Why can Alpha English players never say goodbye?

STEVE GERRARD - Alpha goodbyes

Having been a keen follower of football many years one is able to get a pretty extensive view of trends across time. Here today the Quiltyview looks at an ongoing issue in the game, which seems to afflict the English more than most. I am referring here to the way the game struggles to say goodbye to it's superstars. At this particular time the 'name in the frame' is Steve Gerrard but this particular situation is nothing new. I would go as far as to say that England has always struggled with the timing of saying goodbye to it's 'alpha' heroes.

STEVE GERRARD

Often these 'alpha' players are also the captain of the national side and there is a dilemma  regarding  about how long they should keep playing, especially for the England side. Most would agree that in the case of Gerrard he is not the force he once was...the dominant English midfielder for a decade. That said, he is still the Liverpool skipper and has adapted his game somewhat to sit that bit deeper and act as a screen for the defence rather than the box to box warrier in a red shirt. He is, to date, the only footballer ever to have scored a goal in an FA Cup Final, a League Cup Final, a UEFA Cup Final and a Champions League Final. It has surprised some to hear that Liverpool didn't offer him any sort of contract extension or when they did it was very late in the piece. We hear that Gerrard will head to the MLS probably with LA Galaxy. The superiority complex of English fans finds this news hard to fathom.... after all 'what do the yanks know about football' especially as the persist in calling it soccer! The timing of this move for Gerrard is what is in question. Hot on the heals of Gerrard's contemporary Lampard, going, then staying, some are asking why is he being lost to the EPL so soon? 

LONG TERM TREND

None of all this is new in the English game. Over the years a similar struggles played out regarding the timing of retirement. Looking back I would say that players such as Kevin Keegan, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Bryan Robson and David Beckham all come under this category of player. All heroes one and all.

GARY LINEKER - Off the shoulder, unstoppable

GARY LINEKER

Gary Lineker retired from international football with 80 caps and 48 goals, one fewer goal than Bobby Charlton's England record (although Charlton took 26 more caps to score his one extra goal). In what proved to be his last England match, against Sweden at Euro 1992, he was substituted by England coach Graham Taylor, in favour of Arsenal striker Alan Smith, ultimately denying Lineker the chance to equal—or even better—Charlton's record of 49 goals. He had earlier missed a penalty that would have brought him level, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil. He was visibly upset at the decision, not looking at Taylor as he took to the bench. Here was a superstar of the time who provoked debate on when to go. 

KEVIN KEEGAN - Went out at the top

Controversy taking place within World Cup or Euro tournaments has been common. 

KEVIN KEEGAN

Other English superstars also struggled with stepping down in their own way. Kevin Keegan said he just wasn't prepared to play anywhere but at the top.  Keegan retired from playing aged 33 and moved to Spain. Why did he retire so early? "I could have hung back in midfield for another three or four years, but I thought, no. It was the best decision I made in my life. I was at the highest level and the only way was down. I call it the glass mountain – you can't climb a glass mountain," says Keegan.

BRYAN ROBSON - Midfield rock

Bryan Robson was another England 'alpha' who presented a mammoth problem finishing up. To me he is the closest to Gerrard in his situation.

He represented England on 90 occasions between 1980 and 1991, making him the sixth most capped England player of all-time, and had the eleventh highest goalscoring tally with 26. Robson captained his country 65 times, with only Bobby Moore and Billy Wright, at the time, having captained England on more occasions. 

BRYAN ROBSON

Robson continued his international career until 1991, also helping England to reach the 1990 World Cup finals for the second World Cup in succession, though, his role was limited as he once again suffered an injury in the second match (against the Netherlands) that was to keep him out of the rest of the tournament. Even more ironically, for the second World Cup in succession, England's revamped formation played better without their captain, whose place in the team was taken by David Platt during the knock-out stages as England came fourth. 

Robson claimed in his autobiography that in one of his last matches for England under Graham Taylor, he was played bizarrely on the left wing, even though he had never played there for club and no longer had the pace to get up and down the line at the age of 34.

