90 Minutes: Zlatan for A-League? Plus calls for import checks, Garuccio’s injury blow and a Hindmarsh pitch boost
Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic has flagged an interest in the A-League, a Socceroos great calls for imports checks, an ex-Red suffers a serious injury a Hindmarsh pitch boost and a West Adelaide legend farewelled, all in this week’s 90 Minutes column.
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ZLATAN Ibrahimovic has marked the A-League on his wish list, according to his former Swedish international teammate and Melbourne Victory target man Ola Toivonen.
Speaking at an intimate Victory chairman’s lunch to the club’s inner sanctum, Toivonen told the audience at Melbourne’s Crowne Plaza that Ibrahimovic is one of his closest friends.
Now playing for LA Galaxy, Toivonen said the eccentric Swede always asks about Australian football.
Toivonen said he asked Ibrahimovic if he wanted to play A-League.
That was followed up by the giant Swedeo asked Toivonen what it’s like living in Melbourne.
Basically Ibrahimovic has not ruled the A-League out but he could be very costly given he earns including all endorsements about $30 million a year.
That includes a reported $2 million annual salary from Galaxy.
Ibrahimovic, 37, is the captain of Galaxy, scoring 25 goals in 29 appearances since joining the club last year.
Call for import quality control
ONE of the first things an independent A-League needs to look at is ensuring visa players are high quality — there must be a minimum standard for entry says Socceroos and Adelaide City legend Milan Ivanovic.
Ivanovic is arguably the best visa player Australia has seen after making his debut for Adelaide City in 1989.
Ivanovic was born in Sivac, Serbia played for leading club Red Star Belgrade and made appearances in the UEFA Champions League.
He ended his Socceroos career in 1998 at Hindmarsh when he captained the side against Japan and played 300 games for City which ended in 2000.
“They should target only the top tier players from Europe and South American players, the best only, there has to be some sort of level a visa player must have before he is allowed to enter this country and especially to play in the A-League,” Ivanovic said.
“After 15 years of the A-League I find it hard to believe standards have not been set properly for imports.
“I think it’s the same for the NPL.
“Some foreign players aren’t very good and they’re taking the spots of our own young players.
“We have to do this to protect our local game, I have seen the standards of imports drop lately.
“The quality is not good enough also the best solution to producing more Australians is the second division, the B-League.
“That would mean much more movement of players, we can see many more young boys playing in the top level and we also need many more good coaches too.”
Ivanovic, 58, is currently coaching students in the Scotch College soccer program.
Football Federation Australia doesn’t have a minimum standard with regards to an A-League club signing a visa player.
For NPL it is the responsibility of the member federation to manage visa players.
Injury blow for ex-Red
FORMER Adelaide United left back Ben Garuccio is facing up to a year on the sidelines after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament while training with Scottish club Hearts.
The SA-born youngster fell awkwardly during a session at the Edinburgh outfit’s Riccarton complex last week and sustained the serious knee injury.
It was horrible timing for Garuccio, who had started the Jambos’ past two matches after fading in and out of first-team calculations in recent months.
“Gutted to learn that my season is over after tearing my ACL,” Garuccio, 23, tweeted.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first year at Tynecastle and I’ll be working tirelessly throughout my recovery to come back stronger and help the team be successful.
“Thanks to everyone for the kind words of support and I’ll see you all very soon.”
Garuccio was set to undergo a knee reconstruction, before beginning the 10-month rehabilitation process.
Hearts manager Craig Levein, who had five knee operations during his playing career, said his worst fears were confirmed with the injury.
“I was hoping it wasn’t going to be serious,” Levein told The Scottish Sun.
“There was nobody near Ben at all when it happened, he just twisted.
“I feel really sorry for Ben. He is quite a sensitive boy, and he was happy he had got back in the team and things were going well.
“I had a long chat with Ben yesterday about staying positive.
“When you are a young footballer, a year is a lifetime. It’s about perspective.”
The former Australian youth international, who played 50 matches for Adelaide from 2016-18, had made 23 appearances and scored four goals for Hearts in all competitions this campaign.
Vale Udo Joschke
By former The Advertiser chief soccer writer Meno Toutsidis
THE former West Adelaide Hellas star attacker Udo Joschke passed away on March 2, aged 71 in Adelaide.
Joschke’s story is one of the most fascinating in SA sport history, if only because of the dramatic impact he had in such a brief period.
He played just one remarkable, historic season for Hellas in 1966, as an 18-year-old, smashing in the goals as an explosive centre-forward.
And then he was gone, never to play again for Hellas.
