Golden Soft Sombrero Moment with Jeff Olver

NSL Clubs:                                         

Heidelberg United, Melbourne Knights

Green & Gold Honors:                        

Socceroo appearances:  53

World Cup campaigns:  1985 and 1989

Other: 

Seoul Olympic games 1988 and Young Socceroos

Diegos Verdict:                                  

Jeff had the loudest voice in world footy and a pair of the best hands.

Some Golden Soft Sombrero Moments with Jeff Olver

Olver on Bozza…

Diegos: “We’ve seen Bosnich’s mercurial performance in Iran to keep Australia well and truly on track fro a World Cup birth.

It must have brought memories of your special World Cup performance against Israel in 1985 in Tel Aviv when you slung yourself sideways to save that misdirected Alan Davidson header?”

Olver: “Obviously the boys have played in similar circumstances; a hostile crowd and foreign conditions.

I thought Mark was cool headed like myself but seriously he did a great job. I thought that he was terrific.

He has been in that sort of atmosphere before in the English Premier League with Aston Villa and his calmness and leadership really shone through.’

Soft Sombrero Moment November 1997

The Walrus talks about communication on the park…

Diegos: “You are known as the ‘Walrus’ because of your booming voice and a love of catching your own fish in your mouth.

How difficult is it to communicate with your teammates in an environment like Iran or Israel?”

Olver: “I hadn’t experienced anything like it before I went to Tel Aviv.

Prior to Israel I had very little experience playing for Australia and when I came into the team I was known very well for my loud voice.

In that game in Israel I remember shouting at Charlie Yankos and he was no more than two or three feet away from me and he couldn’t hear me.

When they attacked it was deafening and when we attacked it was basically silence.

In 1989 when Charlie scored in Israel from a free kick that curled around the wall I remember the only noise you could hear was the guys on the bench clapping and there were 55,000 people in the stadium for that game.

People don’t really realize until you go there.

When we were there they had guys in the middle of the pitch singing war songs to get the crowd fired up. It was unbelievable.

Recently I’ve been speaking to another former Socceroo keeper, Jack Reilly and he also says that you really can’t comprehend what the atmosphere is like until you are there.

By the way just to clarify things, I don’t catch my own fish in my mouth.” 

Soft Sombrero Moment November 1997