tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall/5 2008-07-04T23:30:30Z Matthew Hall has reported from three World Cups and watched Australians play football in Zagreb, Madrid, Milan, Montevideo, and Wigan. He once drove around Bondi in a Hyundai Excel with Harry Kewell. Movable Type 3.36 tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.606 2008-07-04T23:19:07Z 2008-07-04T23:30:30Z

Australian football wasn't looking for a theme song but it just got one....

Matthew Hall Australian football wasn't looking for a theme song but it just got one. Don't Believe The Hype. Bruce and Nathan can argue among themselves who will play Chuck D or Flava Flav, Public Enemy's focal points. You can decide yourself by clicking here. Interestingly, Don't Believe The Hype came from an album called It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. Oh, the irony. For Burns and Djite, that nation appears to be China. But we digress. The hype we are now being told not to believe is that Burns and Djite were the apparent future of Australian football. Ladies and gentlemen, we were sold a sucker. Burns was touted as a likely successor to Harry Kewell while Djite has, until last week, been likened as a man-most-likely to eventually step into Mark Viduka's big boots. Graham Arnold, coach of the team that will represent Australia in the Beijing Olympic's football tournament, radically thinks differently. Arnold said that Burns and Djite were omitted because they were too young and could not handle the heat. "If there's one thing I've learned from playing in Asia it's that if players can't play in the heat, they can't play in the heat, no matter who they are," Arnold, who led Australia to a disappointing 2007 Asian Cup campaign in Thailand and Vietnam, said after his squad was announced. "Unfortunately, Burns and Djite are only 20 and were pretty much between Olympic age groups and that made it pretty difficult for them," Arnold added. "I was looking for maturity, quality, athleticism, speed and tactical nous." (Which suggests that both players are also stupid and/or immature, which they are definitely not). Whether Arnold is right in omitting the two players will be revealed in China but, regardless, his judgment is a slap in the face for the A-League, a slap in the face for youth, a slap in the face for talented players hoping to play for national teams. Arnold's way of thinking has either been miscommunicated (possible) or he has effectively put the skids on the international careers of Burns and Djite forever. I hate to get dramatic here but think about it. Effectively, two of the A-League's best players, two guys that have recently scored decent contracts to clubs in Greece and Turkey, apparently do not have the engines to perform in Shanghai (where Australia will play its group games) in August. With Australia's international future cemented in Asia, the same logic suggests that Burns and Djite will only be selected for comfortable home games in an Australian winter. Another thing. Due to the vagaries of international sporting politics (basically, FIFA thinks the Olympics suck) the Olympic football tournament is restricted to under-23 players. A concession is made to name three overage players if a coach so wants but FIFA doesn't want anything to overshadow its own World Cup showpiece nor interfere with the European big leagues that kick off in August. But this is what makes the Olympic football tournament attractive: up-and-coming young players going hammer and tongs. Recall, if you can, the epic 2000 gold medal game at Homebush where Cameroon outslugged Spain (Euro 2008 winners eight years later). Young players. This is why we will marvel at the talent of young Lionel Messi, aged just 21, in action for Argentina when they play Australia on August 10. But not Bruce Djite, aged 21, nor Nathan Burns, aged 20. Alternatively, we can look at it this way: Graham Arnold has just demonstrated coaching genius and made two very tough calls. He has selected names that will fit his idea of a squad rather than base selection on individual reputation. He has steadied himself for criticism and, rather than believing the hype, has decided that - you know what? - Burns and Djite just don't cut it. In Dubai several weeks ago, Football Federation Australia boss Ben Buckley addressed a lunch that included Pim Verbeek's Socceroo squad (yes, even Bruce Djite, who would a few days later play for the senior side in the Doha heat) in the audience. Buckley said that minimum expectation from the Olympic Games was to come home with a medal. That means a top three finish. At the time, I recall thinking that was a big call from Buckley and that Graham Arnold would not appreciate such a tough agenda. Now, by shunning two of the country's most talented players, the stakes have been raised even higher. ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.601 2008-06-27T19:48:51Z 2008-06-27T19:57:02Z

We got what we wished for....

Matthew Hall We got what we wished for. Asia World Cup Qualifying Group A Australia Japan Uzbekistan Qatar Bahrain Group B South Korea North Korea Iran Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.597 2008-06-20T23:45:55Z 2008-06-21T00:25:03Z

Australian football is fast becoming about more than winning on the pitch....