ALAN SHEARER  - All round terror of defences

Yet another true England 'alpha' was Alan Shearer. After being named England's captain in 1996 and Newcastle's captain in 1999, he retired from international football following UEFA Euro 2000, having amassed 63 appearances and 30 goals for his country, plus 6 seasons as club captain. Debate over Shearer saying goodbye split the nation. How could the side survive after Shearer had dominated and terrorised for so long?

ALAN SHEARER

DAVID BECKHAM -The modern way to say goodbye....world tour.

Perhaps the 'alpha' most recently in peoples minds was David Beckham. The midfielder played his first game for Manchester United in 1992 and eventually rose to become captain of England's international team for more than 50 games, including several World Cup tournaments. He appeared in 115 matches for the squad. Beckham chose a slightly different path to the rest when saying goodbye internationally. He morphed into a worldwide traveling showpiece playing in various football markets as a marketers dream ensuring shirt sales would explode wherever he went. Beckham the alpha phenomena managed to say the right things wherever he went. Paying tribute to being an England international when he said.

"To this day, one of my proudest achievements is captaining my country. I knew every time I wore the Three Lions shirt, I was not only following in a long line of great players, I was also representing every fan that cared passionately about their country. I'm honoured to represent England both on and off the pitch" 

STEVE PERRYMAN - Some 'alphas' operate on a slightly lower level but are 'alphas' all the same.

STEVE PERRYMAN

Steve Perryman, a midfielder and later defender, played in a club record 866 first team appearances in all competitions for Tottenham Hotspur between 1969 and 1986 and is their longest serving player ever. Personally I saw his career from start to finish at Spurs and along with Glenn Hoddle is my favourite player ever. He was the undoubted leader of the side possessing grit and commitment in a team that sometimes attracted the 'soft southerner' tag from those in the cold harsh north. Perryman was Spurs through and through. In spite of this, his final season at Tottenham was one where we often saw him perform at a lower level than we were accustomed. He went from being a dynamic central midfielder to a very average right back. The fans were very uncomfortable with this situation and rightly Perryman moved on to play for Oxford United. Staying on too long can be a problem. In truth he ought to have had a spot 'upstairs' at the club but circumstances moved him away permanently after a short spell as Osvaldo Ardiles assistant at Spurs.

LIFE AFTER THE TOP

As Gerrard moves on to the next stage of his career it is probably the experience and solution offered by David Beckham that offers him the modern way forward. Steve Gerrard is a world name that will be able to offer leadership and marketability wherever he goes. It is just the English fans who struggle to see their 'alphas' say goodbye.

http://www.espnfc.com/club/liverpool/364/blog/post/2231733/stop-the-fuss-over-gerrard-leaving

February to September....Now that is almost a football season!

                    Our SPX  2014 Season

video links: http://youtu.be/U6wW52ARPqo   Season  2014 Photo Highlights      (SQUILTY)

SPX v St Josephs NSWCIS Semi-Final  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L77dB4rT34 (PASTE TO BROWSER)
produced by SPRCARROT JFM

A picture that says it all!

Having experienced two fantastic seasons since returning as 1^st XI coach in 2012, it is difficult for me to believe that our 2014 team could surpass those efforts but in many ways I feel we have.

SPX World Cup luncheon 2014

Dan, Mel and Me

SPX 1^st XI has just finished a campaign that ran from early February until the second week of September. The side has played a total of 39 matches in four competitions. As a result it has collected Cup final victories in two states and a Minor premiership. It also finished third at the NSW State Championship.

What, it may be asked, made it possible to have 

such a sustained campaign? Probably the answer would be player commitment, just as it was in the previous two seasons. It was made clear to the 16 player squad that our preparation would be tough. That preparation involved six trial matches early on a Sunday morning at Oxford Falls. 

This was against a range of School, Club youth and All Age sides including our own SPX Old Boys teams, representing both Pre and Post 2005 eras. An early good sign being our two 3-0 victories in these games. Early games also saw us down Mt Colah, Thornleigh and Hornsby Heights while securing a 2-2 draw against Men’s Premier League team Berowra. School sides St Augustine’s and St Ignatius were defeated while we drew with tough CAS side Knox. Our pre-season form in these initial games meant we were well prepared to face St Aloysius in the 2^nd round of the NSWCIS Cup winning the match 4-1, having started with a first round bye.

