Hey Football Fan,
You may have noticed I've been quiet on the A Football Story front lately. My time has been taken up on the Half Time Heroes Fanzine. Anyway here are some stories and interviews that I have written for the fanzine in the last few months. I hope you enjoy.
http://halftimeheroes.com.au/2009/12/15/december-2009/
Australian media personality Tony Wilson is the author of Australia United; a book that follows Tony’s and the Socceroos adventures @ the 06 Wold Cup in Germany, He is also a radio announcer on 2RRR in Melbourne and a regular member of ABC TV show the Einstein factor and is a huge Socceroos fan.
1) Half Time Heroes: In your book Australia United you say that you became a convert to the Socceroos cause on November 29,1997, when I fell into the arms of a 53 year old greengrocer called Con, seconds after Aurelio Vidmar had put us 2-0 up against Iran and into the 1998 world cup.
So from the nadir of that moment to now two consecutive world cups and again meeting another Con (I’m not a green grocer but it is dream) did you ever think you would be in this position?
Tony Wilson: I did think we would eventually qualify, and I vowed after the exhilaration and despair of November 29, 1997, that I would be there to witness it. It was crazy pledge to myself, and it took me to Uruguay in 2001 which was truly the trip of a lifetime, even if the result didn't quite go our way. Eventually of course I was there at Sydney's Olympic Stadium when Aloisi ploughed that thunderbolt into the back of the net. Given I initially fell for the game after a defeat, I can't tell you how addicted to qualifiers I feel after that amazing moment.
2)HTH: So to the World Cup draw tell us your thoughts can the Aussies make it out of the group?
TW: It's a really difficult group, probably the second hardest after the Brazil /Ivory Coast/ Portugal group. Mind you, there aren't too many easy groups out there. We have beaten and can beat Ghana, even if the blazing potential in that London friendly has us all feeling a bit nervous. I actually saw Ghana lose to Brazil in Germany, and even then their young squad was very unlucky in that match. Names like Klose, Podolski, Schweinsteger and of course Ballack mean we have to expect to lose to the Germans. Although hey, upsets can and do happen at these tournaments. And the Serbia match will be even tougher than its Croatian equivalent in 2006, although again, if we can win against Ghana and results have fallen our way, there is a spirit in this squad that has me hoping that we might get out of the group.
Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't win a game! Either way, I love this team, and believe its qualifying performance has cemented its position as the greatest side we have ever had.
3) HTH: Are you planning on going to South Africa? What do you think the first ever World Cup in Africa will produce?
TW: By some miracle, my ars*y father got his name pulled out in the FIFA ballot, so not only am I going, I've already got my tickets. Very, very happy about that. In Germany, I stayed right through to the final, and as the last chapter of Australia United attests, snared a ticket to the game at the very last minute. Missed the goals but was there for the headbutt! I've now got a 3 month old baby, so this time I might not make it through to the end.
I think the tournament will be a beauty. Germany had organisation and infrastructure and almost a sense of international rebirth after World War II. For Africa, this is the chance to truly put on the biggest show on Earth and to prove to everyone that its fun and safe and friendly. As a fan of Ladysmith Black Mamboso, I'm also tipping that the music /dancing side of things will put thigh slapping lederhosen acts to shame.
4) HTH: Tell me what you think about Pim Verbeek and the current Socceroo squad. Michael Cockerill posed this question in a recent article he penned for the SMH. Are the Socceroos four years better, or simply four years older? What do you say?
TW: I love Pim because I was desperate for somebody to get us there, and he hardly put a foot wrong. I know that there's a sense that we're not as good, that the team is older and slower. When I think of how good we were against Brazil and Italy last time, it's hard to imagine an Australian team ever playing that well again. I think we've definitely slipped a bit. I asked Fox Sports' Simon Hill and he thinks the loss of Mark Viduka is the biggest blow. That might turn out to be pretty right. We seem to be more defensive now than Guus had us playing, but having said that, some of our players have got better. Emerton is better. Wilkshire is better. Cahill is better. Incredibly, Mark Schwartzer seems to be playing even better than in 2006. Against that, stars like Kewell, Grella, Bresciano, Chipperfield and Culina might have just dropped off a notch.