Matthew Hall Australian football is fast becoming about more than winning on the pitch. This weekend, Australia will host China for a World Cup qualifier at a close to sold out Homebush Stadium. Coach Pim Verbeek will send out a young team with only Harry Kewell, playing his fifth consecutive match in as many weeks for the Socceroos, inked in as one of the team's "stars". The C team selling out the country's so-called "home" stadium? Not so many years ago, all of that would have been unthinkable, let alone possible to write. Especially when this game effectively counts for nothing with China, somewhat amazingly, already out of contention for 2010 while Australia has already qualified for the next stage after last weekend's impressive 3-1 away win over Qatar in Doha. The big match this weekend is actually in Dubai where Iraq will "host" Qatar in a humid winner-takes-all (well, qualifies for the next stage) humdinger. For Australia, the business has already been done during this month's desert trek - and not just on the field. FFA's membership of the Asian Football Confederation is now beginning to have an affect on the nation's diplomatic and international business effort. Two weeks ago, in Dubai, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and his entourage from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade arrived at the match against Iraq as a VIP guest, as he should. We needn't discuss here Iraq's recent history - and Australia's role in it - but the chances of a senior government minister rolling up for an equivalent Australia v Fiji match at Parramatta Stadium four, eight, or 12 years ago were slim, to say the least. Three days after the game against Iraq, still in Dubai, the Socceroos were guests of honour at a lunch for Australian businesses based in the United Arab Emirates. There was no secret that the Socceroos, more so now than any other national sporting team, is now a very important platform for Australian businesses wanting to leverage international opportunities. "The Socceroos are wonderful ambassadors, are a wonderful platform, and give us the excellent opportunity to get Australian businesses abroad together and also send out messages to the local press about some of the capabilities of Australian business on the ground here," said James Wyndham, Consul Commercial with the Australian Consulate in the United Arab Emirates. "Dubai is a very crowded market, the world is here, and we need every opportunity to promote some of the successes that we're generating." Wyndham points out that trade with the UAE is worth $7.2 billion to Australia, making that country our 17th largest trading partner. There are also 2.4 billion people within a couple of hours flight from Dubai and 50 per cent of the population is under the age of 24 and embracing Western culture, including football. "The success that the Socceroos have on the field, no question, has great significance on the success we have in the boardrooms here," he adds. "Within this market, relationships and trust are intrinsic to success and the relaxed, multicultural, Australian attitude goes a long way here." So, the true value of the Socceroos is only just starting to become known. This year, Australia has made inroads, on and off the pitch, in China, Qatar, Iraq, and, with Iraq forced to play in Dubai, the UAE. Next up, Japan, South Korea, and perhaps somewhat bizarrely, North Korea, Iran, and Uzbekistan. For Australian football, business, and diplomacy, the game just got that little bit bigger. tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.594 2008-06-14T23:29:05Z 2008-06-14T23:31:38Z

Unlike Doha taxi drivers, the Socceroos are actually going somewhere....

Matthew Hall Unlike Doha taxi drivers, the Socceroos are actually going somewhere. Oh, and me? I'm off to catch a plane to Istanbul which will be another story. So if comments don't show up here immediately, you know why. I also have to explain how Brett Emerton's sweaty shorts ended up in my suitcase. My wife would like to know as well. ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.588 2008-06-07T21:09:50Z 2008-06-07T21:18:03Z

Australia's loss to Iraq was not a football match. At least, not as we know it....

