Aussie coach’s heart-breaking post from Israel; ‘Devastated’ Socceroo out to prove Arnie wrong

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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).

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.

FULL SQUAD: Luongo returns to Socceroos after almost 5 YEARS for clashes against England & NZ

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.