Damn Cro's at it again :(

[Demandred]

el Cockerill and Michael Lynch
April 3, 2007
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SOCCEROOS coach Graham Arnold has moved into overdrive to stave off Croatia's latest poaching attempt for talented Geelong teenager Matthew Spiranovic.

The 18-year-old defender has been capped by Australia at under-17 and under-20 level, but under new international eligibility rules, has not been tied to Australia. Spiranovic is in his first season in the German Bundesliga and recently broke into the first-team squad at FC Nurnberg, where his teammates include Australians Michael Beauchamp and Josh Kennedy.

Australian-born players of Croatian descent have been targeted for the last decade, and Croatia went into last year's World Cup with three Australian "converts" — goalkeeper Joey Didulica and defenders Ante Seric and Josip Simunic. Simunic, who also plays in Germany, has been prominent in the push to convince Spiranovic to cross.

Arnold plans to talk to Spiranovic before the end of the week to emphasise that he has a big future with the Socceroos. A call-up for Australia's pre-Asian Cup friendlies against Uruguay and Argentina in early June is on the cards.

"There's no doubt we're in danger of losing him," said Arnold. "His parents have been getting all sorts of phone calls in the middle of the night from Croatia. Here's a kid who's played for us at youth level, he's been through the AIS, he's played all his junior football as an Australian, and now he's under real pressure to change sides. Matthew's a central defender, a position where we're light on, and he's got a big role to play in the 2010 World Cup. I'm worried, definitely, and I'll be doing a lot of talking to him and his family over the next few days."

■Melbourne Victory has confirmed that talented midfielder Kristian Sarkies is quitting to join the team Melbourne smashed 6-0 in the grand final, Adelaide United.

His departure follows hard on the heels of the loss of Brazilian Fred.

Sarkies yesterday said the move was about establishing himself as a first-team regular.

"It's difficult to leave somewhere you have grown up but what I really want to do is play regularly and Adelaide will give me the chance to do that. It's all about getting game time."

There was good news for Victory with the re-signing of goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos on a two-year contract. Theoklitos had the chance to move to the English Championship, but opted to stay.

"We had a great year last season and for personal, family and football reasons my first preference was to stay in Melbourne. Playing in the Asian Champions League will also be a great experience next year."

■Robbie Keane took advantage of a controversial penalty to give Tottenham a 1-0 win over Reading. Keane struck from the spot just before half-time at White Hart Lane after referee Alan Wiley ruled that Greg Halford had deliberately handled on the edge of the area. Replays suggested Halford's contact looked accidental, but Keane stroked home the penalty to lift Martin Jol's side into sixth.

■Inter Milan won 2-0 at home to Parma yesterday to move within reach of the Serie A title. Lazio strengthened its grip on third with a 4-2 win at Udinese. Empoli boosted its chances of a Champions League place with a resounding 4-1 home win against bottom club Ascoli. Palermo and Torino drew 0-0.

■Second-placed Sevilla handed reigning champion Barcelona a two-point lead at the top when it was held to a 0-0 draw at Osasuna. Robinho again came to Real Madrid's rescue and headed the winner in the 2-1 victory over Celta Vigo.

■Hearts snatched a 1-0 win at Hibernian with a late strike from Marius Zaliukas. With AGENCIES


lol seems they are still deturmined to create an Australia B side over there :P

[Centarfor9]

haha

phone calls in middle of the night hahaha

don't they know at that time it's day in Croatia

[Ero]

:) if he's Croatian whats wrong with playing for Croatia?

[Pape]

He should play for nobody else but Croatia.

[Centarfor9]

^ of course :)

[Saraj Fanático]

Australians really have to start looking for their own talents now. Too many Croatian based player on their squad.

[Demandred]

lol Fc Sarajevo, didnt we have this out during the world cup? :p

we always have this problem, we develop the talent and someone with bigger bucks takes them off us :(

untill Oz Soccer develops more here i suspect we will have this problem for a while...

[Centarfor9]

^ people are not slaves...you develop them??? strange...why can't you develop some Aussies

Like Ero said
:) if he's Croatian whats wrong with playing for Croatia?

[Fenerliyim]

It the end its all up to the player. But i dont think its right to put pressure on people to change sides. Obviously this guy was pretty much raised in Australia and they should get him but this is how bigger countries roll. Germany has recently stolen about 3 great turkish players for their u-21s. Hopefully those turks change their mind before the age of 21.

[DRXX]

Good!