Matthew Hall Australia's loss to Iraq was not a football match. At least, not as we know it. total football and the homeland for Pim Verbeek, assistant Henk Duut, and Technical Director Rob Baan. A flair player like Nick Carle, ignored by Verbeek, may be aghast to discover this is no coincidence. The game, meanwhile, seemed set to become a match like those you play in the park where the next goal wins. Except no one can score, dusk fast turns into dark, and your mum hasn't called you in for tea. The winner will be the first to drop. Except no one drops. During the week, Australia's players had been tested at training to discover just how much they sweat. Everyone, apparently, sweats differently, and the team medical staff's analysis resulted in some players going into this game on salt supplements, others taking water retention tablets. One of the hard lessons from last year's Asian Cup, was the news that if you lose over 10 per cent of your body's fluids, your performance is impaired. This time, Australia was not going to be the ones to drop. Then came a tremendous strike from Emad Rida, a curling, loping, long range shot that beat Mark Schwarzer. "Good luck or good goal?" I was asked later. The answer was a bit of both. Iraq's supporters, players, and officials couldn't care less. They celebrated like this was a goal of some destiny. Substitutes ran from the bench to celebrate with their teammates. The crowd burst into spontaneous dancing and singing. In the second half, from out of somewhere - perhaps smuggled in under someone's long woolen winter coat if the temperature allowed it - Iraqi disco music boomed out from a PA system from the cheap(er) seats across the ground. The music, Iraqi pop tunes, blared across the pitch, around the ground, and was picked up by the crowd. Forget the football. We were now in a Baghdad nightclub (albeit with no air conditioning) singing along to the equivalent of Iraq's Kylie Minogue (or maybe it was Nick Cave, it was difficult to tell). The music (and singing and dancing) stopped only to allow another call to prayer from the local mosque but boomed out again once those formalities were complete. This was certainly not the Sydney Football Stadium. As the clock ticked down, and some of Iraq's players fell down, the calls from the crowd for Allahu Akbar! - "God is Great!" - gave way for whistles for the ref to call time, even if there were five full minutes, at least, to play. As you now probably know, Australia had several chances to equalise but didn't. The ref finally blew his whistle, a cue for Iraqi fans to invade the pitch en masse in celebration which, while perhaps understandable considering the joy such victories bring to their people, FIFA will not look kindly on. As the crowd swarmed the players it was as if, forget the Asian Cup, Iraq had just won the World Cup. Maybe they had. Just over a week ago it seemed Iraq was out of the tournament for political reasons. Qualification would have been impossible had they lost on this night, but here they survive again, at least until next week. Later, Pim Verbeek looked drained and strained. "I cannot blame my players," he said of the loss. "I don't know about you but I was sweating just doing nothing." "We have to win next week. We had to win one of the two games (Iraq or Qatar). We have to see how the players react to this defeat." Outside the stadium, cars (and a few Hummers) drove down the street, passengers hanging out the windows, waving Iraqi flags. Who knows? Next time, we might even get to do this in Baghdad. ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.582 2008-05-30T14:06:24Z 2008-05-30T14:14:09Z

In the space of just two days, football in Australia aged four years....

Matthew Hall In the space of just two days, football in Australia aged four years. ever. Australia, or at least Football Federation Australia, has recently been not unreasonably obsessed with bidding to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Even Prime Minister Kevin Rudd smartly attached his carriage to the bandwagon, posing for photos with Socceroo Harry Kewell and, sensing the mood of the football nation, asked The Comeback Kid not to get injured again any time soon. We might roll our eyes and mumble "Yeah, yeah, Kev, good one," but a Prime Minister who is a financial (check the last Federal Budget) as well as public supporter of football demonstrates that he's a man of our time. Overlooked amid the hysteria surrounding the last World Cup was that Fabio Grosso's dive was not the only act of villainy during that tournament. John Howard, then PM, opportunistically posed in a suddenly-discovered Socceroos tracksuit during the tournament, a move more deceptive than anything Grosso could muster. Howards's favoured Baggy Green cap and Wallabies jumper must have been with the dry cleaner that week. (There's a story about Howard cornering Jade North at an official reception at Kirribilli House after the World Cup and the rest of the Socceroo's teammates later ribbing him that the then PM, ever the star struck populist, had thought North was actually Tim Cahill.) But we're getting distracted here. The past week was a tough one for Australia's ambition to host the 2018 World Cup. In fact, it was a tough week at our ambition to host anything. First, an Australian bid for the 2009 and 2010 Club World Cup got the shaft, the United Arab Emirates (read Dubai) and Japan scoring top billing with the UAE bid eventually getting the nod for the next two years. Australia, we were told by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, was simply too far away from Europe to be able to host a week-long tournament in December. No matter that only one team from Europe competes in the CWC. Maybe it was simply Blatter himself who doesn't fancy a long trip, even if he'd fly in to Sydney on his personal private jet. So that was one down. FFA chief executive Ben Buckley told me before the FIFA delegates descended on Sydney last week that he was going to take a gentle approach with the visitors in regard to the 2018 bid. It's now arguable that no matter what wizardry he or his staff performed over the past seven days, the destination of the 2018 World Cup had already been decided. At least, what was known was that 2018 wouldn't be Australia. On Friday, Blatter revealed that the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups would be announced at the same. That is, before June 2011. It's unprecedented. The reason? Money. FIFA believes binding both bids will allow it to milk as much from TV rights and sponsors as it possibly can. Blatter, looking at his diary for the next 20 years, then had a brainwave. With 2010 in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil, 2018 will be going back north, back to Europe, or at a stretch, the USA. "As the next two World Cups will be in the southern hemisphere, it is perhaps logical that Australia concentrates on the 2022 tournament," Blatter said, gently letting us know that 2018 was dead. Blatter is a master communicator who could pass a death sentence and leave a condemned man feeling good about getting the chance to eat a sumptuous last meal. So, in other words, Australia? The 2018 World Cup? Get back in the box. You can read the edited highlights of his FIFA Congress press conference here. So 2018 becomes 2022 and our new rivals will be China, the USA, England (if Europe doesn't get 2018), Qatar (the home of AFC President Mohamed Bin Hamman), and Russia. Pretty much, the new rivals are the old rivals but with stakes raised even higher. Australia, welcome to the world. Anyone for 2026? Another event Australia won't be hosting is an alleged "charity" game involving the legendary Zinedine Zidane. While others were quick to condemn Zizou for apparently snubbing Sydney and local kids scheduled to attend a coaching clinic, the truth appears to be simpler. While Zidane diplomatically cited "personal reasons" for not making it to Australia, apparently contract with the local promoter behind the visit (the game had nothing to do with FFA) had perhaps not actually been agreed. Oh dear. ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.579 2008-05-23T23:27:49Z 2008-05-25T04:56:11Z

