FFA Cup draw and impromptu friendly news

FFA Cup draw news
For those that missed the round four draw earlier today, we were drawn at home against Essendon Royals. The Royals are currently in State League 1 North-West. From what I can gather, they are not considered among the front-runners for that competition, which is predicted by armchair pundits as being a two-horse race between Preston and North Sunshine.

Nevertheless, you wouldn't want to take any opponent lightly, would you? No idea on venue and date yet, but I assume from looking at Football Victoria's calendar that it'll be a mid-April game at Lakeside.

Friendly tonight
We're apparently playing a friendly tonight against Malvern City at Warner Reserve in Springvale. Kickoff 7pm.

I guess Tanga wants to get some more run in the legs for some players?

Outside of A-League teams playing pre-season matches against NPL teams, in-season friendlies for NPL sides is an unusual thing, but not unheard of - though the last time I can recall us playing in one was all the way back in 2008 when we played such a game against Northcote.

There might have been another one against Altona Magic one year as well, but who can remember all the details?

Theodore's goal makes it nine wins in a row -South Melbourne 1 Pascoe Vale 0

A Matthew Theodore goal after 25 minutes was enough to give South Melbourne the win over a dogged Pascoe Vale outfit, as well as preserve its perfect start to the season.

Aside from that moment however, South put in its most disjointed league performance for the season, looking flat and finding it difficult to cope with the visiting side's tenacity, and the stop start nature of the contest.

For the first time in several weeks the South starting eleven saw a change, with Andrew Mullet getting his first league start in a South shirt after captain Michael Eagar failed to recover from the foot injury he received late against Bentleigh last week. Brad Norton was captain in Eagar's place.

In the first couple of minutes, South looked to continue where it had left off last week, but soon the game regressed into a series of mistakes from both sides, as neither team was able to settle down into any sort of rhythm. South's midfield in particular looked out of synch, failing to get back to defend quickly enough, as well as delivering poorly to the forwards.

For their part, the 13th placed Pascoe Vale didn't come to just defend, and at times looked the more fluid and dangerous of the two sides. But when Theodore collected a loose ball on the edge of the area after Pascoe Vale failed to clear from a corner, and slotted home a low shot past former South keeper Stefaan Sardelic, it was always going to be an uphill battle for the visitors.

Matthew Theodore's teammates congratulate him on what turned out to be the decisive goal.
Photo Cindy Nitsos.

South settled down after that, and forced two good saves out of Sardelic from long range efforts, but the second goal to kill off the game would prove to be elusive. Nick Epifano, who copped a ball to the face, went off at halftime giving Leigh Minopoulos an extended stint on the field, but even 2014's super-sub - who increasing numbers of supporters had been calling to get a start - was unable to create much.

Leigh Minopoulos loses the ball after a good run down the
right. South fans were furious, as they thought the Pascoe
Vale defender clearly handled the ball in the process of
dispossessing Minopoulos. Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

Milos Lujic had the best chance of the second half, after a series of headed balls appeared to sit up nicely for him, but he pulled his shot to the left. Pascoe Vale kept pressing, but were generally unable to force Jason Saldaris into making a save. Their best opportunities came from set pieces, but even two late free kicks from out wide were sent out harmlessly.

Not so harmless was a clearance from James Musa towards the end of the match, which sailed high out of the playing area and struck the head of one of the security guards near the players race.

South now finds itself six points clear at the top of the table, after Oakleigh drew 1-1 at home to Northcote, and nine points clear of third placed Heidelberg. A disastrous run for Bentleigh - just one point out of a possible nine in their last three outings - sees them fall well off the pace, even making their game in hand irrelevant. But there's a very long way to go yet.

Next week
Away to an increasingly unpredictable Werribee City, who after a recent poor run - which included a home loss to last placed Goulburn Valley - managed to beat Dandenong Thunder 3-0 away from home.

