Hero Yorke steers Sydney to victory
By PHILIP HENDERSON06mar06
SYDNEY FC's team of champions is the A-League's champion team.
The glamour club of Australia's fledgling football competition ended Central Coast's fairytale run in yesterday's grand final, beating the Mariners 1-0 in front of an A-League record crowd of 41,689 at Aussie Stadium.
Sydney skipper Dwight Yorke, the competition's marquee player who flew halfway across the world and back in the past week, fittingly lifted the A-League's inaugural championship trophy after proving the catalyst behind the home side's triumph.
The former Manchester United star set up the winner in the 62nd minute, toying with Mariners duo Andrew Clark and captain Noel Spencer in the penalty area before laying a perfect ball back for Steve Corica, whose thumping strike from 15m beat a diving Danny Vukovic.
Yorke had endured the busiest week of all players in the grand final.
Less than four days ago, Sydney's jet-setting skipper was starring for Trinidad and Tobago in an international friendly against Iceland in London, scoring both goals in his country's 2-0 win.
He arrived back in Sydney little more than 48 hours before yesterday's kick-off, wiping away the jet lag of his 20-hour flight with two light recovery sessions on Friday and Saturday.
Yesterday his star performance earned him the Joe Martson Medal for player of the final.
"The Mariners probably didn't deserve to lose, they played very well in the first half, but it's all about taking your chances," Yorke said.
"As the game went on I knew I had to stamp my authority on the game, and in the end I was able to do that. The team showed a lot of character. We needed to stand up and be counted in the second half, and we came up with the game winner."
After Sydney was tagged the A-League's championship favourite well before the pre-season, veteran Corica was elated to finally claim the title.
"This was a big challenge, the first ever A-League, first ever grand final winners, so we're pleased with that," Corica said. "I've had a long career . . . but there's nothing like this."
The Mariners pushed hard for the equaliser in the final 30 minutes, but in the end paid dearly for missing a host of chances in the opening half.
Midfielder Andre Gumprecht was the architect of much of the Mariners' attacking raids, but even he was unable to convert - his close-range shot which drifted wide in the sixth minute Central Coasts' best chance of the game.
"It's one of those things. When you're on top in football you've got to capitalise your chances and we got punished in the second half," said Mariners midfielder Wayne O'Sullivan.
Yorke lauds classy Corica
by Ray GattMarch 06, 2006
STEVE CORICA is probably not on Guus Hiddink's radar for a call-up to the Socceroos squad for the World Cup finals in Germany in June, but Dwight Yorke believes the man they call 'Bimbi' should get his chance to play on the game's biggest stage.
Yorke, the Sydney FC and Trinidad and Tobago captain, gave Corica a glowing endorsement after the midfielder helped spearhead the club to the A-League title in front of almost 42,000 fans at Aussie Stadium yesterday.
Corica, with a large slice of help from Yorke, scored the goal that made the glamour club the first to be crowned A-League champion.
"I only have loads of high praise for Steve," an almost gushing Yorke said. "For me, he is one of the best players in the team.
"It is sad that he is not in the Socceroos because, with his experience, he can bring something additional to the team.
"At the end of the day it is not up to me to pick the team, but it is a pleasure to play with a man of his experience. I am so pleased he got the winner."
Corica, who returned to Australia to link with Sydney after a decade in England, described the grand final as possibly the greatest moment in his career.
"I never thought I'd see anything like this today," Corica said. "It is sensational for me. To score the winner in front of a crowd like that ... it is hard to describe.
"It probably tops everything off."
As for the Socceroos, Corica has not given up hope. "It is something that is always in the back of my mind," he said.
"If it happens it would be great. If it doesn't, well, so be it."
Sydney coach Pierre Littbarski, whose future at the club is in doubt, conceded the Mariners were unlucky to lose 1-0 yesterday.
"We did not play well in the first half and they had a lot of chances," Littbarski said. "But I said a few things to the boys at half-time.
"I asked them all to stand up and be counted and they did that; a few stood up more than others -- the two next to me (Yorke and Corica) in particular.
"When some people expected us to not be as physically strong as the Mariners, we played much better in the second half and were just as strong."
The Mariners will rue the three or four great chances they created in the first half when they dominated and outplayed their more fancied rivals.
