’s Wall. Then there was one which said, ‘You only sing in your churches’ and another picking up on the fact that Adelaide coach John Kosmina was suspended and had to sit in the stands. ‘Kosmina. How’s the view?’ it read. Then in Portuguese there was Fred e Alessandro Filhos de Melbourne, recognising the Brazilian imports Fred and Alessandro as sons of Melbourne. One City One Tribe MVFC, Melbourne belongs to me (obviously by a Glaswegian fan) and the huge Blue and White Brigade banner with the number 12 indicating that the fans were the team’s twelfth man were others which decorated the stadium. It is harder for travelling fans to mount a coordinated display but the best that Adelaide could come up with included Salisbury is United, Come on Reds we can do it and We eat weak Vics, a prediction which went horribly wrong. There were only a couple of arrests and though 41 people were ejected and few flares were let off, the police professed themselves to be generally pleased with crowd behaviour. So Melbourne has shown it can mount a major football occasion once again. Despite tipping in $15 million to clear the debts of the old Australian Soccer Federation the Prime Minister was roundly booed when he appeared and he did not help his rating by getting all the Victory medallions tangled up thus delaying their presentation to the players.
Melbourne Victory destroy Adelaide United in superb Grand Final Published as Five goal Archie destroys United Geelong Advertiser Monday 19 February 2007, p. 36 By Roy Hay The second A-League Grand final will be known as the Archie Thompson show after the Melbourne Victory striker completed an incredible five goal performance to win the Joe Marston medal and the plaudits of 55,436 fans packed into the Telstra Dome. He came off to a standing ovation in the 89th minute and his replacement Kristian Sarkies rounded off the stunning evening with a swerving shot. People will talk about this match for years as the greatest advertisement for the world game since the Socceroos qualified for the World Cup. Adelaide brought in Greg Owens to replace the suspended Matthew Kemp, with suspended coach John Kosmina confined to the stand. Ernie Merrick fielded combative Scottish midfielder Grant Brebner, who seemed to have fully recovered from his muscle injury. Victory opened with an astonishing first half. Skipper Kevin Muscat began with a fierce challenge on Diego which led to the Brazilian limping off temporarily. Daniel Allsopp’s charge down the right was ended by a tackle on the edge of the box and Adrian Caceres driven free kick flew behind off the head of Fernando. Victory got the break through the game needed in 20 minutes when a quick break through the middle saw Brazilian Fred send a delicious through pass to Archie Thompson. The striker was faced by the onrushing keeper Daniel Beltrame, but he was able to touch the ball delicately with the side of his foot in off the right hand upright. The lead was doubled in twenty minutes when Allsopp went careering down the right and laid the ball off to the marauding Fred. The Brazilian delivered another precise pass into the goal area where the predatory Thompson pounced for his second goal. Thompson is a big game player and this proved it. Adelaide received a body blow when skipper Ross Aloisi was sent off for his second bookable offence when he ran through Grant Brebner. If further indication that it was going to be Victory’s night were needed it came when Muscat dissected the Adelaide defence in 37 minutes, and found Thompson who rounded the last defender to complete his hat-trick. At half time Adelaide removed Greg Owens who had experienced a torrid time at left back, replacing him with Aaron Goulding. Thompson was sent clear by a quick Muscat free kick but hit the bar with his shot, then he skinned Michael Valkanis to set up Allsopp whose shot was blocked by Beltrame. Fred thumped the rebound against the woodwork once again. In 56 minutes Simon Storey won the ball deep in defence and it was transferred forward rapidly. Thompson started his run early and was clearly offside when the ball was played in to him, but he was allowed to go on and round Beltrame for his fourth goal. Valkanis was booked for trying to draw the referee’s attention to the replay on the big screen. It was not Adelaide’s day after Bruce Djite and teenager Nathan Burns combined to get the ball into the Victory net, the assistant referee’s flag at the other end resulted in the ‘goal’ being disallowed. The Archie Thompson show rolled on when substitute James Robinson and Fred laid the ball on a plate for the striker to score his fifth goal in 72 minutes. Thereafter Victory toyed with its devastated opponent until Thompson came off for Sarkies who brought the curtain down with the sixth goal.
Crushing Victory Geelong Advertiser Monday 19 February 2007, p. 37 By Roy Hay ‘IT was an historic occasion which will never be repeated in a Grand Final,’ the Victory’s coach Ernie Merrick said last night. The Scottish coach was linking his team’s win and Archie Thompson’s individual heroics. And he did crack a smile at last, but appeared as if he had been Superbowled after the game. ‘In Scotland we drink beer, here the players have been pouring it over me,’ he said. Merrick added that if we try to stand still we will go backwards and that he expected to make an announcement about an exciting new signing in the next few weeks. But he thought that the team had been threatening a performance like that all season. ‘Tonight we put it all together.’ Thompson reminded every one that he had predicted that Victory would win the league at the start of the season and recently he has been talking about a hat-trick in the Grand Final, but even he was blown away by the five-goal effort. He praised his fellow striker Daniel Allsopp. ‘We have been working well together. If one of us is down, the other gees him up and gets him going,’ he said. Adelaide players Ross Aloisi and veteran striker Carl Veart struck the wrong note by concentrating on refereeing decisions. ‘Those were the two softest yellow cards I have ever seen and we copped two bad offside decisions,’ Aloisi said. Veart was even more cutting. ‘The three blind mice could have done a better job out there,’ a comment which will bring him into scrutiny by the football authorities. Coach John Kosmina was more diplomatic, though he thought Kevin Muscat got off lightly when he avoided a booking for his tackle on Diego in the second minute. Behind his larrikin exterior Kosmina has been an excellent lightning rod for United. Diverting pressure from the players by his antics and his willingness to challenge the media, including myself, when he asked me what was wrong with Adelaide’s ‘goal’, a nice way of getting round explicit criticism of the officials. But it was Victory’s night and the last word should be with Muscat. ‘Our character shone through. Even if all the decisions had gone against us we would still have won that game, only the margin would have been different.’
