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GremioPower said:
Socceroos U-20 have qualified to the World Cup with this gem:

Click to expand...

This is a bit of a big deal for Oz football, that probably won't get much media attention, but in the 80's and 90's as the Socceroos couldn't qualify for a WC, it was the Young Socceroos competing at the U/20 WC with that golden generation players coming thru, that Oz was able to make an impact on the world stage as a national team. They finished 4th in 1991 and 1993 (Oz hosted).

It helped that they qualified through the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) rather than Asian Confederation (AFC) before 2006, and always were the Oceania representatives, but they would usually do well. NZ were the OFC team at the 1981 and 1993 U/20 WCs when Oz hosted.

Oz didn't go to the first 2 WCs in 1977 and 1979, hosted it in 1981 and between then and 2013 played in 15 of the 17 tournaments.

For some reason Oceania didn't get a slot in 1989 and Oz didn't make it first year in Asia for 2007 WC as I think they missed most of the qualify games before they switched confederations.

But Oz didn't qualify in 2015, 2017, 2019 (2021 cancel due to Covid) and 2023 as several Asian nations pour a lot more money into junior coaching / development than Oz, particularly the oil rich nations in the middle east, who have huge budgets and China, Japan and S. Korea in the far east. There are only 4 slots for AFC teams at the U/20 WC.

Oz struggled big time to get automatic qualification in Asia for 2022 men's WC, missed it and - left it to penalties after extra time in the Inter-Continental clash with Peru and are really struggling in the 2026 WC qualifiers, even though guaranteed slots for the AFC has increased from 4 + host Qatar, to 8 for 2026.

Oz needs another golden generation coming thru the junior grades to do well in future men's WCs. Maybe this is the start of the next golden generation.
 
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RussellEbertHandball said:
The FA Cup was the biggest match of the year in England and was huge in Oz and many other countries. Many times when I was a kid and then young adult staying up to the wee hours to watch the final, first with family and then with mates at a pub or someones place, was just as big as staying up to watch a World Cup Semi Final or Final.

But slowly but surely the EPL once it started in 92/93 and then after the Bosman ruling allowing for unlimited amount of foreign players and the EPL became the best league in Europe/World and the Champions League and its Grand Final just became so huge.

Dosen't help that in Oz over the last 15 years most years the FA Cup is only available on pay TV.
Click to expand...
^^ this is how I became an arsenal supporter.

Watched the 93 fa cup with my uncle.. decided I liked the red team (arsenal) and still love them now.
 
dirty2 said:
decided I liked the red team
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Errol Spence Jr Sport GIF by SHOWTIME Sports
 
But yeah I could still be proven wrong but it looks a long way back for the Gunners now. They have only 11 games to make up 13 points with United at Old Trafford, Chelsea, Fulham and Everton at Everton to come. None of those fixtures are easy even at full strength, and you would have to think they'll need at least an unlikely 10 points from that group to stand a chance (they may even need the full 12).

The good news for them is that:
1. Man U and Everton hate Liverpool a LOT more than they hate Arsenal so at the very least their fans will want to lose.
2. If they can get through that stretch in striking distance their final 7 games are really well placed. Four bottom teams, Newcastle and Bournemouth on home soil, then Liverpool which while at Anfield, at least gives them a 6 point game to have a genuine crack at.
 

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Young Socceroos win the U/20 Asian Cup, 5-4 on penalties.

The Oz goalkeeper dove high to his right and just got a hand on the Saudi's 5th penalty taker's shot and deflected the ball wide of the net.

It was 1-1 at 1/2 time after Saudi's scored in extra time. Stayed at 1-1 to end of extra time.

Pretty sure that is the first trophy the Young Socceroos team has won since Oz left Oceania Federation on 31/12/2005.
 
It is the first AFC Asian Cup the U20 Socceroos have won.
 

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On Tuesday, Whateley had film maker Tony Wilson on his show, talking about his new doco about Ferenc Puskas' 3 years coaching South Melbourne in the National Soccer League.

Wilson won the 2nd ABC Race Around the World series in the late 1990's and was selected in Hawthorn's U/19 side in 1989 a dozen times or so, but was never drafted. His father Ray played 100+ games for the Hawks including the 1971 premiership.

He explains how he was completely oblivious who Puskas was when Ferenc was at South Melbourne between 1989-92. Puts it down to being Anglo and fully invested in Aussie Rules.

As he says, it would be like Maradona or Messi coming to coach in the A-League 25 years after they finished playing, and being ignored by most sports fans in Oz.

It was going to be called - Puskas in Australia, but given Ange Postecoglou was the skipper of South Melbourne the 3 years Puskas coached them, was his chauffer and interpreter and they became close, Ange's high profile and because the film was shown at a film festival, the Greek Film Festival in Melbourne, they saved $60,000 on rights fees its called - Ange and The Boss Puskas in Australia for a bit of an extra marketing push.

It took over 7 years to make, mainly because the TV/video rights fees kept adding up and Wilson and his 2 co-producers had to scrimp and save all they could to raise the funds. They had to raise $330,000 to pay for the rights fees.

The interview with Ange was done in 2017, a couple of days after he resigned after getting the Socceroos to qualify for 2018 WC and stood down and said he had done his job and was spent. He kept his commitment to do the interview with these nobodie,s because of his respect for Puskas.

Puskas came up a lot in interviews and analysis of Ange's first year at Spurs ( as it did at Celtic), as the Brits and others were intrigued about him being so close to the great Puskas for those 3 years, and influencing his coaching philosophies and Puskas coaching South Melbourne to the 1991 NSL premiership.

In 1971 Puskas coached Greek side Panathinaikos in the European Cup final (now Champions League). They lost the final to the all conquering Rinus Michels' Total Football team of Ajax. They have never got back to the final since then.

He coached there for 4 years and learnt to speak Greek, and that was a big reason why he ended up at Greek club South Melbourne Hellas in the NSL, and as his Greek was better than his English, so Greek speaking Ange was his interpreter at the club and elsewhere.

The film has been shown at the Greek Film Festival and a few other places, but got its Melbourne and national release this week and will be shown nationally on the weekend of 15th and 16th March. I'm in Perth at the moment, so will try and hunt it down.

The Greek Community in Melbourne loved Puskas, so some smart work by Wilson and his co-producers to launch it at the Greek Film Festival in Melbourne a few months ago, not just to save on rights fees.

This ESPN story in 2020 gives a good background of how Puskas ended up at South Melbourne which is a significant part of the film, and why there is a statute of Puskas at AAMI Park rectangle stadium, only a few hundred metres away from all those statutes of Australian sporting greats, across several sports, at the MCG.

www.espn.com.au

Why does Real Madrid legend Ferenc Puskás have a statue in Melbourne?

Tucked away in a lonely corner of Melbourne stands a statue of a Real Madrid legend. Here is the forgotten story of Ferenc Puskás in Australia.
www.espn.com.au www.espn.com.au


Check for tickets here

angeandtheboss.com

Ange and The Boss

angeandtheboss.com angeandtheboss.com






 
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