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!
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