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Sydney FC fans celebrate a goal. AAP Image/Paul Miller
A long-time TRBA reader, Adam, touched base to tell me his self-imposed Kosmina boycott is over and that he’s looking forward to getting out to a few Sydney games to see what they can do under Lavicka.
A Slovak friend who makes my coffee most mornings is keeping a very close eye on compatriot Karol Kisel. And, being a part time student still feeling his way around the traps, keeps prodding for any opportunity to take him to a couple of FC games.
A Czech mate, who made the news by paying a decent dollar to attend Sydney FC’s first ever training session, saw much of the first season under Littbarski, went ducking for cover when Butcher arrived, popped up from a brief flirtation with Juninho and Culina, only to disappear back under the cover when Kosmina arrived.
He says he’ll be out there supporting Lavicka and his team with the hope that the Cove will soon be bopping to the beat of the famous Czech chant, “Hop, Hop, Hop.”
A colleague, football obsessed, but more enamored with the European game, is suddenly interested in chatting about the detail that goes into Sydney attracting a “no-name” European manager from a nation familiar with the finer technical aspects of the game.
Something we haven’t seen in these parts since the NSL days.
It’s a move more common in other parts of the world, where ability is judged not by how big the name is, but by how much education the person might bring.
All little signs that there is a bit of life back in a Sydney football scene that was often caught sucking in the deep breaths last season.
But the noise remains muted, and rightly so.
Too many false dawns have taught the Sydney fans, and the club it seems, a thing or two about being too loud.
“We remain humble,” said Lavicka when I caught up with him after Tuesday’s night’s 1-0 win against NSW Premier League table topper, Sydney United.
It was FC’s seventh pre-season game, seventh win and seventh clean sheet.
Seventh heaven? Not for this guy, it seems.
The job of re-building the confidence of the Sydney football market has only just started, and will take much hard work from all involved.
But the new Czech manager, despite his broken English, and the need, at times, to have football manager Dave Mason act as a bit of language go-between, appears to have the wherewithal to down-play the pre-season to date.
While the wins have been against moderate opposition in NSW State League clubs Macarthur, Sutherland, Northern Tigers, Leichhardt Tigers, Bankstown, Penrith and Sydney United, any time you string seven straight can’t be underestimated.
Winning is a habit, as they say.
But the manager refuses to get carried away: “It’s good, but it’s only the pre-season. We are happy but we won’t overestimate it.”
Asked if he could score the pre-season out of ten, Lavicka didn’t bite: “We are still humble and hard-working,” he said, pushing his palms down in the manner of someone trying to keep a lid on things.
He knows there will be sterner tests over the next six weeks, including games against fellow A-Leaguers North Queensland, Newcastle and the Mariners, and partner club Shanghai Shenhua.
But the philosophy is simple.
“Hard-working, discipline and unity,” he says, “and we must enjoy every session and every game.”
While he admits having sat down with the players and mapping some team goals, publicly the mantra is one of improvement: “To be better than yesterday, bit by bit”.
It’s not necessarily about improvement on last season, for surely it can’t get any worse, but about improving in increments – every session, every game, every week.
It is the rhetoric of a man building from scratch, and you sense Lavicka has been hand-picked by the new powers at FC, David Traktovenko, Paul Ramsey, Scott Barlow and Stefan Kamasz, as much for his level head as his CV.
For a club that has gone from one PR disaster to another, from the original regime that fell into a big red hole, to the Lowy regime that struggled to shake off the “conflict off issue” tag and tame Kosmina, it’s time to try the softly, softly approach, which mightn’t always attract the headlines, but is more likely to build some long term credibility.
The sins of past are that.
After building goodwill in the first season, Sydney struggled to deal with its success, with the focus shifting from the team and the fans to the boardroom, where the internal battles all but destroyed the club.
The early signs this time around are encouraging.
Nb … Having seen a few of Sydney’s pre-season games, next up on The Roar I will dissect how Lavicka and his men are fairing on the field.
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