Con Stamacostas talks about the Nearpost's worst nightmare. Big Bad overpaid Mr D. Heart, Fury, Sydney FC, ACL and a Victory rant..from a Sydney fan. Socceroos' news and which returning Socceroo will be the first to Coach Australia?
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Tonights Podcast is full of it.
More Socceroos Coaches than you could dream of and of course the joy of Muscat missing to everyone outside Melbourne, and why did theose Victory fans leave early...were they all heading to the airport to fly to Japan...dedicated best fans in the league bar none!
It's all here, name five Aussies who played for Hiroshima, name the previous five Aussie Coaches and Joe Gibbs....
where did Joe Gibb come from. The Aziz Behich of Sydney, although we'd seen Aziz on the bench and the field for Victory before the Melbourne game, but Joe Gibb...every Australian footballer still at school...on the field in the Grand Final, 44,000 people...oh and it's your debut..Wow. Just wished he'd taken a penalty!
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Choose from:
Best Aussie
Best candidate anywhere
Most realistic choice.
All tonight on the Nearpost radio and pod.
Plus the Grand Final wrap. Why the victory fans went home and of course Leckie is back in the ACL...tomorrow night.
AFL and NRL go to sleep after their Grand final, and rightly so, but football never stops I tell ya!
and in news just in Terry Henry says it's looking like:
Rafa..as he's soon to be out of work
Ricky Herbert..he could do the Australian team as well as we're in Asia, NZ have note!
Or Ross Aloisi as it would get him off Fox Sports.
And Paddy Bordier says:
Frank Farina, John Barnes, Gary Marocchi, Iain Dowie, Alan Shearer
… are all managers I don't want for Australia.
There can be only one. Bernd Stange to manage the Socceroos
Seems neither of my co-hosts know anything about anyone outside of the UK and Frank Farina.
Gordon Strachan just quietly......
Now not sure the AFL or NRL get re-shown in Korea or even on the Korea news but what about the A-League?
We could have had Joe Gibbs or Mark Bridge take the final penalty or maybe a hero from North Queensland, Mitch Langarek save it.
Would have been big in Cairns the next day.
But Sydney always with an eye to the market, the future, sent in Korean Byun Sung-Hwan, and he duly scored and won the Grand Final.
So I reckon the A-League Grand Final with it's huge crowd has played out on Korean TV Stations all over the country this morning.
or maybe Koreans woke to news on Ben Cousins injuries or North Queensland Cowboys over Penrith Panthers footage instead.
In a week where Andrew Demitriou has raised the hackles once more of Aussie sports fans good to see football can go where the AFL can't, in a week where a Aussie Newspaper Editor told a journo he must ask a question about crowd violence ahead of the A-League game to the Coaches, and where news coverage of the game has been registered to minor pages and the last story in the week leading up to the final on many news and radio bulletins, I say take that Mr AFL and all the pathetic Sports Editors in the country who continue to bring bias into their news coverage; and yes that includes the ABC!
Wow! Now I grew up on Celtic Rangers rivalry so my non-Celtic Rangers mates in England always hooted long and loud when at the annual Scottish Cup Final (they always play don't they or maybe it just seems that way,) when Celtic (or ahem...Rangers have won it) the Cup is presented to the Celtic captain.
As the camera pans the stadium there is never ANYONE and I mean anyone in the Rangers end watching our hooped hero lift the precious cup.
Now having travelled along way I always hung around no matter who won. I didn't have the hatred I guesss, never did.
So when Sydney FC were presented with the trophy last night it seemed to me that 40,000 Melbourne fans had walked, gone home.
Is this a sign of real hatred, Celtic Rangers style? Surely not.
Were the Vic's too tired after all that extra-time? Surely not AFL goes forever.
or is it a sign that fans aren't that fussed about the whole A-League thing still. A final sure but hanging around to watch the celebrations. Meh!
Does this happen in AFL, always the stadium seems full to the end of the tedious speeches and same same in NRL.
Aussie fans generally seem to stay, in my view. So I was stunned to see the Melbourne fans do the whole Celtic/Rangers thing.
Can anyone explain?
Oh my God, oh my God.
SBS have announced their World Cup Commentary and there is no place for Australia's best football commentator, Simon Hill.
He who, more than John Aloisi and Tim Cahill, took us through against Uruguay and the whole Kaisaslaturn thing.
David Basheer and Kevin Muscat re the dream team. Do they really have the articulation, humour and style to bring the game alive a la Simon Hill?
Aussie fan: This World Cup just won't be the same. I've got bad vibes already.
Aussie mums: We like Simon Hill.
SBS Commentator Scott McIntyre proposes that Asian Champions League is so important to Melbourne Victory in terms of prestige, and financial rewards that they should play a Youth team in the Grand Final in Melbourne on Saturday. Even I don't write such tripe, well okay sometimes but only once a week!
