From bespoke coffee to manicured pitches, the details matter at Doha’s Aspire Academy where – thanks to Tim Cahill – the Socceroos are based. Tom Smithies reports.
The instructions are detailed, and their execution is getting better by the day. The demands are obviously different for each player, and the penalties should anyone deviate from the script will be severe.
This particular blueprint is all part of the Socceroos’ masterplan to shock France, but it won’t figure on any tactics boards – not unless the team’s own barista is suddenly taking the training sessions.
Among the dozens of details designed to make the Socceroos base camp in Doha a springboard for success – sited at the facility-dense Aspire Academy, literally an oasis of football pitches and medical science – the importation of a dedicated barista and her necessary equipment is naturally among the most popular.
Alexia Ralevski reckons she’s getting through 70 or so coffees a day, from the popular pre-training espressos to the “magic” favoured by Jamie Maclaren (apparently a double ristretto three-quarter latte). Mitch Duke returns for five or six oat lattes a day which may explain the intensity of his pressing on the pitch; Mat Ryan, fastidious consumer to a fault, doesn’t drink coffee but has been known to dally with a matcha latte.
Alexia’s deployment was the brainchild of Vini Capovilla, Socceroos head chef now working on his third World Cup, and fits into a pattern of home comforts crossed with positivity that head coach Graham Arnold believes is the necessary environment for progress at the World Cup.
It helps when that environment is housed at somewhere like Aspire, the money-no-object base of Qatar’s bid to breed generations of sporting champions. The Socceroos accommodation and living space has the feel of an Ivy League University hall in the US, with bedrooms off the funkily designed living spaces and natural light everywhere.
Equally ubiquitous are the pieces of artwork, the names and the imagery designed to remind and remind the players that they are the Socceroos, and that generations of heroes have come before them.
Teamshots from previous Australian World Cup teams line the walls on the walk back from dinner and spark conversations among the younger players as to who their heroes were. Conversation is also encouraged at dinner, where screens aren’t allowed (except for a special occasion like the Opening Ceremony, to remind the players of where they are).
It feels like a space where idealistic young students should be gathering to study together; as it is, idealistic young footballers are soaking up the coaches’ plans to get a positive result against France in the opening game.
“We we definitely know that we’re at the World Cup, like the guys are very, very aware having come in now and seeing some of the stuff around the facility,” said Football Australia’s Head of High Performance, Paddy Steinfort.
“But we also knew that it was going to be quiet and that fans weren’t going to arrive until late. The players have actually chosen not to go to an activity we were planning for them to try and feel the buzz. They chose to stay in because they wanted to just relax and enjoy the atmosphere in the environment, we have.
“I don’t think we’re going to miss out on that (the World Cup atmosphere) in any way, shape, or form when you can see the (Al Khalifa) stadium over the back of our facility here – there’s a game on Monday, there’ll be a huge roar, and there’ll be no doubt that we’re involved in something special.
“This is definitely a world class facility, not only what we’ve got here at Aspire but also over the road at Aspetar as a medical and performance facility. I can’t think off the top of my head of another team, even at this tournament, that has access to both the breadth and the quality of the facilities that we have.”
That includes the Socceroos having to walk less than 100m to their two manicured training pitches and the air-conditioned warm-up space nearby. As fans arrive, traffic builds and travel times blow out, the wisdom in using Tim Cahill’s standing in Qatar to secure the Aspire base looks better by the day.
“Time is the most valuable resource we’ve got, seven days to build for an opponent like France,” said Steinfort. “Normally we have a full month and camps and getting ready, but we don’t have time to waste.
“We’re saving two hours every day just by being here, that’s already a huge advantage. And then the other is the fact that it is a little bit secluded, because it is a calming space, we know it might feel times in the build up a little bit too quiet. But once you get out there amongst the noise, it’s going to be a very good refuge to come back to, settling back and recovering after each of our exposures to the amazing event.”