Victory faces its final hurdle Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 17 February 2007, p. 58. By Roy Hay Having wrapped up the home and away league title and reached the grand final, Melbourne Victory has just one hurdle to jump to be crowned as the champion of the A-League. On Sunday night it takes on Adelaide United in front of a sell-out crowd of well over 50,000 at Telstra Dome at 6 pm. The match has all the makings of a classic as the two best teams of the season come together for the sixth time in the competition. Way back in round one in August, Victory beat Adelaide United for the first time by two goals to nil, and an ecstatic Socceroo striker Archie Thompson yelled out, ‘We will win the league,’ after the game. Two other league meetings saw Adelaide come out on top by one-nil at Telstra Dome in October and then the Victory won by three goals to one at the Hindmarsh Stadium in December. Then it was on to the two-legged semi-final when the teams were locked in a scoreless draw at Hindmarsh and substitute James Robinson popped up for the decisive goal in injury time to put Victory into the grand final by two goals to one a fortnight ago. So Victory has the edge, but past performance will count for little on Sunday night. Both teams will be close to full strength, though Adelaide has full back Matthew Kemp suspended after collecting two yellow cards in the finals. Star import, Bobby Petta, the former Celtic winger and midfielder Jason Spagnuolo are carrying injuries, though the latter should be available for selection. Victory has concerns over Kristian Sarkies and Geelong’s Adrian Leijer who were in Taiwan with the Olyroos this week and will make a late decision on both players. Only defender Daniel Piorkowski, who will not resume playing till next year, will certainly be missing from the home side’s strongest starting eleven. The last time the team’s met Socceroo Travis Dodd’s early goal allowed Adelaide to play its counter-attacking game based on the probing of skipper Ross Aloisi and Brazilian imports Fernando and Diego. But Victory has its own Brazilian magic in the hard working and slippery Fred and crowd-favourite Alessandro, whose unpredictable skills sometimes surprise himself as well as his team-mates. The Victory’s strength is its midfield engine-room where skipper Kevin Muscat takes no prisoners and Scot Grant Brebner’s vision and passing is supplemented by Fred’s dynamism. Up front Danny Allsopp, the league’s top scorer, partners Thompson, with Adrian Caceres adding width to the attack. Victory banged in 41 goals in the regular season by far the most of any club, while the defence conceded only 20, one more than Sydney FC which was noted for its boring, defensive soccer under recently sacked coach Terry Butcher. At the back Rodrigo Vargas, formerly of Green Gully, has stepped up to the A-League without a hiccup, using his experience to marshall Leijer, Simon Storey and Steve Pantelidis in front of him. Keeper Michael Theoklitos has been outstanding this season and he and his opposite number Daniel Beltrame could be the key figures should the game go to penalty kicks as happened last week when Adelaide squeaked home over the Newcastle Jets. Then there are the two coaches, who are chalk and cheese in personality and approach. John Kosmina may have to coach from the stand after giving referee Matthew Breeze a spray last Sunday, but that will be something the ebullient South Australian will take in his stride. By contrast Scot Ernie Merrick will be composed on the outside, relying on a season’s planning and preparation for just this match. No jumping up and down for him, just discipline, sports science and self-control. But he might finally crack a smile if the Victory comes out on top.
V-League deferred Geelong Advertiser, Friday 16 February 2007, p. 48. By Roy Hay Geelong will have more time to prepare an attempt to join the Football Federation Victoria’s proposed new V-League. Yesterday the FFV deferred the introduction of the new league, which was originally scheduled to occur at the start of the 2008 season. The decision is not surprising because it meant that all existing clubs would have to apply for places next year in competition with new regional entities, perhaps including one from Geelong. FFV President Vasko Stojcevski said, ‘The decision was made after extensive consultation with a number of key stakeholders including Football Federation Australia, State and Local Government departments, member clubs and other interest groups’. But it is clear that such a radical step required a great deal more planning, though the longer the process takes the greater the chance of special interest groups derailing the project. Stojcevski was correct when he added, ‘We will only get one chance to get this right and we want to be sure the introduction of the V-League is the renaissance our game deserves in Victoria. … we realise more work needs to be done to ensure the V-League is guaranteed success’. For Geelong the urgency to get a fully costed and organised program off the ground is reduced but it would be a pity if the momentum which is currently building were dissipated. Entry into the V-League would be much more realistic for Geelong than a jump straight to the national A-League, though that should remain the ultimate goal.
