Tom’s top 10: Tim Cahill’s volley, Lionel Messi’s magic and the John Aloisi penalty that changed everything
As the full-time whistle blows on Daily Telegraph football editor TOM SMITHIES’ time covering the sport for the paper, he selects his 10 most memorable moments (and a few he’d like to forget).
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To try to distil 15 years into 10 moments is surprisingly hard. When Australian football creates as much drama off the pitch as on it, picking out a handful of memories presents a stiff challenge.
So in no particular order, and as I move on to pastures new, these are some personal highlights along the way in my time covering football for The Daily Telegraph.
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Not all are the biggest stories (scroll down for those) but each of these in their way have stayed with me.
Harry Kewell scores against Croatia, 2006
The double scored by Tim Cahill a week earlier gets huge attention as Australia’s first goals at a World Cup, but Kewell’s late strike stands out as it took his side into the second round, still a unique achievement.
It was just reward for the way the Socceroos had played under Guus Hiddink; I remember thinking before the first game with Japan that no one truly had any idea how Australia would fare. The answer was thrilling.
Brisbane break Mariners hearts, 2011
Football was in a bad space in early 2011, just weeks after the humiliation of Australia’s World Cup bid getting just one vote.
But then came the grand final we had to have: fans milling in the streets of Brisbane, a full house at Suncorp Stadium, epic drama on the pitch, and the sight of a very young Mat Ryan barely able to speak in the players’ tunnel afterwards.
Australia become champions of Asia, 2015
On the night that the Socceroos beat South Korea to win the Asian Cup, the image that stays with me most powerfully is of Ange Postecoglou punching the air and basking in the acclaim of a full house at ANZ Stadium.
The personal distillation of a team triumph was well deserved for a coach who has felt at loggerheads with public opinion for much of his career.
Adelaide City beat Western Sydney, 2014
Once the FFA Cup was finally introduced, we just needed a giant-killing - and on a freezing Adelaide evening, Adelaide City came up trumps.
On a whim - and sensing there might be an upset - I travelled to the Marsden Sports Complex, in the company of a couple of thousand others, to watch 17-year-old Thomas Love score a wonder goal to knock out the team that would soon after be crowned Asian champions.
Tony Popovic’s face was a picture of hurt afterwards.
Bert van Marwijk’s tactical masterclasses, 2018
There was a public - and often private - gruffness to the man who was Socceroos boss for six months, but he could also be fascinating company.
In Sydney over a glass of wine van Marwijk spent hours dissecting the art of modern defending. Then on a sunny afternoon on the south coast of Turkey, days before the World Cup in Russia, he walked over to say hello and detail how he had been hothousing the Australian team in positional awareness, going so far as to paint stripes on to the pitch to drum home exactly where he wanted them to be.
Sydney FC win first grand final, 2006
It wasn’t the greatest game, in all honesty, but far more importantly it was a fantastic occasion.
The A-League’s first season had caught the imagination, helped by the Socceroos qualifying for the World Cup, and nearly 42,000 spectators packed into what was then Aussie Stadium. Swept along by imminent World Cup euphoria, football felt like a sport whose time had come.
The Wanderers reign in the rain, 2013
It was the night a fairy tale began to morph into reality.
On a rain-drenched night, thousands of fans converged through the streets of Gosford and into Central Coast Stadium, to watch Labinot Haliti score the goal that took the A-League’s fledgling club top of the table and within touching distance of the Premier’s Plate in their debut season.
45 minutes from World Cup glory, 2018
At halftime of the Socceroos’ clash with Holland at the World Cup in Brazil, my friend and colleague David Davutovic turned to me in delight and said: “This shouldn’t be happening.” For much of the first half Australia had bested the team that were runners-up four years before, buoyed by Tim Cahill’s outrageous volley. The fact that the Socceroos then went ahead in the second half just made the final loss even harder to take in.
Messi’s magic, 2011
Another masterclass, this time from Lionel Messi and his Barcelona teammates, who walked around Manchester United for most of the Champions League final in 2011.
In the magnificent surrounds of the new Wembley Stadium, the result was never, ever in doubt.
The night that changed everything, 2005
Without John Aloisi’s penalty, without Mark Schwarzer’s save, without Mark Bresciano’s goal, without Guus Hiddink’s genius, would any of the moments above have even been possible?
This was the event that shaped a sport and captivated a nation.
“Every time Australia fails to qualify for the World Cup, I’m told AFL and NRL open another bottle of champagne,” said then-FFA CEO John O’Neill. “Today they can put the cork back in the bottle.”
… AND THE WORST FIVE
The bid that bit, 2010
Frank Lowy genuinely believed Australia stood an excellent chance of securing the 2022 World Cup. The night before the host was chosen in December 2010, he sat over dinner and counted the voters on FIFA’s executive committee who had promised support.
And then they reneged, and Australia was humiliated, and football in this country suffered a grievous blow.
A phone call to remember, c.2013
Journalists love an anonymous phone call but this one was different. A woman who identified herself as the wife of one of the Mariners players told me she feared that they would not be paid, and her rent would not go through. Rarely is the human cost behind a story you are writing as a journalist so graphically illustrated.
Pim Verbeek’s obituary, 2019
On the one hand I felt honoured to write something to show the essence of the man – but the fact it had to be written at all, after the former Socceroos boss died of cancer, was desperately sad.
Football’s civil war, 2016-18
Which one, you might well ask. In this case it was the clubs against the FFA board, with the players union thrown in for good measure. For several years they fought acrimoniously for control of the sport, while the fans drifted away from watching the actual football.
Fans’ boycott, 2015
Arguably the point at which the A-League badly lost its way. FFA’s ambiguous response to media coverage of the fans banned from watching games became the catalyst for all sorts of grievances to explode, and the active support that had made the competition so popular evaporated.
THE BIGGEST NEWS STORIES I COVERED
Western Sydney Wanderers are born, 2012
In April that year I broke the story that a new team would join the A-League just six month six months later, based in Western Sydney. The arrival of the Wanderers turbo-charged the league ad delivered its most popular years.
Del Piero signs
… along with this man of course. His skill was so beguiling, thousands came to Sydney FC games just to see flashes f his brilliance. In interviews, when he turned on the charm (and that wasn’t always the case), it felt like sitting down with football royalty.
Beckham comes to town
Talking of football royalty, the chance to see David Beckham play drew 82,000 people to ANZ Stadium to watch a meaningless friendly between Sydney FC and David Beckham. Meaningless? The Daily Telegraph carried 13 pages of football that day.
Bolt from the blue, 2018
Another story that reverberated round the world, our exclusive on Usain Bolt preparing to have a trial with the Mariners made our front page, and many more.
The EPL comes to the A-League, 2014
On a January evening I sat in a discreet office in the CBD to interview some of the most powerful men in European football. Among the group of Manchester City executives, CEO Ferran Soriano took me through the detail of his club’s purchase of Melbourne Heart for a story that would cause global headlines when it broke the next morning.