Internecine - South Melbourne 1 Pascoe Vale 0

Same as it ever was
This week was another interesting week at South Melbourne, even if it was still mostly a continuation of the post-NSL era phenomenon of the off field stuff being far more interesting than what happens on the field. What makes this slightly more tragic now is that despite the turmoil, the team is actually playing well (or at least well enough to still be undefeated) and therefore the gap between the on and field levels of interest shouldn't be this high. But here we are.

Come gather, 'round children...
Two themes largely dominated the discussion rounds this week. First was the banning of Cliff Hussey from the club indefinitely after his online run-in with Nick Epifano. Cliff thus began the transformation from marginal, shuffling, bad haircut freak show to, for some people at least, the people's hero - a change which could yet prove to be validated, and thus incredibly dangerous for those who've put their lot in with Epifano and Chris Taylor, the person who's most gone into bat for Epifano. Despite people pushing for him to turn up to last night's match in order to provoke some sort of protest action, Cliff did the sensible thing and stayed away, The pre-match rumour that Epifano was set to get a start or a bench position, despite his own indefinite ban from football, proved to be a false alarm.

The questions that keep you up at night
Is it true that Epifano is due to go overseas sometime during the season? If he has serious mental problems that he needs to sort out, shouldn't he be taking a break from football to sort them out, instead of always seemingly being near enough to getting a game, if not getting one? Who is responsible for anonymously posting the comment on here about his Facebook comment after the Bentleigh game? If we lose players mid-season, who can we find in the transfer window that's worthwhile, isn't cup tied, and won't break the player points tally? What happens if the latest arbitrary deadline set by Martin Foley for the resolution of the lease issue passes? Can we go on together with suspicious minds?

From donkey to thoroughbred in six weeks
The other issue was the rumour (from a usually reliable source) that Andy Brennan's trial at Newcastle Jets was such a success that he's signed a two year deal with that side, which seemed to be confirmed to me last night with a metaphorical nod and a wink by another insider. The reaction on the forum was terribly predictable, but as Dr Phil says, the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour.

So there was the usual reactionary anger against the FFA. There were was more pragmatic argument about the structures that make this sort of thing inevitable, although with little acknowledgement of the fact that we've had very few players taken up to the A-League. There were even those who, out of a sense of defeat and/or genuine goodwill, wished Brennan well, and hoped that we could keep him for at least a while longer before he officially has to leave. Some people though were hinting at treason and betrayal; that Brennan and the club have hoodwinked the fans; that Brennan would not put in 100% now that he had an A-League gig; that we should have put our best player onto a professional contract.

Never mind that Brennan came from being an off the bench impact player, to starting against the Knights in part because of one goose's stupid antics and the other two strikers' inability to stick the landing - within six short weeks he went from potential glue stick to champion racehorse. The tragicomic call for our 'better' players to be put on professional contracts, and if possible for more than one season - aside from the costs that would be incurred for doing so - is exactly the opposite course of action to what people asked for when we did have players on long term contracts! Those players on longer term contracts eventually became an albatross around our collective neck, as they routinely underperformed or became injured. The call then was for bringing in a ton of a new players and a new coach to replace those at the club, and then bemoan the lack of stability, and on and on it goes,

The structural injustice we have to deal with means that there can be (and is) justifiable anger when something like this is due to occur - but the fact is that this structural injustice is sufficiently onorous that there's really no need to start frothing at the mouth and putting that foam on the cake and calling it whipped cream.

The whole thing smacks of effort

Some of Clarendon Corner's old guard look on, unamused and unimpressed.

There has been a steady influx of kids in the active areas at South of late. That's a good thing. That they are self-styling themselves as 'ultras' (with the current name of 'Enosi 59'), and trying to bring in A-League style chants and attitude, well, that isn't necessarily going over so well. Some of the older heads have latched onto the enthusiasm the new group has brought to affairs - I mean, how often is it that Clarendon Corner makes an effort against teams like Pascoe Vale? - but others aren't sold on this yet. The kids haven't done the hard yards, they haven't proven themselves over the journey. And where's the sense humour? The 'schizophrenia' chant doesn't count. It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out. Is it possible for a state league team to have two different chanting groups? The last time that was tried, when Gate 1 split off from CC, it didn't last very long.

In the midst of all this, a game of soccer broke out
As for the game itself, I wouldn't call it dire or lacklustre, just disappointing. I expected more from Pascoe Vale, but they mostly sat back and tried to hit us on the counter. For a team that has some serviceable attacking options, it looked liked they'd decided from the start they were going to sit back and take what few opportunities that may fall their way - a long way from the team that should have destroyed Port Melbourne in the first half earlier this season.

We weren't great, and too often it seemed like we resorted to long medium balls over the top and long range shots, but we got the job done again in a game that few got to see and fewer still will remember. When Milos Lujic scored what turned out to be the game's only goal - from one of those aforementioned balls over the top, with a little help from a deflection - it nevertheless seemed to have come from nowhere; and even though I admit I wasn't fully paying attention at that moment, and thus more likely to conceive of the situation as happening almost outside of the realm of the game's expected flow, the replay also seems to suggest that it was a goal out of almost nothing.

