Tabla de contenidos para February 2016 en Australian FourFourTwo

It takes a brave man to try to defy the critics and stick to his guns. It takes an even bigger and braver man to admit he was wrong and change his mind. FFA CEO David Gallop's initial reaction to the Sunday Telegraph's Name And Shame disgrace was awful. Instead of defending the game and its fans, he defended the Kafka-esque process, where innocent fans could be banned without being told why, without seeing the evidence against them and without any chance to appeal. By the time he stopped talking, fans of all persuasion had agreed to fall silent or walk out of every game after 30 minutes that weekend. Even when he had a second shot at making peace with fans – backed up by new chairman Steven Lowy…

3 Australia (Tim Cahill x 2, John Aloisi) 1 Japan (Shunsuke Nakamura), June 2006 The Lead Up “It meant so much for us to be back at the World Cup after 32 years, and the first game against Japan was practically our final – if we were to have any chance of going through to the knockout round, we needed a win. The team was very confident: we felt well prepared and were not at the World Cup just to make up the numbers. It was a big game, but we had been working hard with Guus Hiddink for four weeks.” The Match “The atmosphere was amazing. Everyone was excited about Australia being at the World Cup, and you could feel that in the stands. We dominated Japan – they…

Enzo Fernandez He may prefer to be known by his mother’s surname, but Enzo hasn’t been able to avoid comparisons to his old man. After joining Real Madrid in 2004, Zinedine’s oldest son has climbed all the way into the Castilla setup, with Papa Zizou even selecting him as captain for the coming season. The 20-year-old midfielder participated in the 2013-14 UEFA Youth League and in 2011 had the honour of being included in some of Jose Mourinho’s training sessions, as well as receiving a call-up to France’s under-19s. Domestically he has featured more regularly for Real Madrid C than Castilla, but the coming campaign will see the manager’s son compete in Segunda B. Luca Zidane The middle son has taken a rather different route into football to both his…

It was a huge month for Wellington Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick, who found himself hosing down title talk after masterminding a stunning 3-2 upset over former club Melbourne Victory. Four days later Phoenix locked in the tactician to a new three-year deal. Merrick went on to celebrate his 200th A-League game with a controversial win against Brisbane Roar. Torrential rain brought an end to the Suncorp contest in the 73rd minute and Phoenix, leading 2-1 at the time, reaped all three points. Meanwhile, Adelaide United revealed their audacious bid to land Liverpool great Steven Gerrard had hit the skids. Reds Chairman Greg Griffin told Radio 5RTI they were never really in the hunt: “We put out (an offer)…. it was about half what he was offered at LA Galaxy. It…

It was time for the Aussie women to take centre-stage. The Matildas put in a stunning first half but lost their 2015 World Cup opener in Canada 3-1 to eventual title-winners the United States. From then on, though, it was full throttle as the green and gold accounted for Nigeria 2-0 thanks to a Kyah Simon brace. Livewire co-captain Lisa De Vanna underlined her legendary status with her 7th goal in 11 World Cup games as the Aussies drew with Sweden (1-1) to finish second in Group D and push through to the Round of 16 where history – and giants Brazil – waited. Alen Stajcic’s team proved more than up to the task. Super sub Simon put away the only goal of the game 10 minutes from time as…

The Socceroos continued their campaign for a fourth consecutive World Cup appearance in emphatic style. A 5-0 thumping of Bangladesh at home and a trickier 3-0 win over Tajikistan in Dushanbe saw the Aussies go top of Group B. Against the 173rd ranked Bengal Tigers there were plenty of positives including a return to Perth for the first time in a decade. Tom Rogic (in his first game for the Socceroos in more than a year) and Nathan Burns both scored their maiden goals for the green and gold, the former chipping in with a brace. Happiest of all, though, was Ingolstadt striker Mathew Leckie who finally brought his club form to the national team, scoring just his second goal in 26 games for the Socceroos. Tim Cahill was kept…

I knew I’d made it as a player when Inter Milan bought me in 2000. For a club of that size to come to Romania for some cocky kid was amazing. I was in great form for Dinamo Bucharest, but when I saw players like Roberto Baggio and Laurent Blanc playing for Inter, I knew that I couldn’t say no. My hero growing up was Gheorghe Hagi. He was everywhere, and an inspiration to everyone. It was an honour to match his goalscoring record for Romania, and I still dream of breaking it [despite having been banned by the FA since 2013]. He and I actually became great friends – so much so, he is Godfather to my son! I was happiest at Fiorentina. Everything just came together. I hadn’t…

