The Sun-Herald

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Girls Gone Wild

On Thursday, I entered an alternate universe.

"DO NOT BEHAVE IN AN IMPROPER MANNER!" boomed the (female) ground announcer.

"IF YOU WANT TO DANCE - GO TO A DISCO!"

"MORAL GUARDIANS - REPORT ANY UNDUE BEHAVIOUR!"

I was watching a match played by the Iranian national women's team.

Except, because I'm male, I was unable to be in the Tehran stadium hosting the game and instead had to watch the somewhat historic occasion unfold on a cinema screen.

The game in question took place two years ago on April, 28, 2006.

At the time, the football world's attention was on the upcoming men's World Cup but, away from the headlines, something of a quiet revolution was taking place in a small stadium in Tehran in front of less than 1000 spectators.

The game, between Iran and an amateur women's team from Berlin, Germany, was a year in the making.

Marlene Assmann, a defender with the German team, had learned from a friend that the Iranian women's national team rarely played matches, could only train behind closed doors, and that under local Islamic law, women were not even allowed into stadiums to watch men's matches.

Inspired by a sense of adventure and solidarity, she helped organise for her own team to eventually travel to Tehran and play Iran.

It was no easy task.

The game became a journey deep into a world of impossibility (and that was just early attempts to get world governing body FIFA and potential oil-rich sponsors to support such a game).

Football, though, can often be bigger than politics and the match eventually did take place.

This victory over politics and bureaucracy (if not fundamentalism) was documented in a film, Football Under Cover, made by Assmann, her brother David, and Iranian director Ayat Najafi.

As Iranian player Narmilla Fathi explains: "In Iran, everything and nothing is impossible at the same time," she says.

The film premiered at the International Film Festival in Berlin in February and will be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this month.

An Australian release is unconfirmed but you can watch a trailer here.

Good films - and good stories - should take us to places that we can't ordinarily go and so the cameras of Football Under Cover take us into the lives of the Iranian players.

The opening scene is of a player performing training drills on her own, juggling, and practicing trapping, in a dusty Tehran park, her headscarf pulled tight over her head.

Later, we meet Niloofar Basir, who has to zip a tracksuit up to her neck and pull a baseball cap tight over her head to disguise herself as male - so that, just once, she can train without a hijab.

But underneath the covers, it turns out the Iranian girls are pretty much like people we already know.

Basir wears a number '10' necklace and idolises David Beckham. He visits her in dreams where he speaks to her in Persian.

Narmilla Fathi practices with her mother, herself a former player, in the dusty streets behind their apartment block.

She has real skill, if not the pristine suburban facilities of her counterparts in Australia, the US, and Europe.

The national team's training sessions take place behind curtains in an indoor hall.

Cameras are not allowed. Neither are men.

"Watch your headscarves," a coach warns her players as they leave a training session. "They are filming."

It's a long way from the experiences of the Australian and American women's teams who play two friendlies over the next week in the US.

Even after the relative success of the Australian team at the Women's World Cup last year, the game in Australia still faces a lot of challenges.

But there's nothing - nothing - like the obstacles the Iranian girls have to overcome to simply play, let alone be recognised, within their own country.

"There are so many girls that want to be footballers in Iran that the government was forced to give them a stadium where they could play," says director Ayat Najafi. "But obviously no one was allowed to see them or hear from them."

It's not difficult to imagine what Iran's ultra-conservative religious leaders might think of the nude calendar that the Australian women's team posed for to promote their team back in 1999.

But, when getting a piece of grass to train on is considered something of a moral victory, it would be intriguing to discover the views of the Iranian players on the Matildas' exploits.

Women's football does has its supporters in Iran, one prominent fan being local superstar Ali Daei, a World Cup nemesis for Australia back in 1997.

Daei believes "the most beautiful women play soccer" and helped provide suitable (ie, cover all) team strips for the game.

The game between Iran and the Germans eventually took place with FIFA's approval and accompanying pomp and ceremony.

There were female match officials, female ground announcers and dignitaries, and an all-female crowd.

It was Girls Gone Wild turned upside down.

The fan's unbridled enthusiasm irritated authorities, who announced that low morals (ie, making noise) was ill advised.

But like any crowd anywhere, the fans ignored orders and continued to shout for their home team to "kick the Germans back home".

Women are barred from watching men's matches in Iran because, apparently, the stadiums are deemed too dangerous.

Men were barred from watching this game played by women.

Danger was not the reason unless joy and happiness is a high-risk activity.

Football Under Cover, though shows that the sport, stripped bare, is pretty much the same everywhere.

My team rules. Your team sucks.

But we all just want to play.

www.football-under-cover.com

• by Matthew Hall at 08:10 AM
• Comments (3)

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Australian Football and The Thorny Devil Lizard

To survive, you have to make the most of every opportunity.

Somewhere in the dry dust of the Central Australian desert, way out past Alice Springs where some people think nothing ever happens, there's a thorny devil lizard enjoying a drink.

