Vaughan Coveny talks about All Whites qualification chances

A nice interview with Vaughan Coveny by Daniel Phan on Goal.com yesterday, talking about the All Whites' world cup qualification campaign, his coaching ambitions and New Zealand football and the AFC. Needed to be proofread though. I ain't doing it. Here it is in its entirety, but click on the link anyway, there might be other good articles on there too.



New Zealand is in pole position to defeat Bahrain in the second leg of their 2010 World Cup play-off on November 14 in Wellington, claims former All Whites striker Vaughan Coveny.

Speaking exclusively with Goal.com, the Kiwis’ all-time record scorer expressed cautious confidence ahead of his nation’s clash with Bahrain in the return leg.

The first leg ended goalless last month.

“The guys did really well to get a great result to take back to New Zealand. As long as everybody involved stays fit. I believe we are in pole position to qualify,” Coveny told Goal.com.

“Firstly, we are playing at home in what will be a packed stadium and we’ve got the players capable of scoring a goal at home.”

“However, I don’t want to say we have one foot in the door already.”

The first leg in Manama ended 0-0 – with Bahrain enjoying the bulk of possession in front of their rapturous home crowd, however, the South Melbourne player-turned-manager expects the tide to turn come next month’s reverse fixture.

“It was always going to be tough. These games played over 180 minutes – your just two games away from the World Cup with not many scoring chances,” he began. “The home team will always have the crowd behind them and it was tough for our boys given the hostile environment.

He added, “We did well not to concede – and even had a couple of half-chances ourselves.

“I’m looking forward to our home leg as I believe we got the players in Rory Fallon [of Plymouth Argyle], Chris Wood [of West Bromwich Albion], Shane Smeltz [of Gold Coast United] and Chris Killen [of Celtic] – all goal scorers that are in form.”

Long-Term Asian Test?

With Australia defecting to the AFC (Asian Football Confederation), much has been said about New Zealand potentially following its trans-Tasman rivals into FIFA’s largest confederation.

Coveny is in favour of a potential link-up with Australia in the AFC, although concedes the unlikelihood of such a move eventuating.

“New Zealand would love to move into Asia if they gave us the chance to do so.”

“It will improve us as a nation and football side. “We’re in Oceania and that is the way it is at the moment so have to do everything by the rules.

“I agree it’s not a strong federation but others can come up with suggestions to make it more make it more difficult.”

But with New Zealand 90 minutes away from a place in the World Cup finals, Coveny has no complaints of the qualification pathway handed by FIFA.

“At the moment Asia is where we have to go qualify through, and it’s an easier pathway we must admit rather than playing the fifth placed South American team.”

Wellington Phoenix

Before returning to South Melbourne, Coveny spent two years at A-league club Wellington Phoenix.

There are lingering doubts surrounding the club’s long term future – with less than two years remaining on its A-league licence, and Coveny insists that the FFA (Football Federation Australia) should continue with the New Zealand franchise beyond the two years remaining on its license.

“I would love to see Wellington [Phoenix] continue [in the A-league],” he started.

“It’s good for the game in New Zealand. I know there’s a little bit of rivalry where I don’t think a lot of Aussies like them being in the A-league.”

Despite competing in an AFC registered competition, Wellington are unable to qualify for the Asian Champions League given its geographic representation being outside of AFC territory.

However, the All Whites legend wants the AFC to compromise its stance against Wellington Phoenix due to the fact it is New Zealand’s sole professional club.

“In terms of the Asian Champions League issue – that’s a tough one. I accept that we’re not part of Asia,” admits Coveny.

“But it’s the only professional team in New Zealand so why not give them a little bit of flexibility and allow them to compete in the ACL?

“I just hope people can sit down and sort it out. It’s a funny one because we’re part of Oceania and they are part of Asia – it’s a real sticky point.”

Coaching ambitions

When asked if coaching in the A-league or international arena with New Zealand was on his radar, Coveny nodded in affirmation.

“Definitely,” he said. “I do have ambitions to coach at the highest level.