They were full of running in the first half and opened up the Sydney defence numerous times down both flanks as the likes of Dean Heffernan and Tommy Pondeljak used their speed and skill to get in behind their men.
But they were let down in front of goal. "I thought we played some of the best football of the season. It was great stuff," Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna said.
"But we just couldn't jag a goal. I said just before the break that we badly needed a goal. It didn't come and, in the end, we were made to pay."
McKinna reserved special praise for defender Michael Beauchamp, who would have been in line for man-of-the-match honours had he been on the winning side.
"For me, he was the stand-out player of the game, no doubt," McKinna said. "He is a star of the future."
Littbarski said the result was a just reward for his team, which has played under intense pressure all season.
"Everyone focused on our club because we had money, we had the players, we had Dwight Yorke," Littbarski said.
"But the players responded brilliantly. They handled themselves well."
As for his future, Littbarski, who is reputed to be on about $700,000, was non-committal. "I am due to come back because (former Socceroo and Fox Sports commentator) Robbie Slater has invited me for a swim in his pool," Littbarski quipped.
"I'll be back at the end of March ... but this is not the right moment to discuss my future."
Grand final pageantry tops Mardi Gras
By David Lewis06mar06
AUSTRALIA's A-League gazed long and hard at its own reflection last night, and liked what it saw.
Forget the floats and feathers of Saturday night's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the sexiest show in town was the grand final between Sydney and Central Coast.
The odour of aftershave gave way to the stirring whiff of linament as the last dressings came off football's extreme makeover to confirm its transformation from skanky to swanky in one colour-co-ordinated evening of ear-piercing noise and flag-waving pageantry.
Nearly two years ago, 9000 fans turned up to watch the last grand final of the doomed national soccer league.
Yesterday, 41,689 crammed in to watch new fangled football -- the second-highest gate ever for a club match in Australia.
"Occasions don't get much bigger than this. This is the culmination of a lot of planning and preparation. And the sell-out crowd shows what it means to both sets of supporters and to the city of Sydney."
The terraces were a montage of sky blue and Mariners' canary yellow in homage to the Tinseltown Sydney team and the unfashionable boys from the Central Coast.
But leading man Dwight Yorke appeared to have left his mojo back in London, where he scored twice for Trinidad and Tobago four days ago, and he was a study in frustration for much of the match.
Legs heavier than cement blocks early on, Yorke, who only touched down in Sydney on Friday, saw his passing game go badly awry and his temper tested by a succession of misplaced balls by his often errant colleagues.
At times there was more movement on the Sydney bench than on the pitch, with perpetually animated coach Pierre Littbarski showing his exasperation by leaping from his chair to exhort his team to do better with a repertoire of extravagant gestures.
With the upstart Mariners quicker to the ball and waspish in the tackle, Sydney were fortunate to go in at half-time on level terms.
Chances came and went for the Coast, with Sydney often left without answers to the pace of Dean Heffernan and Michael Beauchamp at the back, and the probing and persistence of Andre Gumprecht and Tom Pondeljak down the middle.
But the real Sydney surfaced after the interval, led by Yorke, who had swapped jet-lagged for jet-propelled.
His legs were suddenly freed from their shackles, and so was Sydney as it set about living up to its role as fairytale wreckers.
And fittingly, it was Yorke who teased the Mariners defence before teeing up midfield player Steve Corica for the game-breaking goal from the edge of the box after 62 minutes.
Anxieties melted like ice in a heatwave, and the script was back in the hands of its writers as Sydney's class began to tell.
Mariners gutted but will bounce back
By Greg Danvers06mar06
CENTRAL Coast Mariners refused to lay down last night as their coach headed up the freeway to Gosford after Sydney FC sunk their season with a flash of Dwight Yorke magic.
"I'm personally gutted," Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna said.
"The way the boys conducted themselves all year, the support we've generated, eight or nine thousand people here tonight, you know we've achieved a lot.
"After the way we played today it is very hard to take ... we should have taken our (first-half) chances ... that's football."
But with Nick Mrdja to return next year, and John Hutchinson and John Crawley to be on song for a July pre-season, the Mariners will bounce back.
"We'll be back better and bigger next season," McKinna said.
Captain Noel Spencer paid tribute to the noise generated by the travelling supporters.
"They got behind the boys in such difficult circumstances, they were heavily outnumbered," he said.
