The Big One - World Cup South Africa, 2010

It's hard to admit that football, of all things, has been deprioritised in my life behind work, but that is the only real excuse I have for barely blogging last year. I remain emotionally attached to the QLD Roar, and fret whenever they're playing whether I can watch it or not, and surf the soccer media regularly to punctuate my day. But I can't say I'll be blogging much for a while at any rate.

Moreso next year though. Jacob and I are going to the World Cup. I'm sure I'll write a bit in the lead up, but covering the experience in my own ridiculous way will be an important part of the experience for me at least. That's still a long way away.

What I want to attempt to get at here, in typical blog-tradition, is a discussion about what the hell I should do to organise this (to me) ambitious adventure. Is any of the handfull of people who read this blog going themselves? Have any of you been before? So far I'm thinking of finding a tour deal, but are there ways of getting the best deal and the best chance for Australian-game tickets?

Of course I fully expect, from reading about people's experiences of the 2006, 2002 and other Cups, that regardless of how well we have tickets, accomodation and transport organised, that it will be chaos. Jamie Trecker (Love & Blood at the World Cup with the Footballers, Fans and Freaks), a notable and card-carrying journalist with expenses, found himself struggling and once had to sleep on a train station with dozens of other fans after a riot stopped the trains for a while. This was in Germany. Germany might be said to be among best practice in the world when it comes to efficiency, organisation and security. South Africa would not be included in such a list.

Now I consider myself a worldly and resourceful person but this one makes me a little anxious, and Jacob has never been outside very safe boundaries. On the other hand I will be at the quixotically auspicious age of 42, and Jacob will have just turned 15 - not old enough to drink, have sex and make up his own bloody mind, but at the same time old enough to... um... drink, have sex and make up his own bloody mind. Anyway, an adventure it will be, and I have briefed the lad that nothing will be guaranteed, that we will wear colours and use any groups of Australian fans as security, especially if we beat England on a dubious ref decision, and we will make absolutely certain that we meet a Norwegian single mother with her teenage daughter. Apart from these key things, we might have to wing it.

Anyway, if anyone reading has any advice at all, serious or otherwise, lay it down please.

Trifecta Therapy

My last post, sitting there on top of my blog for months, must maintain the impression that I have dived into a depressive, angry place where soccer is torturous and evil.

It's only very partly true. I haven't been writing or thinking deeply about soccer, but I remain addicted to the Roar. I just couldn't bare going to the game last night however, as if Newcastle had won it would have been too upsetting. Anxiously watching the score on the net, when Griffiths scored I simultaneously groaned and thanked God I wasn't there. Then Mitchel came on, replacing my second-favourite defender - ok I was curious. The same automatic refresh said "Half Time" as first said "1:1". Shit, I better get to a screen. But I finished my beer first.

Walked up to the mall and caught the last 20 minutes. The same old frustrating story. The Roar executing attack after attack, coming frustratingly close, missing sitters, Moore heads to the goalie, we've seen all this before. An excrutiating draw. I can't fucking bare it!

But it was a happy ending. They actually scored. 2:1. I love them. All of them. And the Roar women won the Premiership with their win and the Roar youth won their game too. I'm happy ok? Back to work.

Frank Farina's fine...

... for speaking the bleeding obvious is the last straw for this new fan.

The A-League is a fucking ridiculous competition, and I'm over it. Hell, it might keep me if it was actually brilliant football, but it's not. If it's not completely corrupt it might as well be and inevitably will be with a bunch of billionares running around with very high stakes, no transparency and institutional protection from anyone - even the coaches - criticising decisions.

Sorry it's a fucking joke. If there's any transparency it is transparent that this league is a fucking joke.

Bye.

A Riddle

Why did the chicken cross the football field?

(The answer is in comments.)

Fantasy Queensland

The thing to do here in introduction is to apologise for not writing for so long. Yup.

The bad news is that as this A-Leage thing kicks off again I have realised that work commitments will prevent me from seeing many games at all. I'll be able to see the Saturday night ones and the late Sunday night ones. So today's game between Roar and Phoenix was the first true season Roar game I've missed for two years or so.

It's good to see a few bloggers spark up, but fewer seem active so far (I can hardly be saying this self-righteously). I'll be following the A-League media closely, and it's good to hear the voices beyond the mainstream.

Now the Roar has these new players. To be honest I'd still have to go to the web page to remember their names but they sound hopeful and, ahem... hopefully they'll be great. One of them popped a goal earlier today. The'Roar were tipped to lose that match so maybe the draw was good, and I'm sure Frank will say that, "with the two home games to follow" and all that. Let's say in relative ignorance I'm cautiously optimistic about the Roar's chances. I agree with Ed Vegas's critique of Tony's pre-season review, let's say, for similar hopelessly partisan reasons.

And my fantasy team is up, in both Tony's league (details in the aforelinked post) and Peter and Eric's, and it has a theme. It is, as much as possible within the rules, a Queensland State of Origin Team.

My main problem was I could only choose four Roar players, and most A-League players from Queensland, unsurprisingly, play for the Roar.

In the mid-field I have Matty McKay of course, as captain. In the full vision of this program it is Frank Farina and Matty McKay who put up the challenge, to NSW and Victoria. It would be a home and away round-robbin with the winner taking all, played over a four week period of the off-season.

