About four years ago - reminiscence of Langerak's brief VPL stint

Dean Anastasiadis got injured in round four against Green Gully. On came a skinny kid by the name of Mladen Tosic who, try as he might, was never able to convince the coaches, the fans or even his fellow defenders that he was the right man for the spot between the sticks.

So for the second half of the season, in came a young lad by the name of Mitch Langerak, a Queenslander on loan from Melbourne Victory. He made mistakes, to be sure - the worst of which was letting a harmless grubber of a cross by Henry Fa'arodo go through his legs for a tap in and the win for Richmond on a dispiriting Friday night. But he also showed enough in his aerial exploits, dubbed by Ian Syson at the time as either 'solid as a rock' or 'safe as houses' - I can't remember which, but it's the sentiment not the wording which matters - that even I was making uncharacteristically bold predictions like 'future Socceroo keeper'.

The years and keepers have come and gone at South in our VPL era. Deano came back after his injury and apocryphally kept Neil Young out of a job; Nick Jelic filled in for a game or two, as did Andy Sfetkopoulos; Tommi Tommich was awesome on short notice at the tail end of 2008, and then fell in a heap the year after; and the still young Stefaan Sardelic has pinch hit over the past few years without being able to nail down the starting keeper's spot.

The Agitator leaves his mark on the scoreboard

But for whatever intangible reason none of these guys excited me like Mitch did on a cold and rainy Sunday in June at Chaplin Reserve, against a dogged Sunshine George Cross outfit. It was a hard fought 2-0 win, well earned in the mud by the players, as the South fans huddled together under umbrellas not always their own on the hill at the Anderson Road end, and scoreboard shenanigans by one of our stalwart fans kept us amused as we fought off the onset of frostbite.

But just one of the enduring memories of that game was our old foe John Markovski, who was coaching George Cross at the time, doing his by that stage almost compulsory act of subbing himself on against us. When the home side won a free kick within Markovski's range, there was just that moment of dread. Loathe his as we do, he still had a phenomenal left foot shot - he hit a volley as sweetly as he would have done in his prime, but Langerak made the save, and was re-christened 'Mitso' by the faithful.

Billy Natsioulas fights for the ball.

It was a glorious day all round, back in the day when there was still a sort of VPL  camaraderie amongst South fans before we divided ourselves into innumerable factions; when Gate 1/HFC faction splitting was the height of our worries; when some people still thought we were a shoe-in for the second Melbourne A-League spot when it opened up; when a few wins against some of that season's strugglers, which included the aforementioned game, had us run into a bit of form halfway through the year before the Victory game and the subsequent collapse into an inconsistent heap, whose misery was only occasionally punctuated by moments such as this.

This morning Mitch 'Mitso' Langerak made his Bundesliga debut for the ladder leading Borussia Dortmund away at Bayern Munich. Dortmund won 3-1, their first win away at Bayern in 20 years. From all reports, Langerak had a good game, including making one great reflex save against Mario Gomez. Four years on from what for most football fans would rightly be viewed as a game between two also-rans of Australian football, a young man brought in almost as a last resort to try and solve a goalkeeping crisis at Lakeside is one step closer to achieving his potential. Now, as then, I have every confidence that he will fulfill his promise.

Kiss of Death, Round 6, 2010 season

The Kiss of Death is back after the break, to wield potty mouthed judgement on every tsombano and every peasant club in the league.

Bentleigh Greens vs Green Gully Cavaliers
Bentleigh's bubble finally burst at Northcote on the weekend. Hurrah! Hurrah!
Peanut Man made a killing at the Greek derby. Hurrah! Hurrah!
Bentleigh to beat a hapless/caretaker coached Green Gully 2-1. BOOOOOOOOO!

Oakleigh Cannons vs Melbourne Knights
The Cannons dropped points at the Village, and the Knights beat Richmond. We all know that I prefer the Knights over any other Greek team bar South, therefore Oakleigh 1 Knights 3.

Richmond vs Hume City
Hume has been playing really well, and so has Richmond. Chatz to tinker with his lineup and force a draw against Hume. Logic dictates a 1-1 draw and Richmond's scorer to be Daniel Visevic.

Altona Magic vs Dandenong Thunder
Andy Sfetcopoulos got a run last week for Altona. Is that why they won? HAHAHA No. Will Mr T be back in goals this week for Altona? Probably, if he gets over his injury. Where too next for Andy Sfet? Anyway, now onto the game. Dandy Funder looked a shadow of the team that surprised many last year. Munro's Mates are starting to falter and seem Funderstruck, and after the abuse Stuey copped last weekend, I have it on good authority that he will be getting the sack either this week or next. Magic will beat the Thunder and Stuey will be coaching them the week after. Altona Magic 3 Dandy Funder 0.

South Melbourne vs Heidelberg United
The Super Classico. The Derby of the Aiwnians. The Derby of all Derbies. This game is broadcast to a world wide audience of over five billion people. Catch is, you must have the internet and know of the FFV’s live stream. OLE! Bergers are in the shit… diarrhoea like shit, you know the one that is sooooo good, you don’t even need to wipe your arsehole? They are still trying to find Daniel from HUFCtv who seems to have disappeared, and personally, I’m still waiting for Episode 1 of HUFC radio. But anyhoo, I hope South teach those peasants a lesson or four. I want South to take us back to the good old days where you knew that the Bergers would cop plenty of goals. Bergers need to get pumped. They need a wake up call. It will be for the good of the game. South Melbourne 5 Heidelberg 0. De Nittis x4, Gasparis x1 + 4 assists.

Sunshine Georgies vs Northcote City
Northcote to my surprise have won two games this season. I had them down for zero wins, zero draws, plenty of losses. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt to beat the horse whisperers this weekend. It will be a tight game, with fuck all chances. The only chance of the game to fall to Northcote in the 92nd minute. Sunshine Georgies 0 Northcote City 1.

2009 squad announced

This is the 2009 squad... as announced on the official website. Sfetkopoulos is a goalkeeper, signed from Altona East and is quite solid, having seen him numerous times out at Paisley Park. Foschini is a youngster from from Oakleigh/Victory youth, and a signing confirmed from a while back. I'm not quite sure who Torrens and Payne are, but Radojicic has been impressing in trial games apparently. Some number changes as well with De Nittis going to no. 10 from no. 9, Tommich to 1 as you'd expect, Petrovic(h) loses his no.8 to Horsey, and a probably a few others I've missed. The number 16 vacated by Tansel Baser is still vacant, and the question of who's going to be captain is still up in the air. Will Coveny or Rama get it? You'd think Vaughan would have to be the favourite at this stage, and that Rama will have to wait another season at least for the honour. 

1. Tomi Tommich 
2. Shane Nunes 
3. Rhodri Payne 
4. Steven O’Dor 
5. Con Blatsis 
6. Eddie Cetkin 
7. Nic Curtis 
8. Vaughan Coveny 
9. Joseph Youseff 
10. Gianni De Nittis 
11. Yusef Yusef 
12. Sam Torrens 
13. Francesco Stella 
14. Ramazan Tavsancioglu 
15. Fernando De Moraes 
17. Stiven Mrkela 
18. Danni Radojicic 
19. Goran Zoric 
20. Nathan Caldwell 
21. Stefan Sardellic 
22. Matthew Foschini 
23. Sebastian Petrovich 
24. Andrew Sfetkopoulos