I am Spartacus
Football is not a matter of life and death ... it's more important than that.
So goes the famous quote that Bill Shankly never actually said.
In the past decade, football has become the favourite tool of despots, feudalists and associated ne'er do wells to achieve that veneer of legitimacy needed to keep them just ahead of the forcefully expressed karma that would otherwise come their way. With FIFA being happy to take the money and turn a blind eye to its source, it should have come as no surprise that the two world cups up for grabs were awarded to nations that rated highest amongst the bidders on the feudalist, despot and ne'er do well leagues. Bid books highlighting fair play, technical excellence and transparency were the smokescreen behind which votes were traded for the promise of another 12 years of scrutiny avoidance and plausibly deniable preferential treatment.
So why is there a local inquisition for being awarded, along with the England, the grand booby prize of presenting the most technically excellent and transparent bid? Sure, we didn't win the World Cup, but against the criteria as they were finally judged, we were never going to.
Frank, Ben, and their opposite numbers in the US, England, Japan, South Korea, Holland, Belgium, Spain and Portugal assumed that the criteria was to put on a great World Cup, where both the players and the fans would be catered for in the grandest traditions of international sport. These are the shared ideals of modern democracies, whose legitimacy isn't based on bread and circus shows. In Qatar and Russia, where transparency and technical excellence aren't really buzzwords, bread and circus shows are about all that's left. Every single country that missed out would have put on a cracking world cup that would have been a pleasure to visit. Absent a personal security detail, an armoured, airconditioned Humvee and a perpetual blind eye to the daily realities of the host nations, Russia and Qatar will be difficult, unjoyful tournaments for players and fans alike.
The famous Bill Shankly misquote is wrong. Matters of life and death might provide sufficient excuse for the sort of conduct that seems to have been necessary for victory in the World Cup races. But this... this was about hosting some football matches. The biggest concern that many people held about the Australian bid was that some of the better connected consultants we employed might be painted as corrupt. It turns out that the biggest problem was that they weren't nearly corrupt enough.
The bid presented Australia in its proper light; open, honest, fun, hard working, slightly clichéd and technically excellent. We can and should be proud of the bid and the work done on our behalf to get there. So if Frank, Ben, Hoges et. al are lining up to take responsibility for the defeat to the usual quixotic football media 'personalities' desperate for an effigy to burn, I want in. I am Spartacus.
Throw them to the lions
It's been a weird old season so far, with Sydney doing just enough to stay in contention and nowhere near enough to suggest that we ought to be. This Roar team probably already has its sticky orange fingers on some of our silverware and I have a feeling that this game will have a large say in whether we will have any prospect of keeping the cabinet stocked for another year. Mathematically, Sydney will stay in contention for at least another month, regardless of the result. But if we are going to be contenders, we need to take 3 points from Brisbane.
A winning season - as we saw last season - involves a team setting a direction and then settling into a groove to churn out the results at home and away. Injuries and form slumps took out the desired playbook early on and there is no groove. We have made strides after a disastrous first third of the season, but last week's team was underwhelming, undersized, under-experienced and quickly underwater. Promising individual performances don't make up for the display that was put on.
That said, when Shannon Cole is the highest goal-scorer on a mid-season starting sheet, you are always going to be in trouble. A team with Bruno and Brosque in it is a far more potent prospect than one without. In this league, each team has only so many matchwinners. This Sydney teamsheet will have two more than it did last week. I expect the difference to be stark. Our defenders will have target men who won't allow the ball to rebound into our half from every clearance. Their ability to hold things up, lay the ball off or play a reverse pass means that opposing midfielders worry more about helping their defenders than bombing on.
We need to put on a show that has everything that last week didn't. After last week's battering, I have no doubt that Sydney will be organised and committed on Sunday. If we can do the business in front of goal as well, Sydney can get the points on Sunday and put some meat on the bones of this lean season.
