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Aziz Behich


Murfy1
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Davidson given the nod ahead of him.

 

And he was shit. Apart from his assist anyway. Too scared to play anything forward. The NT version of Hoff.

 

Seems to me Ange didn't have a number 1 going into the tournament and so he has been rotating them one game each. I think at this stage it's clear Aziz is better so he should start the semi and the final if we make it.

 

Not sure if that's Anges thinking. Hope so, but it's hard to change a winning team for a semi unless injury or suspension forces a move. Davidson was serviceable but not outstanding. Really don't know which way he'll go? if I was to pick, I go with Ange picking Davidson only because he didn't fuck up badly.

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Davidson given the nod ahead of him.

 

And he was shit. Apart from his assist anyway. Too scared to play anything forward. The NT version of Hoff.

 

Seems to me Ange didn't have a number 1 going into the tournament and so he has been rotating them one game each. I think at this stage it's clear Aziz is better so he should start the semi and the final if we make it.

 

In group games, rotation seems a sensible option.  In a quarter final, surely not.

 

My interpretation is that Aziz was dropped for that game.  Can he get the shirt back?  We'll have to wait and see i guess.

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Davidson given the nod ahead of him.

 

And he was shit. Apart from his assist anyway. Too scared to play anything forward. The NT version of Hoff.

Seems to me Ange didn't have a number 1 going into the tournament and so he has been rotating them one game each. I think at this stage it's clear Aziz is better so he should start the semi and the final if we make it.

In group games, rotation seems a sensible option.  In a quarter final, surely not.

 

My interpretation is that Aziz was dropped for that game.  Can he get the shirt back?  We'll have to wait and see i guess.

It only makes sense if there's very little between them.

On the other hand, even though Davidson hasn't really showed a lot, I can see him being preferred to Behich at this stage as he has more experience playing against better opposition. If that's the case then it's a fair call TBH.

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I don't think there's much difference between Behich and Davidson to be honest. Both are average defensively and support their wingers to a decent standard. davidson's largely better crossing ability seems to be the main difference. Which when you consider Cahill is the one on the end of it then it's probably a correct call to go with Davidson.

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I don't think there's much difference between Behich and Davidson to be honest. Both are average defensively and support their wingers to a decent standard. davidson's largely better crossing ability seems to be the main difference. Which when you consider Cahill is the one on the end of it then it's probably a correct call to go with Davidson.

Against someone like Japan, I'd definitely prefer Davidson. Against someone like Iran, I'm not so sure.

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Depends, Behich is way more likely to bomb on past his winger which while more likely to help break down a defensive unit it leaves more spaces exposed on the counter for teams like Iran to exploit. But as I said i doubt one over the other would make that much difference to the team.

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Congratulations to our boy Aziz Behich on being an Asian Champion.

Pretty good achievement for a guy who was apparently never going to play international football :up:

Lol. Nowhere near the squad tonight for a good reason. Well done mate

The competition from Aziz made Davidson better. He was pretty average at the start of the tournament but got better game by game with Aziz pushing him for his spot :up:

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Congratulations to our boy Aziz Behich on being an Asian Champion.

Pretty good achievement for a guy who was apparently never going to play international football :up:

Lol. Nowhere near the squad tonight for a good reason. Well done mate The competition from Aziz made Davidson better. He was pretty average at the start of the tournament but got better game by game with Aziz pushing him for his spot :up: No Aziz= No Asian Cup
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  • 3 years later...

Excellent reading from John Didulica on Behich's humble beginnings to his impressive success  (which as the PFA president, he ties together with the story of youth opportunities in the A-League and Australia):

 

From the Chief Executive: Aziz Behich’s rise

 

September 3, 2018

By John Didulica, Chief Executive, Professional Footballers Australia

 

The young player sat uncomfortably in a plastic seat in a damp cafe, looking downward.

As recently appointed Director of Football at Melbourne Heart, I had lived many of these meetings. Agents, friends of friends, well-meaning uncles; all hoping to leverage a relationship to give a shot at a contract to a young player they believed in, within an incredibly fragmented and disjointed system.

The meeting was unremarkable other than the despondency I sensed in the player. He was clearly anxious or nervous or sensed the slipping dream of becoming a professional. As if this was yet another audition for the dream role on Broadway that would end in rejection.

Later that day I met with our coaches, John van’t Schip and Ante Milicic, to plan for our first regional camp as Melbourne Heart.

Whilst there was an adventure to be had to sign our top end talent, there was the more immediate task of finding players for the very short term – like this weekend – purely to make up the numbers.