Heavy rain then swept across from the west, turning over the sponsor boards and sending the officials scuttling out to get the ball kids indoors, lest they catch a cold. Team manager Frank Piccione filled in for a bit until the weather calmed down, though he didn't exactly looked thrilled about it. Having once performed a similar role during an ill-fated cup game, I can sympathise.

The second half was better from us, even as the weather turned nasty. Lujic hit the post with a header, Dane Milovanovic cracked a powerful long range shot which at least looked spectacular, and a volleyed Brennan attempt almost managed goal of the season of the status, were it not for the visitor's keeper making the save. At the other end, apart from set pieces - and even there Pascoe Vale were generally poor - the most likely means of us conceding were the weather and our own complacency, neither of which made much impact on the game.

Crowd watch
My resident realist informant said 400, including the people in the souvlaki line. No propaganda number was provided. When they all bunched up together in the upper parts of the stand when the rain began, it looked like more from my side on position, but doesn't it always? I'm starting to come around to the idea that anything later than 8:00pm kickoff time for the senior game is just madness, especially when they start the game at 8:13 instead of the scheduled 8:15 anyway.

Next week
Port away on Friday night. Another little mini-South reunion: Shaun Kelly, Alan Kearney, Kamal Ibrahim, Trent Rixon. It's going to be fun.

The Great Tomato Sauce Shortage of 2015
Those who there will be telling their grandchildren about this. I mentioned in my round 1 report that the Water Rat burger was tasty, but completely undone by the lack of tomato sauce. Well last night I tried their chicken parma - which at $18 instead of $22 for South fans, is a sort of special deal I guess - and was greatly disappointed. A burger with fancy capsicum paste instead of tomato sauce? I can understand if not approve of that. A parma without any napoli sauce? As I struggled through my chicken schnitzel covered in burnt cheese, I decided that I'd stick to the happy hour beers, but from now on eat from the Valkanis canteen instead, even if it does take half an hour of waiting in line for a souv. And just to emphasise how bad this tomato sauce shortage crisis is  - even their bottle of tomato ketchup (really guys, ketchup?) on the outside table was just about empty.

Around the grounds
I love the smell of napalm oil refineries in the morning afternoon
Altona East vs North Sunshine Eagles out at Paisley Park. The first thing I notice is how many North Sunshine supporters are at the ground halfway through the reserves game - dead set, there are more people at the ground by 2:15 then there are for most Altona East senior games. The second thing I notice, after buying my souvlaki and hanging out next to the ticket shed, is that I can smell the refinery next door. Two weeks away from Altona North is all it took for me to lose my immunity to that odour. North Sunshine took a 1-0 lead into half time courtesy of a free header from a corner. East equalised early in the second half from a well worked move, but conceded again from another unmarked header, then left a man by himself at the back post to be 3-1 down. A late penalty to the hosts made it 3-2, but poor passing made a late equaliser unlikely. It didn't happen.

Final thought
'You need to unban Cliff/He's not as bad as Griff'

Between the lines - Hume City 0 South Melbourne 1

(alternative title: Juvenilia flavoured experiment in harmonising dissonant and/or discordant narratives)

