Bleiberg: We can win the A-League
MIRON Bleiberg believes he could be the first Israeli coach to win the A-League. His team, Gold Coast United, is currently sitting in fourth place on the ladder, but he said he has every confidence they'll win the competition.
GARETH NARUNSKY
MIRON Bleiberg believes he could be the first Israeli coach to win the A-League. His team, Gold Coast United, is currently sitting in fourth place on the ladder, but he said he has every confidence they’ll win the competition.
“I have to have a belief otherwise I can’t pass the belief on to my players,” Bleiberg told The AJN this week.
He explained he would never have taken the role with Gold Coast if he didn’t think they could topple the big sides in the competition.
“I’m in a stage of my life, age-wise and financially, that I can afford to choose my job, so I wouldn’t have done this job if I didn’t like it.”
His club’s biggest struggle this year has been poor attendances at games.
When Gold Coast hosted Adelaide United two weeks ago, they only attracted 2389 fans.
But he said Gold Coast owner Clive Palmer’s strategy is to be patient and wait for people to slowly but surely come to games.
“Our owner has this philosophy and we are having to obey. From the players’ point of view, I believe that obviously they’d enjoy¬† playing more in front of big crowds than small crowds, but they understand.
“And because our ground is a new ground and they built it in a way that the acoustics are very good, the 3000 make noise like 9000.”
Looking befond Gold Coast United, he believes the entire A-League, not just his club, is getting better every year.
“We are very physically strong and very fit, and you can see that a lot of players, big names that play in Europe or Brazil or whatever, they’re coming here,”‚Äàhe said.
“It takes them time to find their feet because of the pace of the game and the rhythm and the physicality. I believe in five years time when the technical aspects will improve, the A-League will be as good as most of the leagues in the world.”
And in 100 years, he thinks football could be the top sporting code in Australia.
“I believe that rugby league and rugby union will have to amalgamate because they’re eating each other alive, and Aussie rules will be some traditional game that will be shown in the history books.
“It’s the world game and as the world becomes more global, football will take over.”
The signs, he said, are in grassroots participation.
“I bet you that in the Jewish community, in Maccabi in Sydney, more kids are playing football than Aussie rules or rugby.
“And it’s the same in many other communities, and because we are also a country of immigrants — and with the influx of immigrants — the only game that they know is football.”
“Not in my lifetime and maybe not in yours, but in the end, football will be the number one sport.”
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