5) HTH: The World Cup bid is starting to take shape, from what you have seen so far with the promo videos and online book has the FFA sold Australia well. Do you like that Nicole Kidman was used to spruik the bid? And do we have a chance to host it?
TW: I don't mind that Nicole has got the job. If that nice Hugh Jackman can fall in love with her in 'Australia', surely the FIFA powerbrokers won't be able to resist her faux Engish, botox infused charms. I think this is a very rare opporunity to win the bid. We are extremely lucky that two bids are being sorted out at once. I think we're almost no chance for 2018 and that the tournament will return to Europe, but 2022 is a huge chance. Europe won't get it again. Africa won't get it. South America will have just had 2014. So by my reckoning it comes down to the USA, China and us. I'd choose us!
I've actually just written a novel about a fictional footballer who is the face of our World Cup bid. He's an ex-Socceroo called Charlie Dekker, and he gets caught up in a tabloid feeding frenzy when he falls for a Tiger Woods like sex scandal. It will be out through Murdoch Books in July next year.
6) HTH: Who is your A League team?
TW: I'm a member of the Melbourne Victory and get to almost every home game. My two-year-old daughter Polly is a member too, and she has just started coming. She likes the half time food and dressing up in the colours. Last time we went, the noise following an Archie Thompson goal resulted in her bursting into tears. She'll have to improve on that. I've been there for our two Grand Final wins, which were both great in different ways. I think Henandez is playing so well this year that we have to be favourites to do it again.
7) HTH: Do you have an Overseas team?
TW: I used to say West Ham, becasue I love the theme song 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles'. As a kid, I also loved the fact that they had a processed meat in their name. But I have to be honest and admit that I watch very little Premier League football. Certainly, the Hammers have produced very little to inspire in 09-10. I don't have a great passion for any overseas club. I'd even confess that I'm thinking of switching over to Everton now that Lucas Neill has joined Tim Cahill there. I've certainly been playing a lot of FIFA 09 on the PS3 as Everton.
8) HTH: Who is your favourite local player?
TW: Carlos Henandez is a great favourite. My friend Sam Pang calls him 'The silver fox'. I think he's the most gifted player in the A-League, and that it's a tragedy Costa Rica didn't qualify for this World Cup. I would have loved for him to be there. All Melbourne fans love Archie, and forgive him all those offsides (or are they offside?). In terms of other A-League clubs, I like the bruising style of Danny Tiatto (his cousin The Ox is a wrestler I know) and the distinguished grey of Steve Corica. He will retire a legend of local football.
9)HTH: Who is your favourite overseas player?
TW: I think the best to watch is Lionel Messi. I'm so glad that Argentina overcame the Diego insanity that seems to be prevailing there at the moment and got Messi into the tournament. His little mosquito legs are just freaky, and his centre of gravity must be about 5cm off the ground. I think he will win the Golden Ball in South Africa. I also have a big soft spot for Wayne Rooney. The story of Colleen throwing his 50,000 pound engagement ring into a wood, and rangers having to ask fossickers to respect the rights of the squirrels who may have found the ring, was my favourite tabloid story of the last few years. Colleen was angry with him for seeing hookers.
10)Your favourite football moment of the noughties?
TW: 'Aloisssssssiiiiiiiiiiii! At last. At long long last. Thirty-one years, four months and 24 days have passed since Australia ended its campaign at the 1974 World Cup and now - finally, belatedly, wonderfully and joyfully - Australia is back on the biggest stage of all.' Thank you Simon Hill.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Sydney FC Blog: Have A Pie, It's On Me
link
I was standing on the balcony of the Sky Blue Business Lounge eating a meat pie and drinking beer thinking to myself: How cool is this?
Then Matt Thomson scores it’s 3-0 and that’s my buzz killed...