Because Aussies need to bring in more Aussie players in the squad, because too many croats are playing there...Australia is like Croatia Team B

[benz]

Australia barely barely managed a draw with Croatio last year.
If PK wasn't given to Australia, then Australia is supposed to be eliminated.
Aussies were hell lucky.

oh wait, if Aussies are picked in NT rather than Croats then Australia will definitely become a garbage team.

[_mR aSj_]

load of garage half ur replies... play for where your heart lies and where you live.. thats it

[_mR aSj_]

he developed in australia...so i gues his owned by the aussies

[Centarfor9]

he developed in australia...so i gues his owned by the aussies
very rude comment there

check post #8 (http://forums.soccerfansnetwork.com/showpost.php?p=821248&postcount=8)

[_mR aSj_]

every1 here (australia )is mostly immigrants, soccer was brought in by the europeans here (not long ao).. and it had no place in the australian lifestyle... so when these people have kids here and they grow up.. they should play for their parents birth country?... that would make it that their would be NO AUSTRALIAN SOCCER TEAM
10 - 15 years ago you would NVER see full blooded aussies kicking a soccer ball around.. they didnt enjoy it all.. they called it a girls game.. they only people playing it were the immigrants...

[_mR aSj_]

by the way how is that a rude comment

[Centarfor9]

every1 here (australia )is mostly immigrants, soccer was brought in by the europeans here (not long ao).. and it had no place in the australian lifestyle... so when these people have kids here and they grow up.. they should play for their parents birth country?... that would make it that their would be NO AUSTRALIAN SOCCER TEAM
10 - 15 years ago you would NVER see full blooded aussies kicking a soccer ball around.. they didnt enjoy it all.. they called it a girls game.. they only people playing it were the immigrants...
this guy is croatian (his mother and father are so i don't see why he can't play for Croatia)

the fact that Aussies like you say are not playing the game as much is irrelavant

[Centarfor9]

by the way how is that a rude comment
how can aussies own this guy??? he is not a slave!

[_mR aSj_]

how is all that irrelevant.. we have to hang onto players.. that were born here.. otherwise we would not have a team... NO BODY SAID HIS A SLAVE either... and wats wrong with our NT trying to keep him here to play for Australia?

[Centarfor9]

how is all that irrelevant.. we have to hang onto players.. that were born here.. otherwise we would not have a team... NO BODY SAID HIS A SLAVE either... and wats wrong with our NT trying to keep him here to play for Australia?
^in that case is relavant that is you have to go after Croatians since you don't have your own players

he is croatian so he can play for Croatia

so when i see people protesting when Croatia trys to get this guy to play for them...i laugh

[_mR aSj_]

i admit at time we dont have enough aussiess playing the game.. but after the recent world cup the most played sport at schools is soccer. so in 15 years time.. croatia can take who ever they want.. we wont be Minnows anymore then.. and u watch we take the world by storm :P

[Centarfor9]

^ you forgot to say amen

[_mR aSj_]

not catholic otherwise i would

[Luka Modric]

not catholic otherwise i would

neither is Humetu Huso:D :D

[Ero]

play for where your heart lies

which for most Croatians is Croatia :)

[Saraj Fanático]

10 - 15 years ago you would NVER see full blooded aussies kicking a soccer ball around.. they didnt enjoy it all.. they called it a girls game.. they only people playing it were the immigrants...

Oh yeah!? Yeah!? Well I think that Rugby is for silly gooses! :mad2:


:lol:

[benz]

Ok, in these days, country of origin doesn't really matter.
In Australia, there are so many immigrants so it is pointless to discuss if person A is a Croat or Bosnian or Asian as long as he is officially qualified for playing for Australia.
It is no surprising that half of Australian national team is composed of non-Aussies in origin.

Hmmmmmmmm I think it would have been really hard for Australia without Guus Hiddink. And it would be really hard without immigrants too.
Without those immigrants, Australia wouldn't have been able to pass the group stage in WC

[Pape]

i admit at time we dont have enough aussiess playing the game.. but after the recent world cup the most played sport at schools is soccer. so in 15 years time.. croatia can take who ever they want.. we wont be Minnows anymore then.. and u watch we take the world by storm :P

so i see you really don't care about Croatians now and you want to use them for the next 15 years to get to their level than ditch them and kick them out of your country too I bet you would than

well too bad this is another reason they should never play for Australia and Australia will never be at the level of Croatia with their own talent

[mainstay]

so i see you really don't care about Croatians now and you want to use them for the next 15 years to get to their level than ditch them and kick them out of your country too I bet you would than
well too bad this is another reason they should never play for Australia and Australia will never be at the level of Croatia with their own talent

No we don't kick anybody out. Here in Australia we believe in giving a fair go- even if that means someone playing junior soccer here and then going to play with their country of ethnic origin. It's their choice if they are eligible.

