The World Game with Stefan MaukFrom the A-Leagues to the EPL, Adelaide United star Stefan Mauk brings you the latest results, news and analysis from the World Game.
Yes, good evening and once again welcome to another great edition of the World Game back in our regular time slot for Thursday night, which is where we like to be all thanks to Southern Cherry, where you can cherry pick your own tig Go four pro from Southern Cherry morph Vale from just twenty three to nine to ninety drive away. I'm Sam Tugwell and of course we're joined by the very very brilliant Stephan Marc Stefan. Great to see you, yes, great to be here.
Similar to last week where I think I spoke to you on Sunday after we had just lost and I was pretty down, pretty flat, but my Arsenal have got me back up feeling pretty good. I'm in here wharing my kid. Obviously you guys can't see me, but I'm excited because you know, that's made me feel a lot better and it's put me in a very good headspace for our match against Wellington, as.
You should, mate, and it is a really big game. So I mean, we'll get onto Arsenal, we'll get onto the Champions League, we'll get onto some MPL and some other bits and pieces around the A League two. In tonight's show and very interesting guest. If you're a Stirt Lines a member or a person around the stud area, you might know the name John Fusco. He's been around for many years and he's been a great contributors out Australian football. And so we'll speak to him later on in the show, which we're looking forward to, but let's do start with your reds and we'll try not to spend too much time on it because it has been well fleshed out now for a little while. But another loss and we've only got three games to go on a big game tomorrow night against Wellington at home that you really do need to win. This is it's all on the line now.
Yeah, and we've obviously been coppying a lot of a lot of heat and a lot of hatred. I guess you could say online from has got to that point. It always happens. It's normal the way it is. But I understand, like as a fan, you're, you know, you're so disappointed because the expectation was so high, because if we started so well this season, you know, we were fighting for top spot back twelve thirteen games ago. You know, if we beat Auckland we went four points clear and now we're struggling to make the finals, so it's us in Sydney f C who were fighting for this last spot. So I completely understand it. It's just a fight. Obviously. There's a line where you know, we've seen in the AFL this week with you know, probably going too far and player reacts and there's you know, there's no there's no guidelines of what a fan can and can't say. But I think it's just decency around you know, you don't want to say something that you probably wouldn't say to them if they were standing right in front of your face and there could be an altercation from it. If you think you're over the fence and you can say something, or on social media they're even braver. A lot of people.
You have to be a little bit smarter.
About that because I think it's actually just making the younger kids who are probably sending a lot more of the message on social media. They see you know, their dads or their cousins or their uncles or aunties whatever, saying stuff at the TV or you know, over the boundary line or at our games. You know, when you're pretty close to a player, but you don't want to teach them these habits because you know, at the end of the day, we're still people. But I'm also a football fan myself, my sports fan, so when my team's not doing well, I'm pretty annoyed and it makes me upset, and when they win, I'm over the moon. So I understand what sports does and I don't want to take that away. And you know, you come to the games. If you want to boo us, you have every right too, because at the end of the day, you're not happy with the way we're playing, but you still rock up. If you rock up, you have every right to boo us. The abuse is too far. But you know, telling us we've not been good enough, you're well within your rights.
So that's a mature response.
Yeah, it just is what it is. If I want to be in this industry, I have to learn to accept, you know. That's part of it, part and past. Otherwise, if fans weren't not dedicated, they wouldn't come to the games, they wouldn't pay to watch it. We're not getting paid, we're semi professional. Then you know, I'm not enjoying myself because I'm probably working another job where I don't like.
So it's interesting to hear that from the sportsperson's point of view though, that you can't accept that. Hey, you're a sports fan yourself. You you totally go through the emotions yourself in a certain circumstances, so it's not uncommon for you know, the regular fan out there to want to just do the same thing.
Yeah, no, I watch it.
Within reason, obviously, it's just going to be reasonable about it. And I think it was it was Bryce Gibbs.