David Beckham Whatever happened to that Beckham guy? Luckily, the internet means we can still track his most mundane movements on a daily basis (let’s get into a huff about his daughter using a dummy, everyone!) and post-retirement Becks remains a notably savvy businessman. Indeed, his omnipotent mush earns more now than in his playing days ($110m in 2014, thanks to deals with Diageo, Adidas, Sky, Breitling, Samsung and H&M among others), and he’s using some of his zillions to work on establishing an MLS outfit in Miami – as well as being “a taxi driver for the kids”. Luis Figo Madrid’s most controversial Galactico, having arrived from Barcelona for $75m and returned to Camp Nou only to be pelted with porcine missiles, Figo’s first few years after retirement in…

Can Romelu Lukaku become the best striker in world football? A calendar year ago, that might have seemed a ridiculous question. Having departed Stamford Bridge permanently in the summer of 2014 – with Jose Mourinho citing his $60 million transfer fee as a handy way to help balance the Financial Fair Play books – the big Belgian’s long-predicted march to the very zenith of the game appeared to be stuttering. Since his arrival in the Premier League, a carousel of Stamford Bridge bosses – Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo, Rafael Benitez and finally the Special One – had favoured other forwards, with Lukaku spending two seasons on loan, first at West Bromwich Albion, then at Everton. Despite some brilliance at The Hawthorns and Goodison Park, the six months that followed…

When Eric Abrams first arrived in Australia, he surveyed the football landscape and found that there was no template for identifying potential national team players. So he posed two questions. How do you look for talent? And how do you know it’s actually talent? Abrams says that in Belgium they looked at six specific features of a player. The question they always asked was: Can this player be a professional player or an international in five or six years? Belgium’s population is half Australia’s but their international team the Red Devils is currently number one in the FIFA’s international men’s rankings. Below Abrams reveals the six strengths that the Belgian FA used when identifying talent. He says they are of equal value but mentality of the winner, game awareness and…

This was all about the Asian Cup as the Socceroos made history to lift their first major piece of silverware. The tournament was played in five different stadiums, across three states and one territory, in what was a footballing bonanza for lovers of the beautiful game. It all came down to Match 32 at Stadium Australia – the Socceroos against South Korea who had defeated them in the group stage. The Taeguk Warriors were hunting their third Asian Cup title – the Australians their first at the third attempt. Could they go one better than 2011 when they fell to Japan in the decider? Before a near sell-out crowd of around 77,000 Massimo Luongo’s opener (45’) had Ange Postecoglou’s men on course before Son Heung-min’s last-gasp equaliser (90+1’) sent the…

It was a momentous month for A-League powerhouse Melbourne Victory who won the battle with Sydney FC to lift the A-League Premier’s Plate for the third time. Always the most likely, they ended the regular season in emphatic fashion with a 3-1 triumph over Central Coast Mariners. Unfortunately for Perth, hopes of season silverware were scuppered in a salary cap scandal that rocked the league. Boosted by the likes of Irish international Andy Keogh, rumours of a massive breach were bubbling along for months before the WA mob were dumped from the finals and fined $269,000. Glory ended their campaign on 50 points, equal with the Sky Blues, but were relegated to seventh. In their last game of the season, Keogh fittingly (or not) curled home the winner against season…

Off-season? What off-season? A galaxy of stars descended Down Under for a non-stop feast of football. Chelsea, Tottenham and Villarreal got the party started before the International Champions Cup hit Melbourne. Real Madrid, Manchester City and AS Roma paraded their superstars – and huge crowds gathered just to watch the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Francesco Totti train. Even AFL players, perhaps suffering relevance deprivation, couldn’t resist handing Ronaldo a Sherrin for the cameras. In the end, Real lifted the trophy with an emphatic 4-1 thumping of City in front of 99,832 at the MCG. The Victorians wasted no time locking in the ICC for the next three years for a reported $150m. And with Liverpool hitting southern shores for the second time in two years, Australia found…

The A-League kicked off a new season but it wasn’t long before talk of a third Sydney club stirred up a hornet’s nest. The Sky Blues were infuriated by the prospect of a new franchise eating into their heartland and earned a stinging rebuke from outgoing FFA chairman, Frank Lowy. The octogenarian fired up like a hell and damnation preacher, rebuking the “ill-informed”. On the international front the Socceroos suffered their first defeat of their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, falling 2-0 to Jordan. The loss in Amman enabled the tiny Arab kingdom to leapfrog Australia into top spot in Group B. It was left to Bradford City’s James Meredith to provide some much needed “feel good” after receiving his first Socceroos call-up at the age of 27. The League…