One day they will make it easier to cross from the north side of Barry road to the south side, maybe even place a footpath on the south side, but until that time at least once a year I will be taking my life into my hands hoping a car doesn't floor me as it comes around the bend. An outstanding defensive display helped South Melbourne FC defeat Hume City 0-1 at ABD Stadium on Saturday night. The weather was calm, even pleasant during the under 20s game, which I think we won. Five minutes before the seniors kickoff though the wind picked up and all of a sudden watching the planes fly low overhead as they descended towards Tullamarine wasn't as fun as it had been up until that point. On a treacherous night in Broadmeadows, Milos Lujic’s first half header was enough to secure the points in a game that was far from pretty but considerably entertaining nonetheless. Some of the people who had got there early complained about the long lines to get food and drink in the Hume City social club, but I had little issue getting a can of Turkish gazoza. The win extended South’s unbeaten start to the season to eight games in the PlayStation 4 NPL Victoria and ten games across all competitions. South won the first eleven League matches of the 2014 season before going on to win the title. I was impressed with Broadmeadows Valley Park has come along; last year the stand, this year adequate if not spectacular lighting, and a very good scoreboard. of course it was hard to see what was going for much of this game, as the rain started coming down, and standing huddled eight people to one umbrella at the northern end of the ground, it was difficult to tell what was going on. That, and because I had a beanie instead of a hat, my glasses got wet and my vision even blurrier than usual. And where was the little shed that they used to have behind those goals? It might have been a different story had Hume City captain Nick Hegarty found the back of the net in the eighth minute of the game. Hegarty’s header struck the underside of the crossbar, bouncing back out into the field of play before eventually being cleared by Brad Norton. For those of us behind the goal, it was one of those games where the chatter devolved into the absurd. A 'Frozen' (the kids movie, not the Madonna song) inspired chant; Pokemon; meteorologists; what Christi Malthouse is doing with herself these days. South was forced to withstand some heavy pressure from the home side early in the match, before Lujic’s ninth goal of the season gave the defending NPL Victoria Champions the lead after 26 minutes. Nick Epifano delivered a delightful ball to the near post, with Lujic finding the back of the net with a characteristically powerful header. Prior to the game, Steve from Broady had considered the merits of going home - he lives very near to the ground - and getting a jumper or jacket. Having decided against this, and being unable to squeeze under Gains' umbrellas, he gets absolutely soaked. The lead gave Chris Taylor’s men more control over proceedings, with Epifano and Andy Brennan constantly threatening on each flank. One of the kids behind the goals, a possible affiliate of the new 'ultras' group that seems to have coalesced at South, has that group's apparent ringleader on speakerphone, in a discussion hat lasts for a huge portion of the game. Just before half-time a surging run from Brennan resulted in a free-kick on the edge of the area. After initially slipping in his run-up, Dane Milovanovic drove a powerful shot underneath the wall which forced Hume goalkeeper Chris Oldfield into a terrific diving save. Fan loyalty, being hardcore, the self-esteem derived from being a part of a downtrodden brotherhood - at some point you realise it's all a crock, perhaps 65 minutes into a game where you sense that the 1-0 lead you're desperately clinging onto will be erased by an injury time equaliser The nobility of work is a sham, a lie. A combination of shocking conditions and some excellent defending from both sides meant that chances were few and far between in the second half. Photographer Cindy Nitsos' camera lens is streaked with water. Pleas for some tissues to clean it up mean that some are found, and delivered by one of the home team's ground marshals. Tim Mala was particularly outstanding at the right side of defence, nailing a series of important slide tackles and successfully nullifying star Hume attacker Jai Ingham.At one stage David Stirton is running into open space at the edge of the box, but goes down like he's been shot. Is it the groin issue that's been troubling him? As he comes around behind the southern goals where we're standing after having been subbed off, he says it's a corky. Somebody tells him to use up all the hot water in the shower. Someone else says make sure Epa doesn't get any. The game came to life in the final ten minutes when Hume had a big chance to level the scores, only for Calvin Mbarga’s header to sail over the crossbar. Hume's goalkeeper Chris Oldfield went in hard for a punched clearance, and it looks like he's hurt his arm. All our pleas to the team though to take advantage of his bung arm go unheeded however. Moments later Andy Brennan skipped down the field after a slip from a Hume defender, however the big Tasmanian’s shot went just wide of the post. It mattered little, with the final whistle sounding a few moments later to give South a sixth League win in 2015 with Taylor’s side still unbeaten in ten matches across all competitions this season. Someone makes a quip to Andy Brennan that he should be playing well in this weather, because it's quite Tasmanian in character. Captain Michael Eagar commended the resilience of his squad after three wins in seven days during the past week. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy tonight but we knuckled down, did the hard yards and got the deserved three points. We had a tough derby match last Saturday, then the midweek Cup game and then another tough game tonight. It’s been a great effort by everyone in the squad. Everyone has done their job when called upon.” I'm happy that we've won the game, but I'm cold and wet and hungry and I just want to make as uick an exit from here as possible. Fix Hellas Beer Man of the Match Tim Mala was also quick to sing the praises of the defence and striker Milos Lujic. “Millsy is the sort of guy that if you give him half a metre he’s so dangerous that he makes you pay and that’s what he did tonight. It was a good effort by everyone really, we had to grind it out but we got the win and you can see that we’re buzzing now.” In the stand after the game, I spot soccer academic Les Street and newly elected FFV boardmember Nicholas Tsiaras, who is kind enough to give me and Gains a lift to Batman Station. During the trip, we discuss the convoluted and closer than many think election race. There was further good news in the Under 20s as Nashir Hussainy’s second half goal gave South Melbourne a 0-1 win over Hume City. After having some KFC (Korean fried chicken) for dinner in the city, I make my way to Spencer Street, where I get asked by two people what North did tonight, which I don't mind this time, because they were playing a match at Docklands that had just finished. On the train replacement bus back to Sunshine, there's a woman who's half Courtney Cox, half Alice Cooper, holding a large bottle of San Pellegrino mineral water. South Melbourne FC’s next match is at home against Pascoe Vale at Lakeside Stadium on Friday 24 April. Kick-off is at 8:15pm.

Dockerty Cup news
We've been drawn to play the Knights at home. While the game will be played over the Queen's Birthday weekend, no time or date has been selected yet.

Andy Brennan on trial
News from the South Hobart site is that he's been called up for a trial this week with Newcastle Jets, but that he will be back for Friday's game against Pascoe Vale.