It was clear that the quality and depth of our squad was special as almost all had at some time played representative football in addition to the school competitions. We also had a good number of experienced Year 12 students returning for a second season in the 1^st XI, with two players having played last year as Year 10’s. Another key factor was that this was also  the fourth season in the past five that John Chapman had led sides I had coached, we knew each other well.

When we turned out for the St Andrew’s Cup in the April holidays we allowed wasteful finishing to hinder our progress. In particular a match we lost against Barker 2-0 provided us with a lesson we would benefit from later in the year. The most immediate impact of our post St Andrew’s Cup resolve was a fine victory in the NSWCIS Cup 3^rd Round on the all-weather pitch of St Spyridon’s College. This 2-0 result saw us book at date in the Semi Final with St Josephs College after Illawarra Grammar forfeited at the last eight stage.

When the ISA competition began we ran off big victories against Oakhill 4-0, St Andrew’s 5-1, SCECG’s 14-1, Oakhill 2-1 and Chevalier 5-1 before a 2-2 draw with St Patrick’s halted our winning run. These games set us up nicely for great rain soaked evening out at Hensley Park against St Joseph’s. A crowd of around 200 turned out for what was a tense, enthralling contest. In a match we dominated through Nick Refenes and Joe Esposito it finally took a strong header from Alex Drake to settle the tie and book us our second NSWCIS Cup final spot in three years. At the final whistle team relief was tangible John Chapman leading the squad to the crowd who rendered a great version of the Edmund Rice hymn with gusto. The half way mark of the season had seen us already book a spot in the NSWCIS final against old foes Barker College.

Comfortable with this knowledge we headed off for the Queensland based international High Energy Youth Cup Tournament in Brisbane. 

Interesting match up with African Youth side

This was a competition we had competed in for ten years without winning the main final so we knew the task ahead was a big one. 

         Hard fought penalty shoot out victory in Queensland            

Shoot out win

This year sides came from New Zealand, country Queensland, Brisbane, Sydney as well as an African based youth side. It was pleasing then to see SPX have a great start running up six qualification round victories without conceding a goal! Clairvaux 7-0; BBC 2-0; SHORE 2-0; Scots NZ 3-0; St Peter Claver 4-0 and African Youth 1-0.

The key victory was against the African Youth side. Here was our toughest challenge of the competition, a quick and strong side with few apparent weaknesses it was a fine performance by our boys. Ranking in first place of the ten competing sides from the round robin stage saw us face GPS side SHORE in the semi-final. Goals from Nick Refenes and Joe Esposito gave us a comprehensive 2-0 victory setting us with a rematch with Brisbane based Sir Peter Claver College in the Cup Final.

                Relaxing pitchside at Micheltown Football Club

On a large dusty pitch at the Mitchelton Football centre the game proved to be a messy one with way too many free kicks punctuating the game. SPX gradually worked its way into the game and going ahead with a fine finish from Claudio Rosano. Half time came and went but could not add to our score. Then, just 15 seconds from the end we conceded our first goal of the whole tournament to send the match into extra time. 

Trophy win Queensland

This proved inconclusive and it went to penalties. The shoot-out swung both ways, we missed early but keeper Greg Frelingos gave us the chance to win it, saving after Claver had also missed. Up stepped Ben John to calmly score the winning kick and the High Energy Youth Cup was ours! Celebrations were immense, SPX winning the Queensland competition for the first time.

