Matthew Hall
What The Hell Just Happened?
As the clock ticks down on a bizarre 2007 for Australian football, here's a completely biased and personal review of the past 12 months.
January
Los Angeles Galaxy, an American "soccer" team, announces that it has signed David Beckham from Real Madrid. The world is incredulous until we learn Becksmania will be paid $25 million over the next five years. They weird year is only beginning.
I visit Los Angeles and discover Galaxy and Beckham plan to visit Australia. Galaxy's then-coach Frank Yallop suggests Mark Viduka could do well in Major League Soccer. No one blinks.
Sydney lose to New Zealand Knights... and Adelaide... but a draw against Queensland to scape Terry Butcher's team into the play-offs. Meanwhile, Melbourne Victory wins the regular season by 12 points.
February
Australia is smacked 3-1 by Denmark in a London February. Eight players originally called up don't make the game but there are some warning signs in the performance... no one blinks.
Melbourne Victory wins the A-League final against Adelaide United... 36-0, or something. Archie Thompson probably scores 27 goals. Adelaide captain Ross Aloisi is sent off. South Australia leaves the Commonwealth. Or maybe it was pushed.
March
Australia beat China 2-0 in a friendly. The Socceroos are good for 45 minutes. Shane Steffanuto plays in defence, suggesting coach Graham Arnold is desperately seeking defenders.
Terry Butcher is fired by Sydney but says the wine in Australia is nice.
Branko Culina leads Sydney to an historic 2-1 Asian Champions League win over Shanghai Shenhua in China and then draws with Japanese giants Urawa Reds 2-2. It's agreed Culina is a genius and could succeed Jose Mourinho at Chelsea. Possibly.
Terry Butcher doesn't go quietly. Les Murray tells us what he thinks.
April
Sydney lose 2-1 to Persik Kediri, a team no one has ever heard of ever, let alone pronounce, even though they come from Indonesia, Australia's nearest neighbour. It's thought Culina may be a dud.
May
Sydney blow easy chances to beat Urawa Reds in Japan and are eliminated from the Asian Champions League. Urawa later go on to win it.
No one knows what they think of Branko Culina, who was a David Zdrilic header away from being Australia's greatest ever club coach. Ever.
June
Australia loses 2-1 to Uruguay in what is intended as a warm-up for the Asian Cup. Unfortunately, few of Australia's first choice players turn up. Stand-in goalkeeper Brad Jones has a shocker, dropping the ball for Uruguay's winner. Mark Schwarzer, on holiday, applies sun tan lotion.
Australia play Singapore (!!!) in a first and final Asian Cup warm up (and considering the heat, literally). Players will later say they needed better preparation.
July
The Asian Cup!
Graham Arnold suggests Dick Advocaat is lined up to replace him as Socceroo coach then claims the quote was lost in translation by a Korean journalist - who was actually English.
Tim Cahill scores in the last minute to snatch a 1-1 draw with... Oman. Australia lose 3-1 to... Iraq. Graham Arnold says that some players don't want to be there. Australia beat Thailand... 4-1 but wait until the 83rd minute to score their second goal.
Australia play well against Japan even with Vince Grella harshly sent off, draw 1-1, and lose the penalty shoot-out. Penalty takers: Kewell (saved), Neill (saved), Cahill, Carle, Carney.
Fabio Capello first expresses interest in the Socceroo job. No one responds to his enquiry.
Nick Carle leaves Newcastle for Genclerbirligi in Turkey. David Carney quits Sydney for Sheffield United in England. Mark Milligan goes on trial in Europe and forgets to tell Sydney.
August
Dick Advocaat signs a contract to be Australia's new coach and will take up the position in November, after the end of the Russian season (oh-oh!) where he is coach of Zenit-St Petersburg.
Harry Kewell breaks down in pre-season training... ... So does Tim Cahill.
September
Australia play Argentina in Melbourne. Josip Skoko retires. Leo Messi is brilliant.
Officials from Zenit-St Petersburg say coach Dick Advocaat will stay in Russia.
The Matildas, at the Women's World Cup in China restore Australian pride. Lisa De Vanna is Australia's new pin-up girl. Sort of.
October
Frank Lowy and chairman Andrew Kemeny, without consulting the Sydney board, decide Branko Culina is a dud and fire him.
