Two games you probably won't of heard of.

Two times in the past week the Joeys (Australian men's under 17 team) have played matches against their Turkish equivalents at the Canakkale stadium which is located near Gallipoli in Turkey.  The first match was played on the 24th of April and the second on the 26th of April.  These dates were chosen to coincide with Anzac Day (April 25th) in Australia and National Sovereignty and Children's Day (April 23) in Turkey.  This is going to become an annual football event which will alternate between Turkey and Australia and will be played between the various men's and women's national teams.

With these matches being the first played in what is going to become an continuing tradition. Also being an Anzac day sporting event that actually included sporting teams from more then one country.  Plus the fact the matches were actually played in the country, Turkey where the Anzac spirit was born and that it was important enough for Turkish and Australian officials including Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith and NSW Premier Nathan Rees to attend the first match you would hope the matches would of been covered by the Australian sports media.   

Unfortunately this was not the case apart from the SBS news none of the free to air stations had any mention of the matches on their respective news broadcasts.  The two games were also ignored by the newspapers except for the Sunday Age which managed to find room to have a 71 word report about the first match.      

For the two matches, in the first match Turkey won by a goal to nil with Ilker Sayan scoring in the 64th minute.  If you want to read a match report about the match here's the link.

In the second match Australia managed to go ahead after Kerem Bulut scored in the 48th minute however Turkey ended up wining the match after Artun Akcakin scored twice in the 63rd and 81st minutes and here's a link to a match report for the second game.

Big games in upcoming season for the Victory

On Monday the FFA announced the 2009/10 A-league season draw.  With the two new teams Gold Coast Untied and North Queensland Fury joining this season there will be six more rounds for a total of 27 and 51 more games for a total of 135 in the regular season.

Melbourne's first big game is on Thursday the 6th of August, when the Victory kick off the new 

A-league season by hosting the Central Coast Mariners.

On Friday the 18th of September last seasons two grand finalist's will meet for the first time in the season when Melbourne play Adelaide at Hindmarsh Stadium.

In round 10 on Friday the 9th of October the two biggest cities in Australia will clash for the first time in the season.  Sydney fans will hoping by this time that their team under the guidance of Czech coach Vitezslav Lavicka will be performing better then it did last season.  The Victory supporter groups in the southern and the northern end of Etihad Stadium will be reminding Sydney of the previous season's Melbourne 3-2 come from behind victory.

The 28th of November will be Victory's fans first opportunity to see Jason Culina and Gold Coast United live when they play at Etihad Stadium.

On Saturday the 19th of December Melbourne and Sydney will meet at Etihad Stadium for the second time in the season.  The Victory fans will still be reminding Sydney of Melbourne's 3-2 victory from the previous season.

Tuesday the 26th of January, Australia day what better way for a Melbournian to spend it then to watch Melbourne play and hopefully beat Wellington Phoenix at Etihad Stadium.

On the 5th of February god arrives in Melbourne, Robbie Fowler that is the former Liverpool legend, when Melbourne host North Queensland for the first time.

Every Melbourne Victory supporters dream, on the last round of the season Melbourne has already guaranteed top spot and a win away against Sydney in the last match of the season stops Sydney from making it into the finals.  This dream can came true on the 14 February.

Click on this link to see all the fixtures for the 2009/10 A-league season.     

Now to something else.

In the Foreign Bodies section which can be found in Thursday's The Age sport section for the 23rd of April the writer writes "Oh, and owner George Gillett (who also has Manchester Untied in his pool room)".  Close but no cigar.  George Gillett is the part owner of one famous EPL club that plays at home in Red that are situated in the North West of England but it's not Manchester Untied, it's the club about 50 kms to the west Liverpool. 

                  

Kevin Sheedy asks a bizarre question.

This is one of the questions Kevin Sheedy asked Andrew Demetriou in a herald sun interview-

Andrew, how do we stop Frank Lowy and Ben Buckley from calling soccer "football", yet they still manage to call the national team the Socceroos?

Firstly I'm not sure how Kevin Sheedy plans to stop Ben Buckley and Frank Lowy from doing anything they want since he's only a retired AFL coach hardly a power of position to demand a national sports body calls the sport it governs by another name.And Although Andrew Demetriou is the chief executive officer of the Australian Football League you really need to be working in the FFA to make any changes to football in this country.

Around various parts of the world the sport of football is also known as soccer.  However unlike when the word is used in other parts of the world, when the word soccer is used in Australia especially in the Australian sports media it is used to imply subtly that the sport of football is less of a sport then the other football codes played in Australia.  This is just one of the reasons the FFA call the sport by it's correct name football.  

They still (Ben Buckley and Frank Lowy) and the majority of Australians manage to call the national football team the Socceroos fairly easily since that is the official nickname of the team and has been since 1967.    

The question was bad and the answer from Andrew Demetriou wasn't any better-

There were 87,000 people at the MCG on Thursday and a few million watching on television who know what footy is.

Not the greatest bit of diplomacy or humbleness. 