Has Scotland got lessons for England once again? Geelong Advertiser, Wednesday 14 February 2007, p. 49. By Roy Hay So here we go again. Steve McLaren, the manager of the English national team is pilloried for a narrow loss to Spain in a friendly match and calls for his resignation go out from sections of the English press. The man has only been in the post for a few months, having been appointed in succession to Sven-Goran Eriksson after the World Cup in mid-2006. I wonder if the problems of English football are to be found elsewhere than in the peculiar talents of the current manager? It is said he is a first class coach, but is less effective at fielding a coherent team and tactically planning and altering its formation in the heat of battle. It is arguable however that the problems encountered by England lie much deeper. It appears that English football has reached the position occupied by Scotland in the late 1970s and early 1980s. At that time there was a saying going round north of the border that ‘Everybody knows that a top class team requires three to five Scots in its line-up, the problem is that we have to play eleven.’ Then English club sides were dominating European competition with Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa annexing six European Cup victories in succession between 1977 and 1982. Each team had a nucleus of Scots. Names included Ken McNaught, Allan Evans, Alex Cropley and Des Bremner at Villa, Kenny Burns, Frank Gray, John McGovern, John O’Hare and Ian Wallace at Forest and Alan Hansen, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish and later Steve Nicol at Liverpool. Since 2005 English teams have begun to re-establish themselves as challengers in the top European competitions while the national side cannot break through to the very highest level. The underlying problem would appear to be that only about four or five of the current squad are of the requisite calibre. The manager unfortunately has to pick eleven. Club sides on the other hand, bolstered by skilful imports from abroad, are doing the business, sometimes, as in the case of Arsenal recently, with no English players at all. Scotland faced exactly the same problem for the last decade but financial and other circumstances have enforced a change. A couple of years ago Rangers and Celtic had teams in which the majority of players were often imports and hence young and promising Scots were squeezed out of opportunities at the most successful clubs. The much-maligned national coach Berti Vogts was the victim of this circumstance. Earlier this season Rangers flirted with the notion of a successful foreign coach, Paul Le Guen, formerly with Lyons, who tried to revamp the playing culture of the club, only to be sacked when results were shocking and he dumped the talismanic Scottish captain Barry Ferguson. Now the balance of talent at Ibrox and Parkhead has switched back to home-grown players, not completely but significantly. With its limited pool of talent Scotland will hardly rise to the position of influence it once had in the world game, but it seems that it has turned the corner, partly as a result of conscious decision-making and partly because of financial necessities. Has Scotland got lessons for England once again?
Last gasp winner for Melbourne Victory over Adelaide United Geelong Adelaide, Monday 5 February 2005, p. 00. By Roy Hay Melbourne Victory overcame Adelaide United by two-goals to one in a thrilling major semi-final of the A-League at Telstra Dome in front of another record-breaking crowd of 47,413 last night. Both teams were at full strength and the tone was set as Geelong’s Adrian Leijer was engaged on a body on body clash with Adelaide veteran Carl Veart straight from the kick-off. Victory’s Adrian Caceres and Archie Thompson broke through in the second minute but Thompson’s final touch took the ball just wide. Then came the sucker punch as Adelaide went up the other end and Diego’s cross from the left let Travis Dodd sneak in for a header at the back post for a crucial away goal in 4 minutes. This meant that the Victory had to score twice to gain the result on the night. Caceres was causing problems with a series of runs down the left but when he cut inside the shots and crosses failed to trouble Daniel Beltrame in the Adelaide goal. Two or three offside decisions also halted promising Victory moves, while Adelaide relied on a counterpunching approach. Fernando had a blast from distance but hit it straight at Michael Theoklitos. On the half-hour, Simon Storey, Kevin Muscat and Grant Brebner combined to set up Daniel Allsopp on the edge of the goal area but his shot was blocked by keeper Beltrame’s feet. Matthew Kemp of Adelaide and skipper Muscat were booked for holding and a rash challenge respectively. On the stroke of half time the Victory had a good spell of pressure with Simon Storey testing the keeper with one effort, and Brazilian Fred got himself booked for diving after squeezing his way past three defenders. So the half ended with Adelaide still a goal to the good. Two minutes into the second half the stadium erupted when Daniel Allsopp picked up a loose ball about 30 metres out. He charged to the edge of the penalty area where he unleashed a fearsome left foot drive which screamed into the top left hand corner for the equaliser. Adelaide replaced Fernando by youngster Bruce Djite, while Victory brought on Kristian Sarkies for Caceres and the Olyroo playmaker immediately drove a free kick to the keeper as the Victory went seeking a second goal. By the end of 90 minutes that had not happened but then deep into injury time the Victory won a free kick out on the left. Sarkies swung it into the danger area and when a defensive header came out to Victory substitute James Robinson he lifted a header over everyone into the top corner for the decisive strike. There was just time for Aelaide to mount one last attack saved by the feet of keeper Theoklitos before the home team could start the celebrations in earnest. Victory is into the grand final while Adelaide has a chance to reach that when it meets Newcastle Jets next week.
Showdown at the Docklands Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 3 February 2007, p. 92. By Roy Hay Melbourne gets its first taste of A-League football finals at Telstra Dome when Melbourne Victory takes on Adelaide United in the second leg of the major semi-final tomorrow night. Over 40,000 tickets have already been sold and the Australian record for a match between club teams, set earlier this year when 50,333 saw the Victory play Sydney FC, is likely to be exceeded. The winner, and there must be one, goes straight into the grand final, while the loser has a chance to redeem itself in the preliminary final against Sydney FC or Newcastle Jets next week. Adelaide last season and Victory this year have been on parallel courses leading into this match. Both won the home and away league season comfortably with matches to spare and then lost momentum going into the finals. Then they played a scoreless draw in the first leg last week. Last year Adelaide failed to win a game thereafter crashing out in the preliminary final to Central Coast Mariners. Victory coach Ernie Merrick is determined that history will not repeat itself and has responded to claims that his team will be under pressure by pointing to Adelaide’s dismal record last year. The two coaches could not be more dissimilar. Ernie Merrick is reserved, undemonstrative and unflappable, but a brilliant teacher and capable of finding positives in any situation. His parents were involved in the circus, but while Merrick has learned to juggle players, he has never been a showman. Indeed if there has been any criticism of him this season it is that he has been reluctant to ‘feed the chooks’ by giving the media the sound bites and one liners they crave for headlines. Merrick prefers to proceed quietly and deliberately relying on meticulous preparation and sports science to bring his team to its peak for the finals. John Kosmina by contrast is extrovert, lively, opinionated and prepared to be abrasive when necessary. Mind games come naturally to him. He has a rapier wit and, as he showed when he clashed with Victory skipper Kevin Muscat earlier in the season, he does not know how to take a backward step. His club sent him to an anger management course after that incident. Geelong’s former Socceroo Kris Trajanovski grew up watching Kosmina on television when he played for Australia and thought he was a really good player who scored lots of goals. Later Kris was coached by Kosmina at Brisbane Strikers in the National Soccer League. ‘He wasn’t too bad as a coach. A bit crazy back then,’ Kris remembers. Nothing much has changed. Both teams should be at full strength though each has young players involved in the Olyroos squad which has been training for qualifying matches against Chinese Taipei this week. Geelong’s Adrian Leijer picked up an injury and was exhausted at the end of a full-scale practice match to the annoyance of his coach, but he should be ready to resume his place in central defence for the Victory. Victory needs to win to proceed, while any draw other than nil-all will see Adelaide go through on the away goals rule. If the match is scoreless, there will be extra-time and if necessary penalty kicks to decide the winner.
