No one deserved anything for this season, yet here we are.
Player of the year: Jake Marshall. Had to give it to someone, and since barely anyone either played all or most games, or even played consistently well in most games, I'm giving it to the bloke who improved the most from last season.
Under 21 player of the year: The Cliff Hussey Memorial Trophy goes to Ben Djiba. An actual South youth player who won himself a starting position and didn't look out of place in doing so.
Goal of the year: Luke Adams' chest control and volley against Port all the way back in round 3. There were some flukey goals, a couple of nice goals by Gerrie Sylaidos, even some nice team goals, but since we barely had a striker all season, Adams' finish was the closest we'd get. And it was a nice goal.
Best performance: Heidelberg away. We looked like the real deal for half an hour.
Best away game: Also Heidelberg away. Much comedy ensued.
Call of the year: Hume goalkeeper Michael Weier's genuine concern for our emotional welfare when he noticed that we weren't abusing him.
Chant of the year: the cantor at Heidelberg away during the bride and groom's photo. Sorry to everyone else who tried to come up with chants to the tune of 'Guantanamera' or 'Go West', or whatever that very bad Josh Dorron chant out at Dandenong was.
Best pre-match/after match dinner location: Afghan Star in Sunshine.
Friends we lost along the way: A South umbrella I lost at a Catholic community hall.
Barely related to anything stupidity highlight of the year: The People's Champ actually getting the sack from a club. Who knew it could be that easy?
Showing posts with label Luke Adams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luke Adams. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Home and away - Kingston City 0 South Melbourne 2
Last Thursday evening I got a new floater in my "good" eye, and following my doc's repeated instructions, I turned up to his office first thing on Friday, and then followed that up with a Monday afternoon visit, which seeing as it would result in my eye being dilated, ruled me out of Monday night's game. So, in lieu of my actual presence, this week we've got a guest match report from Josh McKenzie. Thanks to Josh for answering the call to give it a go.
Josh McKenzie's take
As one would expect, there was only a small crowd on hand to watch this game, with a good deal of South's usual traveling support probably being put off by the Monday night start in the middle of nowhere. Not that this game was going to draw in a blockbuster crowd at any rate. Thankfully, things were better than in recent weeks on the pitch.
Hell, we even looked good and/or better than our opponent, like we actually deserved to win by even more than the two goal margin that we did win by. The coach even made some good, attacking subs, our attacks looked almost fluid, and even our crossing wasn't so bad once Matthew Millar decided that trying to launch balls onto the other pitch was probably not the best use of his latent talents; although to be fair, he did tuck away our first goal with a nice finish. Our defending meanwhile was a bit higgledy-piggledy at times, but Kingston weren't able to take advantage of that; and on the one occasion they did, Tyson made a fantastic save from the penalty. Rumours are that Luke Adams will be rejoining the side, which will go a long way to fixing that.
Tragically, we didn't help ourselves in stretching out this lead by falling back on playing corners either short or along the ground, an abnormal choice considering that opposition goalie Stephen Hatzikourtis isn't the tallest goalie in this league. Intzidis and Foschini put in some beautiful balls forward for Minatel and Brennan, which again influenced our attack to look significantly more potent. In the second half, we found it very hard to keep the ball and were camped in our own half for long periods of time; and while we managed to scramble well in defense and repel most of the aerial bombardment, Kingston’s poor finishing - and the tidy goalkeeping work of Jerrad Tyson - was as important to keeping the home side from scoring as whatever else happened on the night.
Our focus turns to the big game on Sunday against high flyers Avondale. I’ll see you all there!
As for myself
After my getting home from my doctor's appointment, I settled in to listen to the FFV's radio broadcast of the match. This used to be a common enough thing for me to do regardless of the match at hand, but South's form being what it is this season my enjoyment of the NPL as a whole has been diminished. Call it petty, call it what you will, it's the truth - my enjoyment of this league as a whole is lessened when when we're not doing well.
And while still not having reached even the halfway point of the season is a good enough excuse not to talk up relegation fancies yet - as well as Bulleen and Hume having fallen way behind the pack and into the automatic relegation slots - this was a relegation six pointer in all but name, even if it was only for the relegation playoff spot. So, I tuned in to the stream nervous as all hell, as nervous as or if not more so than for FFA Cup battles with our relevance supposedly on the line, or for grand finals.
How confident could you be with the way we'd been playing, or with the personnel we'd had out, and the threadbare bench we refuse to use in any case. And even Kingston had their own outs, and their own troubles putting away goals - just nine goals in their ten matches up until that point - they still had an actual brand name striker in their starting eleven, the kind we'd probably try and pinch in the event they got relegated. But then three minutes in, Kingston coughed the ball up in midfield, someone - possibly Nick Epifano - put Matthew Millar through on goal, and he scored. Of all the games for me to miss, it was one where Millar actually took one of his many chances.
(Albeit, when watching the replay later, having hit it straight at the Kingston keeper instead of picking one of the two corners, Millar was exceptionally lucky to have the ball go through the stranded keeper's legs. One problem at a time though.)
Then just a few minutes later, makeshift striker Oliver Minatel scored to put us two up, in a fashion that commentator Teo Pellizzeri was not quite sure of; in it's own way, it was a fitting description of all of Minatel's goal so far for South, following his unsighted ruck hitout against Oakleigh, and his fortunate massive deflected effort against Hume.
(There was some comment in the aftermath of the goal on the radio broadcast, that a South Melbourne free kick in the lead up to the goal was not played from the correct spot, the result of an error from the referee. While normally I would absolutely agree with this kind of rationalisation, the replay made me reconsider because of one point, on a moral of not legal technicality. The reason that the ball was not even near the correct spot of the foul following the awarding of the free kick was because a Kingston player had thrown the ball away from that era.
Did that ease the nerves of this listener at home? Not really. Kingston came out fired up, we seemed to be stuck somewhat in our half for the remainder if the opening 45 minutes, and judging from the commentary, lucky not to have conceded one or two goals. Kingston had a penalty, no one calling the game quite sure what for (replays says it was holding by Brad Norton, which is fair enough, but then that should be called every game), but Jerrad Tyson made a double save from the ensuing penalty, and then I really regretted not being able to be there.
Then Kingston hit the crossbar at some point, and then halftime. We were two-nil up, but not playing particularly well, which given the circumstances is probably still better than being nil-nil and having created a handful of golden chances you haven't taken. After the musical interval, the second half began, and I'd like to say that we sounded sharper and more dominant - maybe we were, I dunno - but more importantly it didn't sound like Kingston were doing much, and most of the rest of the game passed by in a haze.
It was a haze punctuated by Andy Brennan's long range effort cannoning off the inside of the right post, and after a good period of listening to Teo and his offsider talk about the weekend that was - and being able to make out Shouty Mike's voice in front of the commentary position - it occurred to me there were only 15, then 10, then 5 minutes left, and only a pending collapse of spectacular dimensions to deny us all three points. The collapse never came, and relieved, I switched off the Mixlr app, and didn't think much more about the immediate consequences of the result.
The win put us three points clear of Kingston, along with our far superior goal difference, and three points closer to the finals places, for those who dare to dream of such lofty heights.
Next game
At home on Sunday against Avondale.
Just a heads up that if you notice any unusual people taking photographs on Sunday, it's probably either French freelance journalist Gregory Letort or a photographer friend of his. Gregory's working on a few different pieces for French language press for the World Cup, and our very own South Melbourne Hellas is one of the things he's been doing some research on.
Premature mid-season transfer talk
As far as I can tell, the transfer window doesn't open until May 28, but this hasn't stopped people from talking about all sorts of possibilities. And why would it? Whether we're in a race for the top or a scrap at the bottom, pointless speculation about who you could bring in and who you could turf, and especially who's about to betray the club and become dead to you is what makes the soccer world go 'round.
Alongside the persistent rumour-mongering that any number of players are due to ditch for this or that club, there's been talk former South Melbourne championship winning centre-back Luke Adams has either signed with us, or is being courted by a few different teams. Adams had been spotted at Lakeside during the Green Gully game, but the usual rules apply - until they step into the field for us in a competitive fixture - and in these increasingly paranoid times, until it's clear that they weren't ineligible for that fixture - there's no point in going off the deep end.
Even under the circumstances of such rampant uncertainty, one of the more curious things to happen on Monday night was the naming of Marcus Schroen on the bench. I know he's been back in training for a little while now, but it does seem like an awfully quick recover from *insert whenever it was Schroen did his knee*. Does he even have any match fitness? Still, good to seemingly have him back, even though I'm not a huge fan myself. At least he'll be a step up in the free kick taking department.
Mother of all something
I did manage to get to one soccer match on the weekend, that being the WNPL game between South and Box Hill on Saturday. Neither team has set the world on fire so far this season - though South has been better than Box Hill - and this game kinda showed why. The first half wasn't too bad, Box Hill trying to hit us on the counter, and us trying to pass our way to goal. We took the lead, conceded the equaliser, and then retook the lead before halftime through Julia Nicolaci, even if her name was almost impossible to read on the redesigned scoreboard graphics. The second half was mostly played between the two 18 yard boxes, and nothing much important happened, though there were some people waiting for Sofia Sakalis to get called offside at one point, which has become a sort of parlour game for a very small handful of people that watch the women's team. Some of those people are also involved in coming up with nicknames for the players... "Little Slugger" for Kathryn Vlahopoulos is the main one these people are working on. Despite the erratic season the women are having, they've managed to work their way into third, which is pretty good considering that the squad seems younger than last year.
Final thought
On the matter of the PFA's history conference, which was held on Tuesday, I hope to get something written up on that by the end of the week.
Josh McKenzie's take
Hell, we even looked good and/or better than our opponent, like we actually deserved to win by even more than the two goal margin that we did win by. The coach even made some good, attacking subs, our attacks looked almost fluid, and even our crossing wasn't so bad once Matthew Millar decided that trying to launch balls onto the other pitch was probably not the best use of his latent talents; although to be fair, he did tuck away our first goal with a nice finish. Our defending meanwhile was a bit higgledy-piggledy at times, but Kingston weren't able to take advantage of that; and on the one occasion they did, Tyson made a fantastic save from the penalty. Rumours are that Luke Adams will be rejoining the side, which will go a long way to fixing that.
Tragically, we didn't help ourselves in stretching out this lead by falling back on playing corners either short or along the ground, an abnormal choice considering that opposition goalie Stephen Hatzikourtis isn't the tallest goalie in this league. Intzidis and Foschini put in some beautiful balls forward for Minatel and Brennan, which again influenced our attack to look significantly more potent. In the second half, we found it very hard to keep the ball and were camped in our own half for long periods of time; and while we managed to scramble well in defense and repel most of the aerial bombardment, Kingston’s poor finishing - and the tidy goalkeeping work of Jerrad Tyson - was as important to keeping the home side from scoring as whatever else happened on the night.
Our focus turns to the big game on Sunday against high flyers Avondale. I’ll see you all there!
As for myself
After my getting home from my doctor's appointment, I settled in to listen to the FFV's radio broadcast of the match. This used to be a common enough thing for me to do regardless of the match at hand, but South's form being what it is this season my enjoyment of the NPL as a whole has been diminished. Call it petty, call it what you will, it's the truth - my enjoyment of this league as a whole is lessened when when we're not doing well.
How confident could you be with the way we'd been playing, or with the personnel we'd had out, and the threadbare bench we refuse to use in any case. And even Kingston had their own outs, and their own troubles putting away goals - just nine goals in their ten matches up until that point - they still had an actual brand name striker in their starting eleven, the kind we'd probably try and pinch in the event they got relegated. But then three minutes in, Kingston coughed the ball up in midfield, someone - possibly Nick Epifano - put Matthew Millar through on goal, and he scored. Of all the games for me to miss, it was one where Millar actually took one of his many chances.
(Albeit, when watching the replay later, having hit it straight at the Kingston keeper instead of picking one of the two corners, Millar was exceptionally lucky to have the ball go through the stranded keeper's legs. One problem at a time though.)