Scott, we're trying to promote the local game, and you and your mates at SBS could sometimes help a tad more.
I like your sentiment about Asia, I love the ACL, but this is the Grand Final, in Australia.
And I'd rather see a game with 50,000 screaming fans at an A-League match where local pride is on the line, than the Champions of Korea, Japan or China taking on Melbourne Victory with 7,000 passing by. No matter the quality of either game.
Not very SBS I guess, but football is more than just the quality of the game. How would I know? I've been watching Celtic thump Kilmarnock and occasionally Rangers in front of 60,000 for years. Quality, who cares!
Steve Corica retired, John Aloisi we want you...but maybe at $100,000...and Karol Kisel excellent finish to the season but at 33 you can go to. All the old men on the move and if Sydney can add pace to this years performance the Coach could see his team improve further.
Although with half a team on the way a faster team may not mean a better team. Depends clearly who comes in.
But I like it!
But of course who they get in, remains to be seen.
Nakamura has been rumoured and that would be a step up from Kisel wouldn't it, plus younger. But either way will be interesting to see how Vitaslav builds a new faster team.
Particularly given young guns like Chris Payne and Youth team leaders like Sam Munro don't seemed to be signed up in a rush.
Interesting times for re-building at Sydney FC. For the moment it's all about who's leaving, Colosimo, Clint Bolton, that makes half a team in my book.
Grand Final Fever and salute to Adelaide United. Quiz Questions, PaddyTime, and all the Aussie football talk including that rumour and the next Sydney FC marquee?
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The nation's capital is full of Governments determined to keep their kids fat, maybe make them fatter!
Kids want to play sport, seems thousands want to play football, but the local sports ground planners say, "football is a winter code," and therefore you can only get a ground broadly speaking from April/May to September and make that the first week in September.
Time they stopped spending money on health promotions and actually let the kids play the sports they want when they want.
How many more years do Canberra kids have to put up with this tripe?
Football goes from March 1 to December 1 for our kids, includes pre-season, the season and development/summer competitions and it's about time our officials got it.
For every hundred kids on an oval playing football, running and working off obesity Australia they can let 20/30 kids play cricket, a few less play baseball etc etc. Nothing against any other sports but isn't it time the kids of Australia got a chance to play sport.
The ones they want, when they want?
Newcastle Jets have a plan, and it's taken SIX years. Fantastic to have a plan, but errrr it's Season 6 coming up.
You mean you seriously never ever thought of this, linking the juniors to our game. I'll get my coat.
I'm available for any dozy A-League Club for just a thousand dollars you can have a five page plan on how to connect your male dominated professional club, with the community, your junior base and yes the females who love and play the game. But you know all that, or so you think.
Even the Brumbies after ten or so years of local passion and coverage STILL give free season ticket to ANY registered junior player. Admittedly that ain't many but geez louise if our strength is the junior base...not Free-to-air, why did it take so long. Do all clubs do this or am I an idiot!
In a brand new initiative, families with children (Under 12) currently registered with a Northern NSW junior football club will be able to take advantage of the ‘My Club’ program, aimed to support those dedicated fans within the local football community. ‘My Club’ family memberships will begin from under $27 per game for 2 adults and 2 children (1 of which must be registered with a NNSW junior football club).
Country memberships designed specifically for supporters based 150km’s or further from EnergyAustralia Stadium will again be available, and non-ticketed memberships for those supporters unable to attend all of the Jets’ home matches throughout the 2010/11 season will go on sale from $29 per adult.
Wellington lost 4-2 to Sydney in the A-League semi final in front of 13,000 fans at the SFS.
As many have suspected Wellington's finals were played at home the last two weeks, and despite their equalizer to make it 1-1 and a dubious hand of payne goal for Sydney to ease back into the lead, the Nix were never in this.
For every Coach and Parent of any junior Australia team, including the futsal hoofers who smash the ball from end to end.
This is not football. It never was and watch the video to see FFA Technical Director Han Berger start to correct the "fault" in our junior players.
http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/video/217577/Han-Berger%27s-coaching-tips
One of Australia's best football podcasts is here once more and there is so much football to talk about.
Socceroos, Matildas, A-League, Asian Champions League, Quiz and dedications what more could you want.
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No Free-To-Air football so little reason for news channels and newspapers to report football games and events.
Why else would the biggest sporting event on the weekend in one of our major cities, Sydney be ignored by the Daily Telegraph in the lead up to the game?
It still amazes me how many Rebecca Wilson's Peter FitzSimons and the like we have in the media, and why football still gets poor coverage.
Les Murray says.
In this respect the behaviour of the Sydney media, in particular the Murdoch press, was an utter disgrace.
