Cup Semi-final results - Saturday, 29 May 2021

Photo:  Devonport's Miles Barnard (right) scored twice against Taroona today. [PlessPix] 

Lakoseljac Cup Semi-finals

Taroona 0 lost to Devonport Strikers 8 (C Parke 36, D Syson 41, E Bidwell 42, M Barnard 52, 83, T Barton 55, B Denehey 66, C Bidwell 90)

Launceston City 0 lost to Glenorchy Knights 1 (N Naden 97) AET

Photo:  Miles Barnard celebrates his second goal, which was a brilliant header from the edge of the penalty area. [PlessPix]  

Women’s State-wide Cup

Kingborough Lions United 2 (D Kannegiesser 46, 47 pen) lost to Launceston United 3 (D Gunton 49, J Robinson 60, 90)

Photo:  Launceston United's Jessica Robinson controls the ball.  She scored twice for her side in the win over the Lions. [PlessPix]  

Men’s Under-20 State-wide Cup

Ulverstone 4-0 Launceston City

Photo:  Fourth official Claire Green appears to be yelling out to someone in the crowd at half-time of the Women's State-wide Cup semi-final. [PlessPix]

Photo:  Devonport's Eddie Bidwell on the attack against Taroona. [PlessPix]

Photo:  Devonport's Eddie Bidwell takes on a Taroona defender. [PlessPix]

Photo:  Launceston United on the attack against the Lions. ][PlessPix]
 

Some intriguing battles loom for the weekend's Lakoseljac and State-wide Cup semi-finals

Photo:  Taroona coach Anton Rohner knows the history of his club's battles with Devonport but was still all smiles at this morning's pre-game media conference. [PlessPix] 

History is against Taroona as they face NPL Tasmania reigning champions Devonport Strikers in the Lakoseljac Cup semi-final tomorrow [Saturday] at 1pm at Kelvedon Park.

The sides have met twice before in State-wide Cup matches and Devonport have triumphed 8-0 and 6-1.

But, that was a long time ago and anything could happen this time around.

Taroona coach, Anton Rohner, played for a season in the North-West in the late 1990s for Somerset and has scored goals against Devonport.

Nostalgia and history do not come into the equation tomorrow, however, and anything can happen in cup football.

“It’s not in our DNA to not go as hard as possible at Taroona, and it is a David and Goliath battle and we fully respect Devonport,” said Taroona coach, Anton Rohner.

“We’re going out to try and win and we don’t give up.

“We think it’s going to be an actual ding-dong physical battle.

“Devonport have always been a competitive cultured team that is very physical and we totally respect that, but of anyone has watched Taroona, we have been a physical team, too, and I think we’ll be competitive.

“Devonport have had some bumps on their road, but every team does, as have we, too.

“This game will allow us to test ourselves at the highest level in Tasmania in a prestigious cup competition leading to the FFA Cup.

“It’s great exposure for our players and our club and what we have built, from the juniors through to the women’s teams and the seniors over the last four years.

“We take this one game at a time and we’re very motivated.”

Photo:  Taroona coach Anton Rohner knows what it's like to score against Devonport, which he sometimes did while playing for Somerset. [PlessPix]  

Rohner said he would make up to four changes to his team from the past two weeks because of injuries or unavailability.

“The depth of our squad this year is really incredibly strong and we’re looking forward to giving it a red-hot go.” Rohner said.

“Home ground advantage is something and our ground is known as ‘the graveyard’, so we’re very keen to leverage the home ground advnathe and we also believed there’ll be a lot of Hobart football supporters from other clubs coming down to support us.”

Matthew Johnson, a former Devonport player, will be goalkeeper for Taroona in place of James Cherry, who is unavailable.

“He has improved out of sight over the past two years and his presence will create interest,” Rohner said.

Devonport are expected to be at full strength and it will be their second visit to Hobart for two consecutive weekends.

They beat South Hobart 2-0 last Saturday in an NPL match.

The other semi-final is at Buckby Motors park in Launceston at 4.30pm tomorrow [Saturday], when Launceston City host Glenorchy Knights.

Launceston City are generally good cup competition performers and Knights will need to be at their best.

Knights currently top the NPL Tasmania standings and City are second-last, but league form does not mean a thing when it comes to cup competitions.

Photo:  Taylor Rand, Clarence Zebras' American midfielder, aid Olympia will be a challenge on Sunday. [PlessPix]  

In the Women’s State-wide Cup semi-finals, Kingborough Lions United host Launceston United at Lightwood park tomorrow [Saturday] at 3.30pm, while on Sunday, Olympia Warriors entertain arch rivals Clarence Zebras at 3.30pm at Warrior Park.

“This is definitely a big game,” said Clarence Zebras’ Taylor Rand in reference to Sunday’s game.

“Olympia has been a rival of Clarence Zebras for a couple of years now and we’ve played them in cup games a couple of times.