Then just a few minutes later, makeshift striker Oliver Minatel scored to put us two up, in a fashion that commentator Teo Pellizzeri was not quite sure of; in it's own way, it was a fitting description of all of Minatel's goal so far for South, following his unsighted ruck hitout against Oakleigh, and his fortunate massive deflected effort against Hume.
(There was some comment in the aftermath of the goal on the radio broadcast, that a South Melbourne free kick in the lead up to the goal was not played from the correct spot, the result of an error from the referee. While normally I would absolutely agree with this kind of rationalisation, the replay made me reconsider because of one point, on a moral of not legal technicality. The reason that the ball was not even near the correct spot of the foul following the awarding of the free kick was because a Kingston player had thrown the ball away from that era.
Did that ease the nerves of this listener at home? Not really. Kingston came out fired up, we seemed to be stuck somewhat in our half for the remainder if the opening 45 minutes, and judging from the commentary, lucky not to have conceded one or two goals. Kingston had a penalty, no one calling the game quite sure what for (replays says it was holding by Brad Norton, which is fair enough, but then that should be called every game), but Jerrad Tyson made a double save from the ensuing penalty, and then I really regretted not being able to be there.
Then Kingston hit the crossbar at some point, and then halftime. We were two-nil up, but not playing particularly well, which given the circumstances is probably still better than being nil-nil and having created a handful of golden chances you haven't taken. After the musical interval, the second half began, and I'd like to say that we sounded sharper and more dominant - maybe we were, I dunno - but more importantly it didn't sound like Kingston were doing much, and most of the rest of the game passed by in a haze.
It was a haze punctuated by Andy Brennan's long range effort cannoning off the inside of the right post, and after a good period of listening to Teo and his offsider talk about the weekend that was - and being able to make out Shouty Mike's voice in front of the commentary position - it occurred to me there were only 15, then 10, then 5 minutes left, and only a pending collapse of spectacular dimensions to deny us all three points. The collapse never came, and relieved, I switched off the Mixlr app, and didn't think much more about the immediate consequences of the result.
The win put us three points clear of Kingston, along with our far superior goal difference, and three points closer to the finals places, for those who dare to dream of such lofty heights.
Next game
At home on Sunday against Avondale.
Just a heads up that if you notice any unusual people taking photographs on Sunday, it's probably either French freelance journalist Gregory Letort or a photographer friend of his. Gregory's working on a few different pieces for French language press for the World Cup, and our very own South Melbourne Hellas is one of the things he's been doing some research on.
As far as I can tell, the transfer window doesn't open until May 28, but this hasn't stopped people from talking about all sorts of possibilities. And why would it? Whether we're in a race for the top or a scrap at the bottom, pointless speculation about who you could bring in and who you could turf, and especially who's about to betray the club and become dead to you is what makes the soccer world go 'round.
Alongside the persistent rumour-mongering that any number of players are due to ditch for this or that club, there's been talk former South Melbourne championship winning centre-back Luke Adams has either signed with us, or is being courted by a few different teams. Adams had been spotted at Lakeside during the Green Gully game, but the usual rules apply - until they step into the field for us in a competitive fixture - and in these increasingly paranoid times, until it's clear that they weren't ineligible for that fixture - there's no point in going off the deep end.
Even under the circumstances of such rampant uncertainty, one of the more curious things to happen on Monday night was the naming of Marcus Schroen on the bench. I know he's been back in training for a little while now, but it does seem like an awfully quick recover from *insert whenever it was Schroen did his knee*. Does he even have any match fitness? Still, good to seemingly have him back, even though I'm not a huge fan myself. At least he'll be a step up in the free kick taking department.
Mother of all something
I did manage to get to one soccer match on the weekend, that being the WNPL game between South and Box Hill on Saturday. Neither team has set the world on fire so far this season - though South has been better than Box Hill - and this game kinda showed why. The first half wasn't too bad, Box Hill trying to hit us on the counter, and us trying to pass our way to goal. We took the lead, conceded the equaliser, and then retook the lead before halftime through Julia Nicolaci, even if her name was almost impossible to read on the redesigned scoreboard graphics. The second half was mostly played between the two 18 yard boxes, and nothing much important happened, though there were some people waiting for Sofia Sakalis to get called offside at one point, which has become a sort of parlour game for a very small handful of people that watch the women's team. Some of those people are also involved in coming up with nicknames for the players... "Little Slugger" for Kathryn Vlahopoulos is the main one these people are working on. Despite the erratic season the women are having, they've managed to work their way into third, which is pretty good considering that the squad seems younger than last year.
Final thought
On the matter of the PFA's history conference, which was held on Tuesday, I hope to get something written up on that by the end of the week.
Monday, 3 July 2017
Coming up short - South Melbourne 1 Green Gully 2
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| Luke Adams puts in a cross during injury time. Photo: Cindy Nitsos. |
And to think that we started this game off so well, with our most blistering counter-attack goal since forever. It looked like a fully fledged credible professional goal. Not some fluke long bomb, not a goal mouth scramble, not some dire defensive error, but a ridgy-didge team goal executed with flair and polish. Then we sat back, or least gave Gully too much room to waltz around the middle of the park. I'm not sure if it was an instruction, or something instinctive in the players as a whole, but it has happened on a few occasions this season where we've given the opposition to show initiative for reasons I'm not able to understand - neither do I exactly know who to blame.
I speculate that there was some instruction to sit back from Chris Taylor, because Leigh Minopoulos was sitting quite deep and playing pretty close to Matthew Foschini. Leigh's a good player, but he's not necessarily a defensive or grunt style player, so it seemed odd to me that he'd be so far back. I said to a mate I reckon he'd be subbed for Stefan Zinni, and lo and behold, that's almost what happened in the second half - though instead of Zinni, it was David Barca Moreno who replaced Leigh. But more on that later.
The absence of Michael Eagar due to suspension didn't help matters - his reading of the play both at centre back and on his forays to defensive mid to clean up attacks has been a big part of our turnaround in form. Kristian Konstantinidis, finally back after his long suspension, filled in for Eagar, but it didn't quite feel the same. This is understandable, because Konstantinidis has been out of the game for ages. Still, it was a general issue across the park. Gully's first goal from a corner was the tip of the iceberg - we'd been struggling to clear our lines, and it was only right that they'd pull the goal back from a goal mouth scramble.
That's not to say that we'd given up attacking, and we had our fair share of moments in the first half, but our execution let us down. But the sloppy play cost us at the other end of the ground as well, when Jesse Daley's misplaced pass in midfield, and Jonathan Bounas being allowed to ungracefully stroll through midfield by Daley and Luke Pavlou and launch a bomb. So, 2-1 down at half time, and in the second half more casual defending gifted Gully the chance to extend their lead.
But credit to the South boys, they had by far the better of the second half. A pity that our crosses were dealt with too easily most of the time, and that luck wasn't on our side. But you also make your own luck, and Daley being carded in the box for a dive, and then Millar (the latter at least probably a slip than simulation, but he was certainly claiming the foul).
Nick Epifano shot high from the edge of the area when he should've at least hit the target. Barca Moreno, who did little of note during his stint, missed an open header in injury time - a sharp chance, yes, but one he should score. And Milos Lujic thought he'd be smart and put his penalty shot (earned by a Zinni run) straight down the middle, again, but Lewis Spine didn't fall for it. The short corner played at the death was the stuff of a million South Melbourne short corner nightmares.
The loss is a setback, because having worked so hard to work our way to a share of top spot, we've fallen behind both in terms of points (three behind Heidelberg) and lost a good chunk of goal difference because of the Bergers' solid 4-0 win at North Geelong. Seeing as we have Avondale, Bentleigh, Hume and Pascoe Vale to play - as well as the desperate Knights and Kingston, our aim of finishing top, while not gone by a long short, is now that much harder because of this loss. The saving grace may be
Next game
North Geelong away, in the first of four consecutive away matches. I'm looking forward to this one, except for the getting there and back part.
Social club still ironing out the kinks
There was more refinement in the social club menu, though nothing earth shattering. There was pastitsio on the specials board, and I saw South of the Border favourite Savvas Tzionis trying to make headway into what was a frankly ludicrously huge piece.
It was also the first home game in quite some time with the under 20s playing in the curtain raiser. That meant that at least nominally, membership cards should have been scanned and tickets sold right from the start of the day. When having the women's team play the curtain raiser, FFV rules stipulate that club cannot charge for entry before half time of those games - this is because you're not allowed to charge entry for WNPL games.
But on Sunday, there was talk that entry to the venue was not necessarily effectively enforced. While I had my membership scanned, I didn't notice any security early on making sure people entering did the same or at least buy a ticket. To be fair, I think most people turning up did the right thing - and the security/bag check area outside the door leading to the arena was manned, as usual and asking for proof of membership or tickets.
But it seems like both an inefficient and error prone process. I hope it gets sorted out soon.
So it's come to this, again - FFA Cup draw news
The short version is that we've been drawn at home against Edgeworth Eagles for the FFA Cup round of 32. Our match has been scheduled for Wednesday July 26th - the game will also be broadcast on Fox Sports.
The long version is of course much sadder than the short version, because this is what we live for now.
The club put up the notice that they would open up the social club for lunch while the draw was streamed, and yea verily they turned up in their, well, not too bad numbers all things considered. Of those expected to 'represent' in some sense, there were club employees, some board members, Brad Norton and Michael Eagar. As for the fans, it was made of the self-employed, the non-employed, and those within rock throwing distance of Lakeside - all waiting to see who'd we get put up against in this tournament which I loathe with, if not quite every fibre of my being, then at least those bits that I can spare.
Having flown up a number of coaches up to Sydney for the draw, it made sense that the whole thing would be dragged out for as long as it took, but you've got to pity those who took the day off work to do so and then ended up not being interviewed. Aside from having to do deal with Fox stretching the draw out, the lowlight was having to endure the drone of Kenny Lowe's voice. Call me juvenile, but the highlight of the broadcast for me was host Tara Ruhston being caught off-guard when an ad break finished early with the camera, catching her fixing something on her teeth. I don't know why I'm so easily amused when things go even momentarily and minutely wrong on TV.
— Daniel McBreen (@djmcbreen) June 29, 2017In the social club there was an unofficial and not very strictly enforced social media embargo placed upon attendees, as the stream was of course on slight but noticeable delay compared to the television feed - you know, to keep the suspense within the social club space itself at a maximum. To be fair, it kinda worked. As numbers were plucked out of the bowl, there seemed to be the inevitable feeling that we'd draw Victory or
Then Hume were drawn at home to Bentleigh, and everyone had a big laugh, though on reflection I'm not sure it was actually that funny. I suppose once we get bundled out at the first go again, we can take solace that one of those two will be joining us. And then out came whatever the number was for Edgeworth Eagles, pleasing some people up to a point, but otherwise seemingly leaving no faction happy. Those positively gagging for an A-League tie were left particularly disappointed. I suppose for some it's a missed chance to promote Lakeside as an A-League venue - I mean, in the event that we're still actively striving for that. For others, not going on an away trip was the bigger issue, and I can sympathise - although unlike those hoping for a tropical or exotic escapade - like - Darwin - I was hoping for Hobart or Canberra.
As for possible non-A League home games, Edgeworth aren't exactly anyone's first choice - I think some people would've preferred an old NSL rival. While I'm sure they'll bring down however many numbers that they can, Edgeworth aren't exactly a draw card team. Neither are they an obvious easy beat - after all, they did knock out Bentleigh last year in the national NPL playoffs. In a sense, given the unlikelihood of a big crowd turning up - prove me wrong, bandwagon brigade! - there's not much to gain here for South except progression to the next round. Which, when I think about it, is actually kind of quaint - the event is taking place almost for its own sake. Maybe I've finally found the way I can get on board this farce of a tournament.
Others might be able to make do with spurious nostalgia.
But those people who wanted something where we'd clean up thanks to a big pay day - especially one particular mover and shaker who insisted the draw had been rigged beforehand to put us up against Victory - have been left disappointed. To which I say,South Melbourne vs. Edgeworth has the potential for Daniel McBreen to play South 17 years after first doing so in the NSL in December 2000.— Shane Henry (@Hirald0) June 29, 2017
Congratulations to...
