World Cup Zombies

I hope everyone is enjoying the World Cup as much as us here in Sydney?

For those people annoyed that some games are on during the working day, spare a thought for us here on the East Coast of Australia where games have been played at 9.30pm, Midnight and 4.30am (!!).

There has been a surprising amount of buzz around the cup, somewhat dampened by Australia's lacklustre performance against Germany, accompanied by their two most recognisable players (Jesus aside) getting sent off by pretty dubious decisions. A theme of this World Cup I think?

The men in the offices of Sydney seem to be like walking Zombies many nights - staying up to watch their favourite teams. There are many ethnic groups in Sydney too supporting their various teams such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Korea, Brazil, Argentina, USA, Serbia and New Zealand in particular, so it's not just the Australian games being watched. Everyone seems to keep a keen eye on England too, and whilst most won't admit it, I think they are most people's second team to watch (if not support). There's been a bit of cheer from across the Tasman Sea, with The All Whites performing much better than anyone could've expected. Indeed the Sydney Morning Herald hailed their first game as Australasia 1 - Slovakia 1! Don't expect the Kiwi's to put down the oval ball just yet though.

Anyone within earshot in the last few weeks (essentially in the Greater Sydney area) will have heard me espousing my views on England's tactics, and what is going wrong.

In the event that Fabio Capello (Managerial career highlights include 5 Serie A titles, 2 La Liga, Champions League etc etc) wants to listen to me (Managerial career highlights Owens Park Mixed football title 1999-2000 with Tree Court C) then here's what I'd tell him ahead of tomorrow morning's game (OK - evening if you're in the UK) against Slovenia.

1. Rooney has to play as a solo striker. It means he stays forward, where he is dangerous. Yes he will have to put some effort in and get knocked around, but he won't be dropping back into the 'hole' in search of the ball. This is good because...
2. Steven Gerrard must be pushed forward to play behind Rooney. He has the vision and the passing ability to free Rooney, and whoever else is playing down the flanks. I suspect he'll once again have to play on the left, which is a shame as in central midfield he's one of the best in the world, but on the left wing he's probably not even one of the best in England. If he does play on the left, he has to stop coming inside so much, so that he can free up Ca$hley Cole (one of the better England players thus far) to make his runs down the flanks without having defenders double up on him. Gerrard can drop back occasionally, and let Frank Lampard do what he does for Chelsea and...
3. Shoot! Several times (and not just Emile Heskey) we failed to take shots when presented with the opportunity. I think it's a lack of confidence with the ball. It's very hard to be positive, and to play long passes when the ball is likely to fly off with the merest touch - but they need to at least try. Teams at this level are not going to let you pass it into the net.
4. Joe Cole. I hate to admit it - but Terry is right. Personally I think Manchester City's own Adam Johnson would've been a great choice for a spot on the wing in a game like this, but we have to go with what we've got.
5. Don't play Emile Heskey. Really. Don't. He might make chances, but he's got the finishing capacity of "Nasty" Nigel De Jong. I know he's not there to score, but if your one decent chance in a game falls to him, then you're jiggered. Even if this means playing Peter Crouch. (Worth a click, that one!) I think it's more likely that Defoe will start, with Rooney again dropping off, but there we go.
6. Gareth Barry just needs to take Robert Koren out of the game. He's Slovenia's lifeline, stifle him, you stifle the team and let England play.

Anyway, here's hoping that we get through! I'm also supporting Australia (who have a tiny chance of progressing) and play at 4.30am tomorrow morning. If England don't, work will be unbearable - and I'm not just talking about the sleep deprivation!

Lesson In Pride Turns One!

You may have noticed a few cosmetic changes to the site, and we will be doing some more over the next few days. This is in celebration of the first anniversary of the blog. I certainly didn't think I could be bothered to keep it going for that long!

The site was originally named "Sydney Blues", and was to be a way for City fans from right around the country to keep up with the news locally. However, as we discovered more and more of our readership was from the United Kingdom, we took on the name "Lesson In Pride" and became a more general City blog, whilst trying to retain that local flavour.