“I’ve always been involved in the professional environment working with elite athletes and I’d love to give back something back to New Zealand – even if it was at the youth level; get involved in some capacity,” he continued.

“We’ll see what happens after this World Cup game [against Bahrain] – some doors may open.”

Daniel Phan, Goal.com

No matter what I do, bitterness seeps through

Warning: The following post may be interpreted by some as bitter and elitist.


So I went to the Australia - Japan match last night. Not under duress mind you. But it was a strange experience. But let's start from the top.

I had a fair few choices as to who to go with... but first in and best dressed was an Internet associate of mine from Perth via Adelaide... or is that Adelaide via Perth... nevermind. I'd delayed in purchasing a ticket for some reason, maybe to see if others wanted to join us, but they didn't. So Great Southern Stand about five rows back in what would normally be the Punt Road End forward pocket about 30 to 40 metres out. Tickets at $42 a pop.

But first things first. I arrange to meet with Chris at Federation Square, where he'll be with some of the Austadiums crew. They're friendly enough, even if the first call is 'no club colours' (lacking any Socceroo gear, I was wearing me South scarf and beanie) and one member asked to try to on my glasses (you wouldn't ask a paraplegic if you could try out his wheelchair... then again I don't know you, so you might - but I think you get my point regardless).

More than the flakes of ash landing on me from their cigarettes, what I found most interesting about this encounter was the lack of football talk that wasn't A-League related. It's winter, it's the A-League off season, so what else entered the discussion? Local soccer? Not one bit. The group, with members from five states, discussed mostly WAFL, SANFL, VAFA etc... and the myriad inter city politics of the Green and Gold Army.

I did get grilled though by one chap about why a club would choose to take up the role of outsiders by focusing just on one ethnic community. How to answer a question like that asked with the earnestness of the converted? I said they were treated like outsiders from the start so why wouldn't they choose to head down that path? And if this is a genuinely pluralist society, why should there be barriers on the existence of a diverse range of clubs, including those who choose to cater for a very small segment of the population? Historically these clubs have a shelf life of about 40-60 years - why not let it be on their own head if they fail due to the restrictive nature of their clientele? Mind you, he didn't seem to recognise the fact that ethnic clubs were obliged to change their names in the mid 1990s... and at various time before that too, but that's another story.

Some of us headed down towards the new Swan Street Stadium under construction. There's happy snaps of the sporting precinct, and jokes made at the expense of the legends of Australian tennis, who have bronze busts which often don't look very much like those who they're supposed to resemble - except for John Newcombe, but you could just make a bronze bit of his moustache and everybody would know who it is anyway. The stadium itself is an interesting work in progress. There's glimpses of what it might end up looking like that aren't an 'artist's impression', but I guess no matter how cliched it sounds, we'll only really know what it'll look like when it's done. A stadium unlike anything built in Australia thus far I'm guessing, not necessarily a bad thing.

We then end up at the Corner Hotel, where the Green and Gold Army have decided to decamp for pre-match drinks and stuff. It's not a hostile environment, but there's something alienating about the experience - there's boasting about trip made to countless overseas Socceroos matches and as based on mere extra sensory perception as this is - and I don't like that at all - the stench of newness. There is nothing old about these fans, it's all new and it all seems to have come out of nowhere. But that's impossible, they must have come from somewhere - but where? There's hints in the day's discussions and perhaps on the countless Internet forum debates about this but the university student in me is starting to kick in, and I want something empirical, not emotional and based on personal experience and observations.

There's an SBS camera crew floating around with Mike Tomalaris interviewing people - I ponder for a moment whether I should get up and try and get on tv with my South stuff, but I'm no media whore, and besides, would they have even included me? Opportunity lost perhaps but we'll never know, because I'm dragged back to discussion on South and the A-League and B-Leagues. What's in store in the future for South? I don't know, because soccer keeps changing in this country, but hopefully with the stadium redevelopment we can be in a great position to take on any challenge, a reasonable enough answer. A brief rundown of the history the V, B, Eastern Seaboard leagues and their viability, and what scuttled them for my Canberran inquisitor.