South Melbourne WNPL goalscoring machine Melina Ayres, who has been selected for the Young Matildas squad to play a series of preparation matches against Canada and the USA in Canberra, in preparation for the AFC U19 Women’s Championships. Of course, Ayres having been picked for the Young Matildas before this selection and before she came to South, so it's not like we can take all the credit, but it's a nice thing nevertheless. Someone else is going to have step into the goal scoring breach in her place though, which will be tough as our lead at the top of WNPL ladder is back doiwn to one point after a 3-3 draw away to Geelong in Torquay.
Around the grounds
Yes, we also sell socks at our pro-shop on match days.
Yes I ended up at a freezing and half blackout affected Somers Street on Friday night for Knights vs Avondale. Watching Knights lose has gotten a bit dull, so I was here to see Avondale as much as anything. Good old Avondale, the team going 1.2222222222222222 goals a game and yet not far off top spot with a couple of games in hand. They led this game early thanks to a penalty, but for those hoping for a Knights collapse, it didn't come. The home side pulled a goal back before the break, and while the game justly ended in a draw, the Knights were the unluckier of the two sides not to pick up all three points. Those who had written Knights off entirely for this season have probably jumped the gun a bit, and one expects a tough encounter for South in two weeks time.
Overclocked
Saturday afternoon was probably the last Paisley Park derby for some time. Altona East were coming off a rare win the week before, but still in second last and in the firing line for relegation to State League 2. Altona Magic have streaked this league, as everyone has expected them to, and promotion to NPL 2 is only a matter of time. It's not unreasonable however to suggest that Magic have overdone the spend this season in pursuit of that aim. Players the calibre of Amadu Koroma, Marinos Gasparis, Joey Franjic, Jason Hayne, and James McGarry make it so much easier. These are all players who should be either in NPL or at worst playing for clubs pushing for promotion in NPL 2. East set up defensively as you'd expect, did well to limit Magic to not much for 44 minutes, then copped a long range effort which hit the crossbar twice and which may or may not have gone in. The out of position linesman gave his assent, and East were stuffed from then on. Two more goals to Magic saw them win this in a saunter. It was actually pretty dull.
Final thought
Credit to the People's Champ for showing some maturity in getting Jesse Daley away from the referee and the Gully players after Daley was booked for diving. Minus credit for the cheap shot the People's Champ gave to a Gully opponent in midfield when he thought the referee wasn't looking.
Thursday, 25 May 2017
Broken down and rebuilt from scratch - South Melbourne 5 Dandenong City 4
We have options
For a well balanced review of last night's game, read the Corner Flag's story on the match.
For a professional report, see David Davutovic's Herald Sun piece.
The short version
Two weeks ago
I decided belatedly to get a flu shot. I hadn't had one for a couple of years, but decided to do it this year because I'm in the final stretch of my thesis work, and besides which, I watch a lot of soccer during the winter and didn't want to be laid up at home unnecessarily. Apparently it takes two weeks to work, so it was a good thing I didn't get sick during that time.
One week ago
Someone used a pair of scissors to break into my car, but found nothing of value to take except for a box of tissues and a pair of my dad's reading glasses. I'm not sure what they were expecting to find in a 1989 Toyota Camry with two of its rims missing. I haven't even bothered checking to see if they took my Achtung Baby cassette; it's not like the cassette player in the car works anyway.
Saturday
I experienced the brief visceral thrill of watching Collingwood beat Hawthorn on television, before rationalising that it was a Hawthorn side missing five of its best, while at the early stages of re-build, and how did we get seven goals down anyway? I then watched Spinal Tap on SBS2, not really thinking that I'd be rationalising anything like that Pies' win on Wednesday, not even really thinking about Wednesday at all.
Sunday
Get to Lakeside, and have a blast watching a game that no one really cares about. Get home, have dinner, write a slapdash and uninspired match report for a game that no one cared about.
Monday
Trying to get some work done. Started to feel that nervousness kick in. Hating every second of it. But so far it's been bearable. As usual, Twitter provides a useful distraction. Late in the afternoon I get a message from a mate about a conversation he's overheard on the tram (see right). I don't know what to make of it, because on the one hand, it's completely unimportant - I mean, it's only South Melbourne after all. And there's also the paranoid matter of it possibly being part of a disinformation plan.
Tuesday
Realised I'd lost my USB drive at uni, again. But fortunately found it where I'd left it the day before.
Juniper Hill earned a hard fought 1-0 win on the road in the fourth round of the Oceanian Cup. I skimmed through the relevant parts of Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters and Ange Postecoglou's book for my thesis. And then it was finally time to go to Lakeside.
Frivolity leads to near-despair
Having a drink and a feed in the social club while watching a futsal match, the mood was light and festive. I even made lighthearted quip toward Milos Lujic as he was walking in about his choice of hat. I honestly did not feel as nervous about this game as I normally would have. Even when we got outside and Clarendon Corner inexplicably split into Upper and Lower factions, the fact that there was a Rod Stewart lookalike wandering around our bay just reinforced the nonchalance I was feeling. That, and Nick Epifano opened the scoring within two minutes, with a left foot shot of all things. Even when we conceded the equalising goal soon afterwards, I didn't feel particularly bad. Annoyed, but not bad. In any event, the team spent the next twenty minutes carving up the visitors, so surely another goal for us was coming soon, right?
When Milos Lujic was pushed in the back in the box, I thought surely that would be the chance to retake the lead, but the ref didn't call it, and City went up the other end and scored. And that's when things started to look really rubbish. We'd had City where we wanted them, off-balance and chasing shadows - especially Stefan Zinni's - and now we were behind and forced to play the game on their terms. We lost our nerve, and started bombing the ball long to Milos, and every one of those balls was cleared away easily by the City defense. Worse, we weren't really putting any pressure on City's players on the ball, so they were able to play as they wanted to.
In the last five minutes of the half it looked like we were getting our mojo back just a bit, so it was a surprise to see Zinni benched and replaced with Leigh Minopoulos. Is Zinni not match fit? Was the plan to only play him for an hour or so and hope we'd have wreaked enough havoc that we could sub him off safely? Whatever the initial plan was, I give credit to Chris Taylor for going for the early sub instead of waiting, even if it's not the sub I would've made myself. The move and whatever was in the halftime talk seemed to work, as we came out in much the same way we had in the first 25 minutes of the game.
[I am reminded here of something I'd read in Postecoglou's book earlier that day, about a coach having really very little opportunity to make an impact during the course of a game, and realistically only four or so minutes in ideal circumstances during the halftime break - it's probably a bit different in a fully professional environment compared to one merely aspiring to reach that level. The overall point here though is that the coach, while not being absolved of match day results and decision making consequences, must do most of their work during the training sessions, and not just on fitness - they must prepare the team to be able to handle itself on the field without the coach's constant interference.]
But the elephant in the room - the makeshift defense - came back to bite us on the arse repeatedly. Letting former South Melbourne Hellas defender and golden boot (2012 season) Shaun Kelly score once was bad enough, but twice? The marking for both goals looked abysmal. How he was able to get so free for that header beggars belief. So 4-1 down, and now I'm slumped in my chair. Worse is to come, because we revert to that nonsense long ball crap, which Ljubo Milicevic deals with easily. As eccentric as he is, he's a fine player, and among his greatest assets is his ability to read the play - not much of a challenge the way we were going about it though.
We had begun the season with four senior and experienced centre backs, and somehow started this game with just one. So while the coaching staff don't escape any of the blame for what happened last night, I would like to berate two people in particular before anyone else. Those people are Kristian Konstantinidis and Luke Adam. Konstantinidis for his finger business suspension; Adams for going on holiday during the season. Oh, and a special brickbat to whoever couldn't manage to keep Carl Piergianni around for one more week knowing that we would be short staffed in this area.
[I am reminded here of a game away against the then all conquering Dandenong Thunder in 2012, where we squeezed out a meritorious draw despite being similarly short-handed, in part because we'd managed to get Filip Jonsson to stick around long enough to play one more game.]
The lack of centre-backs meant that we ended up using Tim Mala at centre-back and Luke Pavlou at right back, throwing our whole backline and system out of whack. It was scenes straight out of Gully from earlier this year. You can't blame a player for under-performing in a position they are clearly not used to or suited to playing in. At some point someone decided that Matthew Foschini at centre-back and Pavlou in the defensive midfield role wasn't the way to go, We got punished for this repeatedly. Every time City went up the field they looked dangerous. They didn't even do it that often, because we had most of the ball, but their efficiency in front of goal showed not only how makeshift our defense was, but also the quality of the chances City created. But that didn't mean that their defense had magically improved. We'd just reverted to being dumb and playing dumb. You might call it a lack of composure, you might call it a lack of leadership; you might call it both, and you wouldn't be wrong on either count.
[Discussing this issue with one of the coaching staff after the game, he felt it could be one of those things which changes the side as we've known it during the Chris Taylor era. Having managed to dig really deep and find that intangible something in order to overcome the frankly ridiculous odds, one wonder what the long term consequences may be. That's not to say that the team hasn't been resilient, that it hasn't won things, that it hasn't come from behind in big games - but has it overturned a game in this fashion? This game wasn't about Taylor's rhetoric and conditioning of a team to win mere 'moments' - this game and its comeback were about overcoming our own implied/inferred mental fragility and the spectre of repeated failures in similar occasions of elevated importance.]
So to get back on track. I enjoyed the first two minutes of this match. The other 90 odd minutes, increasingly not at all. That's a strictly personal take, and I do not in any way wish to lessen the excitement and joy felt by our long suffering and loyal supporters which materialised during the comeback; nor do I want to diminish the achievement of the players in somehow finding their way back. But last night, this team broke me.
I only have two sporting loves. The Collingwood Football Club and South Melbourne Hellas. Both have caused me an immeasurable amount of mostly manageable grief, but when in attendance at a game of either of these two I have only voluntarily walked away twice that I can recall. Both times were at Collingwood matches, once in the old Ponsford against Geelong in the early 2000s, and once in the new Ponsford in the mid-2000s against Fremantle. I can't recall what exact minute or what particular sequence of play triggered my walking out of the stands last night - maybe it was the general trajectory of play and the team's attitude - but I'd had enough. I couldn't take anymore, and so I walked into the social club to sit quietly waiting for the inevitable to play out.
I loathe the FFA Cup. I hate how it skews things so much in our league that league performances - the bread and butter of any soccer club - become secondary in importance. I hate the perverse financial and promotional rewards. I hate the gimmickry, and the patronising commentary. I hate the crap-shoot. I hate how this peripheral tournament has taken centre-stage, and set in course a new player wage arms race. That doesn't mean I don't understand the FFA Cup's appeal, its novelty, its charm, its so-called romance. But all those things belong to dare I say it, smaller clubs than ours. Not less worthwhile clubs, but smaller certainly in history and ambition, and indisputably smaller in ego.
For almost no other club in Australia is a knockout tournament hinging on the luck of the draw more than just about a fleeting moment in the limelight, and a happy payday if they're so fortunate. It's not even about making a passing political point for us. The way we think of ourselves, distorted and anachronistic as it may be, forces us to treat this thing as being incredibly serious. This seriousness lends a bizarre and unearned sense of legitimacy upon the worth of the FFA Cup. We judge our success and more often our failures now based on this, These are failures which have, and successes which could have, or so we like to believe, serious long term consequences. This is even in the likely event that those consequences are unquantifiable and what's more, indistinguishable form everything else that we have to contend with in our hopes to get back into the top flight.
On top of our own complicity in setting up this paradigm, everyone outside of us who hopes we do well - or just as likely, hopes we fail - also places a ridiculous amount of conceptual leverage. We could win ten Victorian titles in a row, and none would warrant as much merit for South as reaching the FFA Cup semi-finals, or so the thinking goes. What an atrocious situation to find yourself in every year; not just for us supporters who are locked into this for seemingly years to come, but also for the players and coaches who have an elevated sense of pressure on top of whatever other expectations they have to deal with. Is it any wonder then that I lost the plot yesterday? I thought I could see what was coming, having seen it so many times before.