More than any other sport, Australian football teams have always reflected the true make up of our country....

Matthew Hall More than any other sport, Australian football teams have always reflected the true make up of our country. wogball, whatever you want to call it. Back in 1956, at the Melbourne Olympics, the Australian team that beat Japan and the lost to India was made up of names like Lord, Bignall, Pettigrew, Loughran, and even a Smith. We'd all agree that was a fair representation of Robert Menzies' 1950s Australia. Ten years later, the country had changed. The national team played a tournament in Saigon during the Vietnam War, artillery rumbling in the distance. The names on the teamsheet mirrored the products of a burst of European immigratio. Alongside Johnny Warren was Manfred Schaefer, Dick van Alphen, Billy Vojtek, and Atti Abonyi. Around this time, Bob Dylan sang, sort of, "The times they are a-changing." Dylan must have known that a bloke named Rale Rasic was soon to be in charge of the newly-coined "Socceroos". Rasic would take an Australian team to its first World Cup who looked just like the blokes you would see at the local supermarket. There were Aussies originally from Scotland (Jack Reilly, Jim Mackay, Jimmy Rooney), Germany (Manfred Schaefer), Serbia (Doug Utjesenovic), a few token Poms (Peter Wilson, Ray Richards, and Adrian Alston), for starters. Throw in locally born Johnny Warren, Col Curran, and indigenous pioneer Harry Williams and you had a team with many accents but was as proudly Australian as football, meat pies, kangaroos, and Holden cars. Watch this to get an idea of what they were competing with. Jump forward to 2006, when we had Bresciano, Popovic, Kalac, Chipperfield, Sterjovski, Kewell, Viduka, Schwarzer, and Aloisi. Sons of immigrants (as we all pretty much are with a few exceptions) and reflective of the excellent and tasty multicultural stew that modern day Australia is. Last Friday, at another of the possibly never-ending staged events to promote Australia's 2018 World Cup bid, Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy, an immigrant from Hungary, lined up members of the current national under-17 team, suggesting these Joeys were 2018 cannon fodder. "We want to host, play in, and win the World Cup in 2018," Lowy said, maybe coming across like a mad but loveable granddad to these kids. "Gee, Grandpa, enough with the pressure already," they didn't, but should have, said. (Remember, if you will, 10 years ago the Joeys made the final of the Under-17 World Cup with Scott McDonald, Josh Kennedy, Jade North and Jess Vanstrattan.) It was the team sheet, though, that sparked interest. Of the 14 teenagers paraded as the faces of 2018, seven were born in Sydney, one in Serbia, and six in Africa. SIX! IN AFRICA! While Danai Gapare's family is originally from Zimbabwe, it's the others who have a similar theme of sad-happy stories. Phillip Lamin, born in Sierra Leone, arrived in Australia five years ago as a refugee. Tedros Yabio, born in Sudan, arrived in Australia 13 years ago as a refugee from Ethiopia. Kamal Ibrahim, born in Ethiopia, arrived in Australia as a refugee five years ago. Julius Davies, arrived as a refugee in Australia from Liberia five years ago. Million Butshiire (possibly the best-ever name in Australian football history), born in the Congo, arrived in Australia as a refugee four years ago. Million turned up in Perth via Uganda and South Africa with no identification except for a collection of school reports. As you do. Like teammates Ibrahim and Yabio, there was no way to prove his age until MRI scans authenticated their claims that 1992 could prove to be a very good year for Australia football. This generation of Joeys will face many obstacles on the way to 2018, not least already war, famine, and poverty. Of course, government policies, shock jock journalists, and ignorance - as well as good old-fashioned fate - could have pointed these players down very different paths. Instead, meet the face of future Australia. One that FFA is proudly parading as the boys Frank Lowy thinks can win the World Cup. Anyone for a pie? ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.572 2008-05-16T16:01:07Z 2008-05-16T16:17:08Z