The continuing adventures of Nick Epifano (featuring Cliff)
Another week, another social media related storm, this time with Epifano suspended indefinitely from football activity, and with a fan also being banned from games indefinitely. This comes on the back of certain events which occurred yesterday on smfcboard, where South fan (and former contributor to this blog) 'Cliff' posted screenshots of correspondence between himself and Nick Epifano. It just so happens that I did not get to see any of the correspondence before it was deleted from the forum. My understanding is that it did not provide a complete picture of the exchange between Epifano and Cliff. What a mess.

I'm not a trained monkey!

@PaulMavroudis give us a wave. #PS4NPLVIC pic.twitter.com/McKUN1TVXK
— Les Street (@official_lesdog) April 18, 2015

Final thought

“I stand by my ethnic slur.” pic.twitter.com/TKy40yp2Pe
— SimpsonsQOTD (@SimpsonsQOTD) April 19, 2015

South Melbourne in FIFA 12... sorta

If you have the FIFA 12 game for xbox, ps3 or pc, you can also play as South Melbourne - albeit only in exhibition matches, online friendlies and user-created tournaments.

To access this service, you have to visit the FIFA 12 site, sign in, and select the 'Creation Centre' under the 'Play Now' tab. You then do a search for South Melbourne, where you should be taken to a section where there are several South Melbourne sides available, including one by our old friend Cliff. Select the one you want, and bookmark it. When you next connect online to your game on your console, select 'Creation Centre' and download the teams.

There are also other former National Soccer League teams, including extensive if arbitrary selections by users named 'NSL Warrior' and Australian soccer forum veteran ZimzuM - Parramatta Melita Eagles have a team, but their Maltese cousins Sunshine George Cross do not. Add the of course already in Perth Glory to the list, as well as several random teams - yes, there's an Inter Monaro team available to download - and you can go back to the hazy, crazy days of the NSL in your own self made tournament, albeit with completely unrealistic crowds.

Another side of the unrealistic nature of this scenario is that the teams tend to be greatly overpowered, being mostly in the range of 4 1/2 stars, which I suppose helps you play against people who insist on using Barcelona, Manchester United etc. One wonders why people insist on full licensing when 3/4 of the online crowd pick the usual teams.

I suppose it doesn't matter - what counts is that there's people out there having a go at some sort of tailoring this game, and South of the Border is proud to promote these people's initiative.

Halcyon Days of Making an Idiot of Yourself

Once upon a time we had a sort of intern here by the name of Cliff Hussey, who was initially inspired to create a rival or complementary South Melbourne Hellas blog, before we roped him in to do match reports and provide shaky, nausea inducing videos. Does he still come to games? I don't know. Where is he nowadays? Lighting up the Melbourne social scene judging by his Facebook ramblings.

Apart from the disturbing memories of his bizarre emo dress sense, Cliff did leave us with some great artefacts, the pick of the bunch being this video of the now banned fan known as 'Columbo', doing his usual abuse the keeper shtick before making making a fool of himself by falling over the fence and making some random kid laugh.

South of the Border welcomes the Kiss of Death - Round 3, 2010, match previews

Someone out there has finally cracked. They've grown weary after enduring the endless, mind numbing and poorly formatted pieces that pass for match previews on this site, and have decided to take up the famous Kiss of Death role on here. Of course, the anonymity of the Kiss of Death will be a tightly guarded secret, unless of course they choose to out themselves - suffice to say, it isn't me.

So welcome Kiss of Death to the South of the Border stable - let's hope you don't go the way of our last - and only prior regular contributor - Cliff Hussey, who's been missing in action since the end of 2008 (where he would write match reports for us), with reports being that he either joined a vampire fetish cult of some sort, or is too busy living it up as much as he can before he, like millions of teenagers before him he comes to realise how much of a tool he was at that age. Nah, Cliff's alright. But that haircut...

KISS OF DEATH - Round 3, 2010

Bentleigh Greens vs Altona Magic
Bentleigh Greens to win this one 2-1. The Magic will struggle down at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex. The facility does not suit their wide playing midfielders. On a positive note, Bentleigh is playing the NTC 2 days earlier, but as expected will field a stock standard 'who gives a shit’ side. The peanut man to make a killing down at his beloved Pangyprios.

Northcote City vs South Melbourne - The battle of the ‘sister clubs’.
Northcote City are looking for their first win in this years VPL campaign and so are South Melbourne. Northcote is yet to gain a point after 2 rounds, whereas South Melbourne have drawn 2 against Altona Magic away, and Bentleigh at home. South Melbourne to continue Northcote’s battle to stay up with a convincing 0-3 win away from home. A good crowd is expected, Greek dancing, Greek music on the PA, and a queue as far as the eye can see to purchase food and drinks. Ahmet Turer to do absolutely nothing.