At 4-1 down, and while I was still in the grandstand, we had some nut in the back of the stand start abusing Chris Taylor, and folk from Clarendon Corner abusing that bloke back. The scene was overwhelmingly familiar - a disastrous performance on a stage set up for us and by us, followed by eating our own, and then onto a Sunday league game in front of 30 people. Then of course there would be the pile on of the haters, the fence-sitters. Left in that wake would've been the people who turn up every week, both in the stands and behind the scenes, who cling on to misguided and repeatedly dashed hopes that this club might somehow dig its way out of this unceasing and only partly deserved purgatory.
The first goal in what came to be the comeback came from a clumsy penalty, which on other days may not have been given. It was certainly not as obvious a call as the push which Milos received in the first half and which should have been given as a penalty, and from which City scored from immediately after. Enes Sivic wasn't in any way malicious, but the way he threw his body at Milos Lujic just looked incredibly stupid. It got Sivic a second yellow, and eventually for Milos Lujic a hundredth goal in South colours, a milestone completely overshadowed by the massive hole we still had to dig ourselves out of. Not that I thought we had it in us, as I remained in the social club feeling miserable alongside various staff members.
Even when we got it back to 4-3, I still didn't think we'd get it back to 4-4. Watching the replay afterwards, my attention is caught by Leigh Minopoulos. Yes the pass from the People's Champ is the right one, as is the run into the box by Leigh, but there's a moment where Leigh does a quick head check just before he collects the ball. It's probably just a reflex, but that moment is so crucial to what happens next, because instead of going for the direct, low percentage but perhaps even necessary shot at goal, he cuts the ball across the six yard box and not only is it perfectly placed, but someone is actually there to drive it home.
The goal for 4-4, I heard it before I saw it. As I've noted before, even though there is a stream of the game being played in the social club, it's on a few seconds delay. The social club's proximity to the arena means that should anything of note happen - especially a goal - you'll hear the cheer well before you see it on screen. What strikes me only now after watching the goal several times, is that for probably the first time in a year - the last time being Kristian Konstantinidis' goal against Bentleigh at home - that we actually had someone waiting at the right spot at the edge of the box. Let's not make it to be something greater than it was - it was an absolutely horrible shot - but at least Daley was in the right place to take it.
There was some discussion about whether Jesse Daley's goal was helped by Michael Eagar obstructing Dandenong City goalkeeper Damir Salcin from an offside position, and possibly even Eagar getting a touch (so far I've only seen Daley as being credited with the goal in official channels. Eagar however was kept onside by one, and possibly two opponents. (After publishing this piece it occurs to me that Milos Lujic is more guilty of obstruction than Michael Eagar, but that shouldn't matter if Milos is also onside, and I think he is, though the footage from stream's broadcast side doesn't make that clear.)
Being off in mental no-man's land, I didn't give Daley the credit for being one of the catalysts of the comeback, but others have noted that after he came on he seemed to bring a bit of poise and composure to the team. I'll take their word for it.
So at 4-4, despite feeling like a ton of crap even though we'd almost got ourselves out of this mess, I went outside again but could not enjoy what was happening. There I was watching one of the most ridiculous comebacks you will ever see, and all I could do was pace up and down the concourse, where much of the grandstand had decamped to, Upper and Lower Clarendon Corner Egypt having combined again in their excitement. I was even told, probably rightly even though I have no truck with any kind of superstition, that I should go back inside the social club so as to make sure of things for us.
If nothing else, coming back outside and pacing up and down the concourse like a maniac saw me end up pretty much right in line with the final, incredible, incredulous moment of the game. In the sequence which would lead to the winning goal, it was certainly unfortunate for Dandy, but for mine that was a handball any day of the week. That's not partisan feeling talking - after all, I was almost guaranteed to be in a foul mood regardless of the result - that was gut instinct. And if I am wrong on many things to do with the game, one thing in which I usually find myself in total agreement with the referees and their decisions is that when it comes to handballs, we're almost always of like mind. You can talk all day and all night if you like about accidental handballs, and ball-to-hand instead hand-to-ball. But gut instinct told me handball, and that's what the ref gave.
Lujic stepped up and scored. A hat-trick on the night, and goals 100, 101, and 102 in his South career in all competitions. Despite everything that had happened that night, and even at 4-4, I couldn't see City getting past us in extra-time had Lujic missed his second penalty. We would have overrun them. As it was, the final score was a stupid 5-4, the method madder than the end product. I am still stunned and upset by the whole experience, probably unconsciously why I have so much of my self-esteem attached to this club in particular, and being amazed that I even had a breaking point. The South fans had gone absolutely mental, and I've got Joe Gorman yelling at me as I stand there in a daze.
Whatever misgivings and unease I had and possibly still have, I felt good for most of our supporters. I felt good for the people working at the club above and beyond the call of duty, as they have done for many years, trying to put in place everything so that the club can leverage opportunities like this, opportunities which we have inevitably blown. I felt great for our supporters, who have to put up with a lot of crap. And I felt good that for the first time in seven years that we could celebrate a win like this in our own social club. I even managed to join in with the general joy, admittedly after I'd consumed a neat gin to restore some sense of existential equilibrium.
I would also like to relate a conversation I had with a now former contributor of South of the Border. This contributor and I have often had very different views on any matter of social issues. In more recent times, our views on matters at the club and those running it have also gone in wildly different directions - these things happen. But on certain matters, we do find ourselves in agreement, and informed by a sense of vanity I like to think it's because we watch a lot more football at this level than most people at South. I probably watch too much.
The point here is that there were people at South who apparently were happier to play Dandy City over Northcote. Now, no offense to Northcote, who have beaten Dandy City this season, but I would have rather played the mob from John Cain Memorial Park any day of the week. Northcote are a team based on heart - they will grind out results, but they have no outright star quality. They are team fortunate enough this season to be in the weaker side of the NPL 2 divide, and they are team based around winning promotion in a competition that is a marathon, not a sprint.
Dandy City, in the stronger NPL 2 East, are also gunning for promotion, but the kinds of players they've recruited and the gradual build from a slow start also seems to indicate that they were taking very seriously an FFA Cup push. Apart from knocking out the Knights and Bulleen, the quality they had on the park last night should have been enough to dissuade even the most foolish of our people to think that this was a safe or easy draw. Certainly it was better than many of the other options, but it was not the best of all possible outcomes. After all that, it was impossible for me not to feel a little bit sorry for Dandenong City's players, but what good would mine or anyone else' sympathy do? As for our people, I let Leo Athanasakis and assistant coach Chris Marshall know that if our players ever tried a stunt like that again, they'd have to answer to me. A stupid, nonsense threat if ever there was one.
On the way home, the tram was on time, and the connection to the train was good. What else could any reasonable person want?
Next game
Now that the circus has left town, it's back to plain old unimportant league action against Port Melbourne at home on Sunday.
Comings and goings
Gavin De Niese has left the club, joining NPL 2 East side Springvale White Eagles.
Dockerty Cup news
Concurrent with our victory last night taking us to the national stage of the FFA Cup, that win has also seen us move into the Dockerty Cup semi-finals, where we have been drawn against Bentleigh Greens. The game will be played at a neutral venue. The game will be played on one of Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th, or Thursday 8th June.
Final thought
For a well balanced review of last night's game, read the Corner Flag's story on the match.
For a professional report, see David Davutovic's Herald Sun piece.
The short version
...you will be broken down to the level of infants, then rebuilt as functional members of society, then broken down again, then lunch, then, if there's time, rebuilt once more.Prelude to mediocrity
Two weeks ago
I decided belatedly to get a flu shot. I hadn't had one for a couple of years, but decided to do it this year because I'm in the final stretch of my thesis work, and besides which, I watch a lot of soccer during the winter and didn't want to be laid up at home unnecessarily. Apparently it takes two weeks to work, so it was a good thing I didn't get sick during that time.
One week ago
Someone used a pair of scissors to break into my car, but found nothing of value to take except for a box of tissues and a pair of my dad's reading glasses. I'm not sure what they were expecting to find in a 1989 Toyota Camry with two of its rims missing. I haven't even bothered checking to see if they took my Achtung Baby cassette; it's not like the cassette player in the car works anyway.
Saturday
I experienced the brief visceral thrill of watching Collingwood beat Hawthorn on television, before rationalising that it was a Hawthorn side missing five of its best, while at the early stages of re-build, and how did we get seven goals down anyway? I then watched Spinal Tap on SBS2, not really thinking that I'd be rationalising anything like that Pies' win on Wednesday, not even really thinking about Wednesday at all.
Sunday
Get to Lakeside, and have a blast watching a game that no one really cares about. Get home, have dinner, write a slapdash and uninspired match report for a game that no one cared about.
Trying to get some work done. Started to feel that nervousness kick in. Hating every second of it. But so far it's been bearable. As usual, Twitter provides a useful distraction. Late in the afternoon I get a message from a mate about a conversation he's overheard on the tram (see right). I don't know what to make of it, because on the one hand, it's completely unimportant - I mean, it's only South Melbourne after all. And there's also the paranoid matter of it possibly being part of a disinformation plan.
If you're talking about @smfc transfers out loud on your phone while on a tram somewhere in our great city, don't assume no one's listening.— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 22, 2017
Of course the Fahid Ben Khalfallah (whoever he is) stuff has been doing the rounds on Melbourne soccer focused internet forums for a couple of weeks at least, lest a certain Sydney based radio programme tries to convince you of its having snared some kind of 'scoop'. Later on I find myself thinking about the cup fixture as I'm trying to get to sleep. At least the distraction of an inflamed eye (again) diverts my attention to something else.Just because the man with the hat and glasses isn't in sight, it doesn't mean one of my many agents isn't. Show a bit of discretion, please!— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 22, 2017
Tuesday
Realised I'd lost my USB drive at uni, again. But fortunately found it where I'd left it the day before.
Wednesday"Bobo, I know I say this every century, but I'll never leave you behind again". pic.twitter.com/XTaKmm1o3W— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 23, 2017
Juniper Hill earned a hard fought 1-0 win on the road in the fourth round of the Oceanian Cup. I skimmed through the relevant parts of Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters and Ange Postecoglou's book for my thesis. And then it was finally time to go to Lakeside.
 |
| Nick Epifano shoots and scores with his left for the opening goal. Photo: Jason Heidrich. |
Having a drink and a feed in the social club while watching a futsal match, the mood was light and festive. I even made lighthearted quip toward Milos Lujic as he was walking in about his choice of hat. I honestly did not feel as nervous about this game as I normally would have. Even when we got outside and Clarendon Corner inexplicably split into Upper and Lower factions, the fact that there was a Rod Stewart lookalike wandering around our bay just reinforced the nonchalance I was feeling. That, and Nick Epifano opened the scoring within two minutes, with a left foot shot of all things. Even when we conceded the equalising goal soon afterwards, I didn't feel particularly bad. Annoyed, but not bad. In any event, the team spent the next twenty minutes carving up the visitors, so surely another goal for us was coming soon, right?
When Milos Lujic was pushed in the back in the box, I thought surely that would be the chance to retake the lead, but the ref didn't call it, and City went up the other end and scored. And that's when things started to look really rubbish. We'd had City where we wanted them, off-balance and chasing shadows - especially Stefan Zinni's - and now we were behind and forced to play the game on their terms. We lost our nerve, and started bombing the ball long to Milos, and every one of those balls was cleared away easily by the City defense. Worse, we weren't really putting any pressure on City's players on the ball, so they were able to play as they wanted to.
In the last five minutes of the half it looked like we were getting our mojo back just a bit, so it was a surprise to see Zinni benched and replaced with Leigh Minopoulos. Is Zinni not match fit? Was the plan to only play him for an hour or so and hope we'd have wreaked enough havoc that we could sub him off safely? Whatever the initial plan was, I give credit to Chris Taylor for going for the early sub instead of waiting, even if it's not the sub I would've made myself. The move and whatever was in the halftime talk seemed to work, as we came out in much the same way we had in the first 25 minutes of the game.