If you decide to look at the whole interview by clicking on the link at the top make sure you read the third comment which is from Jeda of Australia, what the hell does he mean by his last sentence?

This is what journalist Matthew Hall had to write about the Kevin Sheedy question and Andrew Demetriou answer.

       

Gold Coast United

Last week the expansion team Gold Coast United had their first training seasons for the upcoming season.  This is a look at the squad Gold Coast Untied have assembled up to this time.

Gold Coast Untied

1. GK Jess Vanstrattan.  Has spent the last 8 years in Italy, only making a handful of appearances.  Was the first Australian to play for Juventus when he played in some pre-season games for them in 2007.  Will be Gold Coast United's first choice goalkeeper.

20. GK Scott Higgins.  Has played in three different countries, in Australia with various teams, in Scotland with Falkirk making 31 appearances and with Maccabi Herzliya in Israel making 29 appearances.  The only other goalkeeper Gold Coast have signed so far.

2.  CB.  Adam Griffiths.  Is a versatile player who can also play at left and right back and a defensive role in the centre of midfield.  Has made 38 appearances for the Newcastle Jets in the last two seasons.

3.  CB.  Michael Thwaite.  Came back to Australia last season and made 16 appearances for Melbourne Victory.  Had spent the four previous seasons with clubs in Europe.  Has played 6 games for the socceroos.  Will try to display better playing form then he did in his season with Melbourne.

6.  CB.  Steve Pantelidis.  In the first four seasons of the A-league Pantelidis made 58 appearances for Melbourne which included playing in the second season's grand final.  Can also play in centre midfield.  

15.  CB.  Bas van den Brink.  Not much information can be found for the Dutch player Bas van den Brink.  The last club he played for were FC Oniworld who play in the second division of Dutch football, he made 25 appearances for them.          

16. CB. Kristian Rees.  In the four seasons of the A-league Rees has played two seasons with Adelaide United making 35 appearances and one with Wellington Phoenix making 9 appearances.     

18. CB. Daniel Piorkowski. Can also play at right back.  In the A-league Piorkowski has previously played 30 games for Melbourne (2005-08) and 7 for Newcastle (2008-09).  In between this he played two games for English club Walsall.  Is injury prone.

    

4. Mid. Zenon Caravella.  In the first A- league season played 21 games for the New Zealand Knights.  In between then and signing for Gold Coast Caravella had played 52 matches for the same Dutch club (FC Ommiworld) that centre back Bas van den Brink was signed from.

7.  Attacking Mid. Jefferson.  One of the three Brazilians Gold Coast has signed.  Played for Flamengo at youth level.  The club he played for before signing with Gold Coast was Criciuma who play in the third division of Brazilian football.         

  

8.  Defensive Midfielder. Robson.  Another one of the Brazilians.  Also played for Flamengo at youth level.  Was signed from Brazilian third division club Operario.             

        

11.  CAM. Jason Culina.  Gold Coast United's inaugural marquee player and club captain.  For the last nine seasons Culina has played in Eredivisie for various clubs making 170 appearances, with the last four seasons being at PSV Eindhoven. Is likely to play a more attacking role then he does with the national team and PSV Eindhoven. 

14.  Mid.  James Brown.  Gold Coast United is this 19 year old's first senior club.  Played at youth level with the AIS in the Victorian Premier League.  

17. RM. Matthew Osman.  Played 58 games for Central Coast in the first four A-league seasons. Came off the bench in the first season grand final which Central Coast lost to Sydney.   

21.  Mid.  Steve Fitzsimmons.  Has played for two A-league clubs previously.  In the first season he played 11 matches for the New Zealand Knights.  He also made 1 appearance for the Queensland Roar in the second season.  Before being signed by Gold Coast United he was playing in the Brisbane Premier League 1.

9.  St.  Shane Smeltez.  Since returning to the A-league for the past two seasons to play for Wellington he has arguably become the most feared striker in the league, scoring at a rate of better then a goal every other game 39 games 21 goals.  Last season Smeltez was the golden boat winner with 12 goals, Johnny Warren Medal winner for best player in the league and also won the award for having scored the best goal of the season.

10.  St.  Andrew Barisic.  Has played in the Victorian Premier League and the lower leagues of Germany.  Was playing for the Melbourne Knights before being signed by Gold Coast Untied.

12. RF.  Tahj Minniecon.  Can also play on the right wing, a very quick player.  Made 24 appearances and scored 4 goals for the roar in the last two seasons.  Will be the target for roar fans whenever the teams meet because of his move to Gold Coast Untied. 

13. St.  Milson.  The third Brazilian.  Before being signed by Gold Coast United Milson was on loan at Brazilian club Madureira who also play in the Brazilian third division.

19. St.  Joel Porter.  For the past six seasons Porter has played for English lower league club Hartlepool Untied making 162 appearances and scoring 46 goals.  Is likely to start for Gold Coast United as Shane Smeltz forward partner.

Gold Coast United still have room to sign a few more players.  They are likely to try to sign a young goalkeeper to be their third choice goalie, a left or right back and another midfielder or even another defender to finish their squad for the upcoming season.