Rale rasic wiki

For football clubs with a similar name, see Saint George (disambiguation).

St George FC, commonly called Saints or Budapest, is a semi-professional Australian soccer club based in the St George district in the south of Sydney. The club was founded by Hungarian immigrants in 1957 as Budapest Club and by 1965 was renamed to St. George-Budapest Club.

One of the top clubs of Australia from the 1960s to the 1980s, St George currently competes in the National Premier Leagues NSW. After playing its youth and senior fixtures at Ilinden Sports Centre between 2018 and 2024, in 2025 St George returned to their original location after St George Stadium was redeveloped into the Barton Park Sports Complex.

St George FC Women compete in NSW League One Women's and after playing out of Fraser Park in 2022 and Ilinden Sports Centre in 2023-2024, from 2025 their home ground is also at the Barton Park Sports Complex.

The club was formed shortly after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 by Hungarian Immigrants and was originally known as Budapest. In the 1960s, led by pioneering soccer administrator Alex Pongrass, it became one of the first ethnic clubs in NSW to search for a district to call home and it chose the St George district. It later became known as St George-Budapest before shortening its name to St George some years later. They opened a licensed club, named Soccer House, in the suburb of Mortdale in 1968. In 1969 Frank Arok, the first full-time coach in Australia was appointed, serving two stints as coach, the last ending in 1983 when he left to coach the Socceroos. In between Arok's two stints as coach, Rale Rasic was coach, coaching the club at the same time as he was coaching the Socceroos. In 1971 the club was invited to an international club tournament in Tokyo, Japan. It won and remained the highest ever international achievement by an Australian club side, until South Melbourne FC won the 1999

Rale Rasic

Aside from his long and successful career as a club coach in Australia, Rasic was best known for being coach of the Socceroos when they qualified for the 1974 World Cup.

Rasic was appointed coach of South Melbourne Hellas in October 1982, after the club opted not to extend Tommy Docherty's contract at the conclusion of the 1982 season. Rasic was coach of South Melbourne Hellas for the team's first 13 matches of the 1983 season, before being sacked and replaced by Len McKendry. Upon being sacked, Rasic claimed that he had been guaranteed the coaching job until the end of 1984.

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Full-time era begins (1965–1969)

Before 1965, the Australia national soccer team had been under the leadership of a selection committee and a trainer. Appointed in 1965, Tiko Jelisavčić had been the first Australia manager. In his first game as manager, he led Australia to a 1–6 loss against North Korea at Stade Olympique, Phnom Penh in the 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification. with Australia failing to qualify for the World Cup finals.

CzechJozef Vengloš was appointed in 1967 when he managed three games all against Scotland, losing all three games. The rest of the matches played in 1967, were managed by Hungarian manager Joe Vlatsis, where he managed 23 games, winning thirteen, drawing seven and losing three. Vlatsis also failed to qualify for the 1970 FIFA World Cup after losing to Israel in the Final Round of the qualification zone.

Rasic in World Cup (1969–1978)

Rale Rasic was appointed as head coach in 1970 at just 34 years of age, and in 1974. After three failed attempts, he led Australia to the 1974 World Cup as coach. After the World Cup, the Australian Soccer Federation sacked Rasic, replacing him with EnglishmanBrian Green. Rasic and others believe that he was dumped because he was not seen as being a real "Aussie." He has stated, "They took from me something that I was doing better than anyone else. I was a true-blue Aussie and nobody can deny that. I taught the players how to sing the national anthem."

Green was later coach for Australia in 1975 and 1976., with him winning two, drawing three and losing three. At the end of 1976, Jim Shoulder went on to coach Australia in the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification from 1976 to 1978. After failing to secure Australia's qualification to the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, Shoulder was sacked, and replaced by German Rudi Gutendorf.

Nations Cup success (1978–1989)

Rudi Gutendorf was appointed in mid-1979, where his first game managed was against New Zealand which Australia