Erwee’s road to the top has been long and patient
WHEN Spain play Russia in St Petersburg tonight, Real Betis midfielder Javi Garcia will watch from home in envy as his former international teammates tread on the turf he never got to grace.
The globe-trotting midfielder, who has won league titles in Spain, Russia, England and Portugal, left Zenit St Petersburg for Betis in August, just before the team played their first game at the shiny new Krestovsky Stadium, which will host seven games at next year’s World Cup, including a semi-final.
Now he has returned to La Liga and quickly become the anchor of a revitalised Real Betis side. However, he has renewed hope of returning to Russia as part of Spain coach Julen Lopetegui’s 23-man squad.
“Returning to the national team was practically impossible while I was in Russia,” said Garcia, who has two caps, in a telephone interview with Reuters. “But now I’m back in Spain everyone watches Betis matches, so why not? While things are going well for the team you never know what could happen on a personal level.”
Dislodging Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets as Spain’s firstchoice holding midfielder is a significant challenge, but if Garcia continues in the form he has shown this season, he has a shot at joining him next year. Betis are one of Spain’s biggest clubs, one of only nine teams to have won La Liga, but have spent the last two seasons hovering above the relegation zone after years of financial mismanagement.
However, Betis have made a flying start to this campaign, sitting eighth in the standings and two points from the European places. MELBOURNE: Australia’s Tim Cahill says he is fit to start against Honduras in tomorrow’s decisive World Cup play-off tie in Sydney after being rested in the goalless first leg due to an ankle injury.
Cahill, who scored a double against Syria last month to put Australia into the intercontinental play-off, was an unused substitute on Friday as the Socceroos wasted several chances to secure a precious away goal in San Pedro Sula.
The 37-year-old said he would look to play a full part in both training sessions before the match at Sydney’s Olympic
In September, they pulled off a shock 1-0 win at champions Real Madrid, Garcia’s former side, becoming the first team in 73 games to keep a clean sheet against Zinedine Zidane’s men. Garcia has been key to their rise, giving the team stability they glaringly lack when he is absent.
In the 173 minutes he has not been on the pitch this season, Betis have shipped nine goals, one every 19 minutes.
“Betis have changed many things this year. We have a director of football in Lorenzo Serra Ferrer who was a top coach in his day and knows a lot about football,” Garcia said.
“We have a top coach in Quique Setien who we all know loves his sides to play attractive football. When Quique came here and I saw the type of footballers the club was signing, I really wanted to come here.
“At first I thought I’d take time to re-adapt because the pace of the game in Russia is very different to Spain, but everything has gone well from the start.”
Garcia, 30, came through the youth ranks at Real Madrid but needed to move abroad to Benfica in 2009 to make a name for himself. After three years and four major trophies with the Portuguese giants he was snapped up by Manchester City, collecting another league title as his side pipped Liverpool in a thrilling finale to the 2013-14 Premier League season.
A move to the freezing temperatures of St Petersburg to play with Zenit might not have seemed a logical next move but he thrived on and off the pitch in Russia’s second city, reuniting with former Benfica teammates Axel Witsel and Ezequiel Garay and winning a fourth career league title in his first campaign.
“I was a little concerned as I didn’t know the culture at all but I soon realised it was nothing like I had imagined,” Garcia said. IMPRESSIVE: Sarel Erwee was still buzzing yesterday morning after his blistering 103 not out against the Cobras on Sunday. THE LAST time Sarel Erwee played in Pretoria, he was miserable company off the field. Having come off the high of winning the Africa T20 Cup with KwaZulu-Natal Inland, the left-handed opener came out blazing in the opening round of the Sunfoil Series – and got burnt by the heat of the competition.
“I walked in there and played shots at everything, thinking I could just carry on the form I was on from the Africa T20 Cup,” Erwee said yesterday.
Back in late September, he was coming off the highest aggregate of runs for a single Africa T20 Cup tournament, so his confidence was flowing. Enter the likes of Morne Morkel and Malusi Siboto to give him a reality check.
“I nicked off in both innings, and I was definitely bleak company for a few days. I had a long, hard look at myself, and realised that I had to go back to the basics, and grind out the runs again,” Erwee said.
The sobering selfassessment was on the money, and the Dolphins will attest that their 28-year-old southpaw has not looked back since he had that chat with the man in the mirror. There were classy centuries in the Sunfoil Series against the Knights and Titans, and going to help South Africa win the Hong Kong Sixes in between. To top that off, he also jetted off to France, to be the best man at Jason Roy’s wedding. It is a friendship that sprouted years ago when Erwee was playing club cricket in England and Roy was still establishing himself. The England bludgeoner was amongst the first to congratulate Erwee on his blistering 103 not out against the Cape Cobras on Sunday, as the Dolphins kicked off the T20 Challenge in style.
“I never even thought I would play T20 franchise cricket, so to score a hundred like that was a dream,” the St Charles College product exclaimed.
Even after sleeping on it, Erwee was still buzzing yesterday morning, because his road to the top has been long and patient. For cricketers who come from Pietermaritzburg, making it into the Durban-based Dolphins’ set-up can seem impossible at times, but Erwee has stated his case with a burgeoning barrel of runs over the past few seasons.
He is entrenched in the fourday team, but he is now keen to show that he has a game that can change with the formats – and still be just as effective.
“I was very keen to show that I can also play other formats. I guess you could say that I have been a late bloomer, but I have got to know my game very well in that time. Playing in the Ram Slam is great, because you are coming up against some quality players every game,” he pointed out.
And, far from being starstruck, Erwee has confronted the challenge with the full face of his blade. And, in amongst the drives and clatters to cow-corner, he has added reverse-sweeps and paddles, even against Vernon Philander.
“Ya, that reverse paddle off Philander just happened. You have to try and stay one step ahead of the bowler all the time, and I just played that on instinct. It was pretty cool,” Erwee said.
Erwee himself has been a cool customer for the Dolphins, thriving in the company of players who now understand his worth to the team. Happily, on his latest trip to Pretoria, he was also infinitely better company off the field.
“I was having breakfast with Khaya (Zondo), and we just remembered that we were batting together when I made my first List A century, too. We had a long partnership, under pressure, and we fought through it,” he reflected.
The Durban outfit will be hoping the pair share many more meaningful partnerships and breakfasts in future, as they look to build on a very exciting start to the T20 Challenge.