"We can take a lot out of that game for next year."
Loud and proud: day football came out of the closet
By Andrew Stevenson
Celebrate good times … Sydney rejoice.
Photo: Craig GoldingONLY 24 hours after Oxford Street filled to the theatre and commotion of a once hidden tribe, another repressed minority announced themselves out at last and proud as hell in Sydney yesterday.
Kicked around too long, forced to live in underground communities, the soccer fans of yesterday were outnumbered by the football fans of today and tomorrow. And they didn't mind a bit; the lonely years are a passing memory and somehow, finally, the game for wogs, sheilas and poofters is the hottest ticket in town.
The sold-out A-League grand final gave football its best night in suburbia since the World Cup qualifier, proving Australians would not just turn out but cheer themselves hoarse for something other than the Socceroos. This wasn't a chance to play on football's biggest stage, just the biggest moment the domestic competition could serve up.
Both the Mardi Gras and the old National Soccer League began in the late seventies. One achieved international fame and waved a pink fig leaf at any notoriety; the other achieved no fame and regular bouts of local notoriety, plagued by its willingness to serve up flares and fights for Sunday evening news bulletins.
Soccer was sustained by enclaves of impassioned supporters who found themselves increasingly isolated from the mainstream. Mardi Gras, on the other hand, found the centre; what began as an act of defiance soon became a celebration.
The NSL started as a celebration, both of Australia's potential in the world game and the game's potential in Australia, but soon became an act of defiance.
No more. Pride runneth over, with even the architect of the game's revival, Frank Lowy, being feted as a superstar sharing centre stage with Dwight Yorke.
Central Coast may have made most of the running, especially in the first half, but every muffed chance served to build the feeling they were playing on borrowed time; that Sydney's extra bit of class — most of it located in the lithe body of Yorke — would make them pay.
In fact, Yorke managed to look both the best and the worst player on the field — appropriate enough for the most talented individual who came into the match after the worst preparation.
Yorke's first two passes were easily picked off, making his flight across the globe last week look the indulgence it was.
But when he had time to shimmy, Yorke danced a pair of Central Coast defenders back to their death, laying a perfect ball back for Steve Corica to slot home the one and only goal. That 61st-minute strike gave fresh voice to any doubting Sydney supporters and put some petrol in Yorke's depleted tank - and his class became more obvious the longer the game continued.
Appropriately perhaps, given the Trinidad international's dominance, off the pitch the new football culture also owes much to foreign shores. A handful of supporters arrived wearing shirts in honour of Man U, Celtic and Ronaldinho.
But, to the A-League's great delight, most of the crowd wore local colours, plenty of them wrapped up in supporters' scarves despite the late burst of summer heat which left them looking like broiled turkeys on a 40-degree Christmas Day. Just like the name change from soccer, the scarves said much about the game's worldly pretensions: who cares what they call it in Australia or when they play it, football's football and it's a winter sport.
Rarely can supporters of a losing grand final side swear that football was the winner on the day and mean it. But Roy and Anne Hoffman, foundation members of the Central Coast Mariners, were serious — and not alone — in thinking the crowd, the colour, the noise and all the attention made the result less relevant than it perhaps should have been.
Roy Hoffman never fell out of love with football, although the NSL tested his patience. In just this one season, the couple have attended more domestic games than they did of 28 years of the old competition.
"Who would ever have thought they would have sold out Aussie Stadium for the final?" enthused Anne.
The A-League finished with a bang, thanks to Sydney. The decision to limit the nation's biggest city to a single team gave Sydney FC a head start the club repaid in spades. For the A-League to find its feet, Sydney FC had to do a little bit more than just find theirs: winning the comp wasn't a bad start. Bringing a city along with it in a carnival of pride was even better.
Let's party: first glory for Bling FC
By John HuxleyMarch 6, 2006
IN THE end Sydney FC's season finished, as so many pundits, punters and headline writers had predicted it would. All Dwight on the night.
Steve Corica scored the single goal that sank the Central Coast Mariners at a packed Aussie Stadium. But it was the star player Dwight Yorke who set it up with a rare moment of magic.
And it was Yorke, the captain, who raised the silver trophy, which when held aloft is a halo of beauty, but resembles a toilet seat when laid flat.