Dockerty Cup news
Bit of a rough result, being drawn away to Dandenong Thunder, to be played on Wednesday 28th May at 7:30PM. We play them in the league just a few days later, too.

Fundraising ideas
Instead of raffling off the signed balls and/or hampers or whatever else it is they use for prizes, they should offer patrons the chance to select the music for the pre-game fill in time between the end of the under 20s match and the start of the seniors.

Maybe they could even auction it off at the jersey night? If you won, your selection would have to suitable for a family audience, but at least it would be a chance to get rid of that awful house music and raise some money for the club. Maybe someone would even choose to have no music before the game.

Rules for some but not for others? The case of St Albans
There will be many hiccups and bumps on the road as the NPL tries to get its footing in Victoria, and we've just reached a new one with St Albans apparently being docked three points for not fielding an under 13s team in some fixture or other.

While on the face of it the punishment seems to fit the crime, this missive on the St Albans website, written by committee member Joseph Hovanjec - and in all honesty, one of the best pieces of writing I've ever seen from a local soccer club, if only for its clarity and directness - goes into some depth on the matter as seen from their side.

The crux of the issue for St Albans seems to be, that given the short amount of time available from learning that teams were successful in being offered an NPL licence, to actually starting, getting together teams for every age group was incredibly difficult - this is especially so when St Albans is in a very competitive market, with Melbourne Knights, Sunshine George Cross and Green Gully all located nearby.

(Oddly, no one has yet mentioned that junior recruitment difficulty is a result at least in part of the abandonment of FFV's preferred zoning model, though mention has been made of too many teams being offered places in the metro area.)

And, St Albans' argument follows, unlike other prospective NPL teams from around Victoria, which just assumed that they were 'in' (Surf Coast, anyone?), St Albans are effectively being punished for doing the right thing by waiting until their application was confirmed which, seeing as apparently all the 2014 VPL teams were assured of NPL status as part of last year's peace deal, was a situation teams like St Albans could not take advantage of.

The issue even made it to radio (and thanks to one of our readers Skip, who sent us a reminder to listen in), where St Albans president Robert Colina called up to chat with FFV's NPL head honcho Liam Bentley. It's about 25 minutes in, and well worth a listen to hear one man absolutely on the edge of his tether, and the other man trying to respectfully answer the questions while still upholding his duty to his employer and the overall direction of the NPL.

That call was followed up soon after by Box Hill United's Nicholas Tsiaras, one of the spearheads of the co-signatory group which took on the FFV over the NPL last year, who said that everyone knew what they were getting in for, and that everyone is and must play by the same rules. Tsiaras' point of view has also made it to soccer-forum.net, where the debate has continued.

What this situation has highlighted are the differences in expectations and behaviour within the NPL Victoria licensee constituency. Where a club like St Albans expects if not outright lenience from the FFV, than at least practical acknowledgement that they've done everything in their power to get their player and team quotas filled, other clubs are expecting no such favours.

Where St Albans are looking for assistance from the FFV, the attitude from other NPL constituencies is that FFV should be a 'small government' administrative body and not an interfering body, an attitude most strongly put forward last year by another co-signatory figurehead, South Melbourne board member Tom Kalas.

Others meanwhile, including myself, have asked the question about why leniency is not being shown in this area, when leniency in other areas - the big one being facilities failing to meet NPL criteria - seems to have a foothold.

On soccer-forum, Tsiaras provided a reasonable explanation for this, mentioning the fact of the game's poor cousin status in this state compared to other sports meant that it would be difficult for many teams to meet those requirements straight off the bat.

The counter argument to that is that clubs like St Albans have put in the hard yards with regards to facilities over a period of decades, while other clubs chose to spend money on players and the short term goal of winning championships, as opposed to establishing long term soccer infrastructure.

