The Cup still runneth over, at least in Australia, as minnows take chance to shine
Knox put up a valiant fight against Heidelberg despite the 6-1 scoreline.
Knox put up a valiant fight against Heidelberg despite the 6-1 scoreline. Photo: Simon Dunster
Fifteen years ago Australian goalkeeper Frank Juric was sitting on the bench in Glasgow's Hampden Park getting a close-up view of Zinedine Zidane's sublime skills.
In those days the Melburnian was back-up goalkeeper for German powerhouses Bayer Leverkusen when they faced the might of Real Madrid in the Champions League Final.
Real won that game 2-1, the winning goal coming courtesy of Zidane's sumptuous volley from a Roberto Carlos cross. The whole stadium, including the Leverkusen players, could only marvel at the Frenchman's technique in such a critical circumstance.
But football has a habit of taking you to places you don't expect. For all of the superhighways like the Champions League, Bundesliga and Premiership, there are a million byways and dead ends, blind alleys and pathways to an interesting future.
Juric may have imagined that 15 years later he would be living back in Australia and involved with the club where he made his name in the NSL, the Melbourne Knights.
It's a certainty that he would never have thought he would be carrying the bibs and the drinks bottles and sitting on the bench in a suburban ground with an artificial pitch on a cool April evening, watching his Knights struggle to avoid defeat against a team two divisions below them in a knockout competition that didn't exist when he left Australia in 1997 to pursue his dream of a European career.
But the FFA Cup invariably contains surprises, not just on the pitch where giant killers have already made their mark.
Juric and his Knights, a team from the top division of Victoria's National Premier League, were almost undone by Banyule City, a club that plays in State League One.
Banyule lacks the storied history of the Knights; it has produced no internationals, and has never been in a national competition before.
But that didn't stop its collection of enthusiastic backpackers, journeymen and part-time players who hail from all over the world from really making a game of it in a match that had to be played at the North Eltham Redbacks ground, not their own Banyule Flats, because the state of the pitch was not up to standard for an FFA Cup tie.
Juric and his fellow Socceroo and Knights legend Andrew Marth, now the coach, were left to chew their fingernails as Banyule took the lead. That was cancelled out, but after 90 minutes scores were still locked at 1-1 and it was only in extra time that the superior fitness of the Knights semi-professionals prevailed and they went on to win 3-1.
"Some of our lads are getting $70 a game, their top men are on $700," quipped a Banyule supporter, delighted at the performance of his team despite the spending gulf between the sides.
The Magic of the Cup is something of a cliche. Although it may have worn thin in England, where a club would rather finish 17th in the Premiership and preserve its top flight status than win the FA Cup, it still applies here however, where the competition is in nascent form.
It has taken particularly strong hold in Victoria. Two of the first three Cup winners (Melbourne Victory in 2015, Melbourne City in 2016) come from the state capital, while throughout Victoria clubs large and small invest their hopes and dreams in a decent Cup run.
Victorian NPL clubs have made the semi-finals twice – Bentleig Greens in 2014 and Hume City in 2015 – while Bentleigh and Green Gully both made the last eight in 2016.
There have been fewer more heartwarming stories in these early rounds of the FFA Cup than that of Knox City, the team from Victoria's State League Three that won four games on the spin to advance deep into the preliminary rounds.
Knox had to win penalty shootouts and see off a leading NPL team in Pascoe Vale along the way in a campaign that also saw them forced to re-arrange their opening round game, against Darebin United, because their captain, Phil Hawkins, was getting married on the scheduled match day and most of his teammates were going to the wedding.
But all fairytales have to finish somewhere, and Knox's dreams were rudely shattered earlier this week when they faced another famous name from the NPL, Heidelberg United, at the old Olympic Village Stadium in Melbourne's northern suburbs.
The venue has a storied history – it was used as a training track and warm-up ground for Olympic athletes at the Melbourne Games of 1956 – but Knox, who play four divisions below Heidelberg, were unable to write another chapter.
The Age has followed their charmed run from the start, been given access to the dressing room, pre and post-match talks and, on Wednesday night, to sit on the bench as Danny Verdun, the coach, tried to exhort his over achievers to make some more history.
"Don't be frightened of the grandstands, the floodlights, the size of the pitch – it just looks bigger because of the running track around it and the stands – nor any of their better known players," the Knox players were told.
And they weren't. This was a game they were in for an hour, pulling a goal back after Heidelberg took a 2-0 lead early and looked to be cruising for an easy win.
Verdun and his assistants roared, shouted, chivvied and encouraged in equal measure as his outsiders stunned the Bergers by pulling a goal back and looking the more threatening team in the last 10 minutes of the first half.
Had a shot from Matthew "The Hammer" Hammet, gone over the line instead of bouncing to safety after it had hit the crossbar, who knows what might have happened.
In the end superior fitness and technique won out. Heidelberg was sharper, more conditioned and had better touch; shortly after Knox hit the bar they made it 3-1, and, with resistance ebbing away, banged in three goals in the last few minutes.
Knox didn't deserve a 6-1 scoreline, but in football you don't always get what you deserve.
They had a magnificent Cup run, took some higher profile scalps along the way, generated national publicity for themselves and will have done themselves no end of good in pleasing their current sponsors and potential backers as a result.
Banyule will now go back to lobbying the council for pitch improvements but its president, Ron Van Der Zwart, can be very pleased with the efforts of his players.
Like many clubs at this level of the football economy, Banyule relies on overseas players, young men who may not have made the grade in their home country but want to travel, see the world and earn a bit and keep fit while doing so.
"We have a house where we put some of the boys from overseas up rent-free. They don't earn anything from us, but we help them with jobs and to make a living while they are here and playing for us. Its a bonus for all of us really."
The Cup continues – and the big boys of the A-League will enter the draw when it goes national in midwinter.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/the-cup-still-runneth-over-at-least-in-australia-as-minnows-take-chance-to-shine-20170414-gvlf3p.html