The Party
Here I am celebrating my brother’s imminent marriage to the woman of his dreams with a view of the pitch that is fit for a king, what better way for Phillip to bid farewell to single life than to be amongst family and friends and have a bucks party in the prawn sandwich section of Sydney Football Stadium?
It was all going to script (except it’s now 3-0) even though James Venn the corporate sales manager would have preferred that the organiser of this doo my brother George had told him it was bucks instead of attending the game under the guise of this being a corporate shin dig.
The thing is George kept true to the story that we were here under the name of Half-Time Heroes and not as a bucks party because, well, they don’t like bucks parties in the Sky Business Lounge, it’s supposed to be only for the high powered types.
James however was not so easily fooled and once he saw that we were all blokes and Phillip was sporting a Sydney FC jersey with Stamocostas 09 on the back, he started to suspect.
“Is it a business celebration or as some other type of celebration?” James asked.
“Both, but more of a bucks celebration if I was to be honest,” I added pointing at my brother.
“You should have told me,” James said. “I would have chucked you on the other side away from everyone.”
I replied back: “Chill James, look at us? Do we look like we are going to cause trouble?”
Of course, I ask this question sporting one of those ugly unkempt beards were the side burns have grown out in a disproportioned length to the rest of the beard and I’m wearing my season one hat and season one jersey.
James was probably right to be a bit suspicious of us behaving badly as the following story I tell you has been added to the new chapter in my soon to be published memoirs entitled “The Faux Pa Handbook, A guide to surviving the Noughties”
The Pies
At half time these beautiful lamb pies are served and a bunch of us are sitting in the comfy chairs of the Sky Blue business lounge munching away. A stranger approaches the table and takes two pies out of the basket and says I’m taking these.
Now I’ll be honest, in a somewhat sarcastic smart arse tone I say to the stranger “You know there is a lady that comes around and serves them to you” He looks at me and says it’s ok, it’s for my kid.
He leaves and of course we all start talking behind his back saying things like. “That well dressed gentleman was rude”. The consensus around the table was that it was rude behaviour. So we down another beer and we arrive at the consensus again. “How very rude!”
Then right out of my blind spot the gentlemen that took the pies reaches around the table and replaces the pies that he took with brand new ones. “Here you go” he says. Everyone around the table and in the most hypocritical of tones say “No, no don’t worry about it, it doesn’t matter.”
The Bozza
We go head back to our seats just in time for the start of the second half.
Mark Bosnich walks through our section and sits right next to the pie thief, now the pie replacer, who now has the moral high ground position all alone.
So for most of the second half, I concede that with my earlier indignant response to what was only a couple of lamb pies(albeit very nice and tasty meat pies), I have now thrown away the chance to get an interview with Mark Bosnich.
I mean I insulted the great man's friend.
So finally with not long left in the game I do get the courage and give Mark a hand written note with a request to interview him one day.
I hope anyway, I bet that pie thief tells him I was one rude bastard who wanted to keep all the pies for himself!
The Game
And my thoughts on the actual game: Vitezslav Lavicka has been outcoached in each of three losses the Bling has suffered recently.
Mad Miron, Dave Mitchell and Branko “Batman” Culina have all out-thought and out-strategised the highly credentialed Euro-boss.
Simon “my Melbourne Heart is still in Sydney” Colosimo has been one of the obvious culprits. He has gone for the killer tackle or killer ball too many times and it has cost Sydney goals. His inner midfield has come out at the worst time.
Recent calls by some football pundits that this squad is the best Sydney team ever and possible World Cup call ups for messieurs Colosimo and Brosque have been far off the mark.
Remember the A-League and remember your limits, and don’t get upset about the pies!
I was standing on the balcony of the Sky Blue Business Lounge eating a meat pie and drinking beer thinking to myself: How cool is this?
Then Matt Thomson scores it’s 3-0 and that’s my buzz killed...