John Kosmina, who played for Lowy and Kemeny, at Sydney City in the old National Soccer League, is hired as Sydney's new coach. A jigsaw is complete.
November
Zenit-St Petersburg win the Russian title. Advocaat turns his phone off.
Australia are, perhaps surprisingly, slick against Nigeria in a London friendly under Rob Baan. The problem is that supposed new coach Dick Advocaat is not in attendance. In fact, he's nowhere to be found, That's because he's snubbed the Socceroos!
FFA freak out. CEO Ben Buckley's honeymoon is interrupted by a desperate search for a new coach.
Fabio Capello finally talks with FFA. Unfortunately, England and their millions got in first.
Harry Kewell finally starts for Liverpool - and plays well.
David Beckham plays in Sydney for some visiting park team from California. A lot of people pay good money to watch (and, occasionally, squeal).
Mark Rudan quits Sydney for the Japanese second division.
English fourth division side Brentford fires Terry Butcher. (Not sure what he thinks about English wine).
The greatest game of football ever played, ever, takes place in Gosford. With four players left on the pitch, Sydney win 37-36, or something.
It is widely agreed that John Kosmina is the greatest living Australian to coach Sydney, ever.
- by Matthew Hall at 05:01 AM
- Comments (9)
The Greatest (Football) Hits of 2007
It's the time of year when, ho ho ho, everyone makes up "highlight" lists from the past 12 months.
So, if there's a bandwagon, I'm on it.
As an ever fluid global drama, football had its own peculiarities in 2007, both at home and away.
Here, in no particular order and with no particular criteria, are my own greatest hits from 2007. Some of them, literally.
Feel free to add your own.
1. Watch Dyego Coelho takes out Kerlon.
This may be the greatest hit of 2007. Coelho demonstrares that Brazilians really don't care for the beautiful game anymore. Up-and-coming star Kerlon pulls some fancy pants flicks and headers but, hey, let's bring him down to Earth. South Sydney might consider a bid for the defender but, in truth, Coelho will probably sign for Celtic in January. Watch from the one minute mark for the best view of the biff.
2. Dida's dramatic dive.
Actual proof that that tom foolery is not restricted to outfield players. Brilliant in its stupidity. Lost in the mix - it was Australian Scott McDonald's match-winning goal that sparked the incident.
3. Australia gets tonked at the Asian Cup by Iraq.
Boy, did we suck. Watch the Australian defending on all three Iraq goals. You'll have to look hard. There isn't any!
4. Iraq win the Asian Cup.
At least the victory brought happiness to a broken country for a while. That was, until car bombers targeted celebrations.
5. England get tonked by Croatia.
Really, England were awful throughout their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. The reign of Fab "Could have been ours" Capello will be very interesting.
6. Some people thought hiring Pim Verbeek was a bad idea.
Robbie Slater certainly wasn't impressed.
7. In truth, here's a possible glimpse of the future under Verbeek.
He's certainly got some passion. Leading South Korea against Japan in the Asian Cup play-off for third place, Verbeek AND two of his assistants, as well as defender Kang Ming-soo, were sent off.
8. Terry Butcher got the chop from Sydney FC.
It couldn't come soon enough for some people (PS It's not really Craig Foster's son).
9. David Beckham came to play in Sydney
Apparently, he is a footballer not just a circus act.
10. Archie Thompson scored 768 goals in the Grand Final earlier this year.
(OK, it was five). But his performance on Sale of the Century was better.
And who knew he gets mistaken for Anthony Mundine?
- by Matthew Hall at 08:31 AM
- Comments (12)
Human Traffic: The Sad-Happy-Sad Tale of Al Bangura
This weekend, players from English Championship team Watford will wear t-shirts supporting the cause of Alhassan Bangura.
Bangura, just 19 years old, is a talented footballer who plays for Watford.
He's also, according to the British government, an illegal immigrant who last week learned he faces deportation to Sierra Leone, the nominal homeland he fled four years ago.
Bangura's story is not uncommon for many of the world's refugees but his story definitely offers an alternative career path to many budding footballers with their own hopes and dreams.
In 2003, fearing for his life, Bangura fled war-torn Sierra Leone when he was asked to join a local secret sect which believed in rituals that included self-mutilation.
