FFA Cup, hooray, I guess - South Melbourne 6 Frankston Pines 1

In front of a crowd of about 400 (rounded up by our counter), we did the business against a plucky but outclassed Frankston Pines side. The upside of all this is we're into the semi finals of the Dockerty Cup as well as, I suppose more importantly for some, back on the national stage for the first time since the NSL (if one discounts last year's NPL national finals adventure).

The downside of that is that I'm not sure how much further we can go playing the way we're playing at the moment. Now even taking into account such things as only being able to beat the opposition put in front of you, some of our outs with players playing in unusual positions, and the fact that in some ways we're in a transition phase mid-season, we weren't very good. There were players that should have seen this game as an opportunity to really make their mark, but failed to do so - and I'm not counting the junk time last twenty minutes when Pines were more or less dead on their feet.

Conceding that late goal from a corner did no harm within the game, but showed once again that we've got a real problem in defending set pieces. And as one forum scribe noted, playing the way we did in the first 30 minutes against one of our league's better teams will do us no good at all. But climbing back from the ledge for a moment, we know this year's team can play better than they have been in the last couple of weeks, that they have the possibility of lifting a gear when needed, but I suppose the point is you'd rather not have to be in the position where you need to do that.

Anyway, the vibe was good at the game especially after we finally got the first couple of goals, with some good chanting, good humour, and with South fans clapping off Frankston Pines - though I'm not sure what 2-3 of the Enosi boys thought they were doing when they went over to try and taunt some of the women supporting Pines after we scored our first goal. Luckily someone sensible from Clarendon Corner sorted that out; we really don't need that kind of stupidity. Equally stupid were the people that used a back gate or far side gate to get into the ground - were they caught and evicted? I'm not sure. Neither am I sure if they were the same people as those who were later seen hanging about outside the fence on the Clarendon Street end with some sort of banner I think. Some people claimed they were Frankston/Victory fans, but who can tell for sure?

Next game
This Sunday at home against Werribee City, at the stupid, stupid, stupid time of 5:00PM. Why not 3:00PM? Are they worried that if we play when it's slightly more pleasant that it may mean 20 more people might turn up?

Dockerty Cup and FFA Cup news
As noted earlier, we're into the semi finals of the Dockerty Cup, but the draw for those games won't happen until next week's other quarter finals are completed. Oakleigh made it through last night, beating South Springvale 2-1. As for the FFA Cup, the draw for the round of 32 will be made on July 1st, once all 32 qualifiers become known.

Final thought
Yes, I'm aware that on field things could be going much, much worse!

South vs Pines tonight

Tonight South plays Frankston Pines out at Monterrey Reserve, with kickoff at 7:00PM. If you're not heading out to the Asian Cup like I am, it might be worth a look.

Football Chaos

We've been linked to another great site, one that I should have informed my readers of long ago - Football Chaos. Their site tagline pretty much nails down their attitude - Forget about 'grassroots', we go for the weeds! 


They tend to eschew videoing of VPL matches, focusing instead on teams from lower down the leagues, especially in the southern and eastern parts of metropolitan Melbourne.


The camera work is fantastic - even occasionally using three cameras! - there's no commentary, except for that provided by the crowd, and you get to see a stack of different teams and grounds that you otherwise would miss out on. Highly recommended!

Here's some of their work from 2005... heady days at Monterey Reserve, with Lance Whitnall lookalike Nick Waite gracing the paddock. Since then, their video and production work has gone up several notches.

Free at last! Free at last! Praise Science, we are free at last! Frankston Pines 1 South Melbourne 3

Came from behind to take the points, and now we can all do something more productive with our weekends.

Time to say goodbye

Deano farewell vid, as done by Doc. Some good stuff in there, some good stuff left out, but Deano seemed to like it, as did everyone who's seen it, and that's the important thing. He won't be keeping today by the way, I think Sardelic will be in that role.

Just when you thought it was safe to go to Frankston...

... you could very well see Deano playing this week! For you see, current South number 1 Tomislav Tomich has been called up to the Victory for three weeks to be their number 2, while their number 2 and one time South number 1 Mitch Langerak replaces their number 1 and one time South benchwarmer except for five games Michael Theoklitos. Got it? Good. Anyway, I reckon they should give th gig to the kid from the ressies Stefan Sardelic, seemed to know what he was doing the few times I've seen him, Which is more than can be said for the rest of the under 21 squad unfortunately.