Green Gully Cavaliers vs Oakleigh Cannons
Green Gully to convincingly put away Oakleigh 2-0, with plenty of missed chances. Jerry Karpeh to cost Oakleigh at least three clear goals. After this game, an inquisition will be held down at Jack Edwards Reserve.

Dandenong Thunder vs Richmond
Dandy Funder to get their second win this season against the mixed bag of Richmond.
In what has been an expected slow start by Dandy, this will just be a flash in the pan performance. Poor results to continue for both sides this season.

Melbourne Knights vs Sunshine Georgies
Melbourne Knights to let Sunshine George Cross know why they are paying rent. Melbourne Knights to win 3-1 with a performance more polished than their 3-3 draw against the Bergers. In what was a stroke of coaching madness, the Knights let a 3-1 lead with ten minutes to go wash away into Melbourne's wild weather. Knights to teach Sunshine George Cross a lesson in football fluency.

Heidelberg United vs Hume City
As they drive home from the Village with 3 points in the bag, Hume will be left to ponder what could’ve been a record victory. A miserly 1-0 victory should’ve been at least 7, but when you play the Bergers on a terrible pitch, in piss poor conditions, in front of a crowd of 85 (excluding the bar staff and officials), low scores are expected. They only play to beat South.

Forgot one thing, but no surprise really.

Two years of doing this thing. Just eight more years before it earns me a life membership, so I can then grumble like the rest of the life members about having to pay the $50 life membersip renewal fee. But like that will ever happen.
This is what happened this year. No value judgments.

• Less articles, in part because there were no interstate trips, no A-League bid, and the Eels' Hombre Lobo was actually a pretty crappy record.
• Talked to public service people about stuff.
• Pissed off some people intentionally.
• Pissed off some people unintentionally.
• Didn't change the layout a billion times.
  
• Lost Cliff to muzzadom.

Thankyou to CC White for another win, Ian for free books, Cuddles for telling me all the things I can't say, Psile for matching my cynicism stride for stride, Gains for providing a stupid sense of hope that this club's support base can be replenished, Tony for letting me be a quizmaster, Mildura Vasili for being a fan, Michal for being on msn a lot, Nick 'the other Polish South fan', the Offset no. 9 team for putting out a decent book, and the people who had my back went it counted - you know who you are.

South of the Border awards 2009

Collect and prepare ingredients from February-August. Simmer over low heat for a couple of days. Post and leave to cool on blog windowsill and be ignored by everyone.

Player of the year: Sebastian Petrovic. Even George Katsakis was impressed with his performances this year.

Under 21 player of the year: The Cliff Hussey Memorial Trophy goes to James Spanos. Rare for a player to go through an entire season and not make a single mistake, but he did it.

Goal of the year: Goran Zoric's fourth goal against Preston at BT Connor. Flick, volley, from outside the box, top corner, 7-1, good night nurse.

Best performance over a whole match: Bergers away. Too bad we couldn't score a goal to go with it.

Best period of play during the season: Probably the first 20 minutes of the 2nd half against the Knights at Lakeside. We kinda looked like we could do anything then.

Best away game: Richmond. Good company (except for Psile, who was in hiding from Victorious), good food, good win, and the Pies got up by a point as well.

Best call on the terraces: The old bloke who'd fainted/collapsed at the home game against Hume. When the ambulance arrived and he'd seemingly partially recovered he apparently asked them if he could stay to watch the second half. I was saddened to hear that this person, apparently a member for over 40 years, passed away a few weeks ago. My condolence to his family and friends. I hope I still have the same love for this club in 40 years time.

Chant of the year: Come On Hellas! Forza! Hellas!. Yes it's a chant from 2008, but one which was only chanted with any enthusiasm once the bloke who created it fucked off to Poland.

The blog entry that will hopefully single-handedly destroy any credibiltiy I may have

You clowns have been reading and not reading the blog for a touch over a year now. And what have you ever gotten? Not much to be honest. Let's do a quick stocktake. Staggeringly self-important haiku written in hospital waiting rooms and university tutorial downtime. Nonsense rants about Bordeaux Monkeys and assorted other genetic monstrosities. Rumours and the occasional fact thrown in for good measure, but not anything you wouldn't have learnt from somewhere else anyway. Writing proficiency which has steadily gone down the toilet. Varying degrees of shit presentation, with abominable and lazy colour schemes, and logos that despite their best intentions were classic examples of carpet not matching the drapes. A few photos here and there, with the only good ones being stolen from other people. The erratic and sometimes straightout just plain uninformative match reports from myself and Cliff. And to top it all off, a chief writer who has been  toyed with by the powerful and lay person with personal vendettas and nefarious agendas alike, which therefore gets passed on to you, almost all done with the anonymity I grant people as encouragement to post delicate yet powerful pieces of wisdom. And can you believe that I even attached my name to this? What was I thinking? I didn't even get a media pass out of this to avoid paying the other gyppo clubs in this league. Seeing as I was so desperate to start this enterprise, why couldn't I at least do it quietly, anonymously, with no fanfare, and maybe even simple one line entries, aiming for some sort of zen like quality. And it's not like I have any tactical nous either, to give you some entries with even adequate analysis of positions, tactics and all that jazz. And those match previews, the most lazy arse pieces of crap. And what was even worse is that writers for the official even picked up my 'last time they played' gimmick, which I stole from The Age, making me feel all "if this is anyone but Steve Allen, you're stealing my bit". And now my internet speed has been shaped until Sunday. Just awesome.