The Party
Here I am celebrating my brother’s imminent marriage to the woman of his dreams with a view of the pitch that is fit for a king, what better way for Phillip to bid farewell to single life than to be amongst family and friends and have a bucks party in the prawn sandwich section of Sydney Football Stadium?
It was all going to script (except it’s now 3-0) even though James Venn the corporate sales manager would have preferred that the organiser of this doo my brother George had told him it was bucks instead of attending the game under the guise of this being a corporate shin dig.
The thing is George kept true to the story that we were here under the name of Half-Time Heroes and not as a bucks party because, well, they don’t like bucks parties in the Sky Business Lounge, it’s supposed to be only for the high powered types.
James however was not so easily fooled and once he saw that we were all blokes and Phillip was sporting a Sydney FC jersey with Stamocostas 09 on the back, he started to suspect.
“Is it a business celebration or as some other type of celebration?” James asked.
“Both, but more of a bucks celebration if I was to be honest,” I added pointing at my brother.
“You should have told me,” James said. “I would have chucked you on the other side away from everyone.”
I replied back: “Chill James, look at us? Do we look like we are going to cause trouble?”
Of course, I ask this question sporting one of those ugly unkempt beards were the side burns have grown out in a disproportioned length to the rest of the beard and I’m wearing my season one hat and season one jersey.
James was probably right to be a bit suspicious of us behaving badly as the following story I tell you has been added to the new chapter in my soon to be published memoirs entitled “The Faux Pa Handbook, A guide to surviving the Noughties”
The Pies
At half time these beautiful lamb pies are served and a bunch of us are sitting in the comfy chairs of the Sky Blue business lounge munching away. A stranger approaches the table and takes two pies out of the basket and says I’m taking these.
Now I’ll be honest, in a somewhat sarcastic smart arse tone I say to the stranger “You know there is a lady that comes around and serves them to you” He looks at me and says it’s ok, it’s for my kid.
He leaves and of course we all start talking behind his back saying things like. “That well dressed gentleman was rude”. The consensus around the table was that it was rude behaviour. So we down another beer and we arrive at the consensus again. “How very rude!”
Then right out of my blind spot the gentlemen that took the pies reaches around the table and replaces the pies that he took with brand new ones. “Here you go” he says. Everyone around the table and in the most hypocritical of tones say “No, no don’t worry about it, it doesn’t matter.”
The Bozza
We go head back to our seats just in time for the start of the second half.
Mark Bosnich walks through our section and sits right next to the pie thief, now the pie replacer, who now has the moral high ground position all alone.
So for most of the second half, I concede that with my earlier indignant response to what was only a couple of lamb pies(albeit very nice and tasty meat pies), I have now thrown away the chance to get an interview with Mark Bosnich.
I mean I insulted the great man's friend.
So finally with not long left in the game I do get the courage and give Mark a hand written note with a request to interview him one day.
I hope anyway, I bet that pie thief tells him I was one rude bastard who wanted to keep all the pies for himself!
The Game
And my thoughts on the actual game: Vitezslav Lavicka has been outcoached in each of three losses the Bling has suffered recently.
Mad Miron, Dave Mitchell and Branko “Batman” Culina have all out-thought and out-strategised the highly credentialed Euro-boss.
Simon “my Melbourne Heart is still in Sydney” Colosimo has been one of the obvious culprits. He has gone for the killer tackle or killer ball too many times and it has cost Sydney goals. His inner midfield has come out at the worst time.
Recent calls by some football pundits that this squad is the best Sydney team ever and possible World Cup call ups for messieurs Colosimo and Brosque have been far off the mark.
Remember the A-League and remember your limits, and don’t get upset about the pies!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
We're Shit And So Are You!
THE TRUTH can be brutal they say. They also say the truth can set you free. Me, I like it when the truth is funny.
linkAnd the following quote by Newcastle Jets coach Branko Culina after narrowly losing to the World Cup bound Wellington Phoenix is comedy gold: "We are only a finals team because all the teams around us are pretty shit as well,"
Not only is that quote hella funny and brutally honest but far from setting anything or anyone free, it could cost Branko Culina 10 large. Branko has already stated in a previous infamous press conference that he is only on “50 bucks or whatever it is” so perhaps some of those Jets fans could pass the bucket around.