"Let's party tonight," said Yorke, who comes with a reputation as a party animal. "The Mariners didn't deserve to lose - but it's all about taking your chances."
Like the German coach Pierre Littbarski and the celebrity supporter Anthony LaPaglia, who have helped him create Sydney's glitzy Bling FC image, Yorke performed with distinction.
It could all have ended very differently - in a Mariners' fairytale come true, with the club president, Ian Kiernan, cleaning up Australia in the morning and his players cleaning up the favourites in the afternoon.
Perhaps it was the jet lag: Yorke arrived back in Sydney on Friday morning after a 48-hour round trip to play a friendly match for Trinidad and Tobago in England. Perhaps it was the weather. For his midweek game it was minus five degrees; yesterday was in the high 20s.
Whatever, apart from an audacious overhead kick, for an hour he looked horribly out of sorts, misdirecting passes, not connecting with headers, being nudged off the ball.
Then, in the 61st minute, Yorke justified his price tag of $900,000, enough to put together the complete spare-parts Central Coast team, with a few dollars left over.
Receiving the ball in midfield, he drifted into the Mariners' penalty area, surrounded by defenders. He shimmied this way, then that, shielding the ball, before putting it into teammate Corica's path.
Goal! A goal sufficient to win Sydney the inaugural A-League grand final. "The first winners … that's good enough for me," Corica said.
And a pass sufficient to win Yorke the man of the match award. On such artistry in football are matches turned and international reputations won.
A fine advertisement for football? Well, yes, though more for the sense of occasion than for the standard of the playing, full of honest endeavour but short of real drama.
The final had been billed - even by the football chief John O'Neill, who recognises a classy promotional cliche when he sees one - as glitz versus guts, millionaires versus minnows, latte-sipping city slickers versus lager-slurping country cousins.
Of course, whatever the result, the winner, according to O'Neill, was always going to be - you guessed it - football. New-fangled football. Soccer as was.
For this was the day - fittingly on the weekend Sydney hosted the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras - when football, world football, a code once thought suitable only for "sheilas, wogs and poofters", finally came out.
Proudly. Prepared to put on a spectacular show. A 42,000 sell-out crowd, with hundreds of thousands more watching the game live.
Big-name - as well as just long, new Australian name - players. Colour. Excitement. And the promise of more thrills to come when the Socceroos compete in the World Cup finals in Germany in June.
The last time Australian club football hit the front pages was when teams clashed violently in a replay of some ancient Serb-Croat dispute.
Of course football has had more false dawns than a Mardi Gras queen. This time, perhaps, it has won a permanent place in the sporting sun.
What a grand old duke is Yorke when a title's on the line
By Michael CockerillMarch 6, 2006
ANALYSIS
Dwight Yorke is tackled by Mariners Andre Grumprecht
Photo: Mike BowersHOW much is Dwight Yorke worth? He's worth a championship for Sydney FC, and how do you put a value on that?
The A-League's biggest, best-paid, and most famous star didn't shine his light from start to finish in yesterday's inaugural grand final. In fact, for much of the first half, he played his match in the shadows of the main game. Slow, lethargic, leg-heaving, and guilty of basic, unforced mistakes. He may be good but he's not Superman. And the toll of travelling halfway across the world and back again was evident. After all, he turned 35 on Friday, the day of his return from London.
But if jet lag diminished Yorke's contribution in the opening 45 minutes, his pride, and his quality, came to the fore when it mattered. For a 20-minute period after the break, Yorke dug deep, got the ball and used it. When he plays well, Sydney FC look like a good team. And when the title was there to be won, Sydney were a better team than their courageous opponents, Central Coast Mariners. Because of Yorke.
It was Yorke who gave Sydney back their self-belief. It was Yorke, who brought the likes of David Carney and Sasho Petrovski back into the game. And it was Yorke who held up the ball for the perfect moment, and released the pass which gave Steve Corica the opportunity to score the only goal of the grand final, the goal which made Sydney FC the champions of Australia.
So is Yorke worth what the club is playing him? Right now, he's worth every cent. Big games are often decided by big players, and in this league, Yorke is the biggest of the lot.
And didn't Sydney need him. If the biggest club in the country is now the best, spare a thought for the beaten Mariners. They were every bit as good as their opponents for most of the game. In fact, they were clearly the dominant force of the first half. But the half-time statistics told their own story: 17 shots, only one on goal. The wasted opportunities threatened to come back to haunt them, and they did. Sydney were let off the hook.