But whichever argument one chooses to side with in the facilities debate, one thing appears to be certain - that if teams don't improve their facilities by the end of the three or so year leniency period - there will be consequences, with FFV soon to begin the process of auditing facilities:

As mentioned in the previous NPL Delegates Meeting FFV will be conducting Facility Audits of all NPL clubs’ facilities. 

As you can understand getting to all 28 clubs is a big task and as such we have allocated a time and date for each club, we ask that you make one person from the club available to open doors, gates etc. No decisions or recommendations etc will be made on the day, this is simple an exercise in gathering information to give us a picture of where each club is at as well as provide a foundation for your ongoing facility planning. 

This will be a top to bottom report on what each club does and does not have, as well as sizes and other issues which should take around 45 minutes in total. 

We will be providing each NPL club with the report within 7 days of the inspection including at what level ( Class A, B etc) each area of their facility meets."

- extract of an FFV letter to NPL clubs, as posted on soccer-forum.net by Nicholas Tsiaras.

And the consequences of those audits could be far messier than a three point deduction.

Around the grounds
'So I've been watching a lot of Victorian soccer lately, and you know what I've discovered, Dr. Katz?'
'No, what?'
'I need a girlfriend.'

So, Port vs Hume, that huge blockbuster between two teams who won't win the championship but won't get relegated either (I realise that's a very early call to make), and a suitably large crowd was in place for this one - it's always a good sign when a goalkeeper has to jump the fence to fetch their own ball for their goal kicks. My first observation was this:

SelecTV went broke three years ago, but their sponsor board at Port Melbourne Sharks will never die. #nplvic
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 16, 2014

which became slightly more topical to this blog's general theme (South Melbourne the soccer club) when this was tweeted in response:

@PaulMavroudis bring back the "South Melbourne Hellas and Barbaresso Ouzo, a Great Combination" signage to Lakeside.
— Paul Touliatos (@pavlaki1969) May 16, 2014

Then the game started, but not before the farce that is the pre-match huddle

The pre-match huddle - is there anything more pointless? Weren't you all just in the rooms getting instructions and fired up 5 minutes ago?
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 16, 2014

The first half was completely frantic, but with almost nothing of note happening except for a late Port goal and Kamal Ibrahim sooking about the refereeing. The second half was just as frantic, but more interesting, as both sides started creating actual chances, most of which they stuffed up. Hume pulled one back from a free kick that was headed in, and then followed that up with a short corner. As I observed that night:

You've scored a headed goal from a set piece, the opposition keeper looks dicey in the air - why would you play the corner short? #nplvic
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 16, 2014

Port missed some one on ones, and Hume missed a volleyed shot from close range after the Port keeper had made a save. Bentleigh coach and South Melbourne Hellas legend Johnny A laughed at it, knowing that he would have scored that. The match finished 1-1, I watched the match alone, and the 11:00 train to Werribee from Flinders Street got cancelled due to 'operational requirements', an example of management jargon so vague that it could mean just about anything.

But in a victory for people power or the invisible hand of the market - choose your preferred ideological paradigm - the chocolate bars at Port's canteen are now $3, down from their original $4. I bought a Cherry Ripe in celebration, and probably also because I'm reading a book about Macpherson Robertson, the inventor of the Cherry Ripe.

How the other half live
It's not often I find reason to head out to watch soccer in the south-eastern half of the state league divide, and yet on Saturday I was faced with two choices to indulge myself on that front - head to Clifton Hill vs Noble Park, or Malvern City vs Langwarrin (happy 50th anniversary by the way). Well, my heart had been set on the latter, and despite some momentary dithering I ended up in Kooyong, at an open park located between a footy ground, a baseball diamond and a freeway.

Why Malvern? Because there were several ex-South under 21s players playing for the seniors there, coached by former South 21s and 18s coach Gus Caminos. I tried to stay low key, but was eventually spotted by a couple of people, though at least I got a free souvlaki out of it and those people seemed enthusiastic to see me, which while enjoyable is always a little bit unnerving.