On that Sunday the Sydney-Melbourne showdown was the biggest sporting event in Sydney by any measure. Yet on the day before the game the Daily Telegraph, Sydney’s biggest selling daily (I’m not sure why), gave less than a tenth of its sports space to the game, burying it, while it dedicated 60 per cent of its allotment to the NRL, which was not due to kick off for another week.
The sleazy, grubby and calculated media resistance to football, five years after Johnny Warren’s death, is alive and well.
Even tonights opponent Sas Ognenovski says what all football fans know. We love the Victory style but can they play a 1-0 win in Asia, against class opposition.
Even with Kevin Muscat they have been pretty lame, even immature in a football sense. Attack at pace, hit Archie on the break. But do they have something more. Fine for the A-League...but in Asia.
Tonight we'll see if Ernie has what Aurelio Vidmar clearly has, tactical nous!
"I think Melbourne’s attacking instincts and open style might actually work against them," he told The World Game.
“They like to take a few risks and commit players forward and make the play and while that’s good to watch it carries with it the chance of getting caught out.
“Adelaide are totally different tactically, even at home they play on the counter and that’s how they got the better of Pohang (in their Group H opener), who are very good side. If they get a goal up, they know how to protect that goal.
Melbourne play again tomorrow night, Tuesday, in the Asian Champions League and they must win. Simple as that.
On a high from the win against Sydney but few Aussie clubs, even clubs across the World have to play Sunday then Tuesday. Seongnam winners on matchday one are the visitors to Melbourne.
A loss for Melbourne and the Victory may see their campaign over, or almost, before it starts.
The AFC and FFA seem to have rocks in their heads as International dates, Finals dates and travel for the best in club football in Asia produce such a schedule for Melbourne.
Adelaide head to Shandong where anything but a defeat will cement the importance of that opening day win. And it will be interesting to see how the New United perform.
A win away and you'd have to think they'll sail through.
With Adelaide looking the goods, and Melbourne still to show in Asia another feast of football lights up the Australian midweek.
And Ross Aloisi doesn't live in Melbourne does he?
Club development has seen a huge boom in the last 2 years with new teams and new sections developing all the time. Competitive football opportunities are now available at 7-a-side and 11-a-side for any player aged 8 yrs and upwards!
Below is a current list of all girl’s football clubs in Birmingham:
There was a time Australia never made it to the World Cup. With Harry Kewell we got to two, it was so very nearly four.
If anyone ever doubted his contribution to Australian football, it's surely time to take a moment.
Often criticised for not playing enough, not doing enough for the Green and Gold, since his return to football from his Liverpool injuries he's hardly missed a game for Australia, across all the Asian nations.
Harry has taken us to two World Cups. But it could have been so much more.
The boy wonder scored in Tehran as a very young man, in front of 110,000 men in 1997 in the first leg of the World Cup Qualifier. He scored again in Melbourne. Two goals from a young man in massive games.
It wasn't enough. It should have been and Australia would have been at the World Cup in France. Pretty close weren't we.
And if we'd have made that one, the experience we would have gained, who would have been surprised if a Harry Kewell inspired Socceroos would have overturned Uruguay in 2001. Not me. We nearly did, the third goal only coming in Montevideo in the closing minutes.
A little more experience, a little more self-belief, self-confidence and we could have made that World Cup as well.
And of course, if Harry Kewell had played against Italy in 2006, ten man Italy, would we have won?
We'll never know.
As the sunsets on Australia's greatest footballers' international career we should enjoy and remember the journey.
South Africa will be Harry's finale? Or will it. Surely if Ryan Giggs can play centre-midfield for Manchester United at 35, Harry could remain in the Socceroos for the 2014 World Cup. Not as a winger but as a midfielder who can control, pass and audaciously split a defence. With younger runners around him, and the dearth of talent coming through Harry's light may shine a while yet.
Either way Harry Kewell has taken us to two World Cups, not without help, but his contribution to Australian football has been immense.
Football, the football I love is about forwards, and skill.
Today Paul Ifill for Wellington Phoenix waltzed past our Aussie great hope Ben Kantarovski Newcastle Jets, not once not twice but maybe ten or more times in the game. Mostly with a drop of the shoulder and an explosion of pace.
In extra-time after much huffing and puffing Ifill scored. Jets go home. Game ended 3-1.
Poor Ben, he's only young and previously I've raved about him but he looked like he'd been supplied with something from the Newcastle rugby league team. How could he defend so badly, so often?
And of course the Phoenix won, in front of 33,000 nutters wearing bras and that was just the men!
Great stuff, great game with Tarek Elrich and Matt Thompson missing sitters for the Jets. This was anyone's game and the Jets were tremendous at times. Mr Abbas from Iraq I like. Pity, today, about Ben
And then to Melbourne or rather Sydney where one wee slip, early on or late on can stuff you. A dodgy free kick with five minutes of extra-time to go. Tired legs tired minds and an ageing Kevin Muscat pounced.
