Love, a slice of cheese and Haliti’s bare chest: True football returns

With the AFL and NRL finals done for another week, football takes centre stage once again across Australia. Round-ball tragics can rejoice that the magic of cup football will merge with the glamour of continental competition over the next few days.

It all starts with the FFA Cup round of 16 on Tuesday night. While the live streams may have been banished, Fox Sports will bring us high quality coverage of the first four fixtures, featuring live crosses and goal updates.

The David versus Goliath clash between Tuggerong United and Melbourne Victory has been chosen as game of the week – televised in full – likely due to the potential of a giant killing.

It’s the Australian equivalent of Gibraltar versus Poland, with plumbers and school kids set to line up against the fully professional stars at Victory.

Melbourne’s new signing Carl Valeri will also make an emotional return to his boyhood club, where he honed his skills as a youngster in the nation’s capital before jet setting across Europe.

During Tuggerong’s win on penalties over South Hobart in the round of 32, local commentators produced one of the FFA Cup’s most iconic moments so far. But with live streams nowhere to be seen in this round, hopefully Fox’s commentary team can live up to lofty standards of the ‘slice of cheese’ call.

The next high profile clash, which was unlucky to lose out in the race for the sole live coverage spot, is Adelaide City versus Brisbane Strikers.

This is what the FFA Cup is all about, rejoining old soccer with new football. The two ex-NSL clubs will fight it out at Adelaide Park, with fans able to call upon a rich history of goals in this tie.

Both dished out 6-2 defeats to each other in the year 2000, while during the 1995-96 NSL season the Strikers smashed Adelaide 7-1 to avenge a 7-0 defeat earlier in the campaign.

The tie will also feature two youngsters who both hold claims for the FFA Cup’s best round of 32 goal.

Adelaide’s Thomas Love scored a brilliant individual effort to sink Western Sydney Wanderers, with the 18-year-old weaving through a stream of defenders to calmly slot past Ante Covic.

Matt Thurtell, who will line up for Brisbane, produced his own moment of magic against Broadmeadow, scoring a sublime volley on the FFA Cup’s opening night in front of a televised audience.

The other two ties of the FFA Cup see Sydney Olympic host Bentleigh Greens and Queensland-based Olympic FC welcome the might of the Central Coast Mariners.

Sydney are coming off a devastating 2-1 extra time loss to Blacktown City in the NSW NPL grand final, and have barely 48 hours to recover and pick themselves up for the Victorians’ visit.

Bentleigh themselves progressed to the round of 16 after seeing off Blacktown 1-0, and have been able to concentrate solely on getting through to the FFA Cup quarter-finals after failing to mount a title challenge in the Victorian NPL.

Sydney Olympic have been forced to move their match from Belmore Sports Ground to Lambert Park, which means the two sides will also have to deal with a synthetic pitch.

Meanwhile, the other Olympic, Brisbane’s FC, have been denied packing out their Goodwin Park home against the Mariners. They welcomed more than 2000 through the gates for their 3-1 demolition of Melbourne Knights last round, but the semi-professional side has been forced to change venue due to lighting issues.

It’s a big setback, with a crowd of 4000 predicted before the change of venue, which will now be held 10 kilometres away at Brisbane’s Sports and Athletics Centre. Regardless, it’s a huge chance for another fairytale giant killing in the competition.

Then, just in case the FFA Cup wasn’t enough, football fans will be treated to the lofty heights of Champions League football, with the Western Sydney Wanderers travelling to South Korea for their first leg semi-final tie against FC Seoul on Wednesday night.

From grassroots to continental competition, it’s football at its all-inclusive best.

Western Sydney will be without local hero, and soon to be Socceroos hero, Tomi Juric after he was suspended for collecting two yellow cards. So it will be down to cult hero Labinot Haliti to produce the goods.

With both Seoul and Western Sydney favouring defence-minded structures – both incidentally sport red and black home jerseys too – an away goal in the first leg would give the Wanderers a big chance of appearing in the ACL final.

Haliti probably holds the Guinness World Record for most yellow cards received for lifting off his shirt, but Tony Popovic will surely cop the unnecessary slice of cheese if his main man scores a goal on Wednesday night.

Fans will equally be thrilled, and Australia could finally have found a bare chest that’s more celebrated than John Aloisi’s.

Keeping the scores level in Seoul has to be the aim for Popovic, however, as going back to Pirtek Stadium on October 1 would put Western Sydney in the driving seat to become just Australia’s second representative in the ACL final.

So settle in for two nights of glorious football action, Roarers. The magic of the cup continues with the first four ties of the round of 16 on Tuesday, while the flashing lights of the ACL complements the beauty of local footy the following night. The action on Tuesday kicks off on Fox Sports at 7.30pm, while the ACL semi-final starts at 8.30pm (AEST).