And then the question that everyone's been waiting for - why don't you support the A-League? I run through my list of justifications, about atmosphere, and culture and whatever else my feeble mind can dredge up - but the best answer is of course that it's not my club. I have a club. It's South Melbourne. It's been my club since I was about eight years old. It's not entirely because I'm Greek - because by rights I should have been a Heidelberg fan like my old man - but it's the club, it's my club. I did give the new thing a go - but it wasn't mine, it was someone else's, for those who didn't have something. I had something, I have something, why the need to take on something else? South Melbourne is sufficient to my needs, more than sufficient in fact. My initial curiosity notwithstanding, the fact that I already had a club was merely reinforced with my season long experiment. Did I get through to my opposite number, a former Northern Spirit fan for whom the politics of ethnicity and football are worked into seemingly neat little packages, and thus supporting Sydney FC is a logical conclusion? I don't know, but I think there's some sort of breakthrough, a small opening in the time-space continuum that separates us.

Chris and I then head out for something eat. We walk up Swan Street and decide on the Mexicali Rose. I like the vibe of the place, but the food is a little pricey for what they're putting forth, especially portion wise. My pollo con avocado is quite nice, except someone's over grilled the chicken so that it's tough as hell. Overall not a terrible experience, and we can't just eat pub and cafe food all the time, can we now?

We make the trek towards the ground, and we arrive well before kickoff. After just getting though the gate I get this text message from a mate 'Lol at all th cocks w footy gear on'. Our seats are good. Real good considering how late I bought them. And we get four or five Greeks in the row behind us, who happen to have a sense of humour as well as some sense of history - a discussion they have about the lack of Greek Australian players lets me rip out a reference to Eric Hristodoulou which garners some recognition, an occurrence far removed from everything else that day.

The game itself is by no means spectacular. Australia's first half is simply dreadful, and we're getting killed down our left hand side. Not that Japan is playing scintillating stuff, but they deserve their lead regardless. The 2nd half is a vast improvement from the Socceroos, but the old Verbeekisms are still in plentiful supply... little width, slow movement of the ball, hit and hope skied balls to Kennedy. The Green and Gold Army barely raise a whimper throughout most of the game - sure you could hear them, but it was hardly stirring stuff. The Japanese support was evident, but also not particularly amazing. The flares amuse some but not me. There's some members of the Fanatics to my right, but for once they are not the most offensive people in the stadium. That award goes the knobs on our left who grow weary of the game quite early on and start persisting with attempts at getting a Mexican Wave going. Timmy Cahill does what he does best and gets Australia out of another hole, though to be fair Australia's 2nd half was better than Japan's 2nd. The 70,000 string crowd seems mostly content, but I worry about taking that style and form to the World Cup. I train and taxi it home, try to keep my eyes open to watch the Spain vs Iraq match but I give in. Maybe that's what they want us to do.

That's that then

Socceroos through to next world cup. Nice. Big piece of the local footballing puzzle shuffles into place, and while most Australian footballing hearts will be happy this morning, there's a bitter element that won't be. Let me make it perfectly clear that I don't share their point of view. Well done to Pim and the lads! Now maybe with two games to play, we might get the chance to see some stuff that doesn't involve parking buses, so it's worth me wasting my limited bandwidth streaming the Bahrain game, and me and Chris Egan can see something worthwhile at the MCG when he comes down here in a week or so.

Come on you 'Roos!

One of our fellow South fans was over in Japan for this match, but I don't think he's responsible for this banner, which admitedly made me :smileyfase: but also explains perhaps why the Australian supporters didn't get on tv much.

And can I just say...

... that rearranging the furniture in my study/pc room was the best thing I've done this month... at least... maybe even this whole semester... because now less extensions means much better internet access and speeds which means me being able to watch streaming videos like the Socceroos beating a pathetic Qatar 4-0 with few breaks in quality until the last 20 minutes or so, when my bro started doing crap on the pc... anyway, the bad side was of actually having to listen to that farkstick Robbie Slater, especially when the Arabic language channel coverage cut out at 4-0 and went back to regular programming... which is a shame because I quite like Arabic commentary.