          High Energy Youth Trophy won in Queensland

Players, Coaches and Family 2014

Returning to Sydney gave us no real time to rest on our laurels because we were to face St Patrick’s in the ISA then Barker just two days later. In the event we lost to the Strathfield side 2-1 but most agreed that this did not harm us as we prepared for the NSWCIS Cup Final at Hensley Park. Oh what a night. With many SPX supporters in the crowd of 400 we made the worse start possible in the final, conceding in the first minute! What followed next has gone down in the annals of our football history. We drew level by half time with a penalty from John Chapman but we absolutely overwhelmed the opposition in the second half. The final score of 6-1 in no way flattered our side. We were NSWCIS Champions for the second time in three years. Claudio Rosano scored four second half goals in a brilliant performance. It was the crowning moment in a season where he represented NSWCIS and scored a record 50 goals!

              Claudio Rosano 50 goals for the season

Having won the NSWCIS Cup we returned to our own ISA Competition. Three clear victories over St Andrew’s by 5-2; Chevalier 2-0 and SCECGS’s 8-0 enabled us to wrap up our third consecutive ISA Minor Premiership. We led the final ladder by five points with a record of 8 wins 1 draw 1 defeat; scoring 48 and conceding 10 goals.

It was thus a big disappointment when we went down to St Patrick’s, who had finished fourth in the regular season, by 2-1 in a classic game at Oxford Falls. Both sides played very well but in the end the ‘men in black’ from Strathfield prevented us from adding a record third Competition to a stellar season.

       Lifting the NSWCIS Cup second time in three seasons

NSWCIS Cup winners 2014

Qualifying to represent the NSWCIS at the All Schools Championship was an honour. In a new format, the winners of the Independent, Catholic and State knock-out cups came together in a 'Champion of Champion' event down at Seymour Shaw Stadium. We literally drew the short straw having to play consecutive matches, the second being against Westfield Sports High who were fresh! In the first game we led 1-0 against Holy Spirit Bellambi, had a second disallowed and probably should have won the game. In the event we gave up two late goals to go down 2-1. In the second game we found it very tough against Westfield. On the back foot we trailed 2-0 at the break. To our boys credit we dug deep second period and had two very near misses with the keeper beaten. Conceding a third late goal was disappointing but we fought so well throughout. Westfield also beat Holy Spirit 3-0 so were deserved champions. They are the Australian schools benchmarch, we recognise this and are working to close the gap.

SPX indeed seem to be in the middle of a rich seam of football talent and success, a dynasty unseen previously in our history. Personally, I would like to once again thank and acknowledge the role of fellow coach Mr Simon Yue in season 2014. We form an effective coaching team. Mr Matt Stearn and Principal Mr John Couani have of supported us throughout and we thank them for that. Mrs Melissa Chapman has organised the Oxford Falls team receptions brilliantly. While her husband Neil Chapman, provided the pictures to the words of Mr Danny John in the quality 1^st XI publication ‘Shape, Tackle and Goal’ which mapped our wonderful season 2014. Miss Leisa Proc, trainer Chris Semaan and Simon Aitkin have all also played an important role in our season.

Finally, it is my pleasure to acknowledge the brilliant SPX 1st XI squad of 2014. They were patient, committed and undoubtedly winners. I have no doubt that this is the strongest squad we have had in terms of depth and in 2015 we will have to recruit ten new players, but then that is the part that makes my job as First XI Coach so interesting!

Steven Quilty                

1^st XI Coach

Our season

Competition	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Goals for	Goals against
ISA Division One	11	8	1	2	49	12	Minor Premiers
NSWCIS Cup	5	5	0	0	13	2	Won final
St Andrew’s Cup	5	1	2	2	3	7	Sixth place
Queensland High Energy Youth Cup	8	8	0	0	22	1	Won final
All Schools Championship	9  2	7  0	2  0	0  2	50  1	16  5
Trial matches Totals	9 38	7 29	2 5	0 4	50 138	17 43

                            

Goalscorers:

Rosano 50; Esposito 20; Refenes 13;  Chapman 10; Bersee 10; Morton 9; Desa 7; Drake 7 ; Clay 4; Luicci 2; Borceski 1; Browning 1.

SPX Football: Two adrenalin filled weeks!

St Pius X College, High Energy Youth Cup win Brisbane, Queensland

Well what a fortnight of football that was! As a football coach for over 30 years I have just had the pleasure of being involved in two fantastic weeks of tournament and cup football, spanning both Queensland and New South Wales.