Such opportunity is rare under a big red sun where, at lizard level, there's nothing but rock and red dirt for as far as your beady eye can see.

Australians, we know, have had to master the art of adaptation to survive and the thorny devils are as Australian as you can possibly get.

Scientists have discovered that, rather than suck up water through its mouth, the thorny devil uses its legs as straws.

No drop is wasted. It takes a shower, moisturises its skin, and gets a drink all with one leg wiggle.

When the thorny devil gets a chance, he (or she) takes it and doesn't waste it.

Which is a roundabout way to bring us to one of the stories of the week.

The headline on British website SkySports.com was quite assured.

"Derby Sign Australian Ace", it roared.

WTF?

Had Derby, possibly the worst ever team in the history of the Premier League, pulled off a late season-saving transfer coup?

Was the mystery arrival Harry Kewell? Mark Viduka? Mark Bresciano? Even Archie Thompson?

Er, no.

Stand up, Ruben Zadkovich, the former Sydney utility known more as a jack of many trades than an ace.

To be fair, neither Zadkovich, Derby County, nor the journalist who tapped out the story, was responsible for the headline.

Instead, a pumped-up sub-editor didn't miss a chance to employ some easy alliteration, even if the real story is slightly more mundane than a spun press release.

Or is it?

As Sydney fans might recall, Zadkovich was off-loaded by John Kosmina at the end of last season, making around only 38 appearances since originally impressing then-coach Pierre Littbarski way back in 2005.

Few Sydney fans thought Kosmina made the wrong call and while Newcastle Jets were offered Zadkovich a deal that would have kept him in Australia, he tried his hand (and feet) elsewhere.

Zad (we can call him that, can't we?) made an impression at Crystal Palace, currently sixth in the Championship and a good bet for the Premier League play-offs but a two-day trial at Derby County, (heading in the opposite direction), ended with a contract offer.

Derby manager Paul Jewell, not an idiot, said: ""Ruben impressed us enormously in training. A number of clubs have been interested in him, and we wanted to make sure we didn't miss out on a fantastic talent."

Read that again.

Key words: Zadkovich "impressed us enormously"; he is a "fantastic talent".

Jewell's job is to talk up new signings, especially when his team is in the doldrums, but let's be clear, this is Ruben Zadkovich we're talking about not Ronaldinho.

So a player deemed not good enough for Sydney is championed as a fantastic talent by Derby.

That's not to say John Kosmina got it wrong.

Football is often subjective and one man's grimy grit is another's pearl, especially when your name is Paul Jewell.

Last week, I was at a boxing gym (I get around) where a former world champion told me: "You can have all the ability in the world but that counts for nothing if you don't have the will. But if you have the will, you can make up for less ability."

Zadkovich certainly has the will.

"There are points to prove, especially to some people, but I love a challenge and I'm ready for that," he said after being unveiled by Derby.

It should be noted that he has yet to do anything at Derby other than sign on the dotted line, but the opportunity is obviously there. Like the thorny back lizard, it's now up to him to make the most of it.

Here's the interesting twist. The way in which Zadkovich has been championed by Derby is good news for the A-League.

A stated aim of the competition is to keep young talent at home but Zadkovich's move enhances the reputation of the developing league.

So, too, have moves by Michael Beauchamp to Nuremburg, David Carney to Sheffield United, and Nick Carle to Bristol City.

Australian football is still searching for the ever-elusive next Harry Kewell or Mark Viduka to bust a top European league wide open.

Zadkovich, Beauchamp, and Carney are not them but the A-League is taking baby steps in establishing itself as a credible competition.

A big European club is yet to sign Australian talent directly from the A-League but second-tier clubs know there's water in the Australian desert.

It makes you wonder what the genuine local young guns - Nathan Burns, Bruce Djite, Mark Bridge - can achieve if they make the most of their own opportunities.

Maybe, just maybe, the A-League is better than what some of us give it credit for.

• by Matthew Hall at 12:23 AM
• Comments (16)

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Power Of Four

Champions League success is all about an exclusive English club.

This is a very simple equation.

How did three Premier League teams qualify for the UEFA Champions League semi-finals?

It's all about strength in numbers and, as it turns out, the way things have panned out should have been easier to predict at the start of the season.

Let's look at the three English teams that qualified for the semi-finals next month: Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool.

Let's also make note of Arsenal who were a silly shirt tug away from qualifying at Liverpool's expense.

Then let's look at which four English teams were in last year's competition. What's that? Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal? (The competition was eventually won by Milan who beat Liverpool in the final).

And in 2005-2006? Manchester, United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal (Eventually won by Barcelona against Arsenal).

And in 2004-2005? This is getting a bit tedious but Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal (Eventually won by, yes, Liverpool, in that final).

In 2003-2004? Oh, look, a break in the formula!

Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal all made the group stage but Liverpool didn't qualify for the competition.

Interestingly, Newcastle United qualified that season but were knocked out by Partizan Belgrade of Serbia in the preliminary rounds. This was the season Jose Mourinho steered Portuguese side Porto to the title.

