Ever Wondered Why So Many Australian Footballers
Play Overseas?
Give me that rainbow feather!
Millennium opening at
Sydney was a case of football triumphing.
As I was making the way
through the crowd at 00.30 with three small children after the
Millennium fireworks display on the Harbour in the melee at Sydney Quay,
broken bottles,
chaos and in usual Sydney style no buses or trains running along comes
a football gang
from England. They offer to pick up the kids and we make our way
through the crowd until
safety is reached. Now that's the real football fan- gentlemen.
A hour later, with
trains almost running we cross to the station to join the queue as we pass
a packielackey he abuses the children for getting in his way. Now
isn't he the little boy; six
foot and all!
There was a year
zero(?), so this was the Millennium, and symbolic because we made it so.
Doomsdayers in the First
Millennium counted from Year Zero which makes 2000 the Second Millennium.
And how about the
coverage of South Melbourne in the media for the World Club
Championships in Brazil? Non-existent. The ignorance continues unabated.
Will Cole's karma catch up
with him after the Colosimo hack?
The 'Butcher' Cole who makes Max Tolson look mild, was totally ignored by
the Melburnians.
The Devils win by 2-0 but are justifiably placed outside the top four world
club sides.
On their return from Rio, South Melbourne are crushed 6-0 by Sydney Olympic
in the
Australian league: something ManU were unable do!
The media blackout of
football in 2000 continues: the Olyroos, Matildas and South Melbourne all
competing in international tournaments were again all but totally ignored by
the media.
In the city of the 2000
Olympics, there was hardly a mention in the press.
Is it surprising after
the scurrilous cowardly attack of the Matildas?
The Grandstanding of
ignorance continues with massive time given to women cricketers
and none to the Olympic sport of women's football.
The great revelation
from the Olyroo tournament was the outstanding play by Korea. This
team has a physical presence, speed and skill that will be difficult for any
side to defeat in
2000. Their weakness will be the three ' wild card' players, but
expect an excellent position
with the army of Korean magical gongs that passionately supports this
quality side.
Pay TV (Channel Stoke's
Joke ) now gives coverage to football games with excellent commentary , but free-to-air remains
a blank. The attack by the murdoch's packielackey continues
unabated; either derogative or as an information blackout.
But how about the riot
at the cricket? The cricket riot turns into the typical media bashing of
football. Why is that a riot in cricket is used to bash football in
Australia? Similarly
crowd disturbances at the packielackey turned into a further football bashing
exercise.
Australia's U17 get to
the Final in Nigeria and are beaten on penalties by a Brazil with
over-aged players and our team is ignored. They are described by
the media as failures. What ignorance! Football comprises of teams
from all the world. A concept that packielackey and tiddleywimps lacks.
In the Australian
football league there is not even a mention of the games in the papers.
Stoke's Joke relegates
football to late night viewing (1 am) on pay despite people forking out to get
live matches. They end up with trial tiddleywimp games!
Expect the same
treatment when the Olympics
arrive as what occurred in the Atlanta coverage- blackout.
And what about the
imminent failure of the Brisbane Strikers?
As the shareholders of
the club and its support say
" The media have
not been helpful to us."
Today is Feb 8 and the
Socceroos play Chile in Chile.
The games Australian
Eastern Summer time are:
v Chile - 10 February 12
noon
v Slovakia - 13 February 11.00am
v Bulgaria - 16 February 11.00am
While many key players
are missing there are many up and coming stars who will get a
chance under Farina. Zelic is lost, and hopefully Farina has
learned the lesson- a tactician
adjusts his tactics to suit the players , not changes the players to suit
the tactics, especially
a beginner!