In early July we took our St Pius 1st XI up to Brisbane to compete in the High Energy Youth Cup, this was our the eighth visit in a decade and we knew that we had never won the major trophy. However, the squad traveled with the knowledge that we had already booked a NSWCIS Cup final spot and we were also 4 points clear in the ISA competition. That said, playing a tournament of eight matches in a week is something different again.

Preparation and recovery

Living on the St Lucia campus of the University of Queensland is a great base down by the river. The tournament itself is held across town at Mitchleton Football club over five full days. The addition of Chris Semaan to our coaching team on tour proved to be a good move. Chris took charge of player preparation with well run warm ups / warm downs and pool sessions. Leisa Proc toured for the third time and organised all paperwork and tournament communication. Being able to spread the workload enabled my fellow coach Simon Yue and myself to concentrate on tactics and line ups.

First day

On the first morning we got off to a flying start downing Brisbane side Clairvaux MacKillop 7-0! Striker Claudio maintaining his great 2014 goal-scoring form with hat-trick. We followed this result later in the day with a 2-0 over Brisbane GPS side Brisbane Boys College.

Second day

Accompanying us to Queensland were two fellow Sydney sides both from the GPS competition ...`The Kings School and SHORE. Facing the latter in our second game, we again played well to down them 2-0.
In 2014 there was a single New Zealand school competing and Scots College were our next opponents. Against probably our most physical opponent so far, we again kept a clean sheet winning clearly by 3-0.

Third day

By the time the third day of competition it became clear who the dangers were in this High Energy Youth Cup and interestingly we faced them both on that day. St Peter Claver are an Ipswich based Queensland college who run a football academy program. They actually won this competition in 2014 eliminating us in the semi-final on penalties. In 2013 we beat them 5-0 in the round games so it obviously gave this match that bit of an edge. In the event this was our best performance of the week. We powered home 4-0 to set us up with a match with joint leaders African Youth United. this team is also a Queensland based academy bringing together a whole range of African nationalities....Somali Sudanese Congolese to name a few. Playing such sides in Queensland is a great test. They were very quick...possessed a great individual touch and played open attacking football. It was thus very pleasing that our superior discipline and organisation on the day helped to a deserved 1-0 win Esposito getting the decisive goal.

Final day

This sort of competition uses a ranking system over the week to decide who advances to the main semi-finals. Winning all six games without conceding a goal and collecting maximum points helped us take top ranking the reward being a clash with SHORE who had placed 4th of the nine sides involved.
Again our range of attacking options proved to much for them running out clear 2-0 winners Nick Refenes running through the middle to seal the victory. In the other semi-final St Peter Claver faced African Youth United in a thriller. The former trailed right to the death before equalising to force the game to penalties.....then won the shoot out....facing us in the Grand Final being their reward.
Fortunately we had a seven hour break before the final and went into the game with the quiet confidence of a team who had not conceded a goal in the competition.
As a New South Wales school taking on a Brisbane school we were always going to be up against it in Queensland! St Peter Claver certainly had the support of the locals in what was a crowd of several hundred.

Frelingos wins it!

Mitchleton Football club opened up their main first grade oval for the final which in theory should have been good but in the event proved a bind for us. It was big, dry and dusty and certainly proved a leveler in the final. Our St Pius players started nervously and really struggled to get a rhythm. The referee seemed unwilling to allow much physical contact and we quickly trailed in the free kick count in what was a stop start affair. Eventually a one two between Refenes and Claudio saw the latter beat the keeper to make it 1-0. Half time came and went and we seemed to moving to a less than impressive win. Free kicks started to mount as we tightened somewhat and in the last ten we came under heavy pressure. Then just 15 seconds from the end St Peter Claver forced the ball home from a corner to make it 1-1. Ten minutes extra time was played but penalties were going to be the divider in this contest.

Safely home with a trophy from Queensland!