Two potentially self-destructive events have given Australia's 2018 World Cup bid a little nudge....

Matthew Hall Two potentially self-destructive events have given Australia's 2018 World Cup bid a little nudge. You can read one police officer's account of the night here. Let me get this in early before the anti-football brigade hijacks any discussion - the trigger for violence was not Rangers' 2-0 loss to Zenit. The mob of drunken Scots, men and women, went on the rampage because a giant TV screen erected in Manchester's city centre malfunctioned. What was intended as a city centre party for 10,000 ticketless fans turned into a riot. As you do. Technicians attempting to fix the screen were pelted with garbage. Not unreasonably, they downed tools and probably went home to watch the game. A day's worth of beer didn't help, either. Some of the mob had been drinking since breakfast and were so drunk by kick-off that, when the screen blacked out, they were unable to comprehend instructions or directions to a different screen that had been set up as Plan B. So off they went, leaving a trail of beer-bellied destruction across Greater Manchester. Their behaviour is even more intriguing because Scottish fans traveling abroad, at least to support their national team, are usually exceptionally behaved. At the 1998 World Cup in France, I sat under the Eiffel Tower and watched men dressed in kilts and red Braveheart wigs embrace Argentine fans and sing songs together praising Diego Maradona. Maradona's Hand of God "goal" against England in 1986 was enough to qualify him as a Scottish folk hero, it seemed. Yet a few weeks later, after Argentina beat England on penalties, I ran with the local gendarmerie - and imported undercover British police - as they chased rioting English fans through the streets of St Etienne. The Scots? They'd gone home long ago or were sleeping off hangovers under the Arc de Triomphe. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, himself from Glasgow's Govan like Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, was aghast at Wednesday night's scenes. "I want to do everything to avoid us being put in a position where we might be at risk of an application for the 2018 World Cup not being acceptable because of this," he said. In plain English: "Jesus bloody Christ, you lot. Are you stupid, or what? Let's pray that this, and anything similar in the future, doesn't screw up England's bid for 2018." Tedious yobs aside, more intriguing are maneuvers within UEFA, European football's governing body, around 2018. Just as the Asian Football Confederation will only back one bid from our region for 2018 - China is our powerful and impressive local rival - the Europeans will support just one bid from their own powerhouse. Or at least that's what UEFA president Michel Platini, a smart, politically savvy, respected ex-footballer, told the England FA last week when he said he doesn't want to see a brawl between European bidding nations over 2018. Across Europe, interested parties include a combined Dutch and Belgian bid and more recently Spain, at the suggestion of FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Russia, however, is looming as England's heavyweight regional rival and a recent decline in political relations between the two countries may make a battle for 2018 very interesting. Yes, a World Cup really does carry that much weight. Platini, who has huge influence within FIFA, has privately said that he won't even consider personally backing one European bid until consensus is reached. And that is for the bidding nations to sort out among themselves. But what does this mean for Australia? It depends how dirty Football Federation Australia want to get. England, without doubt, would be a formidable opponent for our own bid if it gets the nod from Europe. But how would we fare against Russia? Or Spain? Sepp Blatter and FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke arrive in Sydney later this week and will attend Australia's friendly with Ghana as FFA's guests. FFA is hoping for a sell-out to demonstrate that Australians - especially in Sydney - turn out to support their national team and would do so again at a World Cup. A good crowd is important but not as crucial as how Australia's bid wranglers play politics, especially over the following few days ahead of the FIFA Congress on May 29 and 30. They might like to remind Blatter, a friend to all when the occasion warrants, about comments he made to me back in 2005 at that year's FIFA Congress in Marrakech, Morocco, where an Australian bid for 2018 was first floated. You can read them here. We can shake our heads with a tsk, tsk, tsk, at the unrest in England but we might also consider having a quiet word with the Russians during the upcoming FIFA Congress in Sydney. Guus Hiddink may be coach of their national team but we might benefit if the Russians become our new best friends. If we want to roll up our sleeves and get dirty, that is. You can bet that everyone else making a bid will be. Oh, and another thing. The English FA Cup Final is on this weekend. You may have missed it. That's OK. It's a sign of Australia's developing football maturity that an imported event is no longer a highlight of the local sporting calendar. Kids, unlike generations that came before, you may now sleep all the way through Saturday night. Or just record it off the TV. ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.568 2008-05-09T15:50:27Z 2008-05-11T03:28:23Z