The team is
MARK SCHWARZER (Middlesbrough)
PAUL OKON (Fiorentina)
PAUL AGOSTINO (1860 Munich)
SHAUN MURPHY (Sheffield United)
JASON VAN BLERK (West Bromwich Albion)
DANNY TIATTO (Manchester City)
CRAIG FOSTER (Crystal Palace)
STEVE CORICA (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
JOSIP SKOKO (Hajduk Split)
DAVID ZDRILIC (SSV Ulm)
HAYDEN FOXE (Hiroshima Sanfrecce)
TONY POPOVIC (Hiroshima Sanfrecce)
PABLO CARDOZO (Sydney Olympic)
CLINT BOLTON (Brisbane Strikers)
STEPHEN LAYBUTT (Parramatta Power)
MATTHEW BINGLEY (Northern Spirit)
MATTHEW HORSLEY (Wollongong Wolves)
BRAD MALONEY (Marconi Stallions)
KASEY WEHRMAN (Perth Glory)
SCOTT CHIPPERFIELD (Wollongong Wolves)
Imagine making a loyal Socceroo the
calibre of Ned Zelic travel half way around the world to leave him on the
bench! This is what happened in Melbourne when the Socceroos played
Brazil. It is cheaper and easier to replace a coach than it is a
player of Zelic's stature. We
all hope that Ned makes a return for the vital 2002 Qualifiers.
No mention of the fact
the Socceroos are playing today in Chile in Murdoch's Australian, and
there is a complete blackout of news. Chile are a major world side with
outstanding players and an excellent football record.
So here is some news
from the football list:
> Australia's preparation for
tomorrow's match in Chile has been thrown into
> chaos after six Socceroos went missing en-route to Vina del Mar after
>their plane broke down.
> Socceroos coach Frank
Farina said while it was frustrating there was a lesson for everybody
>involved. Pablo Cardozo, Brad Maloney, Kasey Wehrman, Stephen Laybutt,
Matthew
>Horsley and Scott Chipperfield, all Australian-based players, are expected
to
>arrive in Chile tomorrow morning for the start of the international series.
> The six were an hour out of Auckland airport when the plane experienced
> engine problems forcing the pilot to return to New Zealand.
> The flight was then cancelled and they had wait for the next scheduled
> flight.
Fortunately, they didn't go
missing at all. But I did ring Frank and told
him the good news was that the aircraft hadn't crashed; the bad news was it
was two hours out of Auckland, came back and then they were stranded for 24
hours in Auckland with no other option but to go via Los Angeles.
At least they'll get in
Wednesday morning (Chile time); the other option was
Wednesday night - the same time as the game. It would have made for a
strange bench - 11 starting, 3 on the bench with two goalkeepers out of the
14!"
">They're (Chile)
also playing funny games with the visiting teams re. training
>ground availability, etc, which is a bit silly for a friendly
tournament. In
>fact, it's unsporting at any time but at least I could understand the
rationale
>if it was a WC qualifier!"
"It works out the
other way around in practice I think.
I spoke with Paul Wade
about this topic once on a Cosmos trip to W'gong. He
said the South Americans can play silly buggers ONLY during friendlies.
In Argentina they do things
like not providing meals till an hour before the
game, so that visiting players run out on very full stomachs; or the hotel
lifts won't work for the visiting team and they have to haul luggage up 6
flights of stairs - you get the idea.
But for big games there are
too many FIFA observers around for them to get
away with this kind of garbage."
Or put by another fan:
"Is it true that
todays game was not shown on TV at all ?
ie. not on 7 ?
not on C7 ?
not on ABC ?
Is this deplorable
situation also the case for the next 2 Oz games in
this series ?
Is it true that no mention
of todays game was made on Oz free-to-air TV
at all ?
Don't ya just love
rhetorical questions ?
Don't ya just love being an
Oz football fan ?"
The game Chile v Australia:
"Still 1-1 with about
20 minutes to go.
Van Blerk has been sent off
for a clash with the goalkeeper.
Foster - yellow. Wehrman
on for Foster (not sure if these two things are
related or not).
Zdrilic on for
Agostino. Agostino got a yellow as he walked off - we think
for time-wasting!
Tiatto hit the top of the
bar again. Laybutt now on for him.
Allowed five subs all up
including GK.
2-1 to Chile.
They scored a penalty in
about the 90th, and the full-time whistle was blown
as the ball got back to the re-start.
Schwarzer also got a yellow
card - no-one knows why exactly - and made two
brilliant saves.
Chipperfield came on for
Corica in about the 85th minute.
Okon and Skoko were judged
to be best on the ground for Australia."
Australian draw with
Bulgaria.
Frank is still without a win!
Never in the last decade
has there been such poor coverage of a tournament involving the
Socceroos. No TV, no print and no radio! All controlled by the
incestuous threesome.
The packielackey games
dominate the media despite pathetic crowds and these games are
dominated by breaks in the game for drinks because the weather reached
almost 30 degrees!