Finishing on top a poisoned chalice Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 27 January 2007, p. 91. By Roy Hay Melbourne Victory won the home and away series, or the Minor Premiership, of the A-League by the length of a street or by twelve points, four games clear of its nearest challenger, Adelaide United. In Europe, that would be enough to be crowned champion and progress to the next season’s international club championship. But in Australia, following the example of the AFL, the Football Federation of Australia has decreed that the top four teams will play-off in a finals series to determine the Australian premier team. Last year Adelaide United won the home and away series with a couple of games to spare but did not win another match, and Sydney FC, the glamour team led by Dwight Yorke, triumphed in the finals. Some judges and Adelaide coach John Kosmina, think that the Victory will have the same experience this year. In evidence they point to the fact that since it confirmed that top spot with four rounds to play, the Victory has drawn away to Perth and lost its other three games, the last by four goals to nil away to the Newcastle Jets. It is not a prepossessing record and while coach Ernie Merrick says he has been rotating his team and overloading players in training for the finals, it does leave the fans wondering whether the Victory can suddenly switch back to winning football. The concept of finals can produce exciting and highly competitive football, and it does attract Australian fans who are attuned to this mode of completing league competitions. But it is not necessarily the best way of deciding who is the best team over a whole season, which is what the European first-past-the-post system undoubtedly does. The Australian compromise is that the two teams who will represent the A-League in the Asian champions’ league are the league winner and the finals champion. This year Adelaide United and Sydney FC will go forward into the champions’ league and next year, no matter what happens, Melbourne Victory, has booked its place with a year to plan for that and the chance to see what happens to our two representatives in 2007. So it is, in this sense, a win for the Victory, but those who tune in to the English Premier League or Italy’s Serie A or Spain’s La Liga will still feel that Melbourne is already the champion of Australia by virtue of having won the home and away competition. In this week-end’s matches, the Victory is away to Adelaide in the first leg of the major semi-final, with the winner over two games going into the grand final. The loser will face the winner of the elimination minor semi-final between Newcastle Jets and Sydney FC, for a chance to play in the decider. Vidosic smash and grab robs Victory by Roy Hay Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 13 January 2007, p. 86. A last minute goal by Dario Vidosic for Queensland Roar denied Melbourne Victory a point in the penultimate round of the A-League at Telstra Dome last night. Despite the cricket down the road at the MCG, 28,937 fans cheered the Victory on in its final home match. Victory was without Geelong defender Adrian Leijer and midfielder Grant Brebner, but the league’s top scorers Daniel Allsopp and Archie Thompson and skipper Kevin Muscat returned. In the tenth minute Allsopp found Adrian Caceres on the right of the area and his fierce shot was just tipped over the bar by debutant keeper Tando Velaphi. From Kristian Sarkies’s corner-kick Kevin Muscat drove in a shot which the keeper finger-tipped on to the cross-bar. At the other end Matthew McKay and Damian Mori were only stopped by the combined efforts of Vince Lia and Simon Storey. But the Victory was punished in 17 minutes when stand-in centre back Steve Pantelidis fell over and Mori thumped the ball past Michael Theoklitos. This was Mori’s seventh goal of the season and first for Queensland Roar. In 36 minutes Muscat and Brazilian Fred released Thompson whose cross-shot was just touched away from the onrushing Allsopp by the young keeper. Three minutes later he pulled off an even better save to deny Caceres at the expense of another fruitless corner for the Victory. Velaphi has been called up to the Olyroos squad and he was the star of a tightly contested first half, shaded on the scoreboard by the visitor. Steve Pantelidis resumed for the second half with a heavy bandage as the result of a flying Mori elbow, and Mori had a bandage holding his jaw after another clash of heads. Pantelidis had to come off after 8 minutes being replaced by Antun Kovacevic recently signed from Oakleigh Cannons. Leigh Broxham from Knox City was the next to make his debut for the Victory replacing Adrian Caceres. In its first really coherent attack of the second half, the Victory worked the ball across the penalty area before it was laid back to Muscat whose dipping shot just cleared the cross-bar. At this stage Melbourne had two-thirds of the possession but nothing to show for it. Nevertheless Massimo Murdocca nearly doubled the Roar’s advantage shooting just wide after skinning a couple of defenders. Finally after 79 minutes Fred dinked the ball across and Ben Griffin could only clear it straight to Thompson who poked it past the keeper. Broxham then stung his fingers with a 30-metre effort and Thompson pushed the ball into the diving keeper’s body. Then in a smash and grab raid in injury time Dario Vidosic took advantage of a loose ball in the Victory penalty area to score the winner from close range.