“We’re definitely looking forward to it and our whole team is excited.

“We beat them 2-1 in the league this season and it was a very close game.

“This is a cup game and you can’t not show up and give your best for 90 minutes.

“I think we’ve definitely developed game on game and we’ve got a couple of players back in over the last couple of rounds who have been fantastic for us and who have been goalscorers.

“Our strategy will be to put a full 90 minutes together, which we haven’t really done so far, and we’ll have to do that to win.

“They have very few weaknesses and we’ll have to play at our best.

“They’re pretty strong and our previous game against them was challenging.”

Launceston United beat Kingborough 5-2 in the league earlier this season and this indicates that the Lions will have to be at their best if they are to beat their northern visitors and qualify for the final.

Photo:  South Hobart's Reilly Morton would love to be a key factor in a victory over Olympia on Sunday. [PlessPix]  

In the Men’s State-wide Under-20s Cup semi-finals, Ulverstone host Launceston City at 2pm at Ulverstone on Saturday, while on Sunday, South Hobart meet Olympia Warriors at South Hobart Oval at 1pm.

“Olympia area  good club with good junior players and they’re always tough competition,” said South Hobart’s Reilly Morton.

“It’s always very competitive between us and Olympia and we’re looking forward to the challenge and, hopefully, the game goes our way.

“We played them in the Championship a couple of weeks agon and won, but we were a goal down and slow starts do affect us.

“If we can start strongly, then we’ll have a good opportunity to win the game.”

Morton has NPL experience and is a leader within the squad and one of his tasks will be to fire up the team.

He said South Hobart Oval is becoming something of a fortress for the team and the large ground and grass surface would suit them more than Olympia’s artificial pitch.

 

Football fans, show Village Cinemas that we care

Congratulations to Village Cinemas for once again providing Hobart football fans with an excellent football documentary to watch.

“King Otto”, directed by Christopher Marks, will screen in Hobart three times:  Friday (tomorrow) at 7pm, Saturday at 4pm and Sunday at 4pm.

It is about Otto Rehhagel, the German coach who was in charge of the Greek national team when they won the European Championship in Portugal in 2004, against all the odds.

Rehhagel, or Mr Rehhagel, as the players and everyone else called him, took charge of Greece in 2001.

They had never won a game, nor scored a goal, in any major competition.  They had only ever qualified for two major competitions.

Mr Rehhagel changed that and had the players believing in themselves and had the nation behind the team as never before.

He didn’t speak Greek and had to use an interpreter, which made the job even more difficult.

The Greek fans until then had been passionate about Greek club sides, but the national team always seemed a lost cause.

Mr Rehhagel instilled discipline and brought out the best in the players.  Greek communities around the world went into ecstasy when the team won the 2004 European Championship with a 1-0 win over hosts Portugal in the final in Lisbon on 4 July 2004.

It was the biggest upset since Denmark had won the title in 1992.

In the group stages, Greece beat Portugal 2-1, drew 1-1 with Spain and lost 2-1 to Russia, but still qualified for the quarterfinals as second in the group.

In the quarterfinals, Greece beat France 1-0, while in the semi-finals, Greece beat the Czech Republic 1-0 to qualify for the final.

It was a triumph of defensive tactics and counter-attacking and of making the most of the qualities of the players that were available.

Mr Rehhagel was regarded as a god by Greek supporters all over the world and he is still revered whenever he visits the country.

That 2004 team, who are all veterans now, still play friendly exhibition matches with Mr Rehhagel in charge.

They recently played the veteran Portugal team of 2004 in Greece, and won again.

When the team returned to Athens after winning the 2004 final, it took the bus carrying the players 7 hours to travel from the airport to the centre of Athens, a journey that normally takes 20 minutes.

I had the opportunity to see Mr Rehhagel and the Greek players in the flesh in 2006, when they were in Melbourne to play a friendly against Australia.

I was attending a dinner at the MCG and, needless to say, I left the other guests to enjoy their meals while I had my nose pressed to the glass window high above the arena as I watched Mr Rehhagel conduct a training session on the MCG pitch that evening.

I easily picked out Mr Rehhagel, who exuded authority, while the only other player I recognised was Angelos Charisteas, he of the long flowing black locks who had scored the goal that beat Portugal in the 2004 final before a crowd of 62,564.

Australia won the friendly a couple of days later 1-0 at the MCG before a crowd of 95,103.

Melbourne has, after all, the largest Greek population in the world outside of Athens.

Greece were at odds of 5,000/1 for the final in 2004.  I have a couple of Greek friends in Hobart who made a killing on the result.

I urge all football fans to watch “King Otto” this weekend.  Show Village Cinemas that there is an audience for football films and we may see more.

I reckon all Greeks and Australians of Greek heritage living in Hobart, and indeed, all football fans, will want to attend the screenings.  A sell-out may even persuade Village Cinemas to have extra screenings.