One wonders how they
would get on in Saudi!
The most exciting
packielackey action would hardly draw even a yellow card in real football.
Now along comes Hungary
and where is Kewell?
As another fans asks:
no
doubt
kewell
is
about
to
have
an
ankle
injury
flare
up
again?
Amazingly, Kewell makes
the side and plays half a match. His lack lustre performance makes one
wonder if he will be in the starting line-up come the qualifiers. But
benefit of the doubt- the ground was frozen and he did have an ankle injury
that was targeted by ManU in the game on the weekend.
Hungary 0 Australia 3
Hardly a dead fish was sighted!
And naturally the morons
in control of Murdoch's newspaper don't even mention the game on the
morning of the match. But then it is a murdoch-packielackey paper and
they wouldn't recognise a real sport if they saw one!
Or to objectify:
More from the Australian
football list:
Irate fans
plan to take shot at Seven (extract only)
“Angry
soccer fans, frustrated by a lack of coverage by the sport's
Australian television rights holder, the Seven Network, are planning a
coordinated day of protests outside the AFL broadcaster's Melbourne, Sydney
and Perth headquarters early next month.
The
supporters - working under the umbrella title of STAND (Seven Talks And
Never Delivers) - are aiming to make their point by organising
demonstrations in which fans will wear their team's replica shirts and play
a soccer game. “
What a great shirt at
that!
The away Socceroo shirt
with its watermark makes it so far the best designed team shirt of the new
millennium period.
Below is the view from
where it is thought that the Earth is flat and the Moon landing was a hoax.
It continues with sad
reporting of football in its tiddleywimp press but which is exposed on the list
“>On page six of today's The Age, there's a>gushing story from The Age's technology writer>Garry Barker on Melbourne's new AFL ground:>Colonial Stadium.>>It starts off:>>"Advice to soccer hooligans: don't get out>of line at Colonial Stadium - retribution will>be swift."> Methinks Mr Barker should stick to commenting on "technology",assuming he actually knows something about that.Mind you I've no objection to "swift retribution" for hooligans of any kind just so long as they are not so inhumane as to sentence them to watching "Aussie Rules" - even if we are "World Champions".” Mandatory sentencing is an abuse of human rights! Now this is the stadium ‘the Joker’ built specifically to exclude football.
Who is the obscene one?
The ‘Joker’ or the
beautiful and skilful Matildas?
Tony Labbozzetta is
exonerated after years of fighting the packielackey attack in court. This was part of the disgraceful attack of
Soccer Australia by the Federal Government that cost football millions of
dollars in lost revenue and legal costs.
Football remains strong despite the unprincipled attacks on it by a
media dominated by anti-football interests.
The Czech game will be a
great test for the Socceroos of ticker.
Better to leave that wimpy piker named Kewell to
follow in the demise of Leeds. There
was even a report in the papers about the game!
Australia played well in
the first half despite being one goal down.
However, a few tactical changes by the Czech coach at half time exposed
Farina’s inexperience and his staid system.
The Czechs scored an easy second-half win as the Socceroos lose
3-1. Viduka showed his class scoring
nearly the goal of the millennium. Stan
the Man is back with vengeance!
The usual lack of media
coverage continues.
Fans continue to be
irate
“O.K.
guys, on a serious note here.
I (and many other) Perth Glory supporters have had enough with $even's shit
coverage of Australian soccer and what they are trying to do to
the game. $even and Soccer Australia signed a 10 year deal
$even won't broadcast Glory away games themselves and refuse to let other
stations broadcast it either. Pretty shit for a team which has the strongest
support of any NSL team and is currently top of the league. $even don't even
mention Glory on the news unless they just played that day. Even then it is
only really a score. No highlights. “
So
it appears that I am not the only fan concerned by the media blackout of
football.
Expect
a blackout of football coverage during the Olympics.
SOCOG
organisers aka SOCON have conned its way to attracting the Olympic games to
Sydney.
Colosimo
makes a great comeback to score on his first start. He was subbed around the 70th minute and Carlton lose
as a result 5-3 to South Melbourne.
In
a typical decision by ABC television the important Glory v Newcastle game had
the plug pulled less then two minutes before the end of the game and well into
injury time as Glory was attacking in waves and Newcastle defended tenaciously. Glory falls from first place and Newcastle
look good for a Top Six spot.