What I guess I'm trying to say is that rather than quit and stop providing this obviously grand service free of charge, ad free, and with no comment restrictions, is that there's going to be a few changes. First, comments will now be verified by me before being posted, and you will need a legit email account of some sort to post. If you're a dickhead with a hidden agenda looking only to hurt people who are well known in the South community while you cower in your thatched mud and twig internet hermit shack, your time is up. I should have done it a long time ago, and I'm sorry to you Cindy especially, no matter how much I disagree with you on some or many things, that I did not take this action earlier. Already I have started re-organising some of the categories on right hand side. As seen in the last few weeks, there will be more effort put in to the presentation. Where possible, and within my obviously limited web skills, photos will not hang like a cow's udder in nothingness. There'll be some new segments which will last only a few weeks, but dammit at least they'll be new. I'll upload more videos from days gone by. There might be a crappy South of the Border t-shirt made up, for me only (unless Cliff wants one that badly), to further paint a massive target on me wherever I go. And while some changes will be made, rest assured, some things will stay the same. There'll still be a distinct lack of contributions from people that aren't me, despite me wishing that it would happen that people would become inspired to love this club just that little bit more to get their creative juices flowing. Half of you will still watch the A-League on a regular basis, either on tv or in person, and then claim that you don't or at best, are not obsessed. despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

Happy 50th year everyone. How about getting some more Greek players into the team so we can get all those fans that went to watch a team with a mangled Scottish heritage at the first sign of South heading trouble to come back. 2009 is going to kick fucking arse. 

Are you ready to laugh boys and girls?

Tomorrow is the day of the annual Clarendon Corner vs Original Melbourne 21 supporters match, which raises funds for our supporters group to make banners, fund gimmicks and help the club out where we can - this year that fund has already helped supplement the cost of the legendary Canberra trip, as well as buy the club a folding machine, amangst many worthy pursuits. Your correspondent will be playing in the shitkicker opening game tomorrow for the Whites against those evil Blues. There'll be food and drink as well, opening game starts at 1:00, main game at 3:15. Alas Cliff won't be there to sign autographs, but hopefully his mates decide to turn up.

South of the Border Awards for 2008

Yeah, yeah, time to do this again. Only I, Paul, had anything to do with this list. Except for the under 21 player of the year, which was handed to our own under 21 contributor of the year, Cliff. And his choice was a pretty good one, as well as his footage of our goal of the year.

Player of the year: Nathan Caldwell. Well duh. Put in plenty of effort throughout the year, set up some great chances, snagged a few goals, though he could've had more. Seemed revivatilsed by the arrival of Micky M. If anything, our most consistent player this season, when consistency was an attribute sorely lacking

Under 21 player of the year: Gianni De Nittis. Had a solid season particularly after the arrival of Micky M. Will be amongst the first signings of a Southern Cross team you'd hope.

Goal of the year: Not too many contenders, and some may think Fernando's free kick against Western Suburbs should be a shoe in, but no. The winner is Hamlet Armenian's goal against Oakleigh. Spectacular? No. From a short corner? Yes. 'Nuff said really. Now stop doing them.



Best performance over a whole match: Hmm, tough one. The Knights game at home, thoroughly enjoyed the game, even if we tired towards the end.

Best period of play during the season: Those two goals in two minutes against Preston at BT Connor. Probably.

Best away game: Richmond and Frankston would be right to feel jilted, where it for any other season where we didn't go to Canberra. Read all about it here, minus all the in-jokes that we just can't reprint.

Best call on the terraces: 'Why'? If you were there, you know what I'm talking about.

Chant of the year: Anything to do with this would have won


But best of all was the staccato, Pi O-esque oh. oh. oh. version. It was getting all literary and highbrow there for a sudden.

Dull ending to the season... Farewell Deano!!

In our last home game of the season, we managed to fight out a 1-1 draw with the Whittlesea Zebras. Yet another game where we dominated but failed to score. Another disgrace of a ref. What is new?

Early in the 1st half, we saw a well aimed header by Gianni De Nittis reach the back of the net to open the scoring. Being 1-0 up, a shot by Rama that went over the keeper and into the net was called for offside; In fact we were called offside a few times today. Not long after, they equalised, with Deano making a good save on their first shot, but failing to stop the second shot on the rebound, which wasn't his fault.

The rest of the game saw both teams going at it trying to find the 3 points desperately. A win would've given Whittlesea a chance to avoid relegation. We dominated the play, but could not score the final goal to get in front, but we managed to hold on for a draw.

