Archie Thompson

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Archie Thompson
Personal information
Full name	Archibald Gerald Thompson
Date of birth	23 October 1978
Place of birth	Otorohanga, New Zealand
Height	1.71 m
Nickname	Super Arch, King Archie, Archie 'Hi-Five' Thompson
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Melbourne Victory
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1996–98 1998–00 2000–01 2001–05 2006–present	Gippsland Falcons Carlton S.C. Marconi Stallions Lierse Melbourne Victory	45 (17) 53 (23) 13 (6) 90 (27) 37 (23)
National team2
2001–present	Australia	23 (21)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of [March 2]], 2007. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of March 2, 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Archibald Gerald Thompson (born October 23, 1978 in Otorohanga, New Zealand) is an Australian football (soccer) player, currently playing for the Melbourne Victory in the Australian A-League, where he holds the all time scoring record for the competition.

His father is a Pakeha New Zealander and his mother is from Papua New Guinea.

Contents 1 Professional career 2 Goal scoring world record 3 Trivia 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Professional career

Archie Thompson began his career in Bathurst, playing there in the 1995-1996 season. He then moved to play for Gippsland Falcons between 1996 and 1999. After the collapse of Gippsland Falcons, he played a season for Carlton S.C. from 1999 to 2000. He spent 2001 with Marconi Stallions, before making a big break in 2001 in signing with Belgium's Lierse SK. He returned to his home country to play for Melbourne Victory in 2005 (the inaugural A-League season), scoring the team's first ever regular season goal.

After superb performances with Melbourne Victory, he was the only A-League based player in the Australian national team's qualification matches against Uruguay for a berth in the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals.

With the A-League season finishing in March and a four month gap between then and Australia's first World Cup group match, Thompson was approached in late 2005 join Dutch team PSV Eindhoven on a temporary loan. PSV was then coached by Guus Hiddink, who was also the Australian national team's head coach, and playing for the team would provide Thompson with the match fitness and exposure to help his chances of being selected in the World Cup team. After negotiations between the Victory and PSV stalled over the financial terms of the deal, Thompson was officially placed on six-month loan to PSV Eindhoven on January 13, 2006. He played what was thought at the time to be his final Melbourne Victory game against Queensland Roar FC, scoring the only goal as the team's acting captain.^[1] This goal took his tally to 8 for the season, which made him Melbourne Victory's inaugural Golden Boot winner. He also tied for the A-League's top goal scorer (the Reebok Golden Boot award) with Alex Brosque, Bobby Despotovski and Stewart Petrie.

Thompson made just two appearances for PSV as a substitute. He was informed by the club that they would not be signing him to a further deal, and so he returned to Melbourne Victory for the A-League 2006-07 season.

Thompson was a member of Australia's squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but did not play in a match in the finals. In August 2006, he was appointed vice-captain for the Asian Cup qualifiers against Kuwait.

Resuming with Melbourne Victory in domestic football, Thompson formed a deadly partnership in the second season of the A-League with strike partner Danny Allsopp, who both benefited from the amazing attacking skills of Brazilian midfielder Fred. Their quality forward play lead Melbourne to become both premiers and champions of the A-League in 2006-07.

Thompson starred in the 2007 A-League Grand Final on February 18, 2007, scoring 5 goals and helping Melbourne Victory to a 6-0 thrashing of rivals Adelaide United. In becoming the first player to score more than 3 goals in an A-League match, Thompson exceeded his own expectations, predicting before the game that he would get a hat trick. For his efforts, Thompson was awarded the Joe Marston Medal as the Man of the Match.

Archie came off the bench in Australia's 2-0 win against China.

[edit] Goal scoring world record

Thompson set the world record for goals scored in an international match on April 11, 2001, when Australia played American Samoa in Coffs Harbour in a qualifier for the 2002 World Cup. Australia won 31-0 (the score was originally reported as 32-0 as the scorekeepers lost count). Thompson, who was not Australia's first choice striker, scored 13 of the Australian goals. Thompson was not picked for the Socceroos next match against Fiji by coach Frank Farina.

Thompson's feat was helped by playing in a team of well-drilled professionals, even though they were not Australia's first choice team, and playing against one of the world's weakest national football teams. The mismatch was such that the qualifying system was changed for the 2006 qualification campaign so that Australia (and other relative powers) did not face such weak teams.

The 13 goals broke the record of 10 shared by Denmark's Sophus "Krølben" Nielsen in a 17-1 win against France at the 1908 Olympics and Germany's Gottfried Fuchs in a 16-0 win against Russia in the 1912 Olympics. This equalled the record for the most goals scored in a recognised senior tournament, set in 1885 when John Petrie scored 13 goals in a Scottish Cup tie.

[edit] Trivia

Archie has two tattoos on his inner forearms (one on each forearm) of his children's names, Isabella and Axel.

[edit] References

1. ^ Associated Press (2006) Thompson transfer completed: Victory.

Archie has recently been linked to a move to the USA to play in the MLS alongside David Beckham. These have yet to be dismissed as rumours.

[edit] External links

• Archie Thompson's Hat-Trick profile for Melbourne Victory in the 2007 Grand Final
• Melbourne Victory profile
• Johnson, Dale. "Australia smash two world records", ESPN Soccernet, 11 Apr 2001.
• Yahoo World Cup Profile

	Australia squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Schwarzer | 2 Neill | 3 Moore | 4 Cahill | 5 Čulina | 6 Popović | 7 Emerton | 8 Skoko | 9 Viduka | 10 Kewell | 11 Lazaridis | 12 Čović | 13 Grella | 14 Chipperfield | 15 Aloisi | 16 Beauchamp | 17 Thompson | 18 Kalac | 19 Kennedy | 20 Wilkshire | 21 Sterjovski | 22 Milligan | 23 Bresciano | Coach: Hiddink

Melbourne Victory FC - Current Squad
1 Theoklitos | 2 Muscat | 3 Piorkowski | 4 Byrnes | 6 Pantelidis | 7 Ferrante | 8 Fred | 9 Allsopp | 10 Thompson | 11 Lia | 12 Vargas | 13 Sarkies | 14 Caceres | 15 Leijer | 16 Storey | 17 Brebner | 18 Alessandro | 20 Galekovic | 21 Robinson | 22 Broxham | 23 Kovacic | Coach Merrick