I think he was getting interviewed on a show US or yesterday. He was talking about how the AFL in a Culton fans were staying there and they were throwing their memberships and scarffs and it would happen over in the Premier League and in South America be a lot worse, probably getting death threat to be honest, which is way too far. But I think they have every right to do that. Yeah, it's not a great form of it. Like, you know, you don't feel good as a player, but they're so passionate that you know that's it's not great because if you're throwing your membership card away, well I don't know if you can get into the games. It might be harder to go crawl back to the club. But that's their point that I don't want to come, So I think that's okay. The abuse where you know, you start to get personal and you start to say names and cool things out that's unrelated to football and the sport. That's where it's completely different. But I want the stadium to be full tomorrow. We have a potential record in sas being break and broken for the most games played. It's our last home game, our fans. I think we've had the best attendance as all season. I know, you know, maybe some of the bigger clubs have got a better average, but they have the big Derby's where they get you know, thirty forty thousand for those. So if you're looking just on a on a median basis, I reckon our crowd would be right up there. And the atmosphere is unparallel to any other stadium. So we need you tomorrow night because it's going to be a tough game against Wellington. Even though they're not you know, in contention for the top six, they are a good side, So please get down. It's COVID, it's last game at home. Obviously if we make the finals and we make a semi final. We'll get a home final, but our first leg, you know, it's very unlikely we could finish third and fourth, which means if we finish fifth or sixth, it's going to be away, so potentially the last game Cole's in charge. He's been extremely extremely good for our club, extremely good for the state, for the sport. So come down and show your appreciation for him and us as players. Hopefully we'll put on a performance that he deserves and that you, as you know, paying fans deserve, and we hope that we can start your Easter weekend off extremely well.
I love that stuff, and so before we get into Asian Champions League chat, I do want to do that shortly. I want to sort of go through the run home now for the A League comp because there's only three rounds left in it. So our three games obviously Wellington, then Brisbane Raw who are down toward the bottom as well, and then finish off with Melbourne FC, who were right up there to sorry it. That's right, Melbourne City who will run up there at the start of the season. So this is going to be a look a couple of possible wins here, which is good. It looks like it on paper, but as we've seen in the last few months, it's not as simple as that.
Sometimes no, no, sometimes sometimes it's not. So you know, we're really taking it one game at a time. But we look at it right and I think, you know, whenever I always hear it, you know, we're just focusing on this game. We're not looking ahead. With the coach have said, we're not looking ahead, and the coaches messaging might be that. You know, I've not been a part of a team where a coach is going up and saying we need to get this many points so we can beat this team because they're playing this team and they may lose. I've never heard that. But I also think it's only normal to look ahead and think, well, what do they need to do? Yeah, you know, and what do we need to do for us to make finals? Every fan does it, Like we just spoke about, so Sydney f C are one point ahead of us and they've got better goal difference. Essentially we need two more points than Sydney FC in the remaining three games, and I think, you know, you look at our games, we need to be okay and comfortable enough that we can say we should be winning all three games if we play at our absolute best what we'll do at the start of the year. That's possible, but realistically, you know, we've been really struggling lately. So all I'm focused on realistically right now is Wellington. We've prepared for Wellington, We've done everything we can. We have a short turnaround after this Friday night game. We fly to Brisbane on Monday. We play on Tuesday against Brisbane and then we fly on Friday to Melbourne to play away on Saturday, and then the final round we have the bye actually, so we've got the midweek game which is a catch up game from earlier in the year, and this is where you know, we're going to be sitting back potentially in the last round of the season as long as things go well in these next three games, and we're just waiting on results to see, you know, where do we finish. And Sydney FC, they've had their Champions League game last night, which again we'll touch on, but you know they've got tough games. They play Newcastle, which is not an easy game. Newcastle have been in extremely good form. So Sydney c W you've got to back up after playing last night obviously the emotional and mental toll of that, plus then they go away to Western United who are fighting for the title, and on the last game they go away to Melbourne City, so they've got a really tough, tough fixture draw running in. And then even below us, you've got MacArthur who are only one point below and I'm sure they're thinking, you know what, if we win our three games, we've got a very good chance as well. And you know, there's so many different ways this can go because you know there's only thirteen teams in the Air League, so every week you know the top seven teams, let's the eight teams with MacArthur included. A few of them are playing each other, so not every team can get maximum points. If they both draw, they've both dropped points, so it's it's pretty incredible and I think it's a really exciting time to make sure you tune into these last few rounds of the A League before final sign because you've got Auckland FC that more than likely are going to finish top you would say, unless they really blow up from here, but anywhere from second through to fifth, you don't know who's going to finish second because Melbourne City have got really tough games and Western United, who if they won last week they would have went within three points of Auckland. But if they lose tonight against Brisbane and Western Sydney and Victory win their game, Western you're id have dropped down to fifth, are going to be within three points of first. It's so so small, these details of obviously where you finish it, and this is the business end of the year, this is what you train hard for, so tune into the games. I know if you're listening to this, ye're a massive football fan. So if it's not on Channel ten, you know it's going to be on Paramount. And if you're from the state, whether you're in Adelaide here listening, or one of my followers on x that loves giving me a lot of stiff from a different state and you've tuned in, I appreciate that. Get down to your local team and support them, and you know, every person through the gates is appreciated, and I'm as a fan, I'm excited to see how it ends. And as an Adelaide United player, I can tell you we'll be doing everything we possibly can to make sure that we finish the season really really well.