Last game of the season, hooray. - Round 26, Frankston Pines vs South Melbourne

Last Time They Met
We won.

Preview
Should be fun.

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

Thanks to Cliff for the footage.

Yay!





Nay.

The Nick Jelic Game - South Melbourne 3 Frankston Pines 1

Good to get away with all three points, after going behind early and missing a penalty. Nando's 2nd half cameo was probably the difference, kati downhill skiing from the whole team in the 2nd half. Anyway, that's three in a row now, four points outside the top six, massive game against Heidelberg coming up. And not a bad debut from Jelic in goal, too bad he's going back to the NSWPL to play for Blacktown.

South looking for 3 wins in a row - Round 13, South Melbourne vs Frankston Pines

Don't you love obvious anagrams that shouldn't be touched with 30 foot pole?

Last time they met

Round 25, 2006, at Bob Jane Stadium

South Melbourne 5 Frankston Pines 1

The Pines hung in there for a while, even leveling the scores after Tavsancioglu put South ahead early, but doubles from De Moraes and De Nittis put paid to any notion of an upset. One team was on the march to the finals, and one was headed for relegation, and it showed all over the field.

Preview
South hasn't won three in a row since mid last year. Pines haven't won a game all season, managing only two draws and conceding an average of over of two goals a game. I know who my money's on. And yet this could be the kind of game where the Pines rally, and with Peter Zois now in goals, South's poor finishing this year may find another obstacle to overcome. But really, South should win this fairly comfortably, considering that they've started to show signs of cohesion and form, and continue to close the gap on the top six, and a win here would set up a nice little derby against Heidelberg next week, with the hopes of launching the 2nd half of the season in a much better fashion than they started it.

Or Perhaps Not

Someone has now reported hearing on 3xy that Zois has been snaffled by, of all teams, Frankston Pines. All this is good for is the post count.

While you were sleeping, part 1

This is for those former readers of Park Life (and anyone who has just woken up from the last two years) to get them up to speed, more or less. Yes it's incomplete. Feel free to add stuff in the comments section, or maybe I'll accept your offer of joining me on this literary crusade.

2006

* South fields a full strength side against the Oakleigh Cannons in the Hellenic Cup final, with hopes of winning not just the game, but also the $10,000 in prize money. They fail.

* A couple of days later, South takes out the FFV's pre-season cup with a very young squad against Fawkner Whittlesea, and wins only $5,000.

* After the big crowds against Heidelberg in all three games the previous season, and on a perfect day for football, an underwhelming crowd of about only 5,000 turn up in round 1 to watch South steal victory with two goals at the death.

* Australia plays Greece in a friendly, and a big crowd turns up and watches Australia win a pretty half arsed game.

* A few days later football's growing popularity is reiterated when the Matildas play Mexico. Despite the obstacles of soccer and world cup fever, a beautiful day and free entry, Bob Jane Stadium was bursting at the seams with the massive crowd of 150 patrons, including the massive contingent of 3 Green and Gold Army personnel.

* After losing a few players to the A-League during the season (Coveny, Salley) and probably some others to injury or 'bad' behaviour, South 'recruits' three players (Dino Djulbic, Andreas Oliveira and Antonion Naglieri) from the Frankston Pines. These players become a crucial part of the side immediately, though Naglieri will only be missed when he's gone.

* The World Cup comes around, Australia do quite well, and football becomes even less eviler.

* An injury to star striker Kevin Nelson sees him leave the club in acrimonious circumstances. The fact that he had the first touch of an elephant, mostly couldn't be arsed jumping, running or defending, and mostly only finding himself in correct positions by accident, has little to do with his departure.

* South finishes the regular season in third place, on the back particularly of strong form in derby games (5 wins and 1 draw against the Bergers, Knights and Preston).

* South earns a grand final place after consecutive wins against Green Gully and Altona Magic. In the grand final itself, also against the Magic, 5,100 or so people turn up on a cold and very windy day to see Gianni De Nittis head home Fernando De Moraes' cross from close range, to lead South to a 1-0 victory and its 8th state title. Most South fans are at least momentarily happy.

* World footballing legend and South's 1991 NSL championship coach Ferenc Puskas passes away. Thankfully, very little of his time in Australia is mentioned in the media, thus avoiding publicity for South Melbourne and any mention of football pre-2005 without reference to an ethnic riot.