Not only has it been a successful year for Manchester City, it's been a great one for us off the pitch too. We've had mentions on the club site, we've been involved in a couple of successful tournaments, and of course it was a great honour to be presented with the "Heart of the City" award by the club. But probably the highlight has been meeting so many new City fans from home and abroad, some of who has become good mates outside of organised meet-ups.

Hopefully we can continue to grow on the back of the Blues' most successful season in the Premier League — and with the Ashes coming to Sydney in the new year we can probably expect a new wave of ex-pat Mancs as well.

A massive thanks to all of those who read and contribute regularly.

Sydney Blues WC2010 Schedule and Screenings

Unfortunately, the World Cup is a little bit more difficult to co-ordinate, for a couple of reasons. The time of the matches makes it difficult; the fact that there will be thousands of people in the CBD doesn't help; and of course, half of us go for England and the other half go for Australia!

So here are the tentative plans for meet-ups in Sydney:

The N-F-I
Match 1: Australia v Germany
Time: Monday 14 June, 4:30am
Venue: Moorebank Hotel/Royal Exhibition Hotel/Lowenbrau/Your bedroom

I've drawn the short-straw and will be stuck at work at the Moorebank Hotel in Sydney's west during the first match (at least I'll be getting paid to watch football I suppose), so you're more than welcome to join me there for beers on the house.

If not, the Royal Exhibition hotel near Central is a good bet, if you want to be filmed by a Channel 10 news crew as you stumble out into the chilly winter air. Or, the Lowenbrau near Circular Quay might be good to wind-up the opposition. It's up to you.

The Live Screening
Match 2: Australia v Ghana
Time: Saturday night 19 June, Midnight
Venue: Sweeney's Hotel, then to Darling Harbour

This is the most viewer-friendly match of the lot, and a must win for the Sheilaroos, so we're going to go where the atmosphere is. Sweeney's is located about a two-minute stroll from Town Hall station and a good opportunity to sink some pre-match schooners before heading down to the Live Site at Darling Harbour.

I'm not sold on the Live Site though — it will no doubt be heavily policed and they'll probably be complete tools about it. So the other option is we can stay in the pub and take advantage of full-strength beer.

The Double Header
Match 3: England v Slovenia, followed by Australia v Serbia
Time: Thursday 24 June. England game at 12am, followed by Australia at 4:30am.
Venue: Cheers Bar

We're going to return to our spiritual home of Cheers for this clash, considering that both nations will be playing on the same night. Both of these matches will be incredibly important in determining just who makes it through to the round of 16, and whether in fact Australia and England will meet in the next round. And besides, it will be a long, long night, and there's less chance of us getting kicked out of Cheers than most other places!

If you have any questions, or suggestions, please let us know on one of the multitude of ways you can contact us!

OFFICAL: Jerome Boateng signs.

Stolen from the Club Twitter. You can read about his signing now on the Official Site.

Welcome to the club Jerome, let's just hope you're more like Kevin-Prince than George. That's the third player in as many seasons we've pinched from our feeder club Hamburg — Vincent Kompany, Nigel De Jong, and now Boateng.

City and the World Cup

Just in case you were wondering who to support when Australia aren't playing (or after we fail to qualify for the group stages), here's a full list of players representing City, as well as their country, at South Africa. So there will be a reason to watch almost every game at the World Cup, if there was not enough to do so already!

Argentina: Carlos Tevez
Brazil: Robinho
Cote D'Ivoire: Kolo Toure
England: Gareth Barry, Joe Hart, Shaun Wright-Phillips
Holland: Nigel De Jong
Paraguay: Roque Santa Cruz
Slovakia: Vladimir Weiss

In addition, former some former City players are on show in the World Cup, such as Elano (Brazil), David James (England), Nicolas Anelka (France), Georgios Samaras (Greece), Chris Killen (New Zealand), Dickson Etuhu (Nigeria), Gelson Fernandes (Switzerland), and DaMarcus Beasley (United States).

And of course, it's interesting to compare and contrast that with the amount of players we had at the 2006 tournament...

England: David James
United States: Claudio Reyna

During the World Cup, I'll be putting up match reports for Australian games as let's face it, there has been bugger-all news from the club since the end of the season, and no signings to report as yet.

Best of luck in the World Cup to all City players, and of course, the Australian and English national teams, depending on your persuasion.