Did Harry Kewell murder someone's favourite grandmother?...

Matthew Hall Did Harry Kewell murder someone's favourite grandmother? big time. Intriguingly, the British media dropped a deluge on Kewell, branding the Socceroo an "expensive flop" who had "cost" Liverpool a "staggering" $328,000 a game over five years. The tidbits hit the headlines, softening up the Liverpool public just days before Rafael Benitez publicly declared what those in the know (and what The Sun-Herald told readers months ago) considered old news. Kewell HAD been offered a new contract by Liverpool several months ago but turned it down. Most of us, too, would not agree to a one-year deal from our employer on drastically reduced financial terms when, in the ruthless and unsentimental world of professional sport, there are far better options elsewhere. The stats show that - yes - injury prevented Kewell from making as many appearances for Liverpool over his five-year deal as everyone would have liked. But claims that Kewell cost Liverpool big money for doing nothing is either naive, poorly informed, or just vindictive. So why all the hate? Players are club assets, they're insured against injury, and so Kewell's absence from injury has cost Liverpool very little except the extra success it may have had on the field had he taken part in more games. Liverpool's insurance premiums may have risen, just like at Manchester United because of injury to Wayne Rooney, but then Liverpool, or its billionaire American owners, could afford it because of the MASSIVE financial windfalls from successful recent Champions League campaigns of which a certain H. Kewell directly contributed to. Still, the hate continues. The British media - The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Liverpool Echo, and The Evening Standard - blew their load on Kewell's misfortune. Apparently other "expensive" long-term absentees like Manchester United's Gary Neville (remember him?) and Milan's Ronaldo are free from criticism and rightly so. Being injured at a professional football club is purgatory. Being long-term injured is Hell. (Let's not mention Andriy Shevchenko, absent from Chelsea's ranks not because he's crook but simply deemed expensively surplus to requirements.) It's not just the Brits. Embarrassingly, would-be Australian pundits, who wouldn't know one end of Stanley Park from the other, nor (closer to home) how to get to Brenan Street, Smithfield, have since jumped on the bandwagon. Toot-toot, indeed. So why the hate? Seriously? What has Kewell done to inspire so many people with such strong opinions? It's not like he's a careless party animal whose idea of rehab is picking up transvestite hookers in Rio nightclubs. The Australian's idea of a wild time is a playfight with his kids in the family's romper room. Or, if he really wears his party hat, lunch with Lucas Neill and their respective partners at a Manchester restaurant. Is it jealously? Schadenfreude - celebrating the misfortune of others? Insecurity? Reflected self-loathing? Is the world suddenly full of Everton supporters? The Kewell critics could be a whole untapped market for psychologists. Interestingly, Kewell is not the only talented Australian player whose most promising career hit a rock just before an Aussie flag could be planted at the summit of world football. For Kewell at Liverpool, see also Ned Zelic at Borussia Dortmund, Paul Okon at Lazio, and - with a whole different story - Mark Bosnich at Manchester United and then Chelsea. Maybe Australia's best players are just made of glass. In literary terms, Kewell now faces an intriguing Second Act. It will be a very interesting summer in Europe where that dinner Kewell's manager had with Juventus officials in Rome last January (there, I've said it) may be end up being claimed as a tax expense. Which, I'm sure, many people would just hate. ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.564 2008-05-02T14:49:39Z 2008-05-02T15:16:38Z

Got a problem? Throw money at it. Hope it goes away....

