Aussie coach’s heart-breaking post from Israel; ‘Devastated’ Socceroo out to prove Arnie wrong
From the Israeli Premier League, Scottish Premiership, and 2.Bundesliga to the Dutch Eredivisie and EFL Championship, there is something for everyone. KEEPUP has you covered for all Australian news outside of the A-League.
Valkanis’ heartfelt post comes amid horrible circumstances in Israel.
There are more important things in life than football, as Australian manager Michael Valkanis’ terrifying social media message this weekend demonstrated.
Valkanis’ Hapoel Tel Aviv team was scheduled to play Hapoel Haifa in the Israeli Premier League on Sunday AM (AEDT).
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Instead, the Australian head coach was awakened by sirens, and the match was postponed due to an attack on Israel.
There have been heartbreaking sights in the Middle East, where conflict has erupted between Israel and Palestine, while the rest of the world stands by in terror.
An Hapoel youth coach was assassinated in Egypt, and former player Lior Assoulin was among those killed at an Israeli rave festival.
“There are some moments in life that we cannot control,” former Melbourne City coach Valkanis wrote on LinkedIn.
“Today we were supposed to play a game at home after a great away result against Beitar and we expected to play in front of our passionate supporters.
“What should have been a celebration was instead an early morning wake up call to the sirens of the attack that Israel received.
“Sending all my love to Israel. Strength to those who have lost their loved ones. My thoughts are with the people and their families that I have met so far and who embraced me from the first moment. In particular my Hapoel Tel Aviv FC family.
“It is sad that in 2023 we are still witnessing loss of human lives from wars and horrific terrorist attacks.
“I hope that this crisis will stop soon and that people will continue their daily lives. We will all be together again very 
soon.”
HISTORY IN ISRAEL: Valkanis’ vision for one of Israel’s biggest clubs
Ex-Adelaide United captain Valkanis became the first Australian ever to coach in Israel’s top flight following his appointment at the start of the season.
He has been tasked with awakening a sleeping giant. Hapoel, which translates to ‘The Worker’, is a club steeped in history.
Only arch-rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv (23) and Maccabi Haifa (15) have won more Israeli Premier League titles than the 13 of Hapoel. The Tel Aviv-based side have also competed in the UEFA Champions League and celebrated European wins over Chelsea, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Celtic.
However, they have not won the league in 13 years and last season resulted in a 10th-placed finish in the 14-team competition. Hapoel were even relegated to the second division in 2016-17 for just the second time in their history, though they bounced straight back up.
Hapoel are sixth in the Israeli Premier League after five matches, five points behind arch-rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv.
‘Devastated’ Aussie out to prove Socceroos boss ‘wrong’
The Socceroos are preparing to face England and New Zealand in a pair of international friendlies in the United Kingdom, but Cameron Devlin won’t be involved.
Devlin was overlooked by Graham Arnold, having been called up to the previous squad against Mexico in September and the Hearts star was understandably disappointed when discussing the news following a 2-2 draw against Hibernian in the Edinburgh Derby.
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The two-time Australia international, who recently signed a new contract with Hearts, told reporters: “(I’m) devastated.
“But what can you do? As a player you can only control what you can control. I feel I’ve been playing well and consistently well. The Australia coach has picked his team. But, yeah, I’m disappointed.
“He just said he wants to have a look at others – there’s three midfielders from the last camp that aren’t there and he’s called up some ones that he maybe hasn’t looked at or spent time with to know them as a player or person.
“He said he’s been watching me and that I’ve been doing well. But that makes it all the more gutting that I’m not there.
“You have to be resilient as a player. Football is so up and down. At 2-0 today I felt so good and happy then two minutes (Hibs forward Elie Youan levelled the match with a quickfire second half double) have made me feel so sad.
“That’s how it is and it’s how you bounce back as a player.”
Devlin is tied down to Hearts until 2025 after the Edinburgh outfit took up the option in the Australia international’s contract following his arrival in 2021-22. They are also reportedly keen to negotiate a deal beyond that.
The former A-Leagues midfielder has scored two goals in 12 matches across all competitions.
Hearts are fourth in the standings, 11 points behind leaders and defending champions Celtic after surrendering a two-goal lead in a match that pitted Devlin, Calem Nieuwenhof and Kye Rowles against former Central Coast Mariners boss Nick Montgomery, Lewis Miller, Jimmy Jeggo and Martin Boyle.
Devlin added: “You have to prove him wrong. If you feel sorry for yourself then it will only burden you. You know the type of person I am.
“It’s about performing for Hearts, keep playing regularly and keep the form up. I have so many areas I can still improve on. It’s about performing and making it impossible for him not to pick me.
“The games against Celtic and Rangers are the games you want to play in. They are big games. You don’t want to be someone that hides in big games. I love the occasion, love when there’s a big crowd. I felt all the boys thrived off it on Saturday.
“They are massive games for us. It would have been lovely to go into the break with three points that would have put us third. But it’s important for me personally to have a break that I didn’t want but to have a few days to rest. Hopefully the international boys will do well and do their nations proud.”
