Holger – it’s all about playing with the right MENTALITY

Just watched the press conference announcing the new head coach for the Socceroos and congratulations to the FFA for keeping the appointment in-house and not leaking like a political party busting to go to the loo.

Interesting decision. The man – Holger Osiek - is a well credentialled football person who has been around the world plying his craft and there is no question that he has a massive job.  His job is to ensure that Australia not only gets to Brazil 2014 but has the right (dare I say it) “MENTALITY” rather just “style of play” that will ensure there are no repeats of the result against Germany.

I like him already – the guy nearly said “Shit” in his first press conference with the President of Australia, Frank Lowy sitting next to him.  He seems to have an idea of the Aussie MENTALITY already.

His predecessor – Pim Verbeek was widely criticized for playing with a negative “MENTALITY” even though he achieved the goal of getting us to the World Cup.  His negative style of play was found out in the first game of the World Cup against Germany and even had some pundits calling for his head mid tournament.

Holger would do well to ensure he does the following:

• Find out what the Australian MENTALITY is, and I’m not just talking about the Socceroos.
• Get to know his players and start working on the structure so that come qualification for Brazil 2014 we have a team that can play with “Gay Abandon” if necessary.
• Find out early if our young players are good enough at International level, don’t leave it too late!
• Make sure he works with and mentors our young coaches especially his assistants and leaves a lasting Leagacy – hopefully an Aussie coach for 2022.
• Don’t bag the A-League and its players.

And finally………

• Never sing the Australian National Anthem on TV.

He’ll have a helluva lot more than that to do but it will be fascinating to see how he goes.

I feel better now that we have a coach even though he is not the coach most people were expecting.

Rodrigo Rodriguez

MELBOURNE HEART – AORTA MAKE THE FINALS…..

Just scouring the papers for the cardio-literary gems (like the gem of a headline to this blog..sorry) from sub-editors around the country regarding Melbourne Heart’s debut A-League loss to Central Coast Mariners.

I am a little underwhelmed to be honest. There was no real gay abandon. I thought they would be trotting out the same clever stuff we have seen in the lead up to Melbourne Heart’s debut.

Here’s a sample after Melbourne Heart’s loss to the Mariners:

Bigpond.com – “Bad Heart starter”

Herald Sun – “They’re all Heart”

The Age – “Mariners steel breaks Heart” – not a bad double zinger from The Age

Theworldgame.com.au – “Mariners provide Heart break”

Brisbane Times – “Opening match a real Heart Breaker”

Central Coast Mariners website: “Mariners full of Heart”

I think our news organisations owe it to themselves to seize the opportunity and take it to next level and I am talking about headlines with gay abandon.

Here are my favourites though and congratulations to the hard working subbies of both organisations.  They decided that the cardio metaphor was a little obvious and didn’t let us down with a sea-faring one – good work!!!!

FourFourTwo – “Mariners sink Schip” – that is a beauty!

SMH: “Mariners sail away with points against Heart”

I can’t wait for the headlines when Heart win a game:

I'd like to provide a few now……hope you don't mind?

HEART DOESN’T SCHIP A BEAT

HEART PUMPING

HEART BY-PASS GOLD COAST

HEART ATTACK

MELBOURNE SHOWS HEART

VICTORY FOR HEART – (that’s if they win the local derby)

HEART SHOWS TICKER – (not the mascot, that would be obscene)

I could go on…..

Have you got any zingers?  Let us know.

Rodrigo Rodriguez

The Beautiful game? But don’t blame the ref…

Howard Webb had no choice but to issue the World Cup final record of 13 yellow cards and a red card. 

We were all waiting for a game that would showcase the “Beautiful Game”.  We got something akin to a World Championship UFC bout.

Many will argue that Webb should have issued a few yellow cards in the opening 14 minutes and that he influenced the result of the game by not sending off Nigel De Jong for his Karate kick on Xabi Alonso, some may argue that he probably tried to let things go because conceivably this World Cup could have been ruined by sending 2 Dutch men off in the first half.  I say he did the right thing and issued yellows rather than straight reds.

It was the players who took advantage of his “lenient” decisions in the first half.  Webb must have thought he was in charge of a Championship game between Millwall and Scunthorpe United a tough, uncompromising game of football rather than a game between the inventors of “Beautiful football” and today’s best exponents of it.

Clearly Holland’s had only one way to combat the free flowing passing game that we expect from the Spaniards….Channel Eric Cantona’s kung-fu talents. It worked for most of the game! The Dutch restricted the “Beautiful game” of Spain but they invented it so I suppose they had every right!

For Van Marwijk and Kuyt to come out and blame the referee is sour grapes and they should take a good hard look at themselves because if it wasn’t for Webb they wouldn’t have been playing with a  full complement of players for as long as they did.

Imagine if the Mexican ref who sent Tim Cahill off against Germany was in charge of this game, it would have been a five-a-side game.

Don’t blame the referee!  I think he did a pretty good job under the circumstances.

So, it is done, Spain are officially World Champions which is something we have all thought for quite some time anyway.

VIVA ESPANA!!!!

I’ve told you what I think but I am interested in your thoughts. Did Webb influence the result of the World Cup final?

Rodrigo Rodriguez

BTW: Finally we saw how good Cesc Fabregas can be. He was the bright spark the game needed when he came on.