Looking for the ideal Christmas present? If you have any interest in the World Game in Australia then Roy Hay & Bill Murray, A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2014 is the best buy. With 310 pages and illustrations...
Harry Kewell: Star quality Roy Hay Harry Kewell is bringing down the curtain on a stellar career at the end of the current A-League season. It is a pity that he could not make it to what would be his third World Cup in succession, but the body which has inhibited him...
Former Ayr United player and Australian visitor retires Roy Hay Quite a surprise at the amount of media coverage of the retirement of a former Ayr United player given that he hasn’t turned out for the club since 1974. Also there has been little recognition of his...
Australia 2 Oman 2 Roy Hay Australia squeaked out of its home game against Oman with a two-all draw after going behind in the sixth minute and further behind as a result of an own goal four minutes into the second half. The fight back began quickly with a powerful...
Australia missed chance to be World Champion Roy Hay (This article was published on the Goal Weekly website on 1 January 2013. http://www.goalweekly.com.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=6715:australia-missed-chance-to-be-world-champion&Itemid=126 )...
Rangers fans in Sydney in July 2010. Photo: Roy Hay. A bad week for football might do some good? Roy Hay The game of football has taken a battering this week though it is possible that the crises which have occurred will result in improvement in future. Racial...
Another champion team from Spain. Real Madrid in 1960 and Ferenc Puskas celebrates a goal. Are Spain the greatest ever? Roy Hay It is inevitable that Spain’s scintillating demolition of Italy in the final of Euro 2012, coupled with its victories in Euro 2008 and the...
Jim Fraser, keeper and coach Roy Hay (This story appeared as a Blast from the Past column in Goal Weekly on 2 March 2012, p. 19. Click on the photographs below to enlarge them. The headline picture is of Jim Fraser (left) and Lou Kastner, two superb keepers. It is by...
Australia 4 Saudi Arabia 2 Roy Hay Australia overcame a spirited Saudi Arabia by four goals to two in the final game of the first qualifying group for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The Socceroos had to come from behind to win the game in a purple patch in the second...
Time for FFA to keep its nerve Roy Hay (This aritcle appeared on the SBS website, The World Game on 22 February 2012 and in Goal Weekly on 24 February 2012.) The eruption of the ebullient Clive Palmer, multi-millionaire natural resources baron and owner of Gold Coast...
Click on the image below to enlarge it.
Victorian members of the Young Socceroos with their medals. Left to right: Mark Silic, Robert Spasevski, Robert Stojcevski, Kevin Muscat, Kris Trajanovski, Lorenz Kindtner. Photo: Les Shorrock. Les Shorrock collection, Deakin University Library. Young Socceroos in...
Australia’s 1969 squad before the World Cup qualification matches. Back row, left to right: Les Bordacs, manager, Alan Marnoch, John Watkiss, Stan Ackerley, George Keith, Tom Patrick, official, Joe Vlasits, coach. Middle row: Dr Brian Corrigan, physician, Ron Corry,...
Click on link below for World Cup 2006 Draw and Results. WorldCupDraw2006
Getting to the World Cup was hard enough, but now Australia faces the current and five times world champion, Brazil, European powerhouse Croatia and Asian champion Japan in one of the toughest groups at Germany 2006. Yet coach Guus Hiddink and his squad will not...
Geelong Advertiser, Monday 9 October 2006, p. 37. The football World Cup is the greatest multicultural sporting extravaganza of modern times. Its only conceivable rival, the Olympic Games, is a multi-sports activity in which all member countries can take part in a...
The football World Cup, which reaches its climax in Germany this weekend, is the greatest multicultural sporting extravaganza of modern times. Its only conceivable rival, the Olympic Games, is a multi-sports activity in which all countries who are part of the Olympic...
The year 2005 was dominated by the qualification campaigns for the World Cup in Germany in June 2006 and by parts of two superb seasons of European Champions League football. The latter competition is now generally regarded as the best in the world, though Sao Paolo...