The crowd wasn't massive, but there were some noticeable differences compared to my north-west experiences:

• The average age of the supporters was about ten years younger in the south-east compared to north-west.
• There was more club merchandise being worn in the south-east.
• You're unlikely to see someone wearing this shirt in the north-west.
• In the north-west you're also unlikely to see (for the time being at least) someone turn up in a Scotch College (or similar) soccer kit
• The north-west still makes better souvs, even if what they're making is actually a gyros instead of the diced meat on a stick business.

Somehow, despite dominating the early proceedings, Langy found themselves 3-0 down before a little bit of a gift of a penalty just before halftime saw them pull one back. Malvern however managed to slot away another three goals in the second half to win in 6-1, done by sitting deep, countering effectively and defending well enough when called upon to do so.

Much debate was had about the future of South and the social club, the future of Australian soccer and the future of Australian soccer players. What happens to players who don't make it through the NPL junior ranks and become senior players? It's OK to say to some of them, take a step down a couple of leagues and play senior soccer but:

1. They may not get that opportunity if older players are pushed down due to the NPL points system.
2. Who's going to actually get down there and watch them? 

On point no. 2, I remember being heckled (in a semi good natured way) when I asked this sort of question at a South AGM, about why I never see South movers and shakers at VPL or state league games. Because if the only people who end up watching lower level senior soccer are club committee members, the occasional parent and the reserves players who haven't inexplicably left after their match has finished (and other dateless wonders), does that mean players are finished if they're not famous by 18?

Is Nunawading City's Great Leap Forward/Cultural Revolution style effort to build up a production line of soccer playing robots the only way forward? Is South attempting to mimic that (probably badly)? What happens to those clubs and players that get left behind? In the future, will anyone actually play the game above State League 1.5 because they like the game, and not because it's some sort of career path? Why are Glen Waverley line trains so much cleaner than corresponding lines going to dodgy suburbs?

Well, I at least got to talk about my thesis with someone who seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing. In this humanities student bashing culture, that was a pleasant experience.

Final thought
FA Cup final at 2:00AM? That's way past my bedtime.

Gung Hay Fat Choy and all that - South Melbourne 5 Hobart Olympia 1

Firstly, a happy Lunar New Year to all our readers who observe that custom.

Well, after so far in 2014 putting out teams mostly made up of triallists and youth players, a good part of South's actual legit senior squad got a bit of a run yesterday, in a typically scratchy debut for pre-season 2014.

It was bloody hot yesterday. Both teams did their warm-ups in the limited shade in the back corners of SS Anderson Reserve. For the spectators, it was actually quite pleasant under the social club roof, though the lack of food was kind of a bummer.

Olympia came out a bit all guns blazing in the first 10 minutes, which seemed a bit foolhardy considering the conditions. They probably should have had a goal though during that early period, as the somewhat makeshift South defense was basically all over the shop.

Eventually though the tide turned, and South went into the break up 2-0 courtesy of Tyson Holmes and triallist striker Rodrigo Covarrubias. Milos Lujic hit the woodwork about 3-4 times in the first half and also had a penalty saved. There was another moment as well where a perfect cross should have been converted into an almost empty net but was headed straight at the keeper.

The second half was more of the same. As the game wore on South chucked on a few more triallists and youth players, several of whom have probably already played at least one game this week. Olympia's defensive line started getting out of shape quite badly, leading to some very poor defending and a cracker of an own goal (think Ljubo's from last season).

From what I can understand Olympia, a mid ranking team in Tasmania's NPL who had some cup successes in 2013, have lost a few key players. There were some occasional nice moves and counter attacks, and Olympia's late goal, when it came, was well deserved. Indeed they probably should have had a 2-3 more by the end of the day, but when they got into dangerous positions they more often than not looked a little bit clueless as to what to do next.