Bangura's father - who was murdered when Al was four - had been a member of the sect. Tradition followed that son, like father, must sign up as well when he reached adolescence.
Bangura, fearing for his life, not unreasonably had other ideas and fled for neighbouring Guinea. There, he says, he made friends with a man who promised safety and took him to France and then, on the Eurostar train, to Britain.
There was a catch, of course. The trade off was that Bangura was now caught in a web of human trafficking. His new "friend" planned to sell the African as a male prostitute.
Again, not unreasonably, Bangura had other ideas and, when two other men came to inspect the goods, he ran away. Literally. He was found running down a London street in his underpants crying for help.
Bangura was sent to an immigration holding centre, similar in concept to Australia's detention centres, and was able to claim asylum as an unaccompanied minor.
Here's the happy part. Bangura joined a local football team and was spotted playing in a park by Watford scouts, a club which includes Australians Richard Johnson and Paul Okon among its roll call of former players and Sir Elton John as a former chairman.
Bangura made his first-team debut in 2005, two years after leaving Sierra Leone, and was voted Young Player of the Year becoming popular with the fans and teammates.
He captained the side that currently leads the English Championship and will likely return to the Premier League next season,
Bangura pays taxes, is acknowledged by the club and local politicians as an ideal role model and citizen.
Just two weeks ago his British girlfriend gave birth to a baby son, Samal.
(However, he has no passport and no drivers' licence so needs to get lifts from teammates to get to and from training and games).
The next sad part: the British government says Bangura has no place in the UK.
He has once chance to appeal the decision to deport him before he is forcibly removed, as soon as Christmas.
Of course, Bangura's case receives public attention because a professional footballer has some kind of platform.
(It shows, though, the bind that football has with the wider community.)
His case is no different from maybe thousands of similar complicated stories in the UK, as well as Australia.
Importantly, there are potential similarities with the three Iraqi players, and their assistant coach, who stayed in Australia after the recent Olympic Games qualifier in Gosford.
Remember those guys?
In case you have forgotten, look here.
The Iraqi Football Association last week banned for life Ali Mansur, Ali Khadher, and Ali Abbas from representing their country.
The Iraqis are also hoping to have them banned from playing for any "foreign" clubs.
Considering that Iraq is pretty much a no-go zone for footballers and, now especially these guys, such a ban would kill the careers of some talented athletes.
It will be interesting to see how the Australian football community reacts to the plight of these Iraqis.
Back in the UK, Al Bangura is finding that even if his adopted country's government doesn't want him, new friends, teammates, and the general public does.
You can sign a petition in support of Bangura here.
And if the Brits do send him back in handcuffs to Sierra Leone, maybe we can ask for the plane to be redirected to Sydney.
The A-League - even new Socceroo coach Pim Verbeek - could do a lot worse.
- by Matthew Hall at 04:12 AM
- Comments (6)
Postcard from Italy: God, Sex, and Death
"We will win it for Gabriele," claimed Lorenzo Di Silvestre.
The Lazio defender was making more than cliched comments ahead of his team's game against Parma.
This match was the first home game for Lazio since the death of Gabriele Sandri, a 28-year-old Lazio fan who had been a DJ at Di Silvestre's birthday party not so long ago.
Sandri, on his way to a Lazio game two weeks earlier, had been shot and killed by police as he sat in a car.
You can read some background here.
The details remain for an official enquiry but what is agreed is that a highway cop at a roadside rest stop shot Sandri after some sort of encounter between Lazio and Juventus supporters.
Police claim the shot that killed Sandri - which came from across the other side of the highway - was not intentional but the death sparked violence in Rome and Milan.
The incident - and the fallout - united rivals against the police who - despite their smart uniforms - are poorly paid in Italy. Some would argue that at least the cops have a job.
The latest incident was the last thing Italian football needed, still suffering since it won the 2006 World Cup.
Betting scandals, corruption, fan violence, and the murder last season of a policeman during the Catania-Palermo Sicilian derby are far from the ideal picture of a football-loving country that has made significant contributions to society across the world (and I'm not just talking about pizza).
So, where else to be but Rome on the weekend that Lazio would play their first home game since Sandri's death and funeral?