Well let's hope. So all right, so stiff and just quickly before we move on to some big news that came out yesterday. The Sydney FC match last night and the Asian champions It's a shame. It was built up as one of the biggest in the history and just fell short. Unfortunately, despite a.
Win yes Sydney FC. They UNFORDU went away in the first leg and lost two nils. So it's always hard to overcome that they played really well last night. I know the fans were giving them a bit of stick I saw online, but at the same time, you know when a team knows that they can just defend and don't have to go forward in the line City Sailors from Singapore, they did that and Sydney FC had some chances. They had two goals ruled out for offside, they had a lot of mischances. They won one nil but it just wasn't enough and you could tell how much it meant to them. And I know there's disappointment there, but you know what a club like Sydney FC now, this should be their standard and the Australian clubs last year we had Central Coast winning the AFC Cup. Now it's reformed into a different format, so it's a bit more difficult. But making this, you know, this is big prize money for the club and for the players themselves, so they could have made a lot more if they made the final and won it. But this just goes to show how much more money is available now in Asia for the A League clubs to actually keep spending on it. So it's disappointing. But leading on to the next thing, which was the announcement of the bad news, which you can kind of talk us through the report briefly of what was said from the APL.
Yeah, so there's a salary cap model which is being revamped despite concerns of a club spending money on their own players, and there's been even smaller distributions from the league in the past. So Stephan, you're probably better with the details. But from the layman's side of it, what does it all mean, because it just feels like this this is some sort of Swiss cheese model that's been put in place.
Yeah, and I feel as if, you know, we as players, I see this and I think, well, you can't agree to that without the players agreeing because we have a collective bogeying agreement. It's got one more season to run on it, which is next year. Players have contracts. You know, clubs have signed players for three four years. So this completely throws out everything. And they want to tax clubs that spend more. So it's not going to be you know, you're in violation and you get points deductions, but you get a fine for spending too much money. And I don't understand that. If these clubs are spending more money because they want to develop more players or they want to have a better chance to win, but they're losing money, why are we then going to tax them more money. It hurts when they're losing money. And if they want to invest it, nobody's saying you have to invest it. You have a floor that you need to spend, which is two point eight two point nine roughly, it might even be less than that, to be honest, I could have those numbers wrong. And they want to then cap it at three point five for next year and three million the year after as a kind of soft cap plus one marquee on top, which all that's going to do is restrict you from giving long term deals to young players. And it's going to restrict you from trying to bring you good Australian players back on long term deals because you don't know what's going to happen. And then also your marquee players. Sydney FC, Yes, for as bad as they've maybe been from what they were expecting, you know, with the squad they've developed, they've got star players. They've got Douglas Costrin last minute. If they had this cap, they wouldn't have been able to bring him in. How many fans is he brought through the gates? So I don't understand this concept. The apl have come out and the chairman that's been appointed hasn't made any statements since he took over except for this now, which with three games to go, I find really baffling. And I don't think I'll get in trouble for saying this, but it's just my opinion that as a player and as a fan, I want to know what the vision is to grow the game, not to reduce spend and think, well, if we reduce spend, we'll save the clubs in the short term future. I want to know what are they actually doing to grow the game. They've talked about camera coming into the league now for three years and it hasn't happened. So we've got now a buy again next year. So what are they actually planning to do to grow revenue? What are they doing to get more people through the gates? What are they doing to actually make sure clubs are held accountable if they don't meet certain metrics? And for expansion, what are they doing for teams beyond camera Because you look at what Auckland's done coming into league, it's been unbelievable. They've got it right with that one. They've got it wrong in the past. So as a player, I'm worried because this is my employee. They're