The football year: From World Cup to Community Shield Published as 'High achievers: Geelong's star performers in the world game' Geelong Advertiser, Monday 1 January 2007, p. 37. By Roy Hay This was an extraordinary year for the world game of football, with Australia’s first World Cup appearance since 1974, Melbourne Victory drawing the largest crowd to witness a club game in Australia and locally the Community Shield replacing the long running Geelong Advertiser Cup. Other highlights included stellar individual performances by Geelong players for the Socceroos, Croatia, Melbourne Victory and the Young Socceroos. Josip Skoko scored a brilliant winning goal for the Socceroos against Greece and finally established himself as a first team regular at Wigan Athletic in the English Premier League, and went to the World Cup in Germany with Guus Hiddink’s team. Unfortunately he did not get any game time at the peak tournament, much to the disgust of this writer who thought his precision passing skills were all that was lacking from the Socceroos narrow failure to overcome the eventual champion Italy in the Round of Sixteen in Kaiserslautern. Joey Didulica had a rollercoaster year, starring with Austria Vienna in the Austrian Bundesliga in the first half of the year and playing for Croatia in warm-up games for the World Cup, only to miss taking the field in the finals as did Josip Skoko, his friend and former team-mate at North Geelong. Needless to say the fact that the Skoko and Didulica families were on opposite sides when the countries met in Germany provided lots of stories for the media around the world, not just in Australia. After the World Cup, Didulica moved to AZ Alkmaar in Holland where he had a series of brilliant performances in goals helping his team to the top of the league until a serious head injury saw him sidelined. Adrian Leijer continued from where he left off last season as the ever-present player in the Melbourne Victory defence as his team won the home and away A-League with four games to spare. Add to that a call-up to train with the Socceroos prior to the World Cup and selection for the Olyroos for their qualifying tournament next year and the 20-year-old is set to become a major star for Australia in the near future. Another Geelong defender, St Joseph’s College student, Matthew Spiranovic, also turned out in practice matches for Melbourne Victory and played for the Young Socceroos in their unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Under-20 World Cup. Later in the year he signed a contract to play in the German Bundesliga for FC Nurnberg. In local senior soccer, North Geelong started strongly but eventually finished fourth in Division One of the State League, Corio came third, Geelong Rangers fifth and Geelong seventh in Division Three, while Bell Park finally turned the corner with a second place finish and promotion from Division Three of the Provisional League. Much credit goes to coach Eddie Dorris who got the very best out of his squad. The Western Victoria Soccer Association Women’s team finished as runner-up in Division One of the State League which will mean promotion to the Premier League next season. This is a stunning achievement by the team coached by Tam McCulloch. A number of Geelong juniors took the first steps on the ladder to representative honours with selection for Victorian Country Region teams which took part the National Talent Identification Championships. After 25 years of sponsorship by the Geelong Advertiser the local pre-season competition became the Community Shield, but the familiar order was maintained with North Geelong triumphing in the final against Geelong Rangers by five goals to one.
Melbourne Victory 4 New Zealand Knights 0 By Roy Hay A four-nil win for Melbourne Victory over New Zealand Knights marked its return to Olympic Park last night for what may be its last game at the venue. The New Zealand Knights side was a mixture of regular Knights players, New Zealand internationals and a couple of local Australian-based players, Jeff Fleming and Fernando de Moraes. This followed the withdrawal of the Knights’ licence earlier in the week and its take-over by the Football Federation of Australia. Victory welcomed back Scottish midfielder Grant Brebner and skipper Kevin Muscat also took his place alongside him in the engine-room. In the early exchanges the home team could not find its men with its passes and it was the Knights which was more threatening with Noah Hickey and Alen Marcina having good shots at the end of decent moves. Adiran Leijer finally forced a corner after 25 minutes which Adrian Caceres dropped on to the head of Rodrigo Vargas at the far post, but the defender put it over the bar. Then in the next attack Archie Thompson’s cross just eluded the lunging Danny Allsopp. It had been a very scrappy first half to this point with only the continual chanting of the Victory fans to keep the tempo going, but in 35 minutes Victory got a free kick just outside the box. Muscat took it quickly while the Knights defence was retreating and Caceres drove the ball across goal where Allsopp was clearly offside. The big striker was allowed to continue and he planted the ball past Mark Paston for his tenth goal of the season. Four minutes later Vargas found Caceres with the outside of his foot and the winger ran past two defenders before thundering the ball into the net. That took the pressure off the home team and the fans unrolled their ‘Premiers’ banner for the first time. In the last minute of regulation time in the first half, Allsopp took a pass from Thompson, ignored two fellow attackers and drove the ball home at the near post for Victory’s third goal. In the 48th minute the Victory got another free kick when Allsopp was pulled down. Muscat lifted the ball over the New Zealand wall to Thompson who only had to roll it into the net to make it four-nil at half-time. The second half was a stroll in the park for the Victory which gave the fans time to serenade their heroes, with crowd favourite Alessandro performing some of his Brazilian tricks. The man of the match was Steve Pantelidis who performed three or four roles in midfield and defence in a selfless exercise for the team. The four-nil win secured the top spot in the league for the Victory and guaranteed entry to Asian competition in 2008. The crowd of 15, 563 kept Victory well ahead of the rest of the league in attendance.