Before the game, we had the Open Forum, in which we were informed on our upcoming A League bid and we were given the chance to ask questions about it. The end of the match saw us giving Deano a farewell, thanking him for his loyalty to South and applauding his extraordinary career.

Although I'd like to wish Deano, from all of us, a farewell and well done on a fantastic career. At 38 years of age, and former Victorian Premier League Goalkeeper of the Year in 2005 and 2006, he has accomplished a lot and we hope to see him around the club in the near future.

DEANO! DEANO! DEANO!

Hopefully I can have the video of us farewelling Deano at the end up soon. :)

A small win, but an effective win

In what was a very even game, South Melbourne overcame the odds to defeat 3rd spot Altona Magic in which was club legend Dean Anastasiadis' second last game of his career.

At the start, we saw some attacking play from South, in which we had a few fair chances to score but failed to score, including a chance for Gianni, 1 or 2 for Zoric and a mistake where we sent in a cross and an Altona player headed it towards the goal, only for their keeper to get to it just in time. There wasn't a whole lot to see except for South really trying to find the back of the net and Altona trying their hardest to get it down the other end so they could score. Altona had a few chances as well, but I'd say South outplayed them in the first half.

In the second half, we saw pretty much the same thing going ahead, and mid-way in the 2nd half we saw a one on one chance missed by Gianni de Nittis, in which he failed to slot the ball past Altona keeper Bojo Jevdjevic and instead sent it straight into Jevdjevic's feet. Later on, just before we hit 90 minutes, Petrovich scored the one goal for us that led us to win, sent in by a nice cross. We managed to hold on in the last few minutes in which we saw new signing Francesco Stella come on and play.

Overall, an average game, very evenly matched, and for a weak squad I have to say we did well to win. And just for the record, I managed to count 2 handballs let go by the referee... not to mention a clear corner which we all saw, only for the referee to say goalkick... And this happened on two occasions!! My mate managed to film our goal though, so credit to him for the video.

One home game left... :(

Could've gone either way, but the scores stay locked - South Melbourne 2 Melbourne Knights 2

A draw. Not what we wanted, but what we got. To be honest, by the way we played I don't believe we deserved a win. Maybe we did, by 1 goal max, which would've had to have been scored in the closing minutes. An early penalty in the first half saw Fernando De Moraes slot one home to send us up 1-0, then early in the second half we saw Gianni De Nittis tap in a through ball which was smoothly sent in by new signing Petrovich.

We went into half time hoping for at least a sealer in the second half or just solid play to at least keep the lead. But it wasn't to be. Our skill just dropped in the second half, and the Knights just pushed to the limit and got their 2 equalisers that they needed. They got their first goal after Gianni De Nittis had a good chance on goal, but it hit the post and their keeper eventually got rid of it. With the ball heading down the other end, the Knights capitalized when James Timmons sent a nice shot in and made it 2-1 for the Knights. Not too long after, Andrew Barisic sent another one in for the Knights to level the scores at 2-2.

Nunes received a red card in the middle of the first half, which was for a bit of an incident with a Knights player where he retaliated to a Knights player. The referee was disgraceful as usual, letting at least 4 clear handballs go that I counted; 3 against the Knights where one saw the ball in the Knights player's hand and him turning around with the ball to change the direction, and 1 against us which was against Fernando, where a few of our players called it too. And he let some rash tackles go too, including a clear boot in the head to one of our players, mean tackle to one of our players but then Rama ran in with a nudge to send the Knights player packing onto the floor which was also let go.

I agree with what Michael Chatzitrifonos (Richmond Eagles coach) had to say about the referees in the FFV. All over the FFV, the referees are disgusting. The next few weeks will see us take on Fawkner away, Altona at home, Richmond away, Whittlesea at home and Frankston away. We should be able to beat Fawkner for sure, Altona we have a pretty good chance, Richmond could go either way, Whittlesea we should really win, and Frankston... Well we should also really win this but it could prove to be difficult

Until Altona...

Take careeee ;)

Fernando de Moraes scores the first goal from a penalty: (Thanks to Pavlaki for the proper vid)


Fernando de Moraes scores the first goal from a penalty: (Cliff's effort)

Preston overcome the odds - South Melbourne 1 Preston Lions 2

Today saw a big disappointment in South. According to past results and recent history, it looked as if South had a really good chance at winning. We went into the game confident. Preston with their new coach Markovski who could spice things up a bit, but nonetheless it was looking good for us. O'Dor was still out though, serving his second game for his suspension, but he still made the effort to come and watch the game along with Mitchell Langerak (Former South keeper who was on loan from current team Melbourne Victory).

