Les Bleus 4 (Colosimo x3, Vlahos)
Wollongshit 0
Sir Simon Scirea was on everybody's lips at the close of this pulsating game played on a slick Melbourne afternoon. As one of the few Australian players to impress at the Confederations cup, bigger things were expected of him this afternoon (season).
Sir Simon gets his moniker from his obvious hero, Italy's graceful Scirea, hero (after Rossi) of their 1982 World Cup triumph. For Italy's 3rd goal in the final, Gaetano Scirea brought the ball out of defence, confidence belitting the occasion and momentum. Interchanging passes with Rossi enabled Tardelli to score. Papa Colosimo made Simon emulate Scirea his life's aim. He can be proud.
At this stage I am not claiming that Simon is any better than Gaetano, he leaves him for fucking dead. At no stage did Gaetano Scirea have 3 goals to his name in a single match. At no stage could Gaetano play like Simon did this afternoon. Oh, perhaps playing for Juventus meant he didn't need to play like Simon. But Simon, you see, plays for Carlton, and as such is encouraged (and after today) expected to contribute to the offence. I doubt Gaetano Scirea would be better than Simon Colosimo at this respective stage of career.
What a pity, then, that only 3,000 or so could be arsed to turn up and watch Simon give the best performance by an Australian in living memory. Vidmar against South Africa, Lazaridis vs Iran, Salapasidis vs Argentina, Bosnich against Man United and Emerton against the world, they are all rendered insignificant after today.
Today, 11th October 1998 AD, is the day Simon Colosimo (reverting to his birth name) came of age. Appearing for Oz against TSSB has done him a world of good. Last season, you could tell the potential was there, but needed to be encouraged. Edi Krncevic and the Carlton team are appreciators and nuturers of talent.
Last season saw a talented 18 year old graduate from the Academy signed up by Carlton. A personal disappointment in not playing at the U20 Worlds postively channeled towards senior selection. An incredible dribble and goal against South Melbourne bought him to the attention of national selectors. He was impressive against Brazil, which led to him captaining his country in the U-20 quals. We don't know much about the quals, but the final game saw a 2-0 win to Oz with Simon credited twice. A sweeper scoring two goals?
Simon is the latest Australian to gain prominence in that position the Australian has a bounty on - Sweeper. Paul Okon, Ned Zelic, Joe Simunic (ahem), Milan Ivanovic and now Colosimo, the boy from Dandegong, who could better them all.
Anastasiadis Colosimo Douglas Stergiopolous Atkinson Vlahos Lapansky Marth Bresciano Tricarico Moreira
We lined up in this weird lopsided English formation. Atkinson was definitely playing defence and Stergiopolous was playing marker. Bresciano is utterly wasted on the left, he is better than Andy "10 touches into trouble" Vlahos and should be played in the middle or as a right winger. Vlahos is better inside than outside, as inside, he can't dribble into the sideline.
Tricarico and Ronaldo's ex teammate were up front. Eddie K loves speed and spent his offseason getting rid of his fat, lazy or slow bastards. Saying goodbye were Jonesy, Keko, Traj (a fast bloke though), Cervinksi A., and some youth players. Speed demons like Moreira and Tricarico were bought in and Pino will get playing time, and might even play in the U-20s next year.
The first goal came quickly enough, Sir Simon Scirea winning a foul near the corner flag. Lapansky swung it over and Scirea leapt perfectly to bury a near-post header. Off, he was, and did he deserve it.
Moreira then gave us both sides of his character. Winning a ball in the box, shielding, then breaking for the goaline, only to be bought down. That little bit showed why he was Ronnie's ex teammate. Moreira took it himself, of course, as he needs to make a statement - any statement - as Ronnie has Susanna Werner and plays for Inter, whilst Moreira has kids and plays for Carlton. Somewhere back in Sao Paulo, these two stars crossed each other. Moreira was determined that a new start would result in a new star and this penalty would be a trifling matter and send him on that flight to superstardom.
Pogliacomi, the Gong keeper, will wonder how he spilled Moreira's shot straight back to the star-struck one. He will be grateful that Moreira had one of those moments where nothing can go right. Mistakenly identifying the ball for a star, Moreira was panic-stricken this little star would not go into the sky and twinkle. In his panic to be reunited with Ronaldo, he blasted the poor wee defenceless thing high into the sky. I've heard of starfucking but this is ridiculous.
Gong were dreadful. I'm proud I live in a country where the likes of Ceccoli, Chipperfield and Theodorakoplous gain national recognition for courage in the face of adversity. It must be tough playing in little Wollongong, with Raul only visiting every month or so. Raul is entirely sympathetic with hardship and elevates one or two above the local scene into national prominence. As it were.
Douglas sent Moreira away to make amends for missing the penalty twice. But still shaken, Moreira slowed down and allowed himself to be disposessed. He looks pretty good, and after scoring 13 in pre-season clubs have been alerted.
Then Marth won the ball in midfield and shooed Scirea upfield. The pass was between two defenders, Scirea ran onto it, flicked it across Pogliacomi and into the goal. 2-0 up in 30 minutes, sweeper scoring twice. Yup.
Scirea. He's very composed. Not especially tall or strong (1.82M, 82 kgs) but seems to get his head onto the ball frequently. When dribbling, knocks it ahead of him, into that "Get me" position. 80-20% of the time, when a tackler goes for the ball, Scirea's foot is there first, resulting in a free kick, or he lifts his foot and goes past the tackle. If he was 20% more aggressive, he'd be brilliant. I hope that confidence will make him more aggressive. Defensively, could do with a bit more in the tackle - he's no Baresi at any rate.
2-0 at the half, 2-20 for a can of coke 2-80 for a pie. Throw the Coke back in the fridge and slam down the pie yelling "I knew this club was for the rich" Walk into Mr SU outside and exchange greetings. As the rain falls it's off undercover for the 2nd.
The 2nd came and went at lightspeed, if we were picking up pace in the 1st, we just lit the afterburners in the second. Shots came in from everywhere from everyone.
From a corner - methinks - The ball bounced lazily across the 6 yarder when Scirea and Sinozic? contested the ball, Scirea pushing Sinozic into it's path and roaring off to claim the winner. Les Bleus, with exception of Moreira, ignored his claims and were doubtless going to give him a hard time for developing such a narcissic attitude. Eerie parallels to David Beckham were going to be pointed out. Personally, I say give him a day or two to get over it.
The last goal was the best. Bresciano, who was servicable, finally picked up the ball, jinked to the goaline and sent a wrongfooted effort to the near post. Vlahos, steaming in, did not need to take a second touch as he buried it.
Moreira had a diving header disallowed (cf Sydney Bias) and sent in a screaming crosshot just wide. The disallowed goal looked ridiculous, he was behind when Grella? sent a botched crossed that eluded Vlahos at the near and Moreira was criminally ahead of the defence when he reached the ball. Mark Shields always irritates me, I know that he'll show at least 6 yellow cards. And with Eugene - Con's driving mate - Brazzale having a good day up in Brisbane, we'll get plenty "The ref's a wanker" chants this season.
Here we go here we go here we go or will it be We are Carlton we are Carlton noone likes us we dont care.
But today, it can be only "... let us rejoice for we are young and free and have got Simon Scirea."