Alert, he played a twenty yard pass, just twenty yards, and Archie Thompson, rested and alert sped in and touch the ball home.
All that training, all those drills, and wise words. Puff, disappeared in that one lapse. How many Sydney players were sleeping? Not one, but the wall, the few covering Archie, almost half the team, maybe more.
Simple game football, so simple, but you must concentrate at all times.
2-2 (agg 4-3) to Melbourne so it's Grand Final in Melbourne, as always!
Can Sydney recover? Will the Nix get the Sydney New Zealanders out to support?
Finals football. Collossal battles!
Asia this week, the rise of Leckie continues, Victory must win at home, then Sydney Wellington. Doesn't stop does it!
Nearpost radio will be talking football Tuesday as ever 6.30pm streamed www.2xxfm.org.au or poddied here later that night.....unless like Sydney we're dozing and we miss our bus.
The DPR Koreans are nobs of the highest order. When the Matildas gained a penalty at the end of the first half, the Koreans walked to the sideline on masse and delayed the game for a further five or more. Each one starting with the Keeper should have been booked. Why weren't they?
Or the penalty be taken without a keeper. AFC should do them, but this was good practice for Australia as we may have to play them in the AFC third place play-off for the World Cup and it will be game on then...and all the Aussie games are live on ABC in May. Bravo!
Terry Henry has been talking New Zealand football up all year and for those who want more go visit the best fan site in the country, make that both countries.
90,000 Mexicans packed into the Rose Bowl, LA, USA to watch New Zealand lose 2-0 to Mexico yesterday.
And after that experience the Wellington Phoenix contingent will come home to a sell-out 34,500 crowd in the Ring of Fire as they take on the Jets for a place in the A-League last three.
They even got a big screen for the those that missed out. What is going on over there!
Here's hoping we get another penalty shoot-out and a classic recall from Piney and Chotey
Football in New Zealand never looked, or sounded so good did it?
Kofi Danning Sydney FC and Young Socceroo started football in Australia in Canberra with Majura FC.
This interview appears as part of a series of podcasts on the Majura FC junior club website, or will do in coming days.
This is Kofi's story......to date!
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I know Germany lost to Argentina but Serbia defeated Algeria away from home...3-0! Scary.
At least we know the Man United's centre-back, Nemanja Vidic, is very vulnerable to being taken on at pace, see how many times he resorts to the last man foul, grab or pull-back and occasionally re:Liverpool, not Villa he gets sent off.
Do we have anyone to expose him?
Toommy Oar, the 5th youngest Aussie to play for the Socceroos, was wonderful against Indonesia last night.
The Aussies did enough to win 1-0 but it could have been more, but of course forwards and finishing is not the Aussie forte at the moment.
Despite Jason Culina's many shots, Josh Kennedy's expected headers it took a defender, Mark Milligan to grab the winner. Though not without a heap of luck from the Indonesian keeper and static defence.
But it was Tommy Oar who dazzled. Early days, but with Oar and the more robust Matthew Leckie bursting through in the Asian Champions League, Nikita Rukavystya starting to spark overseas and Dario Vidosic strutting his stuff in the Bundesliga maybe we won't be doomed in the forward zone post South Africa.
Seeing an Australian player taking defenders on in an International game, aside from Harry and Emerton can't think of many if any who have been able to do it.
Long live Tommy Oar.
Lucy Zelic, Patrick Bordier and myself Eamonn Flanagan talk Socceroos, A-League, Wellington Phoenix, Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory, Asian Champions League, Pohang Steelers, Matildas.
If we lose should Pim go? Patrick says no! Eamonn and Lucy say Yes!
Is Matthew Leckie better than Tommy Oar? Patrick says no!
Who got the most assists, and goals in the A-League this year, Oar or Leckie...yep Patrick says no!
Will the Phoenix win Lucy says Yes!
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Over 25, want to be flown to the World Cup, luxurious accommodation? Then go to Budhouse
I entered because a very nice person asked me to, but really this is your chance to get to South Africa and have the time of your life. Australia needs you!
Now we've become a true football nation it's time we stopped questioning Pim's tactics.
Mr Pim knows in the internet age everyone can read anything from anywhere.
So when Pim says with his Dutch straight face, (I think if you look closely you can see his smirk), that Australia plays 4-3-3 the Omani's and Indonesians set up for such a game.
But of course all we Aussies know we play 4-5-1 (don't get us started on 4-2-3-1) and this continually confuses the opposition.
Long live the bluff...or is that the bullshit!
The A-League boys are in the International spotlight once more as Australia takes on Indonesia on Wednesday in a "must not lose," game in the Asia Cup.
Australia were handed all their Christmas presents at once when they gained entry into Asia in 2006, but we seem to have become so used to football presents, like the modern kid we chuck the least interesting one away. And games for our local Socceroos seemed to be devalued....by the Coach!