If this sounds like Olympia/Tasmanian soccer bashing, well it's not meant to be. Olympia haven't been one of the best Tasmanian soccer teams for some years now, but they put up a much better fight than when we visited them in 2011. It's just that the gulf in class was still evident. Tasmania's 2014 season should be interesting though, as a couple of their teams look to splash the cash a little bit in order to see if they can finally knock South Hobart off their perch. Judging by this performance (and should we even be doing that?), Olympia won't be one of those teams.

For South, Lujic looked good while still being obviously in cruise control. I'm not convinced yet by Covarrubias as a potential striking partner for Lujic, and was also surprised to see former South player Jason Ricciuti being out there, who got credited with one of the second half goals.

I still think we probably need a keeper (potential recruit Gonzalez from Gully ended up re-signing there), and a better striking partner for Lujic, but other than that, I think we're OK. The problem is, that if there's 14 teams in the league in 2014 (assuming we're in it, of course), that's already four extra games to take into account, plus maybe finals, Dockerty Cup, FFA Cup (?!) and NPL Champions League (are they still doing that?).

More games is good for us punters, and good for the players who I'm sure want to play as much as possible. But it obviously leads then to the fact that you then need more cover for injuries and suspensions, while also taking into account that under NPL rules, your match day squad has to come from the 20 players you've registered, or one of your youth team squads. And at the same time, you've got to plan for the future, for when the NPL player points cap get reduced from 275 to 200 in two or three years time.

In an interesting aside, it appears as if former 21s and 18s coach Gus Caminos has departed to take up the senior coaching position at Malvern - and he's taken some of the 21s players with him. Wish them all the best and all that, and wouldn't mind making a rare trip or two out to the south-eastern leagues to have a look at them this coming season.

Fire Up For Friendly Action! (and other news)

South finally step out of the cotton wool for pre-season 2013. First up, a friendly against Malvern City this Wednesday, at Lakeside, at 7:30.

There are reports that recent re-re-acquisition Carl Recchia has done his knee. Not good news if true.

Fernando has changed his number from 15 to 8. Dimi Hatzimouratis has taken up Fernando's old number.

Young defender Matko Budimir has been offered a senior contract.

Marinos Gasparis is reportedly in terrific shape.

And 1960s multiple championship player George Papadopoulos has passed away.

I went and watched North Sunshine lose 2-1 to Sunshine George Cross in the first round of the Dockerty Cup at Chaplin Reserve. Kinnie and the last minutes of the match were the highlights.

And today I went and saw the Friendship Cup between Melbourne Croatia and Sydney Croatia. Not much of a game to be honest (even with four goals), but I did get to see Glen Trifiro play more forward passes in this match than he did for the whole of last season.

Also, some schmo got here after looking up 'south melbourne a-league 2013'. Do you know something that we perhaps don't know? Something that would turn everything we think we know about Australian soccer on its head?

Or do you perhaps think that we know something that we're not sharing? Something so ludicrously amazing to do with your query that, if I revealed it on these pages, eyeballs would literally explode?

Well, I don't. But if you know something, please share! We don't care if its ludicrous.

South pull out of Bouzis Cup?

They certainly seemed to be no-shows at today's match day, so I'm assuming they've pulled out of the entire thing. A bit of a pity for the three of us that made the trip out there, but what can you do except blame everyone responsible for this mess, especially those who informed no one

Still, we got to see Altona East draw 0-0 with a youthful Oakleigh side. East probably should have taken all the points, but scoring goals has been their achilles heel for a while now.

Also got to see Malvern against Essendon United. United took the lead, but eventually Malvern's dominance of posession told, with them winning 2-1.

The highlight of the day was heading over to Song Huong on Alfrieda Street afterwards for their fantastic (and cheap!) rice vermicelli with braised chicken, lemongrass and chili, and opening up my schedule to do something else with my time. Maybe go see a cup game next week.