Arriving on a Friday, the talk around town before the Sunday game was not so much about Lazio's poor form.
Local TV is always a revealing window into a culture.
Roman channels broadcast endless chat shows, live church services, infomercials spruiking bizarre weight loss machines, and gave significant airtime to scantily clad teenagers and women wielding dangerous cleavage.
I took this snap of the TV: "Lazio will play Parma... giggle... giggle..."
"And Roma will play... giggle... giggle..." Seriously, that's all she does.
Italy, like the world, it is complex, contradictory, and not always easy to understand nor explain.
In between TV news bulletins on upcoming cardinal elections at the Vatican, there was footage of a police clampdown on potentially violent tifosi - Italian hooligans.
One report revealed serious-looking policemen holding up a range of weapons - knives and batons - and t-shirts baring a confused combination of logos that included the St George cross and World War Two German army helmets.
But the news item that followed gave another insight into the reality of life in 21st century Italy.
A reporter had travelled to the outskirts of Rome to uncover a spectacular local equivalent to Rio's favellas - a ghetto of temporary housing or, as the report described, "a fantasy street for those without a home."
This was a long way from the designer labels of Via Condotti, the riches of the Vatican, or the tourist hordes surrounding the Coliseum.
This was a sign that in Italy, like many countries across modern Europe, all is not a picture postcard.
On Sunday, it rained. This was probably fitting for the events that would play out over the following few hours.
Joining us on the #2 tram from Piazzale Flaminio up to Piazza Mancini, there were just three Lazio fans, all teenage guys, looking to meet up with their friends before the game.
Walking across the Tiber towards the Stadio Olimpico, lapping the stadium, and searching for the booth to collect tickets, there was one dominant question.
Where was everybody?
Maybe at the local Autogrill, having lunch. Maybe at home, watching on TV. But certainly not here.
There was an absence of not only fans but police, scarf sellers, program hawkers, anyone.
For all it appeared, the game may well have not been on.
But if the crowd was sparse outside the Stadio Olimpico, inside was a ghost ship.
The Stadio Olimpico holds 83,000 when full. This match kicked off in front of maybe 12,000 people. Not a bad crowd for the A-League but not so great for a cavernous bowl in one of the world's football cradles.
(Here's the snapshot evidence... an empty Curva Nord.)
The stadium was silent. Eerily silent. So silent you could hear the players call for the ball, coaches bawl out bad passes, and referees bark down protests.
If they held a game and no one came, would it still exist? Today, as far as the Lazio hardcore was concerned, that was the point.
The empty stands, especially the usually bouncing Curva Nord - home to Lazio's Ultras - were a silent tribute to Sandri. They were also a protest against what fans see as police brutality and proposed measures to clamp down on violence (ID cards, among other ideas, have been mooted).
This protest was also a show of strength. Silence is golden - without us, you are nothing.
The Curva Nord - renamed the Gabriele Sandri Curva Nord for the day - was draped in banners.
GABRIELE: YOU ARE ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS.
GABRIELE WOULD HAVE WANTED THIS.
A giant mural, taken from a photograph of Sandri, hung from the fence that separates the crowd from the pitch.
Suddenly, after 20 long minutes had counted out on the match clock, thousands of people poured out from within the stadium's inner stairwells and cascaded like a wave down the once-empty stands towards the pitch.
The Curva Nord filled like a flood.
"GABRIELE!!!" they chanted.
Just the one word.
The one name.
"GABRIELE!!!"
For the next 10 minutes, the tifosi unveiled a series of choreographed movements and displays across the Curva Nord in tribute to their dead friend.
Hang on, here they are - another snapshot around 25 minutes into the game.
Then, on exactly 30 minutes, the fans were sucked back up into the stadium and were gone.
Meanwhile, there was a game occurring on the pitch but Lazio were poor.
They did have record holder Marco Ballotta in goal but his claim to fame is that at almost 44, he is the oldest ever player to appear in Serie A and the UEFA Champions League.
The game seemed certain to end in a 0-0 draw and Di Silvestre's earlier promise to win for Sandri would go unfulfilled.
Then Lazio reminded us why, especially in Italy, it's best to stay in your seat until at least the 91st minute.
