By Greg Blake
“On my signal, unleash hell”, orders Russell Crowe’s character, Maximus, in the opening scene of ‘Gladiator’. The signal given, his massive Roman Legion proceeds to beat the living crap out of the last of Germania’s barbarian hordes. It wasn’t even close. Those images immediately came to mind last weekend as Heidelberg United Alexander relentlessly went about winning its Australian Championship quarter final, thus setting up Football Australia’s wet dream semi-final.
Semi Final : Online Tickets
South Melbourne v Heidelberg United
That semi final showdown is set for this coming Saturday, as Alexander heads back down to Lakeside Stadium for a Championship all-or-nothing clash against sometimes bitter and always fierce rivals, South Melbourne. In the mood they were in last weekend, Heidelberg United can and should win and move on to the final.
As it turned out, the signal in the quarter final was likely falling behind inside the opening couple of minutes. Hell was duly unleashed. The visitors came into the game as MetroStars and left the ground seeing stars.
You’re doing alright to score six and still kick yourselves for not doubling that. It’s comparing apples to oranges (who actually does that?), given the diversity of standards of state competitions, but nowadays Adelaide resident and former Heidelberg 200-gamer, Phil Stubbins, was astounded at how simply and completely – and with such relentless regularity – the Warriors picked the three-time SA premiers to pieces.
Semi Final : Online Tickets
South Melbourne v Heidelberg United
After a couple of scruffy seemingly going-through-the-motions Championship group games, the Warriors were back to their razor-sharp best. In what was their 46th competitive contest of the season, no less. Against MetroStars Alexander were savage and unrelenting, just as club Director of Football, Nick Deligiannis predicted they would be.
“Once we were back to the knock-out element, the boys focused pretty quickly”, explained Deligiannis. “And this week is another really big game and all I can tell you is that everyone is looking forward to it. The boys are raring to go”.
How the likes of Collins, Lethlean, Lesiotis, Fulton, Sozer, Yokokawa, Aidara et al have maintained such an elite caliber of performance for so long is actually pretty remarkable. Bul Juach’s double last weekend puts the 2025 Golden Boot winner within touching distance of a 30 year-old club record, so his hunger hasn’t abated.
The three newcomers have been mightily impressive, and Marcus Humbert’s four goals to date all fairly reeking of class. And no Ali or Ngor. But no-one will give you more on game day than Anthony Theodoropoulos and Jay McGowan produces the unexpected. Both bring plenty to the table. Choc Dau isn’t far away from a huge game. The bench is still deep.
Heidelberg versus South Melbourne virtually guarantees a better-than-average crowd but, if the weather holds, Lakeside may be near full for only the third time in 2025. Alexander drew a close-to ten thousand crowd to this ground for both the NPL grand final and the Australia Cup final.
Semi Final : Online Tickets
South Melbourne v Heidelberg United
Safe to say that – amongst Alexander supporters anyway – there remains a little more animus than usual going into this weekend. Not so much towards South Melbourne as much as a result of the club’s last two games against their Greek arch rival.
At Olympic Village in round 23 the Warriors, down 1-0 at half time, staged a magnificent comeback and scored an equaliser 65 minutes in. Two further goals were disallowed, denying them victory and a five point break over Avondale in the premiership race. And South Melbourne handed the premiership over to Avondale a couple of weeks hence, making nine team changes before the 0-5 home loss to the Avengers.
Semi Final : Online Tickets
South Melbourne v Heidelberg United
One of Heidelberg’s only two defeats in 14 sudden-death games this season was in the Dockerty Cup final, also against South Melbourne. Heidelberg led this one at half time, but a similar story. Two second half goals were disallowed and what appeared to be a clear penalty was turned down. South Melbourne got home 2-1.
South Melbourne has moved on from a lamentable first half of 2025 and a two-and-out flop in the Australia Cup. Some new faces have freshened them up for an undefeated run through to this stage of the Championship. They’ve looked OK and Saturday’s semi final will be a hot one.
Get there. Be loud. Warrior Nation!