[I am reminded here of something I'd read in Postecoglou's book earlier that day, about a coach having really very little opportunity to make an impact during the course of a game, and realistically only four or so minutes in ideal circumstances during the halftime break - it's probably a bit different in a fully professional environment compared to one merely aspiring to reach that level. The overall point here though is that the coach, while not being absolved of match day results and decision making consequences, must do most of their work during the training sessions, and not just on fitness - they must prepare the team to be able to handle itself on the field without the coach's constant interference.]
But the elephant in the room - the makeshift defense - came back to bite us on the arse repeatedly. Letting former South Melbourne Hellas defender and golden boot (2012 season) Shaun Kelly score once was bad enough, but twice? The marking for both goals looked abysmal. How he was able to get so free for that header beggars belief. So 4-1 down, and now I'm slumped in my chair. Worse is to come, because we revert to that nonsense long ball crap, which Ljubo Milicevic deals with easily. As eccentric as he is, he's a fine player, and among his greatest assets is his ability to read the play - not much of a challenge the way we were going about it though.
We had begun the season with four senior and experienced centre backs, and somehow started this game with just one. So while the coaching staff don't escape any of the blame for what happened last night, I would like to berate two people in particular before anyone else. Those people are Kristian Konstantinidis and Luke Adam. Konstantinidis for his finger business suspension; Adams for going on holiday during the season. Oh, and a special brickbat to whoever couldn't manage to keep Carl Piergianni around for one more week knowing that we would be short staffed in this area.
[I am reminded here of a game away against the then all conquering Dandenong Thunder in 2012, where we squeezed out a meritorious draw despite being similarly short-handed, in part because we'd managed to get Filip Jonsson to stick around long enough to play one more game.]
The lack of centre-backs meant that we ended up using Tim Mala at centre-back and Luke Pavlou at right back, throwing our whole backline and system out of whack. It was scenes straight out of Gully from earlier this year. You can't blame a player for under-performing in a position they are clearly not used to or suited to playing in. At some point someone decided that Matthew Foschini at centre-back and Pavlou in the defensive midfield role wasn't the way to go, We got punished for this repeatedly. Every time City went up the field they looked dangerous. They didn't even do it that often, because we had most of the ball, but their efficiency in front of goal showed not only how makeshift our defense was, but also the quality of the chances City created. But that didn't mean that their defense had magically improved. We'd just reverted to being dumb and playing dumb. You might call it a lack of composure, you might call it a lack of leadership; you might call it both, and you wouldn't be wrong on either count.
[Discussing this issue with one of the coaching staff after the game, he felt it could be one of those things which changes the side as we've known it during the Chris Taylor era. Having managed to dig really deep and find that intangible something in order to overcome the frankly ridiculous odds, one wonder what the long term consequences may be. That's not to say that the team hasn't been resilient, that it hasn't won things, that it hasn't come from behind in big games - but has it overturned a game in this fashion? This game wasn't about Taylor's rhetoric and conditioning of a team to win mere 'moments' - this game and its comeback were about overcoming our own implied/inferred mental fragility and the spectre of repeated failures in similar occasions of elevated importance.]
So to get back on track. I enjoyed the first two minutes of this match. The other 90 odd minutes, increasingly not at all. That's a strictly personal take, and I do not in any way wish to lessen the excitement and joy felt by our long suffering and loyal supporters which materialised during the comeback; nor do I want to diminish the achievement of the players in somehow finding their way back. But last night, this team broke me.
I only have two sporting loves. The Collingwood Football Club and South Melbourne Hellas. Both have caused me an immeasurable amount of mostly manageable grief, but when in attendance at a game of either of these two I have only voluntarily walked away twice that I can recall. Both times were at Collingwood matches, once in the old Ponsford against Geelong in the early 2000s, and once in the new Ponsford in the mid-2000s against Fremantle. I can't recall what exact minute or what particular sequence of play triggered my walking out of the stands last night - maybe it was the general trajectory of play and the team's attitude - but I'd had enough. I couldn't take anymore, and so I walked into the social club to sit quietly waiting for the inevitable to play out.
I loathe the FFA Cup. I hate how it skews things so much in our league that league performances - the bread and butter of any soccer club - become secondary in importance. I hate the perverse financial and promotional rewards. I hate the gimmickry, and the patronising commentary. I hate the crap-shoot. I hate how this peripheral tournament has taken centre-stage, and set in course a new player wage arms race. That doesn't mean I don't understand the FFA Cup's appeal, its novelty, its charm, its so-called romance. But all those things belong to dare I say it, smaller clubs than ours. Not less worthwhile clubs, but smaller certainly in history and ambition, and indisputably smaller in ego.
For almost no other club in Australia is a knockout tournament hinging on the luck of the draw more than just about a fleeting moment in the limelight, and a happy payday if they're so fortunate. It's not even about making a passing political point for us. The way we think of ourselves, distorted and anachronistic as it may be, forces us to treat this thing as being incredibly serious. This seriousness lends a bizarre and unearned sense of legitimacy upon the worth of the FFA Cup. We judge our success and more often our failures now based on this, These are failures which have, and successes which could have, or so we like to believe, serious long term consequences. This is even in the likely event that those consequences are unquantifiable and what's more, indistinguishable form everything else that we have to contend with in our hopes to get back into the top flight.
On top of our own complicity in setting up this paradigm, everyone outside of us who hopes we do well - or just as likely, hopes we fail - also places a ridiculous amount of conceptual leverage. We could win ten Victorian titles in a row, and none would warrant as much merit for South as reaching the FFA Cup semi-finals, or so the thinking goes. What an atrocious situation to find yourself in every year; not just for us supporters who are locked into this for seemingly years to come, but also for the players and coaches who have an elevated sense of pressure on top of whatever other expectations they have to deal with. Is it any wonder then that I lost the plot yesterday? I thought I could see what was coming, having seen it so many times before.
At 4-1 down, and while I was still in the grandstand, we had some nut in the back of the stand start abusing Chris Taylor, and folk from Clarendon Corner abusing that bloke back. The scene was overwhelmingly familiar - a disastrous performance on a stage set up for us and by us, followed by eating our own, and then onto a Sunday league game in front of 30 people. Then of course there would be the pile on of the haters, the fence-sitters. Left in that wake would've been the people who turn up every week, both in the stands and behind the scenes, who cling on to misguided and repeatedly dashed hopes that this club might somehow dig its way out of this unceasing and only partly deserved purgatory.
The first goal in what came to be the comeback came from a clumsy penalty, which on other days may not have been given. It was certainly not as obvious a call as the push which Milos received in the first half and which should have been given as a penalty, and from which City scored from immediately after. Enes Sivic wasn't in any way malicious, but the way he threw his body at Milos Lujic just looked incredibly stupid. It got Sivic a second yellow, and eventually for Milos Lujic a hundredth goal in South colours, a milestone completely overshadowed by the massive hole we still had to dig ourselves out of. Not that I thought we had it in us, as I remained in the social club feeling miserable alongside various staff members.
Even when we got it back to 4-3, I still didn't think we'd get it back to 4-4. Watching the replay afterwards, my attention is caught by Leigh Minopoulos. Yes the pass from the People's Champ is the right one, as is the run into the box by Leigh, but there's a moment where Leigh does a quick head check just before he collects the ball. It's probably just a reflex, but that moment is so crucial to what happens next, because instead of going for the direct, low percentage but perhaps even necessary shot at goal, he cuts the ball across the six yard box and not only is it perfectly placed, but someone is actually there to drive it home.
The goal for 4-4, I heard it before I saw it. As I've noted before, even though there is a stream of the game being played in the social club, it's on a few seconds delay. The social club's proximity to the arena means that should anything of note happen - especially a goal - you'll hear the cheer well before you see it on screen. What strikes me only now after watching the goal several times, is that for probably the first time in a year - the last time being Kristian Konstantinidis' goal against Bentleigh at home - that we actually had someone waiting at the right spot at the edge of the box. Let's not make it to be something greater than it was - it was an absolutely horrible shot - but at least Daley was in the right place to take it.
There was some discussion about whether Jesse Daley's goal was helped by Michael Eagar obstructing Dandenong City goalkeeper Damir Salcin from an offside position, and possibly even Eagar getting a touch (so far I've only seen Daley as being credited with the goal in official channels. Eagar however was kept onside by one, and possibly two opponents. (After publishing this piece it occurs to me that Milos Lujic is more guilty of obstruction than Michael Eagar, but that shouldn't matter if Milos is also onside, and I think he is, though the footage from stream's broadcast side doesn't make that clear.)
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| Image credit: Paul Zaro/SMFC TV. |
So at 4-4, despite feeling like a ton of crap even though we'd almost got ourselves out of this mess, I went outside again but could not enjoy what was happening. There I was watching one of the most ridiculous comebacks you will ever see, and all I could do was pace up and down the concourse, where much of the grandstand had decamped to, Upper and Lower Clarendon Corner Egypt having combined again in their excitement. I was even told, probably rightly even though I have no truck with any kind of superstition, that I should go back inside the social club so as to make sure of things for us.
If nothing else, coming back outside and pacing up and down the concourse like a maniac saw me end up pretty much right in line with the final, incredible, incredulous moment of the game. In the sequence which would lead to the winning goal, it was certainly unfortunate for Dandy, but for mine that was a handball any day of the week. That's not partisan feeling talking - after all, I was almost guaranteed to be in a foul mood regardless of the result - that was gut instinct. And if I am wrong on many things to do with the game, one thing in which I usually find myself in total agreement with the referees and their decisions is that when it comes to handballs, we're almost always of like mind. You can talk all day and all night if you like about accidental handballs, and ball-to-hand instead hand-to-ball. But gut instinct told me handball, and that's what the ref gave.
Lujic stepped up and scored. A hat-trick on the night, and goals 100, 101, and 102 in his South career in all competitions. Despite everything that had happened that night, and even at 4-4, I couldn't see City getting past us in extra-time had Lujic missed his second penalty. We would have overrun them. As it was, the final score was a stupid 5-4, the method madder than the end product. I am still stunned and upset by the whole experience, probably unconsciously why I have so much of my self-esteem attached to this club in particular, and being amazed that I even had a breaking point. The South fans had gone absolutely mental, and I've got Joe Gorman yelling at me as I stand there in a daze.
Whatever misgivings and unease I had and possibly still have, I felt good for most of our supporters. I felt good for the people working at the club above and beyond the call of duty, as they have done for many years, trying to put in place everything so that the club can leverage opportunities like this, opportunities which we have inevitably blown. I felt great for our supporters, who have to put up with a lot of crap. And I felt good that for the first time in seven years that we could celebrate a win like this in our own social club. I even managed to join in with the general joy, admittedly after I'd consumed a neat gin to restore some sense of existential equilibrium.I would also like to relate a conversation I had with a now former contributor of South of the Border. This contributor and I have often had very different views on any matter of social issues. In more recent times, our views on matters at the club and those running it have also gone in wildly different directions - these things happen. But on certain matters, we do find ourselves in agreement, and informed by a sense of vanity I like to think it's because we watch a lot more football at this level than most people at South. I probably watch too much.
The point here is that there were people at South who apparently were happier to play Dandy City over Northcote. Now, no offense to Northcote, who have beaten Dandy City this season, but I would have rather played the mob from John Cain Memorial Park any day of the week. Northcote are a team based on heart - they will grind out results, but they have no outright star quality. They are team fortunate enough this season to be in the weaker side of the NPL 2 divide, and they are team based around winning promotion in a competition that is a marathon, not a sprint.
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| Thanks to Dion for passing along these screenshots of this text message conversation his dad was having with an absent fan. |
On the way home, the tram was on time, and the connection to the train was good. What else could any reasonable person want?
Next game
Now that the circus has left town, it's back to plain old unimportant league action against Port Melbourne at home on Sunday.