Following Hellas’ championship season in 1966, Joschke returned to his birthplace, Germany, with his family and stayed there for several years.
When he returned in the early 1970s, Joschke played briefly for Azzurri and Port Adelaide, then in the Second Division, also coaching the club in 1977.
He eventually turned out in the collegiate leagues with Graduates Red, playing for several seasons and into his 40s — and again piling on the goals.
Joschke was an 18-year-old Adelaide High School student when he made his debut for player-coach Tom Forde’s star-studded Hellas in April 1966.
Hellas were playing just their third season in the First Division, having been formed in 1962, and throughout the 1966 season were involved in a tumultuous, often spiteful battle for the championship with their deadly rivals, Juventus.
The title was eventually decided on the final day of the season when Hellas beat Polonia 3-0 at Croydon Park, in front of a sellout crowd of 6,000 with Joschke sealing the match and the championship with the third goal, a thunderous ground shot which tore past goalkeeper Roger Romanowicz.
Hellas took the championship by two points, having lost just one match all season, a 2-4 loss to Croatia, but without Joschke who was injured.
It was the first of Hellas’ six First Division championships between 1966 and 1976, before the launch of the NSL in 1977.
Forde had built a fantastic squad, one of the greatest of the pre-NSL era.
Names like Nick Kefaloudis, Roy Burdett, Peter Worthington, Elio Marusic, Peter Jaksa, Ted De Lyster, Alec Byrne and the goalkeeper, the great Peter Tsitsos.
But it was the fearsome forward partnership between Joschke and Nick Pantelis that drove Hellas to the title. They were the First Division’s joint top scorers with 19 goals and they each scored in 12 of the 18 games that season. Overall Joschke scored 24 goals in all competitions.
Joschke, a champion high school athlete who excelled in the javelin, discus and shot put, was an awesome sight.
He was powerfully built with massive thighs — and had the hardest shot of any player I seen.
Joschke would bomb-in goals from almost anywhere and though he was good in the air, it was his blistering fire power that brought him most of those 19 goals.
While winger Pantelis tore up defences with his lightning pace and outrageous trickery, Joschke was a sledge hammer. They were a lethal, terrifying force.
The sight of Joschke steaming forward and after three or four quick steps unleash his thunderbolts would spread panic through defences — and much headshaking among his teammates.
While Pantelis was an artist, Joschke, though he also had a deft touch, was a wrecking ball.
The turning point of the 1966 season was in the third round meeting with Juventus at Hindmarsh Stadium. Juventus, too, had a brilliant team — outstanding strikers Manuel Cruz and Steve Herczeg, player-coach Mario Corti, goalkeeper Charlie Horvath, Nilo Rusalen, Peter West, Joe Baggio, Tommy McColl and an 18-year-old John Perin.
But Hellas emphatically put down their marker, winning 6-3 in front of 5,000 boisterous fans with Joschke scoring a hat-trick and Pantelis netting twice.
In the return fixture at Olympic Sports Field, Juventus were dominant but Joschke scored with a contentious penalty in a 1-0 win which almost caused a post-match riot among the 10,000 fans, with a policeman firing his pistol in the air to quell the crowd (Front page Sunday Mail, 9 July 1966.)
Hellas and Juventus would meet again, in the quarter-finals of the Federation Cup, with Hellas winning 4-3 in extra time after leading 3-0 at half time. Joschke and Pantelis each scored twice and it was Joschke’s smashing drive off the crossbar and post that won the match in extra time.
Joschke played his final game for Hellas in a 1-0 loss to Melbourne Hungaria at Hindmarsh Stadium in the Australia Cup (an early version of the NSL Cup/FFA Cup), missing a penalty but in the process breaking the hand of the goalkeeper.
And then it was over. And he had just turned 19.
Joschke left for Germany the following season, and although he never again played for Hellas his impact with the club’s fans was, and is, profound and he remains one of the most popular players ever to wear the blue and white stripes.
Joschke, still 18, also played for South Australia in 1966, against AS Roma at Olympic Sports Field with the Italians winning 3-0 in front of 15,700 fans.
Pitch perfect for Reds
ADELAIDE United has received some welcome news for next season before a new player has been signed or a ball has been kicked.
Legendary US rock band Kiss was due to play a concert at the Reds’ Hindmarsh Stadium home ground on November 19, in the midst of the 2019/20 A-League campaign.
But promoter Ticketek last week announced the show had been moved from the home of SA football to the nearby Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
The news will be welcomed by United players and fans alike, who had to endure a substandard playing surface last season after the venue had hosted a pair of non-soccer events.