Another Aussie played a significant role in Scotland, where St Mirren lost 3-0 to manager-less Rangers.
Ryan Strain was sent off in the defeat at home to Rangers, who are reportedly considering A-Leagues legend Kevin Muscat as their next coach.
Strain was shown a red card for a handball in the 28th minute and Rangers went on to convert the resulting penalty.
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson, however, had no complains about the Australian’s dismissal.
“The sending-off changes the game. It’s the right decision, I’ve seen it back. It’s a blatant handball, he told Sky Sports.
“If you go 1-0 down with 11 men we’re still very much in the game but 1-0 down with 10 men, we said stay in it until 65 minutes and then we’ll try and go for a little bit.
“But the second goal kills us. We know collectively, defensively, it was poor.
“The third goal is a fantastic finish, there’s not a lot you can say about that.
“Overall I’m disappointed. It’s a hard game with 11 but 10 makes it a very much uphill task.”
Robinson added: “We deservedly got beat. We’ll regroup, the boys have been fantastic for me.
“We’ve made honest mistakes today and the referee got the decision right, I can’t really complain about that but ultimately it changes the game.
“I actually thought from the sideline that it was a Rangers handball but it obviously wasn’t! We’re a long way away from it.
“People make split second decisions, they make mistakes. Ryan’s made a mistake, there’s nothing else we can say about it.
“We’ll forgive him for that and we’ll regroup.”
Mabil’s big day out
Grasshoppers have struggled this season but Awer Mabil helped kickstart their campaign with a starring performance in the 3-0 win at Yverdon Sport.
The Swiss Super League’s most successful club with 27 titles, Grasshoppers entered the weekend with just one win from nine games.
However, Socceroos winger Mabil scored twice and set up another in a man-of-the-match display on the road while fellow Australian Josh Laws also played.
“It’s going really well at the moment,” Irvine said via St Pauli’s official website. “I’m so proud of this team and every individual, especially Niko, who gave the ball away in the first half.
“We believe in what we’re doing and know we have the quality to play that way and we trust one another. I gave the ball away last week, but we support each other when mistakes are made.
“There are lots of reasons why it’s going so well. We prepare very hard during the week and obviously have confidence, but we’ve worked hard for that. Everyone’s giving their all.”
In Belgium, Socceroos fullback Jordy Bos was a 79th-minute substitute as Westerlo snapped their nine-match winless run with a 1-0 win over Kortrijk in the first division.
Jason Davidson’s played an entire game but KAS Eupen were beaten 4-1 by Royal Antwerp as Socceroos midfielder Aiden O’Neill came off the bench for Standard Liege in their 2-1 upset of Club Brugge.
In France, Denis Genreau completed a full 90 minutes for Ligue 1 outfit Toulouse, who drew 1-1 at Brest.
Patrick Kisnorbo’s Troyes, meanwhile, conceded a 92nd-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Valenciennes.
It extended the club’s winless run to eight matches in Ligue 2, with the former Melbourne City boss managing to win just two of his 34 games in charge amid ongoing speculation.
Socceroos star’s Boro absence explained
Riley McGree missed Middlesbrough’s 4-0 rout of rivals Sunderland and his head coach explained why he did not play over the weekend.
McGree has been integral to Boro’s EFL Championship resurgence, with the club winning four consecutive games and five across all competitions following Saturday’s demolition of Sunderland.
The Socceroos star was absent for the trip to the Stadium of Light and Boro boss Michael Carrick explained why ahead of Saturday morning’s showdown against England at Wembley.
“Riley felt his foot literally 30 seconds before we were going to bring him off anyway,” Carrick said, with fellow Australian star Sammy Silvera a second-half substitute.
“It’s really bad luck. He felt a pain in the bottom of his foot, plantar fascia-type which is an issue that’s not easy to get on top of.
“We’ll have to see how he is over the next few days.”
Middlesbrough are 16th in the standings, 16 points behind high-flying leaders Leicester City.
Socceroos teammate Harry Souttar made his first league start of the season as Leicester took down his former club Stoke City 2-0.
Souttar has been frozen out at Leicester in 2023-24, and he was close to leaving the Foxes during the previous transfer window but the Australia international defender was in the line-up for the club in the league game for the first time since May.
Massimo Luongo and Cameron Burgess – both in the Socceroos squad – were again in the thick of the action as Ipswich Town proved too good for Preston North End 4-2.
In League One, Kusini Yengi returned from an eight-week injury absence as a late substitute in Portsmouth’s 2-0 win over Port Vale. Alex Robertson was suspended for the match.
Nicholas Bilokapic kept a clean sheet for Peterborough United in their 2-0 victory at home to Lincoln City.
Over in the Indian Super League, Dimitri Petratos and Jason Cummings both scored for Mohun Bagan in a 3-1 win at Chennaiyin. Brandon Hamill also played.
Arthur Papas’ Buriram United, meanwhile, were held to a 2-2 draw by Chonburi in Thai Premier League.
The defending champions are two points off the pace in third spot.
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