Criteria for new V League issued By Roy Hay The Football Federation of Victoria has revealed its plans for the proposed new V-League which is due to replace the existing Premier League in February 2008. Tough new criteria will have to be met by clubs seeking to join the new league with expressions of interest required in June 2007 and final applications in August. Regional teams may submit an application. This does not leave much time for any bid from the Geelong area to be submitted. The aim is to provide high quality football and be the best football competition apart from the national A-League. The status of the existing Premier league is reflected in the fact that the Australian Institute of Sport will participate in 2007. The V-league will have not more than 12 teams and will require enhanced ground criteria, greater professionalism by clubs, better links with the local community, and greater emphasis on media and marketing. Every club will be required to have a senior team, under-21, under-18, a senior women’s team, four junior teams from under-11 to under-16 and two rooball teams for under-8 to under-10. A salary cap of $200,000 will be enforced to reduce the tendency of clubs to overspend in relation to their revenue. The entry fee for the league which will include referees fees and a promotional component will be $25,000 in 2008. A minimum of 500 seats under cover is mandatory with 1,000 preferred in what should be a spectator-friendly environment. Promotion and relegation will apply after the first year, though all clubs admitted will have security of tenure for one year. Clubs will be required to have a professional administration with a full time General Manager or Chief Executive Officer. Coaching, finance and media relations will also require professional treatment by aspiring clubs. Part of the inspiration behind the new league is a desire to prevent the kind of incidents involving club supporters, two of which tarnished the image of the code in 2005. So the emphasis will be on family enjoyment and safety, with quality venues and modern spectator facilities. But it is also driven by the need to participate in the current boom in football in this country, which shows that there is active support for high quality local competitions. The league will help showcase the best of local talent and fill an identified gap in the provision of a career path for players seeking to reach national league standards. One key element which is not clearly addressed in the business plan and the criteria is a single, common registration for professional players which will enable them to move between national and state competitions without administrative complications. The plan represents a serious attempt by the FFV to bring the local game into line with the changes which have taken place at national level. Though it will cause great angst among existing clubs, most of which will have to improve their facilities drastically to succeed with an application, it is the way forward for football in Victoria.
Victory and Sydney fight to a standstill in front of record crowd Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 9 December 2006, p. 100. By Roy Hay Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC fought each other to a standstill in a high quality but goalless draw in Round 16 of the A-League at Telstra Dome last night. In front of the biggest crowd of the season and the largest attendance at a club match in Australia, 50,333 the atmosphere was worthy of the classic arm-wrestle it turned out to be. As with all the Melbourne-Sydney derbies it was a tough, physical struggle, particularly in midfield where both sides denied their immediate opponents room to turn. Socceroo David Carney was booked after only 3 minutes for a trip on Rodrigo Vargas as the Melbourne defender tried to break away. Victory played some excellent one-touch high speed football in the early stages but could not find the front runners with the through balls. The angles of the diagonal balls were wrong and they either ran through to the keeper or over the sidelines. Brazilian Alessandro twice tried to prise open the defence with pure skill but to no effect. Sydney had two of the clearest openings of the first half, the first when Robbie Middleby got away down the right and his cross was headed over the bar by David Carney. Then Carney put the ball into the box following a corner kick only for Socceroo Mark Milligan to head over the top. Alessandro took a short pass from Archie Thomson and scampered away down the left. He finished with a low cross which eluded keeper Clint Bolton initially but after colliding with defender Alvin Ceccoli he managed to regain possession. In the 36th minute, Melbourne skipper Kevin Muscat drove in a free kick but it was always rising. During stoppage time just before the interval Archie Thomson was sent clear by a long ball from Muscat. Twice the Socceroo striker skinned defenders and had his first shot blocked while the second just flew over the bar with Bolton beaten. The first half was highly entertaining and competitive but it ended goalless. Six minutes into the second half, coach Ernie Merrick took off Alessandro and replaced him with Adrian Caceres. The substitute was immediately in the action setting Thomson off on a run which ended with a cross-shot that Daniel Allsopp just could not reach as he crashed into the net himself. Thomson’s next run was even more impressive as he skinned three defenders and shot only centimetres wide of Bolton’s far post. Adrian Leijer came up from the back to make a brilliant interception which resulted in another Victory attack but the result was a corner-kick. Sydney was reduced to counterattacking and while they threatened several times they were unable to break down the Victory defence in which Leijer and Rodrigo Vargas were exceptional. Though the fans, like both coaches, might have regretted the absence of goals they could not complain about the quality of the play or the commitment of both sides. Ernie Merrick said, ‘I am happy with the result in that we keep the same distance between one and two but I have to say I would have loved our team to score a goal in front of such a big crowd.’ Sydney coach Terry Butcher said he thought the game was flat, because that is what his plan was since his team had scored but lost in last two games against the Victory. ‘My job is to win football matches and then perhaps entertain,’ he said. Stadium push needed Geelong Advertiser, Friday 7 December 2006, p. 52. By Roy Hay For a city with a population catchment of over 200,000 Geelong lacks a compact stadium to house the non-AFL codes of football particularly soccer. This is holding back the development of the game, though it is not the only reason why the sport has not kicked on in this area as it has done in the rest of Australia. The responses of the clubs to my colleague John Didulica’s questions about an application to join the new Victorian V-League in 2008 give the clearest indication why it is no use waiting for the existing soccer organisations to catch up. As with the national transformation under Frank Lowy and John O’Neill any expansion of the game locally is going to have to come from outside the traditional clubs. There is a clear opportunity for the City of Greater Geelong, the Committee for Geelong, Geelong Major Events and other similar bodies who have a serious concern with the development of the region to step in to create the conditions under which the world game can take its proper place in the local sporting scene. Designing and building a stadium to hold around 5,000 spectators would be a huge boost to the area since the facility would get much more use than Skilled Stadium for example, which only hosts less than a dozen AFL matches every year. Where should this new facility be located? Given that there is no significant vacant space in central Geelong or close to the waterfront, the logical place to build should be at one or other end of the ring road currently under construction. The ring road has resulted in the truncation of the existing Myers Reserve and current plans involve compensating the soccer tenant, Geelong Rangers, with some extra facilities in revised soccer complex. Two decades ago this would have been a sensible solution since most of the soccer fraternity lived in the northern suburbs within walking distance of Myers Reserve in many cases. Now the growth in the game lies in the south and east as the sons and daughters of the post-war migrants have moved to Highton and Grovedale or to the coast at Ocean Grove and Torquay. Clubs and teams from the coast and the Bellarine Peninsula are growing in number and popularity every year. So there is a strong argument for building a new facility close to the existing baseball complex and the new leisure centre at Waurnvale. It would be both accessible and clearly distinguished from the old soccer clubs allowing a focus on the representation of Geelong and its region rather than one particular subsection of that community. This is what has happened brilliantly with the majority of the new A-League clubs at national level, particularly the Melbourne Victory, which may draw an Australian record crowd to its match with Sydney FC at Telstra Dome on Friday. If Geelong waits for its existing soccer clubs to pull together then this wonderful opportunity will have been squandered and the game in the area will have been let down by the very people who have been so important to its recent history. That would be a sad legacy.
