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One of the refreshing aspects of what has been an excellent A-League pre-season so far has been the opportunity for Australian football followers to see some quality players dish up some high intensity football.
Whilst ridiculous prices, a long time bugbear of mine, and fairly poor promotion have resulted in fewer fans than expected at a couple of the events, what has been refreshing so far has been the serious nature of the contests.
Teams like Everton, Boca Juniors, AEK Athens, Rangers and Blackburn have come here with full squads and an attitude to work.
These are s no Mickey-mouse end of the season tours. In the main, they have been very serious preparations for the upcoming season, with emerging players likes Seamus Coleman, Magaye Gueye, Victor Anichebe and Marcelo Canete impressing not only their own technical staff, but the Australian football public.
For the A-League clubs involved, they’ve had valuable hit-outs. While both Sydney FC and Brisbane Roar were unlucky not to get a draw against Everton, and the Wellington Phoenix knocked off Boca, the two Melbourne sides didn’t fair so well.
In a feisty game against the Victory, Boca dominated, while the Heart were also second best against Everton. But neither side were embarrassed.
Yesterday, at the SFS, we witnessed the best performance yet from a visiting side. This was a super effort from Greece’s third club, AEK Athens, which left a disappointing host in Sydney FC flattered by the closeness of the scoreline.
It might have finished 5-3, but in truth the Greeks were at least a three or four goal better side.
Controlling the midfield through the experience of Pantelis Kafes and the energy of his youthful sidekick Savvas Gentzoglou, a future Hellas international if ever there was one, Sydney couldn’t get a touch until the final 10 minutes, by which time the damage was done.
Playing in a flat line as part of Sydney’s 4-4-2, central midfield duo Terry McFlynn and Sydney’s new signing Hirofumi Moriyasu were powerless to stop the onslaught, especially with the creative types, Nikos Liberopoulos and Ignacio Scocco, dropping back to crowd out the midfield.
This is a very well drilled 4-2-3-1, managed by the excellent Serbian Dusan Bajevic, a former AEK player now in his third stint at the club.
What was so impressive about the performance was its intensity and how sharp they looked in tight areas. Clearly a couple of early warm-up games in Europe have helped.
Club legend Liberopoulos is back after a couple of seasons in the Bundesliga and it’s as if he never left. You only had to see the amount of number 33 AEK shirts around the SFS to know how revered he is by the fans.
While he and Kafes set the tone by getting on the ball with their astute touch and poise, they had able support from central defenders Daniel Majstorivic and Kostas Manolas, who suffocated Alex Brosque and Mark Bridge.
Brosque may have bagged a brace, mainly due to the generosity of Kafes and Ioannis Arampatzis, but I don’t recall him being this anonymous since Vitezslav Lavicka arrived just over 12 months ago.
While many of the experienced AEK players stood up, equally impressive were the younger brigade.
During the week I heard from a long time The Round Ball Analyst reader ‘Sir Alex’, now based in Athens. He suggested I keep an eye out on Argentine playmaker Scocco. It was astute judgement as ever.
Whether out on the right, or left, or through the middle, Scocco was a mixture of pace and skill, jinking and twisting the Sydney defence one way, then the other. Some player.
Sir Alex was also high in opinion of Scocco’s compatriot, Ismael Blanco, AEK’s main goal getter, and his mobility and technique was another feature here.
There is something about these Argentine diminutive types in the front third. As if there weren’t enough in South Africa a few weeks ago, they’re all over the place.
A week or so ago we saw Marcelo Canete of Boca turn on a virtuoso display against the Melbourne Victory at Docklands, toying with the likes of Grant Brebner, Rody Vargas and Adrian Leijer. Reports suggest he was equally impressive against the ‘Nix.
Graham Arnold, at the Central Coast Mariners, certainly looks to have brought in one of his own in Patricio Perez. If the playmaker is anywhere near the level of Scocco or Canete, he will be the player to watch this upcoming season.
It wasn’t all Argentinean though yesterday, with two Brazilians, in Leonardo and Eder, also catching the eye. There was even a young Aussie, in Nathan Burns, making a cameo.
In years to come, as the likes of Gentzoglou, Manolas, Scocco, Leonardo and Eder make their mark across Europe, many downunder will remember the afternoon they first laid eyes on them.
What a privilege it was.
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