dictating how much I can earn now, and we copped a lot of shit. You can say, if I'm allowed to say that when COVID happened, we took seventeen percent. We took seventeen percent of our guaranteed money because they stood us down and they pretty much said, if you don't take this, the league's not happening. So you can take zero percent or seventeen percent. So we took seventeen percent, which was okay as a good faith, you know, showing that we'll do this for the game because we want the game to continue because once this, you know, once I re hi, I want the game to continue on. And then the next year we had to take ten percent because it's either signed this new contract that takes ten percent off your contract, or you won't be registered. So essentially they had a gun to our head and they were saying sign it or don't play. We've done that. Now this is how we get repaid. I just don't like it. I don't think it's fair, and I think they need to come out and answer questions of the players and also the fans, because they're only going to come to the game if they see good leadership and they want to see a plan of how the game's grown. So that's my Thursday night rant. I'm sure maybe I'm going to get it, maybe a phone call or something, but I don't think i've said anything that's out of order, and that our players' union have actually said is completely fair play in their statement that they released.
Well that's some strong thoughts none the lest. We'd love your calls eight double two three double o double Oh. We'll get your thoughts on the air if you got an opinion around this. Very shortly we'll take a quick break, we'll chat MPL and we'll chat you a way for Champions League. And I know Stefan, you're wearing your arsenal shit for a reason. They're through to the semifinals. Yes, welcome back to the world game here on five double A Stephan Mark. We love to go through as much local Adelaide soccer as we possibly can, and tonight we have a very very interesting guest.
Yeah, we do, and we have a milestone of is as here in South Australia. He's an adopt South Australian. He's breaking the record tomorrow if he does play any minutes for Adelaide United. And we always joke around about how he's a bit of a grandpa and how old he is and how is he still playing? And Hubby Lopez is a little bit the same. But the guest we've got in here from local league football, the Sturt Lions coach John Fusco. I believe you're forty five and you played your last game just a few months back.
Yes, thanks having a line and yes I did think about a month ago played my final game. Yes, and forty five.
So when was the decision because I guess to give a bit of context to the listeners. You're now coaching the team this season. You've been, I guess a player coach. Last season you were playing. When was the decision that you thought, you know what, I'm I'm sick of putting the boots on and running around and wasting my energy on this. I actually just want to be yelling at the players and telling them what to do so I can sit back. When when was that moment that you thought I've had enough?
Yeah, I think I think it was last season. I think it wasn't so much that I love playing, as you can probably tell what was going, but I love soccer. I love football. But yeah, I think it just got to the point where you know physically that you're doing to frustrate yourself and not putting in the performances that that you want once it could. So it was sort of last year, but we sort of were fighting to make the finals up until the last round, and I never I always thought about when I retired. I didn't want to take the focus off our last game, which was if we'd won, we'd potend to make the six. I didn't really want to take the focus away from the from the team and even myself. I always I think one things I kept on playing is because I always would put it at the back of my mind. Always would say, if you're like, you know, are you going to play next season? I would say that respect for my team and my teammates, you know, I will make that decision at the end of the season, not while I'm still playing, because I felt like it would it would affect my performances if I thought it was I was going into my last few games.
If that makes sense, No, definitely, And you've played six hundred and forty five games, I believe if the information from Football South Australia is correct, which is pretty impressive. The AFL, you know, they celebrate players, you know, playing too. Fifty three hundred, four hundred I think, what is it, four thirty four to forty maybe the most is for that you've played six hundred and forty five games. Wow, it's a lot of pre seasons, it's a lot of training sessions, it's a lot of games. So now that you're on the other side, you're a coach, how how has that kind of I guess affected the way you've seen the game? And you know, do you miss playing or are you kind of like, you know what, I'm ready for this new chapter.