Perhaps, though, the pattern of the opening half was not such a surprise. The Mariners took an unchanged side, and a 12-game unbeaten run into the match. They were settled and confident. Sydney, by contrast, made three changes, only one of them forced. Coach Pierre Littbarski gambled on two players who in recent weeks haven't played much football - Jacob Timpano and Terry McFlynn. The former had been expected to start, but the latter's inclusion was a major surprise. It was always going to take time for Sydney to find their rhythm but they got lucky. While they were there for the taking, the Mariners couldn't apply the finishing touch. And having weathered the storm, Sydney made the most of their reprieve.
Yorke pushed further forward to provide support and service to Petrovski, and Corica and Carney were able to get possession higher up the park. The flip side was that Central Coast's wide men, Dean Heffernan and Wayne O'Sullivan, had their ears pinned back. Suddenly, Mariners strikers Tom Pondeljak and Stewart Petrie found themselves starved out of the game. Central Coast's most important asset - their width - was curtailed. The pendulum had swung back in favour of the sky blue.
No one can dispute the merits of Sydney's victory. Living with pressure and expectation comes at a cost. But beneath the veneer beats the heart of a star team, not a team of stars. This was the moment when Sydney could prove they were worth the hype. Only the players could deliver that. And they did.
For all that, there wasn't much in it. Central Coast lost but they lost few friends. Yorke was magnanimous enough to admit afterwards that if the Mariners had taken their chances, it might have been a different result. On the balance of play, Central Coast were the equal of their opponents. But Sydney have the trophy, and the Mariners are left to dream.
There will be celebrations and commiserations. But what ultimately counts is that first-ever A-League grand final left those inside the stadium, and those in their lounge rooms, wanting more. The public will be hungry because the players left a good taste in their mouth. There may have been only the single goal, but this showpiece was a credit to the league. Yorke has walked some of the biggest stages in football but when he walked up to receive his Marston Medal for the best player of the game, he looked as excited as a teenager. Winning never loses its lustre.
Trophy may well prove to be a parting gift
By Michael CockerillMarch 6, 2006
AUSTRALIA may have seen the last of Dwight Yorke after the Sydney FC skipper revealed after the grand final that he may not be back to fulfil the second year of his contract.
Yorke, 35, was awarded the Marston Medal for man-of-the-match for his contribution to the championship success, but even personal and team glory may not be enough to lure him back for another season of A-League football.
In the short-term, Yorke needs regular first-team football to properly prepare him for the World Cup finals, where he will lead Trinidad and Tobago against England, Sweden and Paraguay.
Longer-term, Sydney FC may not be able to afford to have him back, with the club staring at a loss of more than $3 million from the inaugural season.
"The number one priority was to win a championship, and now that's been done, it's back to the drawing board," Yorke said. "There are a few options on the table, and there have been discussions in the last week. In the next few days, we'll make a decision."
Pressed on whether he would be back in sky blue for the 2006-07 season, Yorke replied: "I have got a contract next season with Sydney FC, but now I'm not sure. I would say anything could happen in that time."
Yorke is believed to have offers from Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. There is no doubt he will accept one of those, at least until the World Cup. "Three months is a long time without football. You need games," he said. "I don't want to go to the World Cup lacking match fitness."
If Yorke does end up cutting short his stay with Sydney FC, there is little doubt his contribution to the inaugural A-League season has been immense. Although this was not one of his better games - for much of the first half and towards the end of the game the effects of jet lag were evident - he did rise to the occasion when it mattered.
It was Yorke's skill in holding up the ball, drawing a posse of defenders and then slipping the pass at the right moment which created the opening for Steve Corica to score the only goal of the game in the second half.
"Sometimes you have to try and figure it out, sometimes it doesn't go how you would like," Yorke said. "So you have to adjust. Luckily enough, I had a little bit in the tank to take my game to another level. I'd like to think it made a difference."
That it did, as a jubilant Corica explained: "He's got great vision, he waited for just the right time to give me the perfect pass."
A perfect ending, then, for a dream season for Yorke. He wasn't about to patronise and compare it to winning the Champions League with Manchester United, but he did say: "It's fantastic. This goes down in the record books, it's a phenomenal achievement."