Geelong faces uphill battle to make V-League Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 2 December 2006, p. 101. By Roy Hay The Geelong (soccer) football community learned what the future of the game holds when the Football Federation of Victoria announced the preliminary criteria for its new V-League to be launched in 2008 earlier this week. This will be the state’s new elite league and while existing clubs will be able to apply, none is guaranteed a spot in the competition. Applicants will be asked to provide a detailed business plan and this will demand greater professionalism and strict adherence to the new criteria. The V-League aspires to be the second strongest competition in Australia after the national A-League. The new league will have up to 12 teams. Better conditions to watch matches are demanded with enhanced ground amenities, including a minimum of 500 under-cover seats and improved corporate and media facilities There will be salary cap of $200,000. Clubs will be required to employ a full time General Manager or Chief Executive Officer. They will also have to have an increased marketing budget to promote the V-League. The V-League will aim at an emphasis on family and enjoyment, though how this is to be achieved is not specified. The FFV will release the full criteria to interested parties on 8 December and expressions of interest are required by 29 June 2007 with the final application due on 3 August 2007. FFV CEO Tony Pignata said, ‘The V-League will comprise viable, professionally administered clubs working closely with their local communities, the football family and FFV to build the image of our game.’ This means that no single ethnically-based club need apply. Some giants of the game, like South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights, who until 2004 were playing in the National Soccer League, could find themselves unable to meet the criteria for entry to the FFV V-League unless they can broaden their appeal. Some aspects of the new plans will require further consideration. A $200,000 salary cap seems far too low. With a squad of 20 players playing 22 home and away games this represents an average weekly income of $450.00 per week or something close to the minimum wage. Given that players will have to train three or four times a week at least and be available over week-ends stretching from Friday to Monday nights, it is hard to see the best talent being attracted. None of the Geelong clubs is in a position to meet these criteria so it is almost essential that a wider consortium be formed if Geelong is to enter a team in the V-League and time is pressing. In a future column the venue for a combined Geelong team will be considered. Should it be located in the north-west or the south-east of the city?
Melbourne Victory down to Newcastle Jets at home By Roy Hay A depleted Melbourne Victory lost its second match of the season by a goal to nil against Newcastle Jets in Round 14 of the A-League at Telstra Dome last night. Victory was without skipper Kevin Muscat, and regular defenders Daniel Piorkowski and Simon Storey and their places were taken by Mark Byrnes, Steve Pantelidis and Adrian Caceres. In virtually the first attack, a long ball forward by Rodrigo Vargas was brilliantly trapped on his chest by Daniel Allsopp,who spun off his marker but then cannoned into young Jets keeper Ben Kennedy. Kennedy had to be taken off with what looked like a bad injury to his arm. Ivan Necevski replaced him after only 7 minutes. Both sides had free kicks in dangerous positions but neither was able to capitalise. Newcastle’s Joel Griffiths exploited a big gap on the right side and chipped the ball neatly over Victory keeper Eugene Galekovich but the final effort just drifted wide of the far post. Socceroo Griffiths was getting far too much freedom and he had another close range effort and one from distance but luckily for Victory both went past the post. Caceres, returning after injury, looked out of sorts and he was replaced after half an hour by Brazilian Alessandro, who is a real favourite with the Victory fans. Melbourne had a couple of clear chances in the last minutes of the first half. Brazilian Fred set up Archie Thomson who fired a cross-shot just wide, then Alessandro skinned Jade North and ran clear on goal only to give keeper Necevski an opportunity to smother his close range shot. Though the Jets often looked dangerous, Victory had the better opportunities in front of goal but half-time came with neither side able to break through. The twin Brazilians produced some moments of pure magic in the second half to set up more opportunities but it was the Jets who took the lead on the hour against the run of play. Socceroo Nick Carle threaded a reverse pass through the home defence and Milton Rodriguez beat Galekovic on his near post. Victory replaced Kristian Sarkies with new signing James Robinson and Victory went chasing a goal. But the Jets were becoming more adept at hitting on the break and Nick Carle struck the cross bar with the keeper beaten, then Griffiths forced Galekovic into a superb diving save. Not to be outdone, Grant Brebner hit the base of the post as Victory tried to salvage something from the game. The Jets won the majority of the fifty-fifty balls around the ground and coach Ernie Merrick took off Adrian Leijer, replacing the Geelong defender, with midfielder Michael Ferrante. Before the match, coach Merrick was talking about revising his team’s goals and now seeking to win the league not just qualify for the finals, but this result shows that there is much work still to be done. After the match Merrick said that substitute keeper Ivan Necevski was the man-of-the-match. ‘We had three one-on-ones with the keeper and failed to score with any of them. We played well in the first half, but we showed a lack of fight after the goal. I am not worried about the defence. We have the meanest defence in the league. We are aiming to win the Minor Premiership. I took off Leijer for tactical reasons. I would rather lose by 5-nil by trying to win the game,’ the coach said. Gary van Egmond, the Jets