Comings and goings
Gavin De Niese has left the club, joining NPL 2 East side Springvale White Eagles.
Dockerty Cup news
Concurrent with our victory last night taking us to the national stage of the FFA Cup, that win has also seen us move into the Dockerty Cup semi-finals, where we have been drawn against Bentleigh Greens. The game will be played at a neutral venue. The game will be played on one of Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th, or Thursday 8th June.
Final thought
A-League or NPL, it does not matter to us;See everyone on Sunday.
The only thing that really matters, isFFA CupSouth Melbourne Hellas.
Monday, 6 June 2016
Guys and Dolls - South Melbourne 3 Northcote City 1
South Melbourne Women 0 University of Melbourne 2
First up on Sunday were the South women's team against University of Melbourne. I'm not sure why this game was scheduled for a 1:00 kickoff instead of 2:00. Those few who showed up for the curtain raiser were afterwards left with an hour to kill, while others who thought the women's game started later only got a half's worth of football. Anyway, with the South women being top of the table, I was surprised to see them struggling for most of the game. Perhaps they rested a few players for this game after being knocked out of the cup in midweek by Bulleen?
Melbourne Uni squandered a good chance early on by shooting wide, then hit a penalty against the post and the resulting rebound straight at the South keeper, who worked hard to keep the score respectable. Uni dominated territory for most of the game, with South struggling to work any meaningful maneuvers until well into the second half - apart from a disallowed goal for offside while the game was still scoreless, which would have been grossly against the run of play.
Tiredness obviously played a factor in the result, but so did a lack of composure. There were enough chances when South did get the ball or made interceptions that could've turned out so much better. Still, despite the loss they remain equal first along with Uni. I hope that in future these double headers are scheduled without so much downtime between matches. It'd be OK if we had a social club to occupy our time, but waiting an hour for the men's game to start while we have a player's dreadful taste in music playing over the speakers is not the most edifying experience.
As for the men, three points, but otherwise neither here nor there
Steven Hatzikostas back in, Amadu Koroma rested, and Nikola Roganovic back in between the sticks after injuring himself during Wednesday night's warm-up. Close enough to a full squad in its usual set up so as to provide no excuses against an opponent which has shown improvement, but was still bottom of the table. Northcote, like so many teams which play against South Melbourne, showed some initiative - in the opinion of our fans, perhaps more than normally would, which satisfies our own ego, but which if true makes things harder for us - but their best efforts mostly consisted of counter attacking that fell short at the first hurdle, being unable to beat the offside trap.
But what about our own efforts? Having just one striker up front means that the midfielders need to get forward for us to create opportunities that aren't based on kick and chase. And as happened against North Geelong, Matthew Millar and the People's Champ managed to get behind enemy lines enough times leading to many chances on goal. Was Milos Lujic offside for one of those opening half goals? Can one get upset at scoring a poacher's goal from a spillage, especially as we had a bout half a dozen similar chances against Pascoe Vale which we failed to take? Let's just be glad that at least in this case, there appeared to be a lesson learned about following up a shot and making the most of a keeper's mistake.
Conceding a goal from a corner was horrifying from the point of view of conceding another goal from a set piece, but also from a corner delivered in the manner that we scarcely dare try ourselves. That we restored our two goal buffer and maintained it comfortably until the end didn't necessarily create the sense of positive momentum that we're all craving, instead perhaps creating the feeling of doing what had to be done, and absolutely no more or and no less than that. A 2-1 win would have probably sent people into panic mode or something akin to that, railing against a team that couldn't properly dispatch a struggling side. Had we won 4-1 or 5-1, the side would probably be accused of downhill skiing, able to beat up on poor little Northcote but go missing when it counts.
Despite all of that, once again - and really, it's probably just my latest little hang up - the very late subs, this time made in the 88th and 91st minutes, continue to baffle me. Is there that little trust in the capabilities of the bench that they can't be entrusted with maintaining a two goal lead for 12 minutes instead of 5? Against (in midweek) a team a division below us and (yesterday) a team that's bottom of the table by some margin? Even as the coaches keep making reference to how deep our squad is, and how the squad needs to be rotated during those periods of the season with a heavy workload?
I don't know, maybe I bring this up only because when you mostly keep winning, you need to find some obscure area which doesn't seem to be perfect, and then pick on that. I was glad that Leigh Minopoulos got some solid minutes off the bench, and I fancy so were a few other South fans.
After the match
I did not bother with the Greek national team training session, not because of the 90 minute wait after our game for it to begin, but because I couldn't give a rat's about the Greek national team. From the sound of things not too many people made the effort to watch them train, though some of the players themselves reportedly seemed personable and willing to mingle with fans.
By the way, I had a look at the ticket prices for tomorrow's game partly out of morbid curiosity, and my goodness, they must think the Greek community of Melbourne (and wherever else Greeks may fly or drive in from for this game) are making Calombaris amounts of money.
Next game
Port Melbourne at home on Friday night. With the all or nothing FFA Cup grudge match spectacular against Bentleigh coming up soon after this fixture, it will be interesting to see what approach to team selection that Taylor and friends make.
FFA Cup fixture news
Our FFA Cup match away against Bentleigh has been scheduled for Tuesday June 14th, kickoff at 7:30PM.
Tsk, tsk, tsk department
As if wearing number 99 wasn't enough of a rubbish gimmick, Iqi Jawadi has now taken to wearing non-matching boots. Oh for the glory days of 2013, and Renco Van Eeken Fruit Watch. That was both classy, and sending a good message to the children and their parents.
Where in the world is Philzgerald Mbaka?
He seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. I'm hearing some talk that he is no longer at the club. If this is true, that would open up some space on our PPS tally.
This souvlaki goes up to eleven
We had a go at Bentleigh earlier this year for their $12 souv, so it's only right that we take aim at the Lakeside souvlaki truck for charging $11 for what is at best only a so-so souv. No wonder I end up eating on Clarendon Street before or after a game. Is the rent at Lakeside really that onerous?
Speaking of which
How's the social club coming along?
I'm going to take a wild stab at this and say not very good.
Luke Adams scores exactly the kind of goal you'd expect him to
Being Greek, for one night only
Chris Egan and I ended up at Jack Edwards Reserve mostly because it was raining, and because Kevin Bartlett Reserve has no shelter. Oakleigh scored after two minutes, Bulleen missed a glorious chance to equalise a minute later, and as far as I'm concerned, that was that, though the home side added a couple more goals for good measure. I was impressed with the style of the two sides in the wet conditions, as both tried to be patient and play the ball on the ground, but there is such a thing as being too patient. Then we ended up at Vanilla because Chris wanted to see where Melbourne Greeks go to be Greek I suppose.
Belles of Ballarat
The last, and only other time that I'd gone to see the Matildas play a match was ten years ago. On that day, there were about a hundred people at Lakeside, most of them probably Mexican fans. The four or five or so Aussie fans standing on Clarendon Corner (including myself) waved a couple of flags, and even managed to convince the referee to award a corner that probably wasn't (I thought it was, so at least I was being honest), which the Matildas scored from. How's that for changing the course of history? Still, interest was so low that the Matildas' next game was played at Port Melbourne of all places. But things have changed now, and people are more interested in the Matildas and women's soccer in general. So when it was announced that they'd be playing a game in Ballarat, one couldn't help but feel that there was too much novelty value to ignore, even with a Paisley Park derby option closer to home.
Arriving in Ballarat one knew from past experience that the bus situation wasn't great, so Gains and I caught a cab to the ground, with our taxi driver singing along to a country and western CD. Upon entering the ground I saw that the stand was reserved, though what the point of that was considering the stand has no roof I'm not sure. There were food options for both pleb (hot dogs, chips, etc) and wannabe hipster (woodfired pizza, sliders with served brioche buns of a supermarket croissant level of sweetness) alike, on either side of the stand. FFV CEO Peter Gome was wearing a Green Bay Packers jacket, which while appropriate in terms of its colour scheme, prompted one to nevertheless ask the question of why he couldn't have Aussie soccer gear on instead?
The rain wasn't heavy, but it was consistent, and it probably had the effect of keeping some of the locals away. But there was a decent crowd in spite of the conditions (which were mild compared to other Ballarat experiences I've had), though how engaged the crowd were with the game is another matter entirely.
Considering how little anyone cared for the national anthem, one was hopeful that we could get away without a rendition of that bogan chant, but it popped up during the second half, momentarily ruining the whole day. Then I remembered that I had some raspberry drops that Chris Egan had bought (on my request) during his visit to Sovereign Hill earlier that day, and things weren't so bad anymore. It was also good to catch up with fellow FFV Historical Committee member Maggie Khoumi, Shoot Farken's Athas Zafiris, as well as Oz Soccer's legendary stats man Andrew Howe. Not a bad day overall, and being able to catch the train from Sunshine instead of Footscray or Spencer Street was a nice touch.
Final thought
Three consecutive days spent watching soccer in cold, wet and rainy conditions has not been kind to my health this week.
First up on Sunday were the South women's team against University of Melbourne. I'm not sure why this game was scheduled for a 1:00 kickoff instead of 2:00. Those few who showed up for the curtain raiser were afterwards left with an hour to kill, while others who thought the women's game started later only got a half's worth of football. Anyway, with the South women being top of the table, I was surprised to see them struggling for most of the game. Perhaps they rested a few players for this game after being knocked out of the cup in midweek by Bulleen?
Melbourne Uni squandered a good chance early on by shooting wide, then hit a penalty against the post and the resulting rebound straight at the South keeper, who worked hard to keep the score respectable. Uni dominated territory for most of the game, with South struggling to work any meaningful maneuvers until well into the second half - apart from a disallowed goal for offside while the game was still scoreless, which would have been grossly against the run of play.
Tiredness obviously played a factor in the result, but so did a lack of composure. There were enough chances when South did get the ball or made interceptions that could've turned out so much better. Still, despite the loss they remain equal first along with Uni. I hope that in future these double headers are scheduled without so much downtime between matches. It'd be OK if we had a social club to occupy our time, but waiting an hour for the men's game to start while we have a player's dreadful taste in music playing over the speakers is not the most edifying experience.
As for the men, three points, but otherwise neither here nor there
Steven Hatzikostas back in, Amadu Koroma rested, and Nikola Roganovic back in between the sticks after injuring himself during Wednesday night's warm-up. Close enough to a full squad in its usual set up so as to provide no excuses against an opponent which has shown improvement, but was still bottom of the table. Northcote, like so many teams which play against South Melbourne, showed some initiative - in the opinion of our fans, perhaps more than normally would, which satisfies our own ego, but which if true makes things harder for us - but their best efforts mostly consisted of counter attacking that fell short at the first hurdle, being unable to beat the offside trap.
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| One of South's ball boys shields a photographer from the elements. Photo: Paul Mavroudis. |
Conceding a goal from a corner was horrifying from the point of view of conceding another goal from a set piece, but also from a corner delivered in the manner that we scarcely dare try ourselves. That we restored our two goal buffer and maintained it comfortably until the end didn't necessarily create the sense of positive momentum that we're all craving, instead perhaps creating the feeling of doing what had to be done, and absolutely no more or and no less than that. A 2-1 win would have probably sent people into panic mode or something akin to that, railing against a team that couldn't properly dispatch a struggling side. Had we won 4-1 or 5-1, the side would probably be accused of downhill skiing, able to beat up on poor little Northcote but go missing when it counts.
Despite all of that, once again - and really, it's probably just my latest little hang up - the very late subs, this time made in the 88th and 91st minutes, continue to baffle me. Is there that little trust in the capabilities of the bench that they can't be entrusted with maintaining a two goal lead for 12 minutes instead of 5? Against (in midweek) a team a division below us and (yesterday) a team that's bottom of the table by some margin? Even as the coaches keep making reference to how deep our squad is, and how the squad needs to be rotated during those periods of the season with a heavy workload?
I don't know, maybe I bring this up only because when you mostly keep winning, you need to find some obscure area which doesn't seem to be perfect, and then pick on that. I was glad that Leigh Minopoulos got some solid minutes off the bench, and I fancy so were a few other South fans.
