Wanderers coach Stajcic calls for unity after Sydney derby win
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FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 - Group A - Norway v Philippines - Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand - July 30, 2023 Philippines coach Alen Stajcic before the match. REUTERS/David Rowland/File Photo
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Nov 30 - Western Sydney Wanderers coach Alen Stajcic issued an impassioned plea for greater unity within Australia's fractured football community after his side won 1-0 in a pulsating derby clash with Sydney FC on Saturday.
Alou Kuol's 51st minute strike secured victory for Wanderers, with the atmosphere inside Western Sydney Stadium prompting Stajcic to question the sport's lack of positivity even on its grandest occasions.
"How good a spectacle is it?" said Stajcic, whose side won consecutive matches for the first time in the new A-League season.
"So often we've got infighting in football in Australia, we put ourselves down and we say all the things that are wrong, the criticism of our game by our own people is over the top.
"(The Sydney derby) is the best spectacle in the domestic calendar, and I truly believe it."
Stajcic contrasted the often negative mood around the A-League and the country's national teams to the positive promotion other sporting codes in Australia enjoy, both from administrators and the media.
"The (National Rugby League) people pump up their own sport all the time," said Stajcic. "We don't do any of that.
"We're infighting all the time, like two seagulls fighting over one chip. We've got nothing and we fight over it.
"We've got an amazing product here, amazing fan groups, both fan groups tonight. The Sydney FC end was full, our end was full, it's a great spectacle so I don't know why we always put ourselves down."
Stajcic is among the most respected coaches in the A-League and previously led Australia's women's team, known as the Matildas, to the quarter-finals of the 2015 World Cup.
He stressed the need to amplify the sport's positive achievements in a challenging commercial landscape dominated by rival codes.
"Of course there's things we need to critique and do better, we're always striving to do better because it's a global game," he said.
"We're not the NRL, that's just popular in two states of the whole world. We're the global game and we're competing.
"The Matildas are in the top few in the world, the Socceroos made the round of 16 (at the 2022 World Cup), 20,000 came to watch an amazing spectacle and sing their hearts out.
"We're not big enough to criticise each other. We're not the number one sport in the country, we're far from it.
"We're struggling for TV revenue, we're struggling for media space, we're struggling to get fans into the game. We keep fighting each other and I don't get it.
"We've actually got a lot to celebrate." REUTERS