coach, said that Kennedy would have an X-ray on his collar bone and his arm. He said the key to the Jets doing well in the remainder of the season was consistency and the need to remain injury free. The crowd was 27,753, raising the season’s average attendance at home games to 26, 272 after 14 rounds. Victory’s Blue and White Brigade superimposed a tribute on their banner in memory of Hungarian legend, Ferenc Puskas, who died this month. A small group of Newcastle fans had made the trip south and kept their end up well. Later they were dwarfed by Victory fans at the far end of the ground. Last best hope for Geelong soccer United force needed Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 23 November 2006, p. 39. By Roy Hay Tucked away at the end of the Football Federation of Victoria press release in yesterday’s Geelong Advertiser was the announcement of what could be Geelong’s last and best hope of a future for the round ball code in the city. At the end of the 2007 season all positions in the Victorian Premier League will be spilled and clubs throughout the state will be invited to apply to take part in 2008. Instead of any one or more of the existing clubs putting their hands up what is clearly needed is a single application on behalf of Geelong. The clubs have done a great job for their communities over the years, but it has been proven time and time again that none are capable of broader appeal to the latent soccer supporters of this region. Each time in the past there has been a move to set up a single club to represent Geelong the self-interest of the various clubs and organisations has taken over and the initiative has collapsed. It must not happen again. We have seen what can happen when a single club to represent a city is set up as with Melbourne Victory which has drawn almost 40,000 to a match against Sydney at the Telstra Dome and averages crowds of more than 26,000 this season. Every home game some hundreds of Geelong fans travel to the Telstra Dome for matches and some also attend away games, such is their appreciation of and devotion to this completely new team. These are people who would throw their support behind a united Geelong team and many of them have been trying for long enough to encourage the clubs to put their efforts behind a single representative club. We also have players of the relevant calibre as is demonstrated every year at the Geelong Advertiser Cup and its successor the Community Shield. The problem is that the talent is distributed through five clubs and the Western Victoria Soccer Association and spends the rest of the soccer year competing in the lower divisions of the State and Provisional Leagues. Most recently North Geelong has come closest to reaching the Premier League in its own right, but even its history, tradition and pool of quality players, has not been enough. The criteria for acceptance into the new Premier League will be announced on Monday but there is no doubt that they will include levels of administrative competence, financial resources and facilities and the ability to tap a significant local market which will exceed those available to any current club in Geelong. The pressure for change at the top is clear, but it needs to be reinforced from below, from within the Geelong community, if this great opportunity is not be squandered as has happened every time in the past. Planning for a new entity and a credible bid for a Premier League place needs to start now.
Victory does it the hard way against Perth By Roy Hay Melbourne Victory left it very late but came up with another victory by a goal to nil over Perth Glory in the A-League match at Telstra Dome last night in front of 22,890 fans. Scottish midfielder Grant Brebner did the damage with a thunderous shot in the 88th minute. After the pyrotechnics of last week, when there were five goals and two dismissals in the first half, the game started more sedately. Perth soaked up Victory’s early pressure, though Ryan Townsend had to resort to a fierce lunge on Adrian Caceres to prevent a dangerous break. This resulted in a booking for the Perth defender. Melbourne’s passing game was not as crisp and accurate as in recent games and they missed the drive from suspended skipper, Kevin Muscat, in midfield. Youngster Kristian Sarkies was the main playmaker and he nearly engineered a couple of breaks for Archie Thompson and Brazilian Fred, but both were snuffed out by the experienced Glory defence. It took more than half an hour for Victory to force its first corner kick, but then it picked up another but both were fruitless. The closest to a goal came when Danny Allsopp’s long diagonal cross gave Socceroo Thompson a few millimetres of space in the goal area between two Perth defenders, but his attempted lob flew just over the bar. At the other end Leo Bertos also put a shot over the bar. Fred set up Danny Allsopp on the edge of the box, but the big striker’s shot was too close to the keeper, so the first half ended goal-less. After another ten minutes coach Ernie Merrick brought on another Brazilian Alessandro for Caceres to inject more pace into the Victory attack. Sarkies then found Allsopp with a through ball but the striker and the league’s top scorer could not add to his tally. In the move Naum Sekulovski crashed into his keeper but both recovered to play on. The former Victorian then got on the end of a Perth attack before blasting over the top. Victory kept pressing and from a Sarkies corner kick the ball was knocked out to Grant Brebner and the Scottish midfielder hammered a volley saved by keeper Tommi Tomich. Thompson and Allsopp who have been working so well together in recent weeks seemed to get isolated from each other and attacks kept breaking down as Perth sat back and soaked up the pressure. When it did lift the siege Adrian Webster curled a shot just wide. Victory went back up the other end and won a free kick out on the left. After it was cleared by the defence it fell invitingly for Brebner who laced it into the bottom corner with two minutes left to play. So the Victory got its deserved win, but it was hard going. |