Meanwhile Farina’s orange peeler
and redundant player incapable of fitting the into the Farina’s superior system
for the Socceroos with their impenetrable defence Ned Zelic continues with
impressive form against Bayern Muenchen in the local
Munich derby.
A fan reports on the match.
“ 1860 only had a couple of
counter attacks, but their defence around
Ned Zelic seemed
unbeatable. 1860 celebrated their second derby
victory against Bayern
in this season - the first time ever they
could do this.
Zelic and Agostino
both played very well.”
Just because Perth Glory are on top
of the table after the penultimate round and have the largest crowds in
Australian football (i.e.soccer) doesn’t mean the jokers will give them any
free-to-air time. The packielacky
stations together with the Joker’s tiddleywimps outlets are intent on the use
of their government protected media ownership to exclusively promote the
non-football events such as packielackey where falling over a line is the
entertainment between commercial breaks!
After all these jokers have such large stakes in tiddleywimps and
packielackey that anticompetitive practice would never enter the scene! It is
all after all based on commercial decisions: decisions to stop at all cost the
real football of ticker: Australian football (i.e. soccer).
Perth Glory defeats the Wolves 1-0 away at Brandon Park and now look set
to take the minor premiership if they can beat the flagging Spirit at home.
Meanwhile the Matildas run
topless along the ocean shores and earn advertising revenue and are
instrumental in developing friendly relations with ROW.
They also were the first sporting contact team with North Korea since
the war.
South Melbourne’s Angie Postecoglou
was in charge of his last game as coach before taking over the Young Socceroos
and Paul Trimboli nets his 100th goal all with the usual zilch
build-up or reporting in the local press.
As for riots, well there was
another at the packielackey that went virtually unreported.
There is a sell out for Glory in the
home leg against the Wolves for the Grand Final berth with a real crowd number
and uninflated, without freebies unlike the packielackey reports.
With a packed
stadium and end-to-end action the Glory are into the final. What a contrast to the city where they think
the earth is flat and the moon landing was a hoax- Melbourne. On the sodden, multi-lined, ankle high grass
of Olympic Park with no pre game publicity in the tiddleywimps dominated media,
Carlton fly high into the
elimination final against the Wolves.
Poor goalkeeping
cost Sydney Olympic the season. The
small but loyal Carlton crowd know that a win at football is better than a
month of wins at the tiddleywimps.
From a football fan on the list:
”There was a piece in today's Age highlighting football official and fan anger
at Seven for not showing or mentioning details of the Perth game on Sunday
morning News.
I watched four channels for
sport on Sunday night, and while SBS, ABC and Nine all mentioned the record
43,000 crowd - you guessed it - Channel 7 Sydney did not, along with showing an
abbreviated clip.
I am well past the stage of
'suspecting' that Seven bought the rights to marginalise the sport. Their near full season refusal to even state
results from the NSL in their sports bulletins - but highlight any riots
overseas etc. clearly shows their standpoint.”
Naturally there is another almost
complete blackout of the Matildas in their tournament involving the world
champions USA. The SMH and Telemoron,
the official dunny(?) papers of the Olympics again shows their
murdoch/packielackey colours where the blackout of football news continues.
Their ignorance of world football and world culture is astounding, only
exceeded by the Melba toast tiddleywimps camps in Victoria.
But here is some news from the list:
“I had the pleasure of
watching 2 women's games last night at the SFS which
were very skilful (albeit slower
than NSL) and played in a mostly fair
play manner. Even the
tactical nature of the games were comparative to men’s
football. I am looking
forward to my booked games at Bruce Stadium in the
Olympics even more now.
The USA defeated Canada
9-1. Canada was a very competent outfit
with a
good keeper and sharp attack
but a naive central defence. Diminutive
midfielder Isabelle Harvey
outshone most of the USA team but I have to
admit that although the
score line flattered USA they are a very, very
powerful unit who can punish
any weakness. Some of their attacking moves
out of midfield were
sublime. Oz referee Tammy Ogston had a great game.
snip
To all readers - get out to
the games - they are well worth a look.
Sunday at Campbelltown
Sports Stadium (NSW) between noon (Japan v. China)
2.30pm USA v. NZ (poor
sods!), and 5pm Australia v. Canada.
