Day: April 15, 2009

Wednesday, 15 April 2009 11:56 AM

In a first for the Victorian Premier League, Hume City will host South Melbourne FC on Saturday April 25th for the Anzac Day Cup.

Anzac Day is a very important day for the Australian community, symbolising the anniversary of the first major military action fought by members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.

The day is considered to be one of the most sacred and spiritual days on the Australian calendar, with a public holiday being observed to honour those heroic Australians who risked all, and sacrificed so much.  

With this in mind, Anzac Day has been a day that has also seen our diggers honoured through sport, with the AFL playing the Collingwood – Essendon blockbuster on the day every year.

In what now will be a milestone for Victorian Football, both South Melbourne FC and Hume City will have the opportunity to represent the World Game in Australia on such a proud and historic day.

With Hume City being a club with Turkish decent and South Melbourne FC remaining the most successful Australian football club, the contest will provide the ideal method to honour the diggers through football on this special day.

 South Melbourne FC Director Dr. George Triantos was excited about the opportunity to play in such a historic game:

“South Melbourne FC is delighted to be participating in this wonderful sporting opportunity to commemorate and honour the sacrifices of our troops. We urge all SMFC members and all Victorian football fans in general to support this initiative, and attend the ANZAC Day Cup”.said Dr Triantos

The game will kick off at the newly developed Broadmeadows Valley Park at 3.30pm, with the Anzac Day ceremony commencing at 3pm.

All South fans are encouraged to attend in an attempt, not only to make this a special day in Victorian Football, but to also get behind our team in a crunch game for 2009.

Wednesday, 15 April 2009 10:47 AM

South Melbourne WFC has been defeated by arch rivals Heidelberg United in Round 1 of the Women’s Premer League season on Tuesday night.

In what was a unique way to start the season, all opening round matches were played at the Darebin International Sports Complex in Northcote, with all Premier League clubs required to either play on the Tuesday or Wednesday night.

Heidelberg entered the season coming of a bitter Grand Final loss in 2008 against Box Hill Inter and were regarded as one of the premiership favourites entering the contest.

South however entered the contest coming off a disappointing 2008 season, where the club struggled throughout and subsequently missed out on finals action.The game between South and Heidelberg was the marquee match up of the round, with the Bergers beating South in the Hellenic Cup pre-season tournament final in February.

The first half started in a typical round 1 style, with both clubs very timid in the early stages and not really mustering any significant chances. The deadlock was broken however late in the first half by Heidelberg’s Melanie Camilleri, who managed to slam home the ball from close range, despite South’s goalkeeper getting a hand on the shot.

This was to be the only goal of the game despite South’s efforts to continually push forward in the 2nd half and try and grab an equaliser at every opportunity.

Despite the loss South will head into the Round 2 contest on Sunday against Box Hill Inter confident that it can match it with the powerful teams of the competition. The game will kick-off at Bob Jane Stadium at 1pm.

In the reserves curtain-raiser, South came back from a goal down to draw with Heidelberg 1-1.

Wednesday, 15 April 2009 9:35 AM

By John Kyrou

South Melbourne FC travels to Green Gully Reserve on Saturday to take on fifth-placed Green Gully in what is shaping up as a very important match for the club. With Oakleigh and Richmond drawing 1-1 in their round 7 match on Easter Monday, an away victory for South will secure third spot in the league and possibly even second depending on Heidelberg’s result against the Melbourne Knights on Monday.

A positive result is also vitally important because should he play, captain Rama Tavsancioglu will celebrate his 100th league game for the club, a milestone only 36 other players have reached since South entered the National Soccer League in 1977. There will be another milestone broken should Vaughan Coveny score, as he is one goal off 100 league goals for South Melbourne FC over a 12 season career in both the NSL and the Victorian Premier League.

Despite the forthcoming milestones, the home side will no doubt make South’s task as hard as possible to achieve. History shows that South has not beaten Gully away in a league match since round 21 of the 1986 NSL season. On that September day, a goal each from Bobby Russell and Manny Anezakis led South to a 0-2 win. This means that South has not beaten Gully away in nearly 23 years. Since resuming in the VPL in 2005, South has picked up only one draw from 5 matches at Green Gully Reserve and lost the rest. To make matters worse, South has failed to score there in all five matches. With Gully only one place below South in the league standings heading into this fixture, there is no doubt that the away side will face a tough opponent. In the corresponding fixture last season, South had a bucketload of chances but could not stop Gully from winning 1-0.

While the above facts seem daunting, South can go into the fixture full of confidence after winning four games in a row, with the last result being a comprehensive 3-0 belting of ladder leaders Richmond at Bob Jane Stadium. Speaking afterwards, coach Michael Michalakopoulos was not fazed about Saturday’s trip, mentioning that “my job and the players’ job is to make sure statistics like the Gully one are erased and we are looking forward to doing that.” With Coveny motivated to score his ton and Goran Zoric on fire up forward (six goals in 6 games has him as the league’s leading goal scorer), South probably has its best chance yet of breaking the hoodoo on Saturday.

Gully heads into the match on the back of its first defeat of the season against Altona Magic. However prior to this the Cavaliers won 4 of their opening 5 matches and did not concede a goal in the process. This set a record as Gully became the first team to go through the opening five rounds without conceding since the Victorian State League was renamed the Victorian Premier League in 1991. Gully has a very strong team, with players such as Steven Tilovski, Joel Nikolic, Andy Vargas, Kole Delev, Jeffrey Fleming and Pablo Cardozo all capable of destroying South. Cardozo in particular will need to be monitored closely. Despite only netting once this season, he hit 21 goals from 23 matches last season for Richmond.

Saturday’s match will kick off at 4pm. All South supporters are encouraged to make the trip to Keilor Downs to support the team whilst potentially celebrating Rama’s 100th match and Coveny’s 100th league goal for the club.