After the match
I did not bother with the Greek national team training session, not because of the 90 minute wait after our game for it to begin, but because I couldn't give a rat's about the Greek national team. From the sound of things not too many people made the effort to watch them train, though some of the players themselves reportedly seemed personable and willing to mingle with fans.
By the way, I had a look at the ticket prices for tomorrow's game partly out of morbid curiosity, and my goodness, they must think the Greek community of Melbourne (and wherever else Greeks may fly or drive in from for this game) are making Calombaris amounts of money.
Next game
Port Melbourne at home on Friday night. With the all or nothing FFA Cup grudge match spectacular against Bentleigh coming up soon after this fixture, it will be interesting to see what approach to team selection that Taylor and friends make.
FFA Cup fixture news
Our FFA Cup match away against Bentleigh has been scheduled for Tuesday June 14th, kickoff at 7:30PM.
Tsk, tsk, tsk department
As if wearing number 99 wasn't enough of a rubbish gimmick, Iqi Jawadi has now taken to wearing non-matching boots. Oh for the glory days of 2013, and Renco Van Eeken Fruit Watch. That was both classy, and sending a good message to the children and their parents.
He seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. I'm hearing some talk that he is no longer at the club. If this is true, that would open up some space on our PPS tally.
This souvlaki goes up to eleven
We had a go at Bentleigh earlier this year for their $12 souv, so it's only right that we take aim at the Lakeside souvlaki truck for charging $11 for what is at best only a so-so souv. No wonder I end up eating on Clarendon Street before or after a game. Is the rent at Lakeside really that onerous?
Speaking of which
How's the social club coming along?
I'm going to take a wild stab at this and say not very good.
Luke Adams scores exactly the kind of goal you'd expect him to
— Phototek (@PhototekNZ) June 4, 2016Around the grounds
Being Greek, for one night only
Chris Egan and I ended up at Jack Edwards Reserve mostly because it was raining, and because Kevin Bartlett Reserve has no shelter. Oakleigh scored after two minutes, Bulleen missed a glorious chance to equalise a minute later, and as far as I'm concerned, that was that, though the home side added a couple more goals for good measure. I was impressed with the style of the two sides in the wet conditions, as both tried to be patient and play the ball on the ground, but there is such a thing as being too patient. Then we ended up at Vanilla because Chris wanted to see where Melbourne Greeks go to be Greek I suppose.
Belles of Ballarat
The last, and only other time that I'd gone to see the Matildas play a match was ten years ago. On that day, there were about a hundred people at Lakeside, most of them probably Mexican fans. The four or five or so Aussie fans standing on Clarendon Corner (including myself) waved a couple of flags, and even managed to convince the referee to award a corner that probably wasn't (I thought it was, so at least I was being honest), which the Matildas scored from. How's that for changing the course of history? Still, interest was so low that the Matildas' next game was played at Port Melbourne of all places. But things have changed now, and people are more interested in the Matildas and women's soccer in general. So when it was announced that they'd be playing a game in Ballarat, one couldn't help but feel that there was too much novelty value to ignore, even with a Paisley Park derby option closer to home.
Arriving in Ballarat one knew from past experience that the bus situation wasn't great, so Gains and I caught a cab to the ground, with our taxi driver singing along to a country and western CD. Upon entering the ground I saw that the stand was reserved, though what the point of that was considering the stand has no roof I'm not sure. There were food options for both pleb (hot dogs, chips, etc) and wannabe hipster (woodfired pizza, sliders with served brioche buns of a supermarket croissant level of sweetness) alike, on either side of the stand. FFV CEO Peter Gome was wearing a Green Bay Packers jacket, which while appropriate in terms of its colour scheme, prompted one to nevertheless ask the question of why he couldn't have Aussie soccer gear on instead?
The rain wasn't heavy, but it was consistent, and it probably had the effect of keeping some of the locals away. But there was a decent crowd in spite of the conditions (which were mild compared to other Ballarat experiences I've had), though how engaged the crowd were with the game is another matter entirely.
An early and fortunate goal - at least it appeared fortunate from our vantage point directly behind the trajectory of the shot - might have got the crowd into the game a bit, but it felt a bit more like a picnic day, which when all is said and done is perfectly fine. It was a friendly, the game wasn't much good - the Matildas played with very little width, or smarts for that matter - and New Zealand while stout in defense, offered stuff all going the other way. The second Matildas goal seemed to have a bit more style, but moments like that were too few and far between.Decent crowd here at Morshead Park in Ballarat for Matildas vs New Zealand pic.twitter.com/bBcWPHvRE2— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) June 4, 2016
Considering how little anyone cared for the national anthem, one was hopeful that we could get away without a rendition of that bogan chant, but it popped up during the second half, momentarily ruining the whole day. Then I remembered that I had some raspberry drops that Chris Egan had bought (on my request) during his visit to Sovereign Hill earlier that day, and things weren't so bad anymore. It was also good to catch up with fellow FFV Historical Committee member Maggie Khoumi, Shoot Farken's Athas Zafiris, as well as Oz Soccer's legendary stats man Andrew Howe. Not a bad day overall, and being able to catch the train from Sunshine instead of Footscray or Spencer Street was a nice touch.
Final thought
Three consecutive days spent watching soccer in cold, wet and rainy conditions has not been kind to my health this week.
Monday, 13 July 2015
Aesthetics - Melbourne Knights 2 South Melbourne 1
There's only so many times that you can fall behind to a rival in a calendar year and expect to come from behind to take the chocolates. A fourth time in a row was probably too much to ask for (especially without Andy Brennan), but where I would normally be sullen and introverted about our prospects, I still think we have turned the corner from the worst parts of our season. Then again, come back here later this week after the probable loss to Heidelberg, and I think I'll have changed my tune for the millionth time.
For all the talk that we were outplayed, that's only part of the story, because there were periods of the game where we were the better team. In the end it came down to two unforgivable mistakes in our defense, and a reluctance to play balls into the box early to get the Knights defense - hardly their best attribute - scrambling around.
The Knights seem to apply that old trick of taking it in turns to put in a yellow card worthy challenge, which worked yesterday but may not work in the future. For whatever it's worth, not that we deserved anything more than a point from the game, but I felt that standing right in line behind the goals of that late handball, that it was indeed a handball and that there was no reason for the Knights' players hand to be up that high. It's a matter of technique, and rather than explode at the referee, the Knights players, especially Chris May who went off like a bit of a pork chop, should be focusing on avoiding having their hands so high up in the air in the first place.
In the end of course May saved Stirton's relatively timid and badly placed shot - I was pointing at him to hit it the other way, so I'm absolved of any blame - and Knights won the game anyway. And while of course it's easier to be happy when you've won (or so I'm told), credit to May for genuinely applauding the South fans behind his goal; which is more than can be said for almost every South player, though they should be cut some slack I suppose for being devastated at dropping points right at the death for the second time in ten days. I'm as annoyed as the next South fan that we didn't take the chance to take top spot off Bentleigh, who have started to stumble in recent weeks, as well as being frustrated that penalty taking seems to have collectively spooked the side, but the race for the NPL national playoff spot is still well and truly on
Some thoughts on the match day experience, because Pave Jusup asked for them
Inconsistencies at the gate
Upon arriving at the ground with Ian Syson last week, the $3 car park fee was waived when Syson displayed his 2015 FFV season pass. This week, when I showed my media pass, I was charged $3. This seemed odd to me, but not a big deal , until it turned out that there were some people being charged and others not (Syson managed to get away with paying for example). I don't know what the regulations have to say (if they have anything to say at all) about whether pass holders (including players) should be charged for car parking, but it seems that the car park attendants should be instructed to at least be consistent in their approach.
Food
Unless you count the Butter Menthols I bought at Woolies before the game, of which I had about five during the game, I didn't have any food at the ground this time. This was in large part due to the fact that I took Gains to Sunshine Plaza so he could partake in the brilliance that is Sunshine Charcoal Chicken. There were no regrets.
Ambiance
While I am of the opinion that the game in and of itself is the match day experience, we live in modern times, and people apparently need to be geared up towards the match itself by the use of music. Of course everyone thinks that they are the world's most tasteful and under appreciated DJ, and forever most overlooked Rage guest presenter, and thus when someone gets the chance to be in the ground announcer's booth and choose the music they all think they're unleashing not just quality quality tunes, but also something educational.
Of course almost everyone who does this at any level has no taste whatsoever. The people who choose the music at more premium, top flight events are hamstrung by the specifications of corporate, family friendly, generic blandness, but the second tier allows you a bit more freedom. And yet who takes it? No, for some reason at Lakeside we are bombarded with house music and commercial r n' b, and this was even the case last week at Knights Stadium.
My many complaints about this have not gone unnoticed, to the point where I was allowed to choose one song for Lakeside last week (I of course went with Kitchens of Distinction's 'When In Heaven'). Yesterday at Knights Stadium instead of whatever crap they had last week, the DJ started off with Johnny Cash's 'Ring of Fire'. Not bad, though Mr DJ would have earned more hipster brownie points if he played the Anita Carter's (June Carter Cash's sister) version.
Then we had Van Halen's 'Panama', which I noted yesterday should be the nation of Panama's national anthem. OK, so not early Van Halen, but still pre-Sammy Hagar, so OK (see how I pretend to have an opinion on a division that I really have very little knowledge of?). Then more Van Halen ('Jump') which is probably pushing it in terms of variety. Then AC (lightning bolt symbol) DCs' 'Thunderstruck' from which point things went down hill. I hate that song. It goes nowhere and has nothing of what made AC/DC such a fun and often weird band in the 1970s. He may not have produced it, but I blame Mutt Lange, he who tried his best to take the fun out of rock music in the 1980s.
Then Queen, bugger me if I can remember which song except that it wasn't one of their three good ones (or failing that 'Bicycle Race'), and then I stopped caring. Overall 5/10.
Information, and/or the lack thereof
Last week when I went to Knights Stadium the ground announcer was very happy to note the Sydney United score during the Waratah Cup final, which United won. This week? Nothing. Was it an oversight? Did the fact that United were losing to Bonnyrigg have anything to do with the omission?
Spectator behaviour
Following some recent incidents at South games there were enough concerns about potential stupidity at this game that Knights put out a press release going on about codes of conduct when they could have easily narrowed it down to 'don't be a dickhead'. To which of course I churlishly responded with a Simpsons still.
Next game
Wednesday night at Jack Edwards Reserve against the Bergers for a place in the Dockerty Cup final. This will in theory have been made tougher, because the Bergers' game against Green Gully yesterday was abandoned without a ball being kicked, giving them a few days extra rest. One of the insiders reckons Theodore will miss this week due to work commitments. How semi-pro is that?
For all the talk that we were outplayed, that's only part of the story, because there were periods of the game where we were the better team. In the end it came down to two unforgivable mistakes in our defense, and a reluctance to play balls into the box early to get the Knights defense - hardly their best attribute - scrambling around.
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| Leigh Minopoulos watches Matthew Theodore's shot go in. When you raise your umbrella up in the air in celebration like that, it kinda stops doing its job. Photo: Steve Starek. |
In the end of course May saved Stirton's relatively timid and badly placed shot - I was pointing at him to hit it the other way, so I'm absolved of any blame - and Knights won the game anyway. And while of course it's easier to be happy when you've won (or so I'm told), credit to May for genuinely applauding the South fans behind his goal; which is more than can be said for almost every South player, though they should be cut some slack I suppose for being devastated at dropping points right at the death for the second time in ten days. I'm as annoyed as the next South fan that we didn't take the chance to take top spot off Bentleigh, who have started to stumble in recent weeks, as well as being frustrated that penalty taking seems to have collectively spooked the side, but the race for the NPL national playoff spot is still well and truly on
Some thoughts on the match day experience, because Pave Jusup asked for them
Inconsistencies at the gate
Upon arriving at the ground with Ian Syson last week, the $3 car park fee was waived when Syson displayed his 2015 FFV season pass. This week, when I showed my media pass, I was charged $3. This seemed odd to me, but not a big deal , until it turned out that there were some people being charged and others not (Syson managed to get away with paying for example). I don't know what the regulations have to say (if they have anything to say at all) about whether pass holders (including players) should be charged for car parking, but it seems that the car park attendants should be instructed to at least be consistent in their approach.