1. Damien De Bohun exits FFA De Bohun has been running the A-League since July 2012, after he joined from Cricket Australia. His reign in football started relatively smoothly, as the Western Sydney Wanderers were born and the marquee magic of Alessandro Del Piero both gave the competition a healthy glow. But the past 12 months have been particularly rocky for the A-League executive. There was the long, messy and drawn out negotiations with the Professional Footballers Australia, where Bruce Djite accused De Bohun of throwing a childish tantrum and storming out of talks. There has been falling TV ratings and crowds for the competition, with a lack of star names for the 2015/2016 season. And there has been the bitter episode with fan protests and the FFA’s weak response…

The key to recovery after 90 gruelling minutes? Returning your body to its pre-workout temperature, which is why the dreaded ice bath is a necessary evil in today’s game. Spending five minutes submerged at 8°C is the post-match norm for an elite footballer these days, but not every athlete regulates his or her internal boiler the same way. To help sports scientists design recovery plans for players, French boffins BodyCap have developed an ingestible pill that monitors and records an athlete’s core body temperature for up to 16 hours, wirelessly transmitting the results to a monitor every 30 seconds. About twice the size of a Tic Tac, the e-Celsius Performance has been used already by Ligue 1 side Nantes. “The data will help introduce recovery programmes for players based on…

“A mate of mine has a good chance of making it as a professional, but he’s getting distracted and throwing it away. What words of wisdom would you give him?”Will Manning, via Twitter “I would urge your friend to think about what he’s trying to achieve in life and apply himself to it. I’m from a council estate background, and I’ve seen hundreds of people who could have been good footballers, but they’ll tell you ‘If I hadn’t done this’ then they could have made it. Does your friend want to be that person? Or does he want to knuckle down and do what needs to be done? He can keep street cred by working hard, believe it or not. He has to focus on what is good for him,…

“Balance is one of the key elements of conditioning that is underestimated and misunderstood. If a player wants to develop this part of their game, they need to understand the mechanics. Firstly, the body’s building blocks – bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments – are stacked upon each other, and the better they link, the more stable and mobile you’ll be. One of the elements that forges this equilibrium is core stability. The core is the lower torso region including the abdominals, obliques and lower back. Core strength helps facilitate almost every football action, but it isn’t enough on its own – you also need single-leg strength. Combine these two elements and you will be able to perform specific actions, such as balancing on one foot, receiving the ball from a…

50% Pay cut in 2008 so he could play a final year In the mid-’90s Noel Gallagher offered him $18m a year to sign for Manchester City CHELSEA Gianluca Vialli tried to persuade his fellow Italian to join him in London in 1996 PRIMAL SCREAM His 16 choices for a 2007 iTunes playlist included Country Girl THINGS PAOLO DOESN’T REGRET IGNORING Alex Ferguson’s phone calls 10% Silvio Berlusconi’s party invites 90% 74 Times he captained Italy, in 126 games CHIANTI His favourite film is The Silence of the Lambs 25 Years he represented Milan, playing 902 senior games JUVENTUS The team Paolo supported as a kid 8 Champions League finals he played in, a joint-high with Real Madrid’s Paco Gento 412 Matches his father Cesare played for Milan DENIMS He…

“I played in the Champions League final two months after surgery. Doctors did not think it was possible” FACT FILE Full name Eric Sylvain Abidal Date of birth 11/09/1979 Height 6ft 1in Position Defender Place of birth Lyon, France Clubs 2000-02 Monaco 26 games (0 goals); 2002-04 Lille 68 (1); 2004-07 Lyon 107 (2); 2007-13 Barcelona 193 (2); 2013-14 Monaco 29 (0); 2014 Olympiacos 15 (0) International 2004-13 France 67 (0) Honours Ligue 1 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07; La Liga 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2012-13; Copa del Rey 2008-09, 2011-12; Supercopa de Espana 2009, 2010, 2011; UEFA Champions League 2008-09, 2010-11; UEFA Super Cup 2009, 2011; FIFA Club World Cup 2009, 2011; Superleague Greece 2015; Greek Cup 2015 Barcelona has figured prominently in the life of Eric Abidal. It is the city…