As the referee checked his watch, and just as Parma were feeling confident they would leave Rome with at least a point, Fabio Firmani's scuffed shot ricocheted off Damiano Zenoni and pinged into the net.
Firmani, the other native Roman in the Lazio team, didn't care how the ball ended up in the net.
He ran, faster than he had all match, toward the giant mural of Sandri hung on the Curva Nord fence.
He pulled off his Lazio strip to reveal a white t-shirt dedicated to the dead fan, kissed Sandri's portrait, exchanged high-fives with tifosi and, in tears, trotted back to the pitch to receive a yellow card.
Even if Firmani is to score a last-minute winner for Italy in the 2010 World Cup Final, it would be difficult to imagine a greater emotional outpour.
"The goal was worth a career," Firmani said after the game. "It's as if I could give Gabriele that goal."
As John MacDonald, an Australian studying at a seminary in Rome, explained a few days later over a cappuccino, where there is good there is evil, always trying to make a mark.
But, equally, where there is evil there is also good, or at least the potential for it.
At the final whistle, Firmani ran back to the tifosi at the end of the game and threw his t-shirt to the crowd.
In Rome, a city of statues, churches, and general ancientness, symbolism counts for a lot.
In Italy, despite its problems, there is wide agreement on one thing. Football is life and life is football.
Firmani's goal had made it clear that one man's mistake - that of a policeman or a footballer - is another man's destiny.
Ultras are everywhere - even on my street.
- by Matthew Hall at 07:47 AM
- Comments (14)
Australia: Say Hello To Your New Little Friend
Last week's Sydney overdose of Becksmania brought us the future of football as we will soon know it.
No, David Beckham is not set to be unveiled as the poster boy of the A-League.
Nor will friendly matches against Harlem Globetrotter-like football teams become regular fixtures nor will Homebush again host a full house for a Sydney FC game in the near future.
Ladies and gentlemen, the future of Australian football is the United States of America - like it or not.
Earlier this year, it was announced Australia was to play two games in the US, scheduled for this past September. One game was to be against the US national team and the other Mexico, who regularly play north of the border to tap into their massive expatriate fan base.
The rescheduled match against Argentina saw those games canned but the intent from Football Federation Australia was clear. While our new membership of the Asian Football Confederation is a great thing, there's gold on the other side of the Pacific.
Sydney's match against Los Angeles Galaxy, brokered - crucially - by FFA, is the first kiss of what will be a long and important relationship with American soccer.
Both countries football experiences share common themes, as well as many differences.
Football in both Australia and the US is a sport transitioning from that played mostly by migrants into the game of choice of new generations.
Both have growing national leagues and national teams that regularly punch above their weight.
Both countries are exporters of talent to Europe's top leagues.
The US and Australia also share enemies from within. They have to compete not just with internal prejudices about European football's domination but also long-established heavyweight local sports (that few outside their borders give one, let alone two, hoots about).
Organically, Australian talent is probably ahead of the United States but the American development system is well-structured with excellent facilities. The college system is an efficient talent pool for Major League Soccer recruitment.
Australia's marketing of football and its media is focused and coherent compared with its American cousin, still struggling to come to terms with its massive market.
The United States has a huge population. Australia doesn't. That's a key point.
But football in the US and Australia are like two flirting teenagers set for a perfect match. There's too much in common for a long-ignored relationship not to finally blossom.
Further proof is the establishment of the Pan Pacific Championship.
It's early days but if the Australian, Japanese, and US leagues and public get behind it this has the potential to be a huge success, unlike any opportunity previously seen in Australian sport.
It's no accident that Los Angeles Galaxy, a wanna-be global super team, is guaranteed entry each year no matter how poor the team plays in its domestic competition (and believe me, they have been poor recently).
But that's a sign that Galaxy, progressive in its worldview, sees the region as a long-term food basket to accompany its other growing markets.
As well as US and CONCACAF competition, MLS teams already play Mexican sides, an even bigger football market, in the newly created Superliga.
Thankfully, FFA's own progressive thinking has come to the point where it recognises Australia is not Europe.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter once said that Asia is the future. He was right.
But equally, and especially for Australia, so too is the Pacific: the USA, Japan, and eventually Mexico.
So, say hello to your new little friend.
- by Matthew Hall at 07:29 AM
- Comments (34)
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