People often wonder how you decide who will take the penalty kicks. This is question easily answered for it is in the eyes of the players .....you don't really need to ask. As a coach I usually allow the players to decide the order ....in this particular case I actually told one player he was taking the sixth kick for us only because in previous shoot outs he had missed for us stepping up early. We don't practice penalty kicks at training but have had one session this season where each player had to describe to me what his single kick would look like...then take it that way. I just stipulate that we don't want any staggered runs or the like....walk up and take it!

Captain John Chapman lifts the High Energy Cup in Queensland

As this penalty shoot out began the local crowd made a big effort to lift their boys. Both sides scored their first kick but then we missed our second and they scored theirs. We scored our third to make it 2-2 but they then missed to keep things level. We scored our fourth kick before our keeper Greg Frelingos proved his agility with a great save to his left. In the end defender Ben John stepped up to calmly score the winner although he did admit afterwards that he was unaware that his shot was the decisive one! 4-3 on penalties will be the way this Cup win will be recorded. In truth having had such a great week it shows how luck and fortune can play a role for we never conceded a goal until the last normal time minute of the last game.

As you would imagine we were ecstatic to win this competition after trying since 2004! 

St Pius X College NSWCIS Cup Final win, Sydney, New South Wales

Hensley Park

Returning to Sydney that evening was a buzz knowing we had another final in just eight days in the NSWCIS Cup against north shore rivals Barker College.
Hensley Park Eastgardens is a modern 'all weather' astro facility and the bounce and running of the ball is true. On a cold winters night in July we faced Barker hoping to repeat our victory of 2012 when we beat Newington College. 

The crowd certainly like it!

                           

79th Minute Pozan!

Even first half 

As had been the story in Queensland, conceding free kicks was to be a problem because after just one minute we went 0-1 down when the Barker centre-back followed up, when the shot came back off the crossbar.
Fortunately we had the whole match to recover and we set about this task generally controlling the game. After 30 minutes we were rewarded when captain John Chapman drove home a penalty kick after Nick Refenes was brought down. Despite further pressure it was 1-1 at half time.

Half time talk

Many have since asked what exactly we said at that break. In truth we said that there was little to change apart from two things. First, we needed to start  making 'runs' for the team...you know the ones with little hope of success. Added to this we needed to start anticipating rather than reacting and realize that the perfect run of the ball would not be forthcoming....a toe poke in the six yard box would do just fine.

Four goal hero Claudio Rosano

Second half blitz

Barker never really got a touch in the second half...we moved up though the gears and tore them apart with runs on both wings from Esposito and Refenes. More than this striker Claudio set about terrorising the defence through the middle scoring four goals in the match....one  toe poke. Bocecki and Desa were faultless while captain John Chapman was driving force. By the time we went to the bench we were 4-1 up yet the reserves lifted us even higher with to more goals to make it 6-1. The crowd on this great night numbered about 400 but I would doubt that the venue has ever witnessed such fervent support. 

Esposito scores a cracker!

What a great night for St Pius X College 1st XI and the school in general. An inter state Queensland / New South Wales Cup double in just eight days. Fantastic!

Fantastic feeling!

Second NSWCIS Cup in three years for St Pius X College

A happy night for our fantastic support

Celebration!

Formal for posterity 

 NSWCIS Cup Results

Bye                             Round 1
St Aloysius                  Round 2               4-1           Chapman Refenes 2 Bersee
St Spyridons                Round 3              2-0            Refenes  Claudio
Illawarra Grammar       Quarter Final       forfeit
St Josephs                   Semi-final            1-0            Drake
Barker College            Final                    6-1            Claudio 4  Esposito Chapman

High Energy Youth Cup Results

Clairvaux MacKillop  Monday 7-0 Claudio 3 Esposito 2 Chapman Desa Brisbane Boys College Monday 2-0 Morton Bersee  SHORE Tuesday 2-0 Chapman Luicci Scots College Tuesday 3-0 Morton Chapman Esposito St Peter Claver Thursday 4-0 Claudio Desa Esposito Bersee African Youth United  Thursday 1-0 Esposito SHORE Friday Semi 2-0 Esposito Refines

St Peter Claver             Friday Final          1-1 AET  Claudio ( St Pius won 4-3 pens)