We scratched through our spreadsheets. Our scraps of papers and weathered note-pads. We needed bodies to build a training squad for our first pre-season match as Melbourne Heart – a week long community camp in Geelong.

As we struggled to find the numbers we needed, I thought back to the meeting I’d had earlier that morning.

“What about Aziz Behich?” I said, half as a reflex to the meeting I’d had but half thinking it actually wasn’t a bad idea.

My instincts were confirmed instantly – with JvS and Ante immediately lifting their heads up from their notepads to look up at me with smiles, as if a light-bulb had gone up in their collective minds.

We had tracked the Melbourne Victory National Youth League team closely that season. We would head out to the bleachers at the Veneto Club and watch the young players melt in the searing midday sun on the synthetic pitch.

We were devastated that Mitch Langerak was contracted but another player who we’d often comment on was Aziz, a raw, aggressive and competitive left winger. He would make less and less appearances for the NYL team as he started playing more of a role within the A-League team, so through reverse osmosis he’d almost vanished from our thinking.

The quiet resignation I’d sensed within Aziz at our meeting was now becoming more obvious. He was now back playing in the state league. In his mind, he had missed his chance when he missed that chance. A far post cross to win the A-League Grand Final in front of 50,000 people that he didn’t know whether to tap home or head home. So, he chested it.

No goal. No title for Victory. No contract. No hope.

Aziz would join us on the camp in Geelong. Every day, he would drive from Meadow Heights in the multicultural heart of Melbourne’s outer suburbs to Geelong – about a three-hour round trip. He would go on camp after camp without the promise of a contract. Not once did he take a backward step. Not once did he ever find an excuse. Not once did we ever doubt that he would become a footballer.

Every session he would remind the coaches of the tenacity, hunger, humility, resilience and talent he had as a footballer. He was a player who could be trusted.

Qualities that would ultimately hold him in good stead to make his starting debut as a left-back against Melbourne Victory in the first ever Melbourne Derby, conquer Turkey, play at a World Cup and earn a move to PSV – one of the world’s most famous football institutions.

I often think of Aziz when we discuss the bottle-neck facing young players.

Its undeniable that Aziz would most likely never have become a professional player without the expansion of the A-League and the birth of Melbourne Heart. Not because he didn’t have the qualities. But because it is almost inconceivable that a non-Victorian team would have taken a punt on an NYL reject when they had an over-supply of fish swimming in their own pond.

It is impossible to know how many careers have been lost or how weakened our national teams may be because we haven’t been able the build the platform we need to service our thousands and thousands of talented young players.

Should expansion – or the development of a second division – be hijacked or compromised by politicking it would be a betrayal. It would be a betrayal of not only a generation of footballers who place their trust in our many footballing institutions, but a betrayal of the mums, dads and volunteers across the country who ask Australia’s children to dream about what might be when they strap on their boots for the first time.

 

http://pfa.net.au/from-the-chief-executive/from-the-chief-executive-aziz-behichs-rise/

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1 hour ago, Murfy1 said:

Excellent reading from John Didulica on Behich's humble beginnings to his impressive success  (which as the PFA president, he ties together with the story of youth opportunities in the A-League and Australia):

 

From the Chief Executive: Aziz Behich’s rise

 

September 3, 2018

By John Didulica, Chief Executive, Professional Footballers Australia

 

The young player sat uncomfortably in a plastic seat in a damp cafe, looking downward.

As recently appointed Director of Football at Melbourne Heart, I had lived many of these meetings. Agents, friends of friends, well-meaning uncles; all hoping to leverage a relationship to give a shot at a contract to a young player they believed in, within an incredibly fragmented and disjointed system.

The meeting was unremarkable other than the despondency I sensed in the player. He was clearly anxious or nervous or sensed the slipping dream of becoming a professional. As if this was yet another audition for the dream role on Broadway that would end in rejection.

Later that day I met with our coaches, John van’t Schip and Ante Milicic, to plan for our first regional camp as Melbourne Heart.

Whilst there was an adventure to be had to sign our top end talent, there was the more immediate task of finding players for the very short term – like this weekend – purely to make up the numbers.

We scratched through our spreadsheets. Our scraps of papers and weathered note-pads. We needed bodies to build a training squad for our first pre-season match as Melbourne Heart – a week long community camp in Geelong.

As we struggled to find the numbers we needed, I thought back to the meeting I’d had earlier that morning.

“What about Aziz Behich?” I said, half as a reflex to the meeting I’d had but half thinking it actually wasn’t a bad idea.