Vicente del Bosque (1987-90) The Spanish national team manager flies the flag for Castilla coaches, having been given the chance to climb the Real Madrid ladder and succeeding in the top job. After 14 years playing for the club’s first team, holding responsibility in the youth ranks molded his image as a safe pair of hands. Following stints as a caretaker manager in 1994 and 1996, he was appointed permanently at the turn of the millennium and it proved a masterstroke, with the newly-selected coach going on to win two league titles and two Champions League trophies. Rafa Benitez (1993-95) The man who took over Madrid this summer also spent time coaching Castilla, and was visibly moved by the opportunity to return to the Bernabeu this summer in the capacity…

Marouane Fellaini Everton’s previous bulky Belgian box-office buy did the business. The midfielder-slash-forward-slash-unorthodox-No.10 arrived from Standard Liege as a 20-year-old in 2008, costing $32m, and his physicality worked perfectly: he could bully defences but had a deft touch. VERDICT HIT Yakubu The Yak arrived for $24m in 2007, after goals aplenty at Middlesbrough and Pompey. His first season was sensational: wearing the No.22 – his strike target for the season – he fell one short, bagging 21. But then injuries hit and he was loaned to Leicester, before being flogged to Blackburn in 2011. VERDICT MIXED BAG Andy Johnson An in-your-face dynamo, Johnson arrived for $19m in 2006 after four great years with Crystal Palace had helped him win a handful of England caps. He got 22 goals in 74…

One of the big debates around youth football is the cost. The high cost to parents means that being involved in grassroots football and the elite play pathway could be the reason why results have suffered Max Groll has been involved in youth coaching in NSW for over 30 years. He was the Director of Coaching of Football NSW from 1998 to 2001 and has been a Director of Coaching at the associations of Sutherland, St George and most recently Macarthur. He says the cost of playing football means we are missing out on the best players. “We are asking kids at U9 through to U11 to pay $1500 a year to come into the Skills Acquisition Program. We are really struggling to get the best players, if you don’t…

One by one they fell. First Brisbane Roar (only in the top six playoffs courtesy of Perth Glory’s demotion), followed by Wellington Phoenix, Melbourne City then Adelaide United… until just two were left. Premiers Melbourne Victory versus runners-up Sydney FC at AAMI Park had seasoned A-League fans salivating. What better way to bring the curtain down on Season 10 than a Big Blue? Even the venue was a dogfight after the AFL refused to relinquish the vastly bigger Etihad Stadium for the 2014/15 A-League decider. Three draws in the previous three matches between the bitter rivals screamed blockbuster. Whitewash proved more apt. Fans from 54 countries watched live as the usually combative Sky Blues were blown off the park 3-0 by Kevin Muscat’s men. Goals to Besart Berisha (33’), Kosta…

It was the perfect storm. A virulent anti-football media, a leaked list of 198 A-League supporters banned from stadiums and a spineless response from Football Federation Australia. Publicly bagged and slagged, punters were wondering what they paid their hard earned for. Shock jock Alan Jones likened fans to the Paris terrorists. NSW police warned of another Cronulla riots. Crowd numbers were already down about 100,000 when fans staged mass walkouts in protest. Missing the mark, and wandering into an alternate universe, the FFA promised supporters an appeals process where they had to prove their innocence. At least a Collective Bargaining Agreement was struck, ending the ugly and protracted player pay row that threatened to derail international and domestic competitions. But the deepening chasm with fans washed away any residual goodwill…

STICK TO THE ROBOT Professional soccer players top the list of athletes most likely to suffer injury while celebrating, according to a 20-year study by US researchers. Footballers recorded a third of all celebration injuries, with one resulting in a cervical spinal cord injury and subsequent death. BOOZY BALLERS Enjoying a post-match pint isn’t just a social choice – researchers now believe sportsmen are hard-wired to enjoy a drink. Reward centres in the brain make players more likely to have a tipple after exercise as both give off a similar ‘high’. IMPACT PLAYER Ongoing US research into the impact that heading a ball has on the body suggests that a player who gets their nut on a goalkeeper’s punt upfield is experiencing forces similar to that of American football players…

Did you know? In February 2014 Thiago set a Bundesliga record for most touches of the ball in a single match (185), only for Xabi Alonso to eclipse it seven months later (206) in his fifth league appearance for Bayern 1 Channel your inner child Jumpers down, footballs out “I always played football on the street as a kid, in any space that we could get our hands on. We used to set up a goal and off we’d go, with everyone joining in. These were my best moments as a kid and I try to take that enjoyment into my game now as a professional. You get a lot of touches of the ball on the street and develop skills that you take into adult football. There’s no better…