Northern Territory club Hellenic Athletic are out to push Western Sydney Wanderers all the way in the FFA Cup tomorrow and will do it aided by a 48-year-old African striker.
Hellenic will host the Wanderers at Darwin Football Stadium on Tuesday. It the first time the Darwin amateur side, who only train twice a week, have reached the FFA Cup's round of 32.
No Northern Territory outfit has made it to the last 16 in the history of the Cup. But Hellenic, who were founded by Greek immigrants back in 1958, are adamant they will be no pushovers for their full-time A-League opposition.
The club’s main man is centre forward Helio Carvalho, two years shy of his 50th birthday and Darwn's answer to Tim Cahill, who has scored seven goals in the qualifying rounds.
"Pedro and John the two coaches have got the guys ready,” club president Kosta Boubaris told FourFourTwo.
"It was mixed emotions when got drawn with Western Sydney. You can look at it both ways. For the people of Darwin, it’s not often we get the chance to see an A-League club up here and that level of quality.
"Getting a ‘lesser team’, if you like, might have been better for the club or give us a better chance of proceeding to the next round. But overall we’re pretty excited about seeing an A-League club here in Darwin, seeing some good quality football played here.
"We’re putting our boys up against some of the best competition here in Australia so it will be a good show and a good opportunity for the Darwin public. It was a win-win. Having a home game is the main benefit."
A temperature of a maximum of 32 degrees Celsius, and a minimum of 21 degrees, is predicted for Darwin on Tuesday with humidity at 41%.
"We’ll definitely have a bit of advantage with the conditions,” Bourbaris believes.
"Also being mid-season and still pre-season for those guys. But hopefully they turn up and if the humidity does give them a bit of a shock, we have that extra advantage."
Hellenic will be led up front by dreadlocked marksman Carvalho and include an eclectic mix of players from Asia, Africa, Europe and the UK.
"Helio was the top scorer in the preliminary Cup rounds in all of Australia,” Boubaris said.
"He might be 48 years old but he does not stop running. He’s got an engine on him like I’ve never seen before. He just runs all day. He’s played a bit of a higher level overseas. He’s a bit of a sharp shooter, he scores goals.
"We’ve got one or two pretty silky players in the team –Sulav Maskey – he’s from Nepal. He’s a bit of a wizard, really clever on the ball. A left winger, just a bit of a genius really. He’s quick, he’s got a good shot on him, he’ll cause a bit of havoc in the game.
"There’s our midfielder Daniel Smith. He trialed for Brighton. He’s a bit of a strong player, he does the job in midfield. There’s English boys, some from Mozambique, Nepal, East Timor, obviously Australians, Greeks.
"Darwin itself is very multicultural. We get a lot of guys from England, Ireland and they’re pretty gifted. We’ve got players from many different backgrounds.”
Hellenic Athletic claim to be the oldest club in the Northern Territory and are one of the most successful with 19 titles in the past six decades.
They aim for a crowd pushing close to 4000 at the 6000-capacity Darwin Football Stadium to watch the tie with Western Sydney.
"I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to see Markus Babbel and some of those high-profile players and coaches in Darwin,” Boubaris said.
"We’ve got a few Liverpool supporters associated with the club and they’re pretty keen to meet the guy, get an autograph and shake his hand. I don’t want to jinx us, but we have been the most dominant club in Darwin in the past five, six years.
"We were unlucky not to make it through [to the round of 32 before) but credit to those teams that did. But I think we’ve got a better team this year then we have in previous years."
Related Articles

Sky Blues, Wanderers to clash in ALM first-round derby

Socceroo-in-waiting seals Championship deal
.jpeg&h=172&w=306&c=1&s=1)