Football Thread!

[Spirit]

Originally Posted by Karposh

I know what you mean, I had no idea Macedonia was playing at all to be honest. I watched the Australia Vs Japan match last night, which was disappointing, but I gave up on Macedonia a long time ago. For more reasons than one - the name change, the number of shiptari on the team, the lack of apparent talent, etc. A work mate messaged me this morning to congratulate me for the win over Italy so that's all I've been doing today - just getting acquainted with the current squad and assessing our chances against Portugal on Tuesday (who just beat Turkey). I was pleasantly surprised to see that the majority of the team are actually Macedonians so that's a good start. I can now hopefully kick start the passion that I lost a long, long time ago. We beat Portugal on Tuesday and we're in the World Cup. Here's hoping.

If we can beat Germany in a WCQ group game and then beat Italy now I say we have a pretty good chance of beating Portugal
You can be the best team in the world but on any given day things might not go to plan, that’s the beauty of football

[Liberator of Makedonija]

When we win, all the Albanians suddenly become patriotic Macedonians.

[Momce Makedonce]

Originally Posted by Karposh

I know what you mean, I had no idea Macedonia was playing at all to be honest. I watched the Australia Vs Japan match last night, which was disappointing, but I gave up on Macedonia a long time ago. For more reasons than one - the name change, the number of shiptari on the team, the lack of apparent talent, etc. A work mate messaged me this morning to congratulate me for the win over Italy so that's all I've been doing today - just getting acquainted with the current squad and assessing our chances against Portugal on Tuesday (who just beat Turkey). I was pleasantly surprised to see that the majority of the team are actually Macedonians so that's a good start. I can now hopefully kick start the passion that I lost a long, long time ago. We beat Portugal on Tuesday and we're in the World Cup. Here's hoping.

Karposh you missed out on Macedonia in the Euros last year, it was so much fun watching it with fellow Macedonians at the various Macedonian football clubs in Sydney, the atmosphere was amazing! Here's to hoping we qualify for the World Cup so we can do it all again.

I feel the same way with all the Macedonian sporting success of late, its quite bitter-sweet. Obviously sweet as we are doing amazingly and on the world stage, but bitter that we are doing it under this bullshit imposed name and the horrible situation with the current regime in Macedonia.

Defensive masterclass from the boys this morning though and I love seeing how passionate they are, incredible feeling when the 92nd min bomb went in and seeing the away supporters with their (mostly) original Macedonian flags, flares going off and in a frenzy!

Onto Portugal.

[Momce Makedonce]

Originally Posted by Liberator of Makedonija

I don't think there is a single "non-ethnic" club in the top tier of Victoria (NPL 1), and very few in the top few tiers. The only "non-ethnic" sides in the NPL system that seem capable of pulling a crowd are just the A-League academy teams; Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City and Western United. There have been some others who have had dedicated supporter groups in recent years but that did not translate into strong crowd numbers. Examples of these include: Box Hill United, Nunawading City, Moreland City, Bendigo City, Frankston Pines, Whitehorse United and Hampton East Brighton. Go to any of these club's home games though and you would be lucky to crack much over 200 spectators, even luckier if some of these were not related to the players in some way.

Very interesting, seems clear that the ethnic clubs still get more interest on an NPL level, I think the connection generally just runs deeper than with your average clubs. I know few people in Sydney who aren't of the ethnicity of clubs like Rockdale, Sydney United, Parramatta Melita, Sydney Olympic, Bankstown e.t.c. but are quite fond of these clubs and what they offer, maybe not to the point that they will go to games every week but there is more of an interest even though they are not Macedonian, Croatian, Maltese e.t.c themselves.

Will be interesting to see what happens regarding a National Second Division which has been getting some talk of late.

[Karposh]

A quick heads up regarding the game tomorrow morning. Kick of is at 5:45am Sydney time at the Dragao stadium in Porto. It sounds like Ronaldo is a man on a mission and keen to prove a point which will make it all the more difficult for Macedonia. I'm not holding my breath about coming away with another miracle tomorrow but, at the same time, I'm not giving up hope completely.

Ronaldo has expressed some of his views with regard to this match saying "For us, this game is a matter of life and death. There is a responsibility to win this game. For us, also a game of our lives. They have surprised [opponents] in many games but I believe they will not surprise us." He also stated the following: "If we think that, theoretically, the Macedonians are weaker, we are on the wrong track, it's the worst possible scenario," he said. "We have to face North Macedonia as we would have faced Italy."

[Solun]

Arda Okan Kurtulan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arda_Okan_Kurtulan
https://sportmedia.mk/2022/06/06/%d1...-%d0%bc%d1%83/

The kid born in Istanbul wants to play for Macedonia but the delay in having him issued with a Passport may result with him being lost to Turkey. Senior caps are what counts so I'm sure Milevski would give him a senior cap once his passport is issued and from that point on he is tied to the one national team.

[Momce Makedonce]

Wollongong Macedonia create history and become the first association side and Illawarra Premier League club to make the national Australia Cup round of 32, a fantastic achievement!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHGMV-4a7_4

They are the only Macedonian club left in the Australia Cup, they find out who they meet in the next round in due course.

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Incredible achievement:

https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/...irytale-alive/

https://footballnsw.com.au/2022/06/16/70650/

http://www.novaloza.com/wollongong-m...ational-stage/

[Momce Makedonce]

Came across this 50 year anniversary video of Altona Magic (Vardar) from 2018, interesting insight about the clubs history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2NZBjwcObs

Not sure if there are any Altona supporters here? Was great to see them get back up to NPL1 Victoria a couple seasons ago, they have won it on 5 occasions which is pretty impressive!

[Liberator of Makedonija]

I think Altona was known as a bit of a "Yugoslovenski" club back in the day.