Matthew Hall Got a problem? Throw money at it. Hope it goes away. Hooray! The thinking is that players like Nathan Burns, Bruce Djite, and Kristian Sarkies will spurn opportunities in Europe and stay in Australia for several more years if they're being paid big bucks. "It's a very important initiative and one that we consulted with the clubs on and the players' association," FFA boss Ben Buckley said on Friday. "In partnership with them, we can use this mechanism to try to retain players who may be enticed to go overseas on slightly larger financial incentives." "So if the clubs use it wisely we think it has the real ability to retain some of the players who can do with an additional one, two, three years in the A-League before they may want to go overseas." The concept is well intended but, unfortunately, the clubs and the Professional Footballers' Association may have sold Buckley's people a dummy on this issue. The marquee player format has thrown up mixed results over the A-League's past three seasons. Dwight Yorke worked for Sydney, Stan Lazaridis probably didn't for Perth, Juninho was underused, especially off the pitch. Some clubs have not even bothered hiring one. But the whole issue of retaining young players in Australia has to contend with an irrepressible force that has nothing to do with the market. The reason a youth marquee is destined to fail, even if PFA research says otherwise, is not because of club policy or economics. It is all about desire. Let's type that word again. DESIRE. Australia may have a comfortable lifestyle where you can train, go to the beach, and sip a cappuccino all in the same day. But a player with real hunger to make it to the top will travel as far as their boots will carry them. Unfortunately, that's further than Bondi Junction, or even Gosford. They want to see the world. Smell damp grass. Breathe in cold morning air. Kick a ball across snow. Read (or look at the pictures in) La Gazzatta Dello Sport in a plaza cafe before work. They are young and want adventure and want to taste life. I know this because I've asked them. Writing and researching two editions of my book The Away Game - and producing a TV documentary based on the same idea - resulted in a pretty thorough insight into players' motivations. Plug, plug, plug, here's some links if you're interested in the book and the film. Also check out this list of Australians playing overseas from the comprehensive Ozfootball website. It's revealing to discover that out of over 100 Australians abroad only a handful are at top European clubs. The rest? Try Greece (the third division!), Denmark, Romania, Macedonia, Croatia, and Georgia. Even Scotland! Here's Vince Grella, now a 10-year veteran of Italian football, sitting in a back room at Parma's training ground a few years ago and telling me about his Serie A debut. Grella recalls a baptism of fire. It may have come too early, he thinks, but he will carry that experience with him for life. In 2008, no amount of money will keep Nathan Burns in Australia if he has the talent to win the smallest of contracts on offer in Europe. A European deal might not be with Manchester United, or even Derby County but Europe's lure is a rite of passage for every aspiring Australian footballer. John Aloisi did it. Robbie Slater did it. Ned Zelic did it. Paul Okon did it. Harry Kewell did it. Graham Arnold even did it. Aurelio Vidmar did it. His brother Tony did it, came home, and went back and did it again. Lucas Neill did it. Nathan Burns will do it. Keeping the boys at home, with their laundry done, meals cooked, and bed made by mum, won't help them in the long run. If you're 23 years old and don't have the hunger to test yourself, don't have the desire, don't have the inner-strength, don't have the will to face the biggest challenge of your football career, you're not going to make it to the top anyway. My apologies to FFA. This is way off message for how the A-League is being promoted but, in five words, get out of the house. No amount of marquee money will compensate you for wondering what you could have been. It's not good. It's not bad. It just is. ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.560 2008-04-25T22:10:25Z 2008-04-25T22:54:13Z

On Thursday, I entered an alternate universe....