After each Branko outburst I think to myself does he suffer from “esprit d'escalier”? It’s a French phrase meaning the wit of the staircase. The wit of the staircase refers to the perfect witty response you think up after the conversation or argument is ended. The answer you cannot make, the pattern you cannot complete till afterwards it suddenly comes to you when it is too late. Like when you walk down the stairs or up the stairs after the conversation or argument has ended. Your mind suddenly goes “I should have said that instead!”
I suffer from the wit of the stair case. I have a staircase full of polished jokes, kick ass pick up lines and hook line and sinker rebuttals. But alas on that staircase they remain never to be used at the most opportune time only to come to me as I walk away.
Branko perhaps should leave some of his wit on the staircase. But should he? The Jets coach was only making the same point I made in my blog a couple of weeks back where I said “rather than being a selling point, the fact that any team can beat any other team on any given day is making the A League predictably unpredictable”
It’s the same message except, I did not say it as eloquently as Branko did.
With some of the on field action leaving a lot to be desired it’s the press conference where most of the quality football action is happening. But not for long it seems.
The FFA has a bad case of the “control freaks “about them this season. Gagging coaches left right and centre, then absurdly suspending my favourite albino footballer Bass Van Der Brink for four games. What was Powder’s crime? Man handling the referee inappropriately. Van Den Brink only touched the referees arm for less than a second while debating a penalty decision.
Michael Jackson would not have stood a chance if the FFA match review panel administered the recently departed gloved one’s court cases.
http://www.halftimeheroes.com.au/
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Kreas (meathead) Of The A-League
link here
DURING the days of old soccer when the smell of souvlaki would waft around Belmore Oval and teenagers girls would spend 90 mins doing happy laps looking for future husbands, there was a word that was often used to describe the hard man archetype football player. That word was simply “kreas”; it’s the Greek word for flesh or meat.
Think of when the commentator says "That was a meaty challenge..."
You were only called kreas if you were lacking in any football skill, talent or intelligence. The English call this type of player the hard man. Simon Hill famously described the Central Coast Mariners as a team with too many bouncers and not enough DJ's.
The term kreas can also be linked to calling someone a meat head as well. So lacking in any football skill talent or intelligence the kreas only attribute is the ability to take out chunks of the opponents flesh through their so called hard challenges.
Australia has a proud history of kreas football players.
Kevin Muscat is a true kreas. Having the ability to throw stray elbows and stamp on players while they are on the ground and getting away with getting sent off in full view of referees is a talent in itself. While the Fox Sports commentary team suggested that elbowing your opponent in the head is fine as long as it looks like your jumping as well as elbowing. After all Matt Simon made the mistake of jumping with his arms to the side. He basically sent Muscat an invitation to the elbow ball.
Other famous kreas are Ross Aloisi, The Dodd brothers and Paul Wade.
Devoid of any real skill the kreas's job is to neutralise the most creative and influential member of the opposition.
So my laboured introduction comes to the meat of my story. Steve Pantelidis kreas effort on Steve Corica during the Gold Coast -Sydney FC game on Saturday night halted the blings promising start and gave the white shoe brigade an unfair kreas advantage. Kevin Muscat would have been proud seeing one of his former protégés continue on with his good work.
As a Sydney FC fan I think the evenness of this league is very frustrating. Rather than being a selling point, the fact that any team can beat any other team on any given day is making the A League predictably unpredictable.
So the kreas Pantelidis did get some of his own medicine back during the game and I'm sure some other Sydney players got his number. So pencil in the date Sunday January 17 when the two biggest egos of the A-League will meat again at the SFS.
You were only called kreas if you were lacking in any football skill, talent or intelligence. The English call this type of player the hard man. Simon Hill famously described the Central Coast Mariners as a team with too many bouncers and not enough DJ's.