South squeeze through against Malvern in state cup

Watched my second and third games of cup football today, after having watched Moreland City go down 1-0 in extra time to Hume City yesterday.

Today saw South's entry into the 2012 tournament, up against Malvern City, whom we had accounted for fairly easily a few months ago in pouring rain during the Hellenic Cup.

A much more polished performance from Malvern today. Nothing spectacular, but we were so half arsed, with most of the more fringe players taking part today not doing themselves any favours.

Saldaris in goals looked OK, and Marinos Gasparis looked hungry, harrassing and harrying in the midfield. But Fernando looked a little slack, and Gianni De Nittis probably didn't do himself any favours.

Dimi Hatzimouratis surely edged himself in front of Gianni in that regard, with the opening goal, a long range effort which smashed in under the crossbar. Malvern then equalised, deservedly so, after an old forgotten foe in Juan Nilo slid one in.

Thankfully Joe Keenan's cut back was met by Kyle Joryeff, and we held the lead until the end. The boys will need to play a lot better against Port Melbourne in the next round, to be held during the Queen's Birthday long weekend.

The second half of the double header was between Northcote and Morwell Pegasus. It was a pretty interesting game, and quite enjoyable after the slop we produced.

Pegasus had an early, possibly dubious penalty, which was saved - and the follow up shot from the rebound was very poor, straight at the keeper with almost the whole goal to aim at. Morwell kept beating Northcote's offside trap, eventually making it count, after a very nice build up in midfield released their striker into space, who hit a beautiful chip over the keeper.

Pegasus almost doubled their lead early in the second half, with the ball hitting the crossbar and coming down, but not crossing the line. Thereafter, Northcote dominated posession and territory, with Morwell defending in numbers, though clear cut chances were few and far between. Late on Northcote missed what looked like a sitter from inside the six yard box, their best chance of the game. Pegasus had a man sent off about 10 minutes from time I think, just outside the box.

Bit of cup romance for the tragics, with last season's cup winners, albeit a shadow of the team they were then, bundled out by a team who didn't even have a sponsor on their shirt.

Fourth Round Cup Match Details

No league action this week. Probably for the best after the last couple of weeks.

Instead, this Sunday at the very special time of 12:30PM, we're making our 2012 entry into the Dockerty Mirabella Statewide Knockout Cup, against Malvern Stonnington Malvern.

As an apparent gesture of goodwill or out of guilt for moving two games away from there last season, including a final and the final match of the home and away season, the match will be at Northcote's John Cain Memorial Park.

And before anyone jumps off an internet forum ledge, yes, Lakeside was available, but the club thought it might be nice to try something a little different.

And by different, they mean being the first serving in a fourth round double header, as after our match, Northcote City will be taking on Morwell Pegasus at 3:00PM.

Hercules were originally drawn against Bulleen, but the Lions have pulled out. Don't know why, but the comments section is open for your speculation needs. I'll provide the first one as example to get you started.

I'm guessing that as per last year, your membership won't entitle you to entry to this game. Frankly, I don't care, as I have access to both an FFV season pass and a media pass.

Will we rest injured players? Will we give players like under 21 squad left winger Anthony Giannopoulos a run, even after he refused to come celebrate with your correspodent and his associates, after scoring from the penalty spot? Will Gianni De Nittis get a run,m and if he does, will cost us victory?

The last time we played Malvern in any sort of game was in one of those 70 minute farce matches in the 2012 Hellenic Cup. We won 3-0. The winner of this week's game will play the winner of the match between Port Melbourne and Yarraville. As one wit has already noted, it's like the Hellenic Cup all over again.

And isn't that something to look forward to.

South drawn against Malvern in cup

We're the home team. To be played weekend of April 28th. More details closer to the date.

South beat Malvern 3-0 and move into Hellenic Cup quarter final

Don't know who are opponents are at this stage, but our match will be on tomorrow, that is, Sunday 4th March, at The Grange, at 4pm.