Singapore vs Lebanon, Part 3

ok, also now the addition of the 2nd half, Duric features in the early part of the clip hitting the post, also at the 4:00 minute mark missing from point blank range



Excuse me if i come across as a bit obsessed :P

Duric scores against Lebanon part 2

Below is footage of the first half highlights of Singapore vs Lebanon. It's the Duric goal that's relevant to us here, and that comes in at about 2:55. But also check out the very wonky singing of the anthem by the home fans, the impressive roar (no pun intended) when the goals go in, the 2nd goal at about 5:40, the odd placement (to these Euro-centric ears) of the basketball 'defence' chant and overall, for any South players reading this, how to set up opportunities, if not how to finish them off necessarily.

Duric scores in Lions win over Lebanon

While I was fighting a losing battle to watch the China-Socceroos match over a P2P stream (come on TPG, get that damn ADSL2 here already!), and with no radio broadcast either meaning having to follow crappy minute by minute texts, there was another game played by Singapore against Lebanon. Our ex-defender Alex Duric got the opener in their 2-0 win, which apparently should have been more. Alas, there isn't a video online yet of his goal to savour, but here's the utterly ridiculous, utterly brilliant tv promo for this clash of the titans.

Socceroos to take on Singapore... again

We're coming to get you Pohui!

From The World Game

National coach Pim Verbeek has announced a five-day camp in Singapore and a game against the island state on March 22.

The vital China match will be four days later.

"We want to play as many matches as we can against teams from Asia and, with Singapore also in the process of attempting to qualify for the World Cup, it is a perfect opponent for us," said Verbeek.

Due to club matches being played on the same weekend in Europe as the Singapore match it is likely the squad will be made up of mostly A-League players, giving them another important chance to earn a place in the squad to travel to Kunming to play China.

"This match will give valuable experience to A-League players and will be another important part of our program to keep them fit during the off season," said Verbeek.

"Once the match is over I will then decide who will make the final squad for the trip to China."

Verbeek also revealed that he took a lot of information away from a recent trip to China where he saw their national team in action.

"China played in a strong tournament so it was valuable for me to be able to see them play."

"They have stayed in camp and have already moved to Kunming to continue their preparations so the match against Singapore is vital for us."

Selected players from Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory who will be involved in Asian Champions League matches will join the camp once they complete their club matches on March 19.

The squad for these matches will be announced next week.

I'm not sure what the point of this is myself, using mostly A-League players who by Pim's own admission are better off playing reserves football in England, and not forgetting that most of them are now in their off-season (which goes for what, about 6-7 months or something), but it'd be interesting to see how some of them go regardless. Oh wait, it's not on free to air. I guess I'll have to imagine it then.

Australia vs Qatar 3-0, shame I missed it

Firstly, here is my favourite picture of Socceroo training at Bob Jane Stadium. Why? Because it actually includes the smfc.com.au 'a-frame' that I helped move across so it would get into some media shots. Of course the media being fuckwit revisionist monkeys, you likely didn't see it on mainstream television stations. More photos on the South forum.


I also totally picked the wrong day to start throwing up every couple of hours. Pissed off that I missed this game, and of course the tv rights being the way they are, could only listen to it on the radio, and even then only the first half because I fell asleep due to exhaustion early during the second. Of course, we're not alone in this. The most important thing is we got off to a great start.

Alex Duric on The World Game

Continuing on from an earlier entry, comes this very poorly done but still clear enough video of Alex Duric on The World Game show. All time leading scorer in Singapore? Jeebus! We had him as a defender!

No lah, so old lah, so tall lah - Alex Duric plays for Singapore National Team

When I first heard about this, I was like no way, but good on him, another South player on the international stage, scoring a goal as well against Tajikistan. It came a bit late for my presentation last year on soccer and globalisation, but what the hell? And yes i realize this is old news, but this is still a new blog, it's still catching up.

Some forum

Straits Times profile

Singaporean blogger eating his words