I'm getting my description of my fantasy league team, which has all sorts of compromises because of the rules, with the real vision behind it. To carry on with the latter the idea would be that any A-League or Youth league players could be called into the team. Internationals from the home state would be completely up to the club to negotiate for (good luck to them) but there would be no salary cap to do so. The organising clubs would naturally be Queensland Roar, Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory.

The overall philosophy of the idea is that it is a short tournament that could get a mass following in a concentrated way hence raising revenue and attracting people to the game, in a uniquely Australian way. There's no reason why South Australia, WA or even New Zealand could not have teams in such a competition, except firstly that I'm not sure if they'd find enough home-state bred ploayers in the A-League to field, say, 16 including 2 goal keepers, and secondly because as far as I'm concerned the real contest is between Queensland and NSW and I have no good excuse to leave Victoria out.

Clint Bolton (SFC)

Andrew Packer (QR) - Jon McKain (WP) - Karl Dodd (WP) - Michael Thwaite (MV)

Zullo (QR) - McKay (QR) - Steve Corica (QR) - David Dodd (QR) - Robbie Kruse (QR)

Dario Vidocic (on the bench in Germany) - Tahj Minniecon (QR)

On the bench I've got keeper Griffin McMaster (QR), Ben Griffin (QR), James Downey (PG), Chris Grossman (QR) and Tim Smits (QR).

But for the Foxsports Fantasy League you can only have four Roar players, and are restricted as to which positions you can place only 12 players in to, so I've done my best within the rules, and have only had to draft one defender in to complete my team. If will not be competitive naturally, because it is constructed so irrationally, but I'd be keen to see someone similarly construct a NSW or Victoria fantasy league team for some real competition.

Because as everybody universally knows, Queenslanders are better.

Blogger's Cup Wrap after a draining Qualifier, Australia v Iraq 1:0

The lead headline on the ABC News site at this time is Australian troops begin Iraq pullout: report. It was posted at 6.03pm, short minutes before Harry Kewell all but finished Iraq's chances to get to the 2010 World Cup. Irony? I don't know. It really doesn't matter.

Funny old game that. I really thought it would be wet and weathery, but it wasn't really. It was pretty packed out, but still over 5000 empty seats. Jacob and his mate Stav were waylaid in a food queue for a few minutes after half time so they missed the goal. The moment of the goal was jubilant and you'd have to say the atmosphere was 'up', but the crowded pedestrian processsions and train ride home were far more subdued than any victorious crowd I'd ever seen. It's not like it was late or anything, even if it is Sunday night.

Overall I'd say it was the result I expected but I was very worried about Australia's inexperienced defence beforehand, and rightly so from what we witnessed. As Eamonn points out, there was a good dose of luck in that win. I truly hope Neil is back from his family duties for the away game on Saturday or I will expect us to concede our first goal under Verbeek.

Furthermore, this is where we actually need Craig Moore to make himself available if needed. Like really, World Cups are the real written history of our country's game, it is warfare between nations for the greatest sporting prize there is. 'Retiring on a high point' is all very well, but if the country actually needs you, there's a certain moral pressure I reckon. Craig, we need you, even if just to help Australia get there. My hardly technical or emperical observations tonight were that our defenders have fine skills but require experienced leadership in the middle - someone who can play and position himself well and scream instructions to the younger blokes at the same time. It's Moore's experience that the Socceroos need back there, especially if Neil is out. And it wouldn't hurt his game with the Roar to get a few extra good games either.

In other World Cup news the Africa Confederation started their huge 12-Group Round 2 of qualifiers yesterday and continue as I write. Togo and Camaroon won their first games as expected (against Zambia and Caper Verde Islands respectively), but my disapointment was Kenya being beaten away by Namibia. I started following Kenya's progress because my housemate John, an excellent and knowledgeable football compatriot, is from Kenya. According to him they are in the easiest possible group (Namibia, Guinea and Zimbabwe) but they really should have beaten Namibia. John was devastated.

In late March a few heads rolled. The Cayman Islands, The British Virgin Islands, Aruba, Dominica and Turks and Caicos Islands, all from the North, Central American and Caribbean Federation, were all knocked from contention for World Cup 2010.

As I've been writing James Brown has put up an analysis of the Socceroos game. It was over a year ago, after James had had an uncharacteristically long lapse from writing, that I jibed in a comment, "Have you got a girlfriend James?" Well... ahem.

And my apologies for being so slack. The most important thing I have failed to do of course is wrap up the Blogger's Cup.

Mike only won by a point (and congrats to Neil for such a close second), but he did so even though he'd absented himself from the country and the competition for several weeks. It can only be called a well-deserved win, and especially deserved, in a gold-watch sort of way, as he has farewelled the blogging world for a season. Hope to see you around in comments Mike and hope you come back before too long. Your prize, not Irish whiskey as promised because I couldn't find a good single malt, but scotch, is on its way. Drink one to Australia's humble but developing football blogging fraternity.

I don't know if I'll do the Blogger's Cup this season, but I'll definitely be blogging more as the A-League gets going again. It's the Roar's year.

PS. John over at A Seat at the A-League has just posted a good account of tonight's game, as has Tony The Round Ball Analyst.