Yeah, I feel like I'm ready.
I think.
Sometimes you look backwards and you think, you know, yeah, I missed a certain era or a certain period in my career. Maybe if that makes it so, I think I was ready to coach. It is a complete different. I like to think, well, I've never driven a Formula on cover. I like to think it's a bit like, you know, playing form F one on the PlayStation compared to driving a Formula one car itself and coaching it to me. So it's a bit like it's the closest I'll get, if that makes sense. Enjoyable, but maybe not as enjoyable as sitting in the F one car and actually going around at the case per hour.
Yeah.
No, it's I think one thing that kind of comes to my mind a bit around you know, because what we've got to talk about now is you've started this season six matches, played, six wins, which is very, very impressive, and what I would say is a pretty tough State League one this season with the teams that are still in there and all fighting for probably promotion. So you guys are undefeated. But what I'm trying to get at here, is that you've now played under I'm sure a number of different coaches, So you've had a lot of time. Because all players do it, we always pick apart the things that we like about a coach, things that we don't like about a coach. You've actually had a lot of experience at kind of understanding what's worked, what hasn't worked, what you've loved, and probably been able to mold your coaching aspect from you know, twenty coaches plus potentially. So do you think that's actually helped you now to really step in your first season and kind of hit the ground running.
Yeah, I think so. I think also I was captain at Spirt for a number of years, and I guess why I'm not the coach. Sort of once you step into that kind of role, it starts making me think a little bit a little bit differently, more about the group and less about about yourself. But yeah, look, I think this is what you said because I think that you know, picking a part coaches. I think every single coach I've had has assisted now. Sometimes unfortunately with every coach there's parts of I guess every person you work with, your work life, or your or you're spoiling off. I think that you take the good parts and also the bad parts. So sometimes you say, I never want to do that. I never want to be like that. I never want to want to do it like that. So I've always sort of yeah, I've always sort of enjoyed working with different coaches, and I said sometimes I'm fortunately not in offensive waiting, but some of them I learned a lot of it, not what I would do, if that makes sense.
Yeah, no, no, I completely agree. I think I've I'm with you on that, I've learned more about the poor coaches that I've had because I know exactly how I don't want to be if I ever become a coach. I don't know if I want to go down that path. I need to get to forty five first, still playing before I can probably step into the role after hearing this, So yeah, we'll let you go, but good luck for the rest of the season, I guess. Lastly, do you have any I don't want to put pressure on you, but do you have any expectations as a group, as a club this season? Have you set out to get promoter or it's something you're kind of taking you know each each game as it comes, and you know, obviously you've got the Australia Cup as well. Have you set any expectations for the group?
Look, I think, you know, being a new coach and taking that the team did start last year quite poorly, so I didn't want to put any pressure on the team. But obviously after six wins, Refodly sat down this week and did a bit of a planning session and I think we've said that our first goal now is to get thirty six points as soon as possible, which is which should be enough as three points more than last year to get into the top six. That's our first goal. We want to do that, you know, as soon as possible, you know, not getting ahead of ourselves. So if we can do that, you know around thirteen fourteen fifty that as soon as possible, then we'll step on to the next goal, which is the obviously next goal. Once you know you've made the top six, then you can put that pressure off a little bit and you can start aiming to you know, aim go higher up and even first past the post. I think, you know, I think these things, it's football. Were six games and they're still sixteen to go. Get ahead of ourselves too much. We have started really really well. But I think, yeah, you know, obviously finals now is something that I think we need to achieve and should achieve. But see how quickly we can do that, and if we do that quick enough, we might be in a position where we can start aiming at a little bit higher even.
Yeah, and I can speak firsthand on that. Just because you start the season world doesn't mean that it's going to keep going well.
Go true, it's.