Further games are in
Newcastle so watch the Newcastle Herald, but if any
Breakers fans or Central
Coast resident doesn't go the Breakers Stadium on
Sunday June 11th at 2.30pm
to see Australia play USA you must have rocks in
your head.”
And where will the crowds
be? Sales dates from SOCOG.
|
Note, SOCGOG put football last in
the release list and has ignored football throughout the planning process. But at the end of the day it is football
that has the numbers. And this number
doesn’t take into account the many, many qualifiers and packed stadia before
the teams even got here.
The Women:
GROUP A:
13-09-00 Canberra 17:00
Australia vs. Germany
13-09-00 Melbourne 17:00
Sweden vs. Brazil
16-09-00 Sydney FS 17:30
Australia vs. Sweden
16-09-00 Canberra 17:30
Germany vs. Brazil
19-09-00 Sydney FS 17:30
Australia vs. Brazil
19-09-00 Melbourne 17:30
Germany vs. Sweden
GROUP B:
14-09-00 Melbourne 17:30
United States vs. Norway
14-09-00 Canberra 17:30
China PR vs. Nigeria
17-09-00 Melbourne 17:30
United States vs. China PR
17-09-00 Canberra 17:30
Norway vs. Nigeria
20-09-00 Melbourne 17:30
United States vs. Nigeria
20-09-00 Canberra 17:30
Norway vs. China PR
SEMI FINALS:
24-09-00 [13] Sydney FS
17:30 Winner A vs. 2nd B
24-09-00 [14] Canberra 17:30
Winner B vs. 2nd A
3RD PLACE PLAY OFF:
28-09-00 Sydney FS 17:00 L
13 vs. L 14
FINAL:
28-09-00 Sydney FS 20:00
Winner 13 vs. Winner 14
The men:
GROUP A:
13-09-00 Adelaide 18:30
Nigeria vs. Honduras
13-09-00 Melbourne 20:00
Australia vs. Italy
16-09-00 Adelaide 18:30
Italy vs. Honduras
16-09-00 Sydney FS 20:00
Australia vs. Nigeria
19-09-00 Adelaide 18:30
Italy vs. Nigeria
19-09-00 Sydney FS 20:00 Australia
vs. Honduras
GROUP B:
14-09-00 Adelaide 18:30
Korea Republic vs. Spain
14-09-00 Melbourne 20:00
Morocco vs. Chile
17-09-00 Adelaide 18:30
Korea Republic vs. Morocco
17-09-00 Melbourne 20:00
Spain vs. Chile
20-09-00 Adelaide 18:30
Korea Republic vs. Chile
20-09-00 Melbourne 20:00
Spain vs. Morocco
GROUP C:
13-09-00 Brisbane 19:00
Cameroon vs. Kuwait
13-09-00 Canberra 20:00
United States vs. Czech Republic
16-09-00 Brisbane 19:00
Czech Republic vs. Kuwait
16-09-00 Canberra 20:00
United States vs. Cameroon
19-09-00 Brisbane 19:00
Czech Republic vs. Cameroon
19-09-00 Melbourne 20:00
United States vs. Kuwait
GROUP D:
14-09-00 Brisbane 19:00
Brazil vs. Slovakia
14-09-00 Canberra 20:00
South Africa vs. Japan
17-09-00 Brisbane 19:00
Brazil vs. South Africa
17-09-00 Canberra 20:00
Slovakia vs. Japan
20-09-00 Brisbane 19:00
Brazil vs. Japan
20-09-00 Canberra 20:00
Slovakia vs. South Africa
QUARTER FINALS:
23-09-00 [27] Canberra 18:30
Winner C vs. 2nd D
23-09-00 [28] Brisbane 19:00
Winner D vs. 2nd C
23-09-00 [25] Sydney FS
20:00 Winner A vs. 2nd B
23-09-00 [26] Melbourne
20:00 Winner B vs. 2nd A
SEMI FINALS:
26-09-00 [29] Sydney FS
20:00 Winner 25 vs. Winner 27
26-09-00 [30] Melbourne
20:00 Winner 26 vs. Winner 28
3RD PLACE PLAY OFF:
29-09-00 Sydney FS 20:00 L
29 vs. L 3
FINAL:
30-09-00 Sydney OS 12:00
Winner 29 vs. Winner 30
Bring on Paraguay!
Viva la football!