Many players get to the absolute top level by playing in the best club leagues (Italian, English, Spanish etc). I'm surprised Croatia has to draft players from a backwater such as Australia :)

[Motley Crue]

Australia barely barely managed a draw with Croatio last year.
If PK wasn't given to Australia, then Australia is supposed to be eliminated.
Aussies were hell lucky.

oh wait, if Aussies are picked in NT rather than Croats then Australia will definitely become a garbage team.


If Australia didnt have Zeljko Kalac of Croatian background, playing in goals for that match, the ref had given Australian born Simunic a red card after his 2nd yellow & not 3rd & the ref had given John Aloisi the goal in the last seconds of the match, which should of been awarded, Australia would of won something like 4-0. Australia had the ball most of the match & Croatia were very lucky Australia had a Croatian in goals that night to be a draw.
Anyway, Australia went to the last 16 & Croatia went home.

By the way Matthew Spiranovic has chosen to play for Australia.
I bet Ante Seric & Joey Didulica now wish they had chosen Australia & not Croatia. They are two positions Australia are short on & they could of now been playing in the starting 11 instead they will both finsh their International careers playing in 4 friendly internationals (Didulica) & 16 International matches for Seric in 9 years & all exept for 1 or 2 in friendly international matches. Only Jossip Simunic has been a regular.

[Vipaman]

If Australia didnt have Zeljko Kalac of Croatian background, playing in goals for that match, the ref had given Australian born Simunic a red card after his 2nd yellow & not 3rd & the ref had given John Aloisi the goal in the last seconds of the match, which should of been awarded, Australia would of won something like 4-0. Australia had the ball most of the match & Croatia were very lucky Australia had a Croatian in goals that night to be a draw.
Anyway, Australia went to the last 16 & Croatia went home.

We also had an offside goal in that game, let's not forget. All in all I think there were some obvious mistakes made by the officials, we were probably more aggressive, but no way that we'd have won 4-0. We showed our defensive liabilities in that game.

[Ero]

A Croatian in goal... and another 6 on the field and sideline

Bresciano, Kalac, Covic, Culina, Skoko, Viduka and Popovic... You know they were singing our anthem in their head while it was playing :)

[Motley Crue]

Only Viduka & Culina did somthing. Kalac played 1 match & screwed up. Popovic play 39 minutes in the whole tournament & Covic & Skoko were on holidays not playing at all. Bresciano is Italian.

Anyway all these boys were born in Australia, have Australian Passports which next to their Nationality says Australian & most importantly chose to play for Australia. Thats what Australia is made of anyway. Croatian/Australians, Italian/Australians, Serbian/Australians, Greek/Australians, Chinese/Australians, Anglo/Australians etc. We are different to the 100% Croatians, Italians, Greeks, Serbs etc. Eg: Only a Croatian/Australian will understand another Croatian/Australian, not a 100% Croatian or a Anglo/Australian.

[Vipaman]

Bresciano, Kalac, Covic, Culina, Skoko, Viduka and Popovic... You know they were singing our anthem in their head while it was playing :)

Australia is a country built on immigration and all those players you mentioned have said they are Australian first, not Croatian. Oh and Bresciano is half Italian, but he too said Australia first. So that's what we consider them to be. They were born and raised in this soccer culture so I reckon they owe more to it than their parents origins. Of course we respect the origins, but give some credit where it's due. Australia is our home.

[Centarfor9]

A Croatian in goal... and another 6 on the field and sideline

Bresciano, Kalac, Covic, Culina, Skoko, Viduka and Popovic... You know they were singing our anthem in their head while it was playing :)
true :sad:

Marko Viduka :D

[Motley Crue]

Viduka, Kalac, Covic, Skoko, Popovic & Culina singing both the Australian & Croatian National anthems in their heads is normal because it represents whom they are. They should never forget their heritage but in the end they are all proud to be Australian. Unless you have a Aboriginal background, we are all originally from somewhere else. England, Ireland, Italy, Serbia, Greece, Croatia, Lebanon, Vietnam, China, India, Scotland, New Zealand, Fiji, Korea etc.