(Newcastle's failure that year had as much to do with their own lack of experience as it did the team's ability. A visit to Belgrade, and playing an unfamiliar Serbian team, is a very different away day than a trip to Bolton.)

So, what we've actually seen in recent years is the Big Four English clubs continually gain more experience every season and flip that into success.

Add the massive financial rewards that come from playing in the Champions League, both from UEFA and TV deals, which in turn allows clubs to buy better players and the pattern continues.

Success breeds success breeds success.

Meanwhile, this exclusive club becomes more difficult to break into for other English clubs.

Sure, a team like Newcastle United might break into the Top Four briefly but you could safely bet your house, children, and pet dog on the top three teams each season being either Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal, or Liverpool.

(Although they've been very successful in Europe, Liverpool actually winning the Premier League is another bet - and story - altogether.)

In contrast, over the same period of time, eight different clubs have represented Spain; seven different teams have come from Italy and France; Germany has served up six different entrants.

England, it appears, is a closed shop. That's great for Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool but for the rest of the league?

The unimpressive performance of Premier League teams in the second-tier UEFA Cup suggests that between the rest of the league and the now vastly experienced Top Four, there's daylight.

England's Top Four are, without doubt, among the strongest clubs in Europe but the argument that this makes the Premier League "the best" still needs to be made.

And while Barcelona remains in the competition, there's still plenty of opportunity for English heartbreak.

• by Matthew Hall at 01:49 AM
• Comments (16)

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Kewell, Schwarzer, Bresciano: All Change

April has just begun but silly season has already started.

Fortunately, global warming has nothing to do with this type of climate change.

As the European football seasons draw to a close and August predictions are confirmed or embarrassingly never spoken of again (someone really thought Liverpool were going to win the Premier League?), we get to occupy our time with ill-informed, wildly inaccurate, based-on-a-whisper, gossip.

Yes, off-season transfer speculation can be a lot of fun.

This year, as Australia continues its qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup, there will be an interesting sub-plot brewing behind the scenes.

While Pim Verbeek selects squads to deal with Iraq, Qatar, and China (as well as a friendly against Ghana), three of our most senior Socceroos will be starting new jobs and moving home, probably to a new country.

Last week, I wrote in the Sun Herald (and The Age) that Harry Kewell has some surprising options beyond Liverpool.

Clubs interested in Kewell include Juventus in Italy, a twist that caused some scoffing, some people preferring to be influenced by prejudice and lack of knowledge of how football business works rather than a story based on actual fact.

But what do you know?

Another newspaper followed up my story with comments from Socceroo Vince Grella, who plays for Torino, and was coached last year by Juventus boss Claudio Ranieri.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Kewell to Juventus actually has something in it.

Mark Schwarzer is another who will be on the move in July.

The Socceroo goalkeeper has been at Middlesbrough for over a decade and his current contract expires at the end of the season.

He could agree a new deal to tie him to Middlesbrough for the rest of his career but why would he?

A free agent goalkeeper with World Cup experience is a good catch for another club, especially one with better prospects than Middlesbrough.

Fiorentina is a possible destination that could set up an interesting situation for statisticians if Zeljko Kalac is Milan's number one choice next season.

Two Australian goalkeepers playing against each other in Serie A?

Who would have thought it?

Mark Bresciano is one Australian who seems certain to be leaving Italy but, as the Socceroo midfielder has learned from several years in Serie A, nothing is ever what it seems.

Bresciano thought he'd secured a move from Palermo to Manchester City at the beginning of this season - the deal was so advanced that he was looking for somewhere to live and his wife was packing up their Palermo apartment.

I visited Bresciano just over a year ago and discovered Sicily to be - how can this be explained discretely? - one part beauty, one part intrigue, one part complicated, one part completely nuts.

One night in Palermo began with a high-speed ride through the city's back alleys in a car driven by a soldier on leave from the army who insisted he was my "bodyguard".

Later, I ended up on a theatre stage giving a speech in Italian thanking Fabio Grosso, a former Palermo player, for his performance against Australia at the World Cup.

Usually, my Italian language skills extend as far as ordering pasta, wine, and a cappuccino, while saying "Bresciano" and "Grella" a lot.

Still, my speech got a few laughs, even in the right places.

I told Bresciano about the adventure the next day at lunch.

"Eh," he shrugged. "That's Sicily."

But his move to Man City last year fell through for reasons few have been able to work out except the club's volatile president Maurizio Zamparini.

Zamparini has sacked two coaches this season and last month he re-hired the guy he originally fired in November.

Make sense?

That's Sicily.

Another Australian possibly on the move? Jason Culina from PSV Eindhoven.

Wildcards? Mile Sterjovski, who has been impressive at woeful Derby County, may choose to stay with the English club even though they've been relegated.

Few people can ever predict what is going on with Mark Viduka so we won't even go there but don't be surprised if there are a few changes at Lucas Neill's West Ham.

Anyone need a defender with captaincy credentials?

• by Matthew Hall at 01:03 AM
• Comments (32)