The first half was really close, seeing a stronger Preston than usual and them trying very hard to prevent us from scoring. There were quite a few chances, but not much action to write about, and we saw a 0-0 end as we went to the break. Early in the second half we saw a goal for Preston scored by an almighty free kick by Michael Bosevski, leading to Armenian being brought on and Adem Tavsancioglu off in hope of a goal like Hamlet's goal against Oakleigh but to no avail. The next 15 minutes saw us trying to pull ourselves together and really get an equalizer at least, in which we did when we hit 70 minutes and a nice cross was sent in for Nathan Caldwell to hit a beautiful header into the net past Acevski who made every effort to get it but was in fact too slow for the speedy shot.

Another 15 minutes later and we had Preston's sealer from Tony Sterjovski, which I believe was tapped in after a missed chance and a clearance although I could be wrong. This lead to Goran Zoric and Sam Poutakidis going off and youngsters Robby Wynne and Antonio La Verde coming on. The last 5 minutes saw a million pauses in which we failed to get that last minute chance on goal. The end saw the little of the Preston fans behind the goals celebrating with the players and the rest of them leaving as did the South fans. The fans side of things wasn't big at all. All out we had a few hundred supporters max, not a big crowd at all.

All throughout the game, we played fairly well but Preston really lifted for this game and it showed. There were 2 spots where we had disallowed goals for offside too, and as usual, we had a typical FFV ref who let every handball go whichever the team.

Aw well,
'Til next time ;)

Rama's goal disallowed for offside:

New contributor to South of the Border

If you're wondering what the hell is going on with this blog, well we have a new contributor whose work you should already be familiar with. Cliff has already provided a few videos for your entertainment, and will be contributing match reports for us from here on in. That doesn't mean that I'll stop doing them, indeed there may be times where Cliff isn't at a game - like this this week for example, though why should that stop anybody from making stuff up - but he seems more keen on writing them up, and who am I stand in the way of the younger generation? Cliff may add other stuff, subject to my iron fist editorial judgment, but for now enjoy the enthusiasm of youth, and think about contributing to the blog yourself.

Hamlet on the ball; Hellas 3 - Okli 1

Well, sorry for the late post, but here we go. Sunday provided us with a very entertaining match, one of our best all year. Was my first time seeing new signing Tommi Tommich in action, and he is a killer goalkeeper. We hit 1-0 in the first 30-40 seconds, with Zoric getting the final touch to send it in after a missed shot.

Oakleigh had a free kick early in the game, with Damianos sending it just over the bar but Tommich in position anyway. The 2-0 wasn't long after, where we had a ball going into the box, and Fernando was just there to tap it over the keeper.

Cagalj was taken off pretty early in the game; Having started the match with the flu and a bit of a cold, he got to the point of not being able to continue, and was replaced by a second keeper who did fairly well for them.

During the second half, we started to see a stronger Oakleigh who were desperate for at least a point, and after a strong shot by Munoz which was deflected nicely by Tommich, but Drakos got a touch straight after to send it in before Tommich could get up... Just unfortunate that there were hardly any fans to witness it and be behind the goals to cheer for their side.

Towards the end of the match though, in what appeared to be our corner, the referee awarded a throw-in which had alot of us puzzled... And not to mention the bit where we were about to take a corner and we just cop a yellow while our player was getting ready, might upload the video later on.

Then right at the end, after a very hard fought contest between the two sides, Poutakidis hits a nice ball into the box right outside the goals, and right off the bench is Armenian, who taps it in to steer clear of a draw.The end of the match saw the players come and embrace us in celebration, as we are really looking to head up the ladder now. Good luck boys! For some reason the embed code for the ending to the match won't work, here's my work of Hamlet's tap-in anyway...




And the clip of after the game can be found at:




We have a big game this week, where we shall face off against the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, which will see a hard game for both sides. We need to come back from that 0-2 loss earlier in the year, which also saw Fernando miss a penalty sadly. :(

Take it easy y'all!

South step up when it counts - South Melbourne 3 Oakleigh 1

Impressive victory. 2-0 up within 15 minutes. Played with 10 men for majority of the game, and yet still managed to stifle Oakleigh, who created little. Refereeing was fucking crap. Our attacking play was wonderful to watch, as was the rock solid goalkeeping of Tomich. Scored a goal off a short corner. Time to retire them now.


Hamlet Armenian's sealer at the end, courtesy of Cliff. Great to see Hamlet get his first goal at long last.

Ricky Diaco - on how to take and how not take a penalty

Thanks to Cliff for the footage.

Yay!





Nay.

A bit late, but it's something

Footage of the first goal from last week's game against Fawkner... once again, not the best footage - sitting right behind the goals on the same elevation as they play is not a great idea - but at least you can see the ball a bit in this clip, and get the gist of what happened. Thanks to Cliff for the footage, and thanks to me for providing a medium for it to be uploaded without failing.

Masochism for beginners

Thanks to those who took these videos. This time Cliff had no trouble with being potentially hit by the ball.

First up, from right behind the goals.



And from a slight angle.



Better luck next time, I guess. Tomorrow's lesson will be on how to correspond effectively with your constituents.