Glory rally behind ‘keeper
Saturday, 5 September 2009

Perth Glory Captain Jacob Burns has declared the playing group’s full support of goalkeeper Tando Velaphi and backed him to quickly make amends after an unfortunate mistake from the young custodian allowed Central Coast to snatch all three points in the dying stages of their clash in Canberra on Friday night.

Velaphi, one of Australia’s rising stars between the posts, has been in outstanding form for Perth this season and Burns has no doubt the 22 year old will quickly rebound from last night’s disappointment.

“I spoke to him after the game and again today, he is obviously down but these things happen in football and Tando is a great keeper,” said Burns on arrival in Perth on Saturday afternoon.

“He has pulled us out of a lot of stuff many times before so it is just a situation where he’ll have to bounce back and I’m confident he will be able to do that.”

“We know the quality of Tando and we’re supporting him all the way. It’s now a matter of refocusing on the game against Gold Coast this week and getting the three points at home.”
PGFC Tando Velaphi
Tando Velaphi
© Getty Images

Burns says football can sometimes teach harsh lessons and is confident the Olyroos shot stopper will learn from what has happened and use it to become an even more formidable force on the last line of defence.

“He is a great athlete and keeper and there have been plenty of occasions this season already that he has pulled out quality saves and he did that again last night against the Mariners.

“He is young and passionate player who’ll only get better and better and he’ll learn from that, no question.

“I can recall a time where I’ve given the ball away and a striker has pounced and scored from it and we’ve lost the game. I don’t think you’d find any player that hasn’t wanted to take back a pass or something else they’ve done on the pitch that resulted in the opposition gaining an advantage.

“It is all about limiting those mistakes and in Tando’s case you can easily point to a truck load of great saves and very few incidents he’d want to take back. Lets not forget how difficult it is on the last line of defence and we’re all very happy to have Tando there for the Glory.”

While Perth returned home empty handed for the third time in as many trips away from home this season, Burns believes the club’s performances on the road belies the lack of points on the board. He remains confident the club can swing the results back in their favour before too long.

“It is tough to come back with no points in a match where we all truly believed we deserved something from and the lads are disappointed about that.

“In my opinion the best way to approach a game is with a winning mentality and it doesn’t matter whether it is at home or away. The league is so tight and if you want to separate yourself then you have to put consecutive wins together.

“I guess above all it is disappointing when you walk from the field knowing you have created some good football and you don’t get the right result in the end.”

Perth twice hit the crossbar while another goal was ruled out after a late offside flag however Burns said the feeling amongst the playing group remained positive and it was only a matter of time before all the pieces would come together on the road.

“There is going to come a time when an opposition team is going to cop the full brunt of that and we’ll really open them up and make good on our chances.

“There is a bit of luck involved and when you get on a run sometimes the ball bounces your way, but at the minute it hasn’t happened but we’re going to keep on working hard towards that.

“The beauty of football is that there is always another game and we’ve really got to focus on Gold Coast and get the three points in front of our home fans on Sunday,” Burns said.

didnt we loose 3-0 to turkey immediately after that?? haha

Socceroos owe it all to one man - and it isn't Hiddink



November 20, 2005

David Sygall explains how John Safran became an unlikely saviour.
AdvertisementAdvertisement

Qualifying for the 2006 World Cup had nothing to do with the heroics of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, the cracking strike by Marco Bresciano or the ice-cool penalty kick by John Aloisi.

Not even supercoach Guus Hiddink, nor football boss John O'Neill should take credit.

The real reason for Australia's great football victory is some investigative journalism by comic and part-time football fan John Safran, with help from the late Johnny Warren and an African witchdoctor.

If you think this is a joke, rewind the tape of the post-game presentation on SBS and watch analyst Craig Foster quickly thanking Safran for helping lift the curse on Australian football. And former Socceroo Foster isn't alone. Safran has had many emails crediting him with the win.

The story begins in 1969, when a team of amateur Australian footballers was trying to qualify for the 1970 World Cup. The team had lost a play-off and was to face Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in Mozambique. Things were looking dire.

Safran said: "Johnny [Warren] told me that after the first game of that series, some of the players heard about a witchdoctor in Mozambique who said he could sort things out by putting a curse on the Rhodesians.

"They all said, 'Yeah, cool, let's do it' and so the witchdoctor planted some bones near one of the goalposts and cursed the opposition."

The team won the next game 3-1 and the witchdoctor told the players he wanted £1000 for his services.

"'You owe me', the witchdoctor told them, but the players didn't have enough money," Safran said. "He warned them he'd reverse the curse and put it on Australian soccer and he chased them around to get his money.

"The players left the country without paying up and Johnny sincerely believed that, ever since, Australian soccer has been cursed.

"The next game the team played, three players fell ill and from then on it's been one extraordinary circumstance after another."

The national team qualified for the 1974 World Cup but suffered a run of gut-wrenching defeats, topped off by the 1997 Iranian disaster and the tear-jerker in Uruguay four years ago.

In his book Sheilas, Wogs And Poofters, Warren wrote: "The bad luck always seems to come in big matches. [Every] time some disaster befalls our national teams I think back to Mozambique. I can't help wondering if there's something extraordinary to blame.

"I think Soccer Australia should send someone to Mozambique with a thousand pounds to track down the witchdoctor and get him to lift the curse. It could be worth a try, anyway."

When Warren told him the story last year, Safran decided to go to Africa to do a story about the curse for his show John Safran vs God.

The witchdoctor had died, but Safran found another who could channel him by going to the stadium at which the Rhodesia game had been played 35 years earlier.

"That involved us sitting in the middle of the pitch and he killed a chicken and splattered the blood all over me," Safran said. "I then had to go to Telstra Stadium with Johnny and we had to wash ourselves in some clay the witchdoctor had given us."

Safran watched the game at a friend's place. He said he had forgotten about the story until he began receiving emails from people thanking him for having lifted the curse.

Foster said footballers were a notoriously superstitious bunch. "Johnny did believe passionately in this curse," he said.

"I'm certainly not discounting it and, if I meet John Safran, I'll definitely be thanking him for his effort."

KA work your magic. And an added idea put a link to the threads from the clubs pages on the website!

THis is off the first page of the thread but i remembered it and thought why the hell has it still not happened?
or at least make it a sticky thread.
Please can you at least tell us you've rejected the idea.
which would of course be illogical.

I got a quiet feeling we can draw or win ....
Smeltz is playing in Jordan on Thursday and I think wont be at his best for the game on sunday, especially with a long flight back. They dont have porter, and Im pretty sure Todd will teach Milson a footballing lesson or two.

I think it will come down to how well we shut down Culina and Caravella in midfield to determine the result.

Hell yeah boy.
here we come aye.
well if we can string some wins together we should be on our way.

Vrteski looked good between the sticks for perth.

Still a bit early to figure out who should be the number one goalkeeper...

Aleks is good ... and im more than happy with him in goals .... but I still think Tando should be our number one keeper ... probably a bit more agile and better with reflexes and diving

I thought Vrteski looked a little bit nervous at times. He also made some fairly regulation saves look more difficult than what they were. I wouldn't blame him for either goal though and I suspect with a decent run in the team he will prove himself a good HAL keeper. He was no better or worse than what we've seen from Tando... I'd give Velaphi the edge for shot-stopping but Aleks seems to have more of a presence claiming crosses and martialling the defence.

... and just try an hour with Mile and Sikora on their proper wings...