My instincts were confirmed instantly – with JvS and Ante immediately lifting their heads up from their notepads to look up at me with smiles, as if a light-bulb had gone up in their collective minds.

We had tracked the Melbourne Victory National Youth League team closely that season. We would head out to the bleachers at the Veneto Club and watch the young players melt in the searing midday sun on the synthetic pitch.

We were devastated that Mitch Langerak was contracted but another player who we’d often comment on was Aziz, a raw, aggressive and competitive left winger. He would make less and less appearances for the NYL team as he started playing more of a role within the A-League team, so through reverse osmosis he’d almost vanished from our thinking.

The quiet resignation I’d sensed within Aziz at our meeting was now becoming more obvious. He was now back playing in the state league. In his mind, he had missed his chance when he missed that chance. A far post cross to win the A-League Grand Final in front of 50,000 people that he didn’t know whether to tap home or head home. So, he chested it.

No goal. No title for Victory. No contract. No hope.

Aziz would join us on the camp in Geelong. Every day, he would drive from Meadow Heights in the multicultural heart of Melbourne’s outer suburbs to Geelong – about a three-hour round trip. He would go on camp after camp without the promise of a contract. Not once did he take a backward step. Not once did he ever find an excuse. Not once did we ever doubt that he would become a footballer.

Every session he would remind the coaches of the tenacity, hunger, humility, resilience and talent he had as a footballer. He was a player who could be trusted.

Qualities that would ultimately hold him in good stead to make his starting debut as a left-back against Melbourne Victory in the first ever Melbourne Derby, conquer Turkey, play at a World Cup and earn a move to PSV – one of the world’s most famous football institutions.

I often think of Aziz when we discuss the bottle-neck facing young players.

Its undeniable that Aziz would most likely never have become a professional player without the expansion of the A-League and the birth of Melbourne Heart. Not because he didn’t have the qualities. But because it is almost inconceivable that a non-Victorian team would have taken a punt on an NYL reject when they had an over-supply of fish swimming in their own pond.

It is impossible to know how many careers have been lost or how weakened our national teams may be because we haven’t been able the build the platform we need to service our thousands and thousands of talented young players.

Should expansion – or the development of a second division – be hijacked or compromised by politicking it would be a betrayal. It would be a betrayal of not only a generation of footballers who place their trust in our many footballing institutions, but a betrayal of the mums, dads and volunteers across the country who ask Australia’s children to dream about what might be when they strap on their boots for the first time.

 

http://pfa.net.au/from-the-chief-executive/from-the-chief-executive-aziz-behichs-rise/

Fabulous article, and a counter argument to those who reckon there isn't enough talent to support expansion. 

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  • 4 years later...

On the verge of his second World Cup, Socceroos veteran Aziz Behich is just trying to take it all in

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-06/aziz-behich-is-grateful-for-it-all/101478734?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

 

Absolute champion ...  loved watching him play for us back in the day.  He was a warrior on the pitch and always gave 100%.  Hope he has a great World Cup

Edited by Torn Asunder
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I'm tearing up a bit to recall those fantastic days we had in the early seasons with Yarraside in full voice, Santa and Mario hats in red and white for the Christmas Derby, the flags and banners and the raw emotion of it all. We belonged to something then. In the words of J.B. Priestley: "It wor grand!"

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  • 9 months later...
1 hour ago, NuggetsMcGreggor said:

https://keepup.com.au/news/football-news-scotland-australia-socceroos-celtic-tilio-nieuwenhof-hearts-preview/

“ Behich did not feature in any of the League Cup group matches during July and was given permission to remain at home in Australia due to family reasons.”

So Behich is in Melbourne eh?…

It would be fitting for him to finish his career where it started! 

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1 hour ago, MHFC-FAN said:

This is great! Has a good feel having one of our own return after propelling his career with us from the Heart days. Now he is the returning son finishing up his career where it started! 

Psyched!

He could play for us I reckon for 4-5 years perhaps, and then stay on in a coaching/mentoring role? Must say that for me it helps build faith in the club.

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13 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

He could play for us I reckon for 4-5 years perhaps, and then stay on in a coaching/mentoring role? Must say that for me it helps build faith in the club.

Absolutely. Not sure about 4-5 years but definitely coaching/mentoring role if he is amenable to the suggestion.

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20 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

He could play for us I reckon for 4-5 years perhaps, and then stay on in a coaching/mentoring role? Must say that for me it helps build faith in the club.

He's already 32, really can't imagine him still playing at 36-37. I would anticipate 2 or 3 seasons max. Then he may consider some form of coaching if he's interested...

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