Happened to us at the Red So good luck for your game this weekend against Fulham United in the Cup and then the following week you play Cumberland who are equal second, so that's a massive game. If you can get the three points there, obviously you know you create a bigger gap with them. So good luck John. Thanks for jumping on the show and we'll have to get you on later on in the season to see how you're going.
Yeah, thank thanks you interesting the club. I appreciate it.
Thank you John fus go there joining us from the stirt lines and a great story. Indeed have a great servant to South Australian football. Now quickly, before we move on from the NPL, we have some games this weekend. What are we looking.
At well, the games that have just gone by. I think the biggest result of the weekend was Croydon King's beating Campbelltown and Campbelltown. Our boy Daniel Mullen, who we had on as the coach, you know, his debut years, had a few tough results. We kind of thought we was turning it around and five to three winner an absolute thriller. Head over to YouTube to watch all games live, but if not, I'm sure the highlights are on there. And there was an absolute cracker of a goal from Luca Tromboli as well, so get over there. Metro Stars beat Bacallor which was a big one. Mod Bridget's two nil against Raiders, Adelaide City three nil against Comets, Pari Hills and Adelaide. You know, the youth team drew two all and Playford City beat White City, so some interesting results. You've got the Australia Cup this weekend, so you know it's a great competition. And a bit of news on the side is Dakota Oshenham, who is an next teammate of mine, been playing in the local league, has just signed with Melbourne City on an injury replacement contract. So done gets his foot back in the door. So let's see how he goes, and yeah, excited to see. It's great. You know they play in the NPO to obviously hopefully get back to the A League. So he's obviously worked hard. And I'm sure with a link with maybe Paul Pezos, who's working with Melbourne City, has put the word out saying he's a good keeper fingers cross. He does really well.
All right, this is what you really want to talk about. That can't catch him, Marchinelli. They deserve it. Can't be on martinelli insance that Arsenal will when not only the fans lag of the quarter final but the second leg two round the Jid one Arsenal two on the night. Can you believe they've done it twice? Another end of the semis Well, it was.
At my words, it was well deserved, wasn't it. While the commentator or pumped.
I saw your Instagram story this morning you were up and about.
You know what.
The worst part about it is my son's sleeping in the other room. So I'm not even allowed. I'm screaming. We've known nothing coming out of my mouth, but it's yeah, it was incredible. I think we thoroughly deserved that. Winning three nil at home allowed us to go there and sit back and defend and soak up the pressure. And I don't think we've conceded three goals in a game for about six or seven hundred days something ridiculous, almost two years, right, So I knew it was going to be very hard for them to score past us because we're defensively so well organized. We missed a penalty early on which I thought was going to come back to haunt us because Osaka made a bit of a meal of it, but then you know, we scored Becai Osaka ended up scoring. They scored straight afterwards. It was the first mistake we made in the game. Saliba kind of turned into a bit of trouble, but we still had the composure and the maturity to actually be like, you know what, relax, don't let the crowd get on you. And then we scored the winner in what was at the eighty ninth minute something like that. Martinelli a well deserved golf for how hard he it works. So I'm just buzzing for the next round. I think this is something that you know, the club has needed because We're not going to win the Premier League. I'll give that a conced to Liverpool. But if we can win the Champions League, or even if we can get to a final, I know you don't want to come second. But PSG now a massive game, and then the other one Inter held on to beat buying on aggregate. So you have Arsenal v PSG, Barcelona v Inter and I need to somehow get tickets to the final. When we need to seek, we can fly over there and call it for five double A.
I'm keen for that. I'm there.
Await who do we speak to?
It's someone above us, way above us. They will have the out sports and aston Villa fans gdfel short out. I've got the win today against PSG, but just not enough because your one goal short and aggregate. But you feel for those guys so close. But so far we have come to the end of tonight's program. But thank you so much for everyone tuning in and being a part of Of course, it's all thanks to Southern Cherry more Val for just twenty three nine ninety drive away. You can cherry pick your own Tigo four Pro, which I know Stephan Eutist is one of the greatest cars going around. Stephan, great work, good luck tomorrow night, good Friday football. Thank you.
We need to win, we need you there and I'll make sure it happens.
Excellent work. We'll see you next Thursday night. Back here on five touble A