Matthew Hall On Thursday, I entered an alternate universe. 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 ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.555 2008-04-18T14:23:45Z 2008-04-18T14:30:46Z

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

Matthew Hall To survive, you have to make the most of every opportunity. 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. ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.548 2008-04-11T15:49:32Z 2008-04-11T15:52:05Z

Champions League success is all about an exclusive English club....

Matthew Hall 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. tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.544 2008-04-04T15:03:33Z 2008-04-04T15:09:32Z

April has just begun but silly season has already started....

Matthew Hall April has just begun but silly season has already started. (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? ]]> tag:blogs.sunherald.com.au,2008:/matthewhall//5.538 2008-03-28T17:39:25Z 2008-03-28T17:43:12Z

Forget China, the Socceroos coach now has to climb a bigger wall....

Matthew Hall Forget China, the Socceroos coach now has to climb a bigger wall. no chance of any Euroroos turning up for the 2010 kick off. This was the dying days of Australia's flirtation with Dick Advocaat and a month before Verbeek and his powers of pretty persuasion were employed. But the new coach has shown he can think out of the box when required as ably demonstrated by his strategy against Qatar and radical rejig against China. Verbeek has also demonstrated candid communication skills that delicate egos of football players can appreciate. He's told A-League players they're not good enough for the national team while simultaneously giving them unprecedented opportunity to prove themselves with his use of preliminary squads made up of local players. The result? Rather than exiling A-Leaguers, Jade North has developed into a realistic defensive option alongside Lucas Neill while Bruce Djite would likely have started against China had he not been injured. Circumstances may have forced Verbeek to improvise but he's not making it up as he goes along. A good coach doesn't show his worth when he can field a first-choice 11 in perfect conditions. It is when everything is not going to plan and difficult decisions have to be made that a coach earns his money. Undefeated on the pitch, Verbeek's next big match-up is against Mark Viduka this week in Newcastle, England. While Harry Kewell is desperate for game time with Australia - game time with anybody - Viduka is wavering on his commitment to the national team. Viduka quit the Socceroos last year just before the Asian Cup. Graham Arnold, working magic, convinced him to play on. Arnold's intervention was so late that a press conference to formally announce Viduka's retirement was cancelled at the last minute. Guus Hiddink, ever the psychologist, knew how to bring the best out of the often temperamental striker. Commitment issues? Let's get married, Hiddink suggested, giving Viduka the symbolic responsibility of captaincy. The move worked. Like a kid, Viduka couldn't shake World Cup fever. One Premier League player told me how during a game against Middlesbrough before the World Cup, Viduka jogged over and asked: "Are you going to the World Cup? It's going to be great!" Look out, Mark. Here comes the ball. Viduka has long been enigmatic and blown with the wind and his own impulsiveness. At Celtic, he infamously refused to play a second-half as the Scottish giants imploded in a Cup game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Who? Exactly). He shone, briefly, at Leeds United. His form, especially in the Yorkshire team's now legendary Champions League run of 2001. Barcelona, Deportivo La Coruna, and Roma were all interested in his signature. But instead of playing for top teams in Europe, Viduka was part of the Leeds side that was relegated and ended up at ultimate under-achievers Middlesbrough. Move along, nothing to see here. Next stop? Comedy club Newcastle United, a team that pays players exceptionally well but never ever live up to the expectations of fans nor the talent at the club's disposal. Instead of playing in - or even challenging for - European competition, Viduka is now embroiled in a relegation battle. That's when he's fit. While Viduka was considering other options as his Middlesbrough contract wound down, the hot ticket was a possible move to Italy. Juventus, Milan, Inter? No. Genoa, a club promoted to Serie A last season with modest ambition. Viduka is undoubtedly a big talent and raises Socceroo quality when he pulls on a gold shirt - even if his 11 goals in 43 games suggest otherwise. So Verbeek will arrive for his date in north-east England this week to see where Viduka's heart truly lies with the Socceroos. Faced with confronting his future face-to-face, bets are on Viduka calling it quits. That would be another disappointment in a career that promised so much but, ultimately, failed to deliver. What's our greatest memory of Viduka in a Socceroo shirt? Missing a penalty in the 2005 shoot-out against Uruguay? Missing a header four years earlier in Montevideo that would have changed that game? Being only one of two players to captain Australia at the World Cup Finals? Viduka has more to give. The challenge for Pim Verbeek is explaining that in simple terms to a complicated talent. ]]>