Food
Unless you count the Butter Menthols I bought at Woolies before the game, of which I had about five during the game, I didn't have any food at the ground this time. This was in large part due to the fact that I took Gains to Sunshine Plaza so he could partake in the brilliance that is Sunshine Charcoal Chicken. There were no regrets.
Ambiance
While I am of the opinion that the game in and of itself is the match day experience, we live in modern times, and people apparently need to be geared up towards the match itself by the use of music. Of course everyone thinks that they are the world's most tasteful and under appreciated DJ, and forever most overlooked Rage guest presenter, and thus when someone gets the chance to be in the ground announcer's booth and choose the music they all think they're unleashing not just quality quality tunes, but also something educational.
Of course almost everyone who does this at any level has no taste whatsoever. The people who choose the music at more premium, top flight events are hamstrung by the specifications of corporate, family friendly, generic blandness, but the second tier allows you a bit more freedom. And yet who takes it? No, for some reason at Lakeside we are bombarded with house music and commercial r n' b, and this was even the case last week at Knights Stadium.
My many complaints about this have not gone unnoticed, to the point where I was allowed to choose one song for Lakeside last week (I of course went with Kitchens of Distinction's 'When In Heaven'). Yesterday at Knights Stadium instead of whatever crap they had last week, the DJ started off with Johnny Cash's 'Ring of Fire'. Not bad, though Mr DJ would have earned more hipster brownie points if he played the Anita Carter's (June Carter Cash's sister) version.
Then we had Van Halen's 'Panama', which I noted yesterday should be the nation of Panama's national anthem. OK, so not early Van Halen, but still pre-Sammy Hagar, so OK (see how I pretend to have an opinion on a division that I really have very little knowledge of?). Then more Van Halen ('Jump') which is probably pushing it in terms of variety. Then AC (lightning bolt symbol) DCs' 'Thunderstruck' from which point things went down hill. I hate that song. It goes nowhere and has nothing of what made AC/DC such a fun and often weird band in the 1970s. He may not have produced it, but I blame Mutt Lange, he who tried his best to take the fun out of rock music in the 1980s.
Then Queen, bugger me if I can remember which song except that it wasn't one of their three good ones (or failing that 'Bicycle Race'), and then I stopped caring. Overall 5/10.
Information, and/or the lack thereof
Last week when I went to Knights Stadium the ground announcer was very happy to note the Sydney United score during the Waratah Cup final, which United won. This week? Nothing. Was it an oversight? Did the fact that United were losing to Bonnyrigg have anything to do with the omission?
Spectator behaviour
Following some recent incidents at South games there were enough concerns about potential stupidity at this game that Knights put out a press release going on about codes of conduct when they could have easily narrowed it down to 'don't be a dickhead'. To which of course I churlishly responded with a Simpsons still.
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) July 9, 2015
If we're being completely honest with ourselves, the best way to control crowd behaviour in the VPL is to have the weather turn nasty, and the rain and the cold (even though it wasn't really that cold) probably kept a lot of people away that would have otherwise turned up to this game. For all their hardness, MCF bailed themselves up in the far end of the grandstand rather than their usual spot on Quarry Hill (and while my dad would have agreed with their stance, one of his peasant sayings comes to mind, that being 'είστε από ζάχαρη και θα λιώσετε;', and thus the three or so Clarendon Corner folk were a lonely presence on Quarry Hill during the first half.
3CC on the wing. pic.twitter.com/NEhI0rfIr4
— Ian Syson (@IanSyson) July 12, 2015
The numbers for Clarendon Corner tripled during the second half, but there was no argle bargle of which to speak. I think everyone was scared of that kid who was standing out in the rain wearing shorts and a t-shirt. That kid was a hard muthafucka; either that, or he was trying to get a cold on purpose as to miss school today.Next game
Wednesday night at Jack Edwards Reserve against the Bergers for a place in the Dockerty Cup final. This will in theory have been made tougher, because the Bergers' game against Green Gully yesterday was abandoned without a ball being kicked, giving them a few days extra rest. One of the insiders reckons Theodore will miss this week due to work commitments. How semi-pro is that?
Great moments in electrical safety
Kiwi Kapers Korner
So it turns out that Luke Adams' absence from South duties because of the Kiwi Olympic qualifying campaign was all for nothing. In a case of prime FFV grade shenanigans, the Oceania Football Confederation upheld a protest by Vanuatu that New Zealand played an ineligible player in their semi-final, and thus New Zealand were disqualified from the tournament. I feel for Luke Adams, I really do, because I'm sure he would have loved playing for his nation in the Olympics next year, but I also feel for South Melbourne because we really could have used Adams during this time of defensive difficulties. I hope Adams will be back for the Dockerty Cup semi-final.
I fear no reprisal
I think I've finally figured out Nick Epifano's angle https://t.co/YRBifixrBB
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) July 8, 2015
From the files of 'if it didn't exist, someone would have had to invent it'Rather than go to the soccer on Saturday, I went and watched a student of mine play field hockey for Brunswick against La Trobe University, at the State Netball and Hockey Centre. Putting on my best impersonation of an AFL bigot at a soccer match, here are my thoughts on hockey.
- On the face of it, the wet conditions make negligible difference on the game, largely because of the artificial pitches.
- There was a goal disallowed, and I have no idea why.
- Except for cracking shots, everything seems to happen at 3/4 pace. Counter attacks, dribbling, switching, you name it, it seems to go slower than it should.
- No aerial game, so essentially most of the match is played in two dimensions.
- No left handers and no using the back of the stick, further cutting off a dimension.
- Rather than any sense of formation and players moving together forwards, backwards left or right as you might expect in soccer, the game was more about (relatively neat) scrimmages.
- No offsides, though of course without the aerial component that liberty is much curtailed.
- Very little back chat to the referee.
- A certain level of timidity compared to soccer.
- Dare I say it, a seeming bias towards the upper and upper middle classes, and a certain uniformity of ethnicity.
- For some reason Brunswick had t-shirts while La Trobe had singlets.
- No spectator culture of which to speak (apart from parents, friends etc - this included the men's game I saw earlier in the day)
It was also my first time being at the State Netball and Hockey Centre (run by the same people who look after Lakeside), and I have to say that on the whole the facilities are very good. Many a third tier soccer team (which would be the equivalent of the game I watched) would appreciate access to something of that quality, even if it was only at a non run down Darebin. Our game was on court 2, which had more limited seating and cover than the much better court 1, but still had great lighting and even some terracing behind one of the goals. Overall, class biases aside, I'm not sure who's playing this game and for what reason when they could be playing soccer. It just seems so stifling, even if you have a fluoro hockey stick.
Final thought
Andy Brennan would have been real useful in those conditions. Actually, he would have been useful in a lot of these recent games. I miss Andy Brennan.
Sunday, 3 May 2015
Indefinite - Port Melbourne 2 South Melbourne 2
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| Different number, same player. Nick Epifano in action against Port. Photo: Cindy Nitsos. |
I don't care how thin we are on the bench, the fact that Epifano played in this game was unacceptable. Regardless of how much respect Chris Taylor has earned during South Melbourne stint, Epifano's poor conduct exists outside the football department. This was meant to be a club matter, and all I can see happening is Epifano getting too many second chances without having to pay appropriate penance. Three days off? A week off? But only until we really need him.
Regardless of whether it's Chris Taylor or the board pulling the strings on this matter - and I don't think it's Epifano, who's just taking advantage of the farcical situation - it's insulting to the fans that this is the course of action that's been taken. For whatever its worth, some booed and abused Epifano, a smaller number encouraged him, but most people offered very little either way - and to be brutally frank, the atmosphere was like a morgue, a phenomenon which is much worse. To have the passion sucked out of the supporter base like that, after all we've been through these past 11 years, it was just devastating to be a part of it. The late push as the fans tried to rally the team home to at first an unlikely equaliser, and then an unlikely winner, only masked the relative apathy that set in during the rest of the game.
As a side note, Epifano's performance was neither very good, nor very bad. He put in more effort than usual when it came to trying to win the ball back, but I don't think I've ever seen a player look more awkward in doing so. Where he looks comfortable with the ball at his feet, when trying to shut down the opposition he has the most unusual gait I've seen, as if like a newly born calf or foal he's still learning how to run. Meanwhile in his attacking forays he did some good things, but mucked up his best chance, a pass into the 18 yard box towards the unmarked strikers.
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| Luke Adams' back post header sails past Port keeper Stjepan Gal. Photo: Cindy Nitsos. |
After we went up Port then had the better chances, but wasteful finishing from their end saw us go into the break 1-0 up. Shaun Kelly's header missed narrowly late in the first half, in what would have created an odd scoreline - 1-1 with both goals from the centrebacks - but he made up for that when he headed home uncontested from a corner to level the scores. It looked like a good corner, but for none of our players to seemingly even get near it was devastating in its own way.
Trent Rixon missed an absolute sitter soon after that - and looked incredibly nonchalant doing it - but Alan Kearney scored from the penalty spot to give Port the lead they deserved. Once again our downfall has been in rushing the play. Bombing it to Milos Lujic might make sense if he's near goals, and someone can pick up the scraps, but doing it while he's midfield and up against two defenders... I don't know. We've mentioned before that Taylor wants the team to play less direct, so there's a message there that the players are ignoring for some reason.
At this point it looked rather unlikely that we would be able to get back in the game, but the introduction of Andy Brennan - who didn't start the game I assume do to concerns about a hamstring twinge from the Pascoe Vale game - added a little more grunt and spark. Mind you, Brennan (and all our wide play for that matter) was made far less effective by the very narrow field provided by the home side. All things considered, it was the narrowest field I'd seen since I used to go watch the South women's team play on Field 13.
Prior to our contentious equaliser, missed handballs were already a bone of contention. It looked like a Port player on the ground in his own 18 yard box clearly handled the ball, but there was no call from referee Shaun Evans, of whom the best thing could have been said that he'd lost some weight since we saw him last. One could talk about some sort of karma then for our equaliser, especially if we include some of the brutal tackles that we'd been in the receiving end of - but neither the world nor soccer work like that. Just accept that it was a dodgy goal, be glad it was for us, and move on.
Next week
The start of a theoretically easier stretch of matches begins with a home match against Avondale Heights on Friday night. What I see is a tough month ahead if for no other reason due to limited manpower.
Andy Brennan off to Newcastle Jets - confirmed
The recent rumours have proven to be true, with Brennan signing a two year deal with the struggling A-League outfit. I think it's all a bit sudden, but you've got to take your opportunities when they present themselves. I, like probably a few South Melbourne fans, will be disappointed to lose Andy, as he was not just a talented player but someone with a great attitude on and off the park - the comment was even made to me once by an insider that he's too eager to learn. The Jets begin pre-season training on June 22nd, and unusually perhaps we get to keep Brennan all the way up until the Dockerty Cup game against Melbourne Knights on the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
2016 Australian Grand Prix pushed back a couple of weeks
Neos Kosmos English Weekly (via AAP) has reported that next year's Australian Grand Prix will be pushed back a couple of weeks - does this mean that we'll be able to host more than one home game during the warmer months, or will some other excuse turn up to prevent that from happening?
Social club news, as osmotically gleaned from the internet and dewy grass æther
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Oh, and I'll take that statue of justice too..
Everything else
Bad public transport, being offered a lift by Kev, Hainanese chicken rice + curry puff + soy bean drink, schmoozing with the high rollers, it's European!, hanging out with the plebs, Dave Gilmour vs Roger Waters, tailored suits, observing someone drinking VB in an attempt to fit in with the common man, night shift shelf stacking, barcodes and reflexive memory. Also imagining that I overhead someone mention how good this blog is,
Final thought
The effects of a long season are starting to kick in, and we're not even half way through yet.
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