A Foo Fighters concert badly scarred the usually pristine pitch on January 23, despite a protective plastic covering being rolled out across the field.
The Hindmarsh deck was further cut up three weeks later when the Australian rules football AFLX tournament was played there, just 48 hours before the Reds faced Central Coast.
Red hot test for Croweater
SA-born midfielder Andrew Marveggio got to experience one of the most intense atmospheres in European football on the weekend when his Serbian club took on giant Red Star Belgrade.
The Adelaide City product came on as an 88th minute substitute for Macva Sabac in the 2-1 Superliga defeat to the 1991 European champion at its famed Rajko Mitic Stadium.
The 55,000-capacity venue is renowned for the hostile welcome it affords visiting teams, as English power Liverpool found out in a Champions League loss at the ground this season.
“It’s not everyday you get to experience such an atmosphere, let alone play in front of it,”
Marveggio posted on Instagram, along with a photo of the passionate Red Star supporters.
Marveggio, 26, joined Macva in September following an overseas football adventure which had taken in three countries and seven clubs since he left Adelaide as a teenager in 2011.
The diminutive talent had managed four games for the Sabac-based outfit, which sat 11th in the 16-team Serbian top flight.
Coaches banging on closed door
SOME coaches have absolutely no shame according to a local soccer club chairman.
We’ll keep him anonymous but he revealed a number of coaches are dancing on a grave of their current club coach who is nowhere near dead in the job.
A couple of bad results early in the season has prompted some coaches — mostly without a gig — to give the friendly chairman a call.
Most are saying “we’re here if you need me’’ which according to the chairman is a bit rough on the current coach who has the full backing of the club.
“All these rumours of us sacking the coach are rubbish,’’ he said.
“They’re making stuff up and posting on social media without actually putting in a call to us.”
Tweet of the week
Excited to show you my new Nike Mercurial Superfly 360 LVL UP âš¡
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) March 29, 2019
This design combines some of the best Mercurial’s I’ve had. I can’t wait to wear it once I’ve recovered from my injury. Until then, you’ll see it on pitch with the newest icons of speed @samkerr1 and @KMbappe pic.twitter.com/IgZOcwdgAL
A-League Golden Boots
Central Coast 0 Adelaide United 1 (Isaias 35m) at Central Coast Stadium.
Votes:
Val Migliaccio: 3. Isaias, 2. Michael Jakobsen, 1. Ben Halloran
Rob Greenwood: 3. Isaias, 2. Mirko Boland, 1. Ryan Kitto
Amelia Mulcahy: 3. Isaias, 2. Michael Jakobsen, 1. Ben Halloran
Leaders
81. Isaias
66. Craig Goodwin
54. Ben Halloran
36. Mirko Boland
26. Scott Galloway
22. Michael Jakobsen
21. Vince Lia
18. Paul Izzo
19. Ryan Strain
13. Michael Marrone
12. George Blackwood
10. Nikola Mileusnic
8. Taylor Regan
7. Ryan Kitto
5. Ken Ilso
4. Apostolos Stamatelopoulos
Goals
Craig Goodwin 9
Nikola Mileusnic 4
Ken Ilso 3
Isaias 3
Ben Halloran 2
George Blackwood 2
Vince Lia 1
Scott Galloway 1
Apostolos Stamatelopoulos 1
Ryan Kitto 1
OG 1
SA players abroad
Brandon Borrello — Freiburg (Bundesliga): Not in the match day squad in a 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich at home
Alex Chidiac — Atletico Madrid (women’s Spanish Primera Division): Played four minutes off the bench in a 4-1 home win over Real Betis.
Ben Garuccio — Hearts (Scottish Premier League): Not in the match day squad in a 2-1 win over Aberdeen at home
Meni Haralampopoulos — Acharnaikos (Greek Gamma Ethniki): Played 90 minutes in a 1-0 win over Rafina
Bradden Inman — Rochdale AFC (English League One): Not in the match day squad in a 1-1 draw with Gillingham away
Awer Mabil — Midtylland (Danish Super League): Played 90 minutes in a 0-0 draw with Nordsjaelland away
Osama Malik — Al-Batin (Saudi Arabia League): Played 61 minutes in a 2-1 loss to Al Feiha away
Andrew Marveggio — Macva Sabac (Serbian Superliga): Came on in the 88th minute in a 2-1 loss to Red Star Belgrade away
Ryan McGowan — Dundee (Scottish Premier League): Played 90 minutes in a 2-1 loss to St Mirren away
Dylan McGowan — Vendsyssel FF (Danish Superliga): Not in the match day squad in a 3-3 draw with Hobro at home
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