The term kreas can also be linked to calling someone a meat head as well. So lacking in any football skill talent or intelligence the kreas only attribute is the ability to take out chunks of the opponents flesh through their so called hard challenges.
Australia has a proud history of kreas football players.
Kevin Muscat is a true kreas. Having the ability to throw stray elbows and stamp on players while they are on the ground and getting away with getting sent off in full view of referees is a talent in itself. While the Fox Sports commentary team suggested that elbowing your opponent in the head is fine as long as it looks like your jumping as well as elbowing. After all Matt Simon made the mistake of jumping with his arms to the side. He basically sent Muscat an invitation to the elbow ball.
Other famous kreas are Ross Aloisi, The Dodd brothers and Paul Wade.
Devoid of any real skill the kreas's job is to neutralise the most creative and influential member of the opposition.
So my laboured introduction comes to the meat of my story. Steve Pantelidis kreas effort on Steve Corica during the Gold Coast -Sydney FC game on Saturday night halted the blings promising start and gave the white shoe brigade an unfair kreas advantage. Kevin Muscat would have been proud seeing one of his former protégés continue on with his good work.
As a Sydney FC fan I think the evenness of this league is very frustrating. Rather than being a selling point, the fact that any team can beat any other team on any given day is making the A League predictably unpredictable.
So the kreas Pantelidis did get some of his own medicine back during the game and I'm sure some other Sydney players got his number. So pencil in the date Sunday January 17 when the two biggest egos of the A-League will meat again at the SFS.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Money is a Fake Muse
I don’t regularly agree with Melbourne Victory supporters but after reading Neil Zimmerman’s blog: Does Anyone Care about Success over Crisis? I found myself nodding in agreement.
Referring to the Gold Coast Circus Neil asked: “Is a club in crisis much more exciting to talk about?
Unfortunately the answer is yes. People prefer watching a house burn down rather than getting a hose and helping put it out. Look at all those flames so red and tall.
Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory are playing some of the most entertaining and exciting football seen in the A League for years.
Instead of getting excited about that, the main news of the moment is the Gold Coast debacle.
The FFA should get out of the Gold Coast. The lesson from all those failed Rugby League and AFL ventures has not been learnt.
It will take many years before any team on the gold Coast is accepted. It’s not because no-one likes football, it’s just that the market is saturated. Rugby League and AFL should be left to fight it out and Football should re-evaluate.Perhaps they should start in the B league and try and grow slowly from there.
The awful mixture of politics and sport is undoing all the good work that the football folks have put in. The subtext of this debacle is that most of the posturing from the professor is due to political grievances with the Queensland Labour Party and Premier Anna Bligh
The other aspect that could be putting prospective fans off is that Clive Palmer has made all his dollars from Mining.
He finds an area to exploit takes what he needs and then moves onto to the next hole. Taking out the earth’s finite natural resources is not going to endear you to one Australia biggest hippie population bases.
The fire twirling, white guy singing blues songs and bongo playing at every party demographic are not going to buy into your Football dream.
Money is a fake muse!!!
The rich billionaire owners now raiding Europe’s top clubs are business minded folks. They are hoping to buy and sell like 80’s movie characters. There are no messiah’s in football except for the true fan and the child that is practising keepy ups until the sun goes down, oblivious to his/her limitations that they will never reach ten.
Jason Culina should be on the phone to his agent asking for a January transfer. “Clive Palmer wrecked my World Cup Dream”. That is the headline Jason and his talent does not deserve. The enjoyment Jason had in his face for the first month has gone. It has for almost every Gold Coast player except for Michael Thwaite who wears a permanent Andrew Gaze type smile on his face so I can’t tell with him.
Anyway Sydney FC amassed 26 points from 21 games last season. This season the Bling has 25 points from just 13 games. Mark Bridge is living up to his potential and a youngster like Mate Dugandzic is getting me off the coach every time he touches the ball.
But who wants to read those stories when a Billionaire’s house is burning.
Look at those flames so red.............
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)