Poppa: Wanderers man with Midas touch
Just what is Tony Popovic's secret?
How has he managed to steer a soccer club which didn't exist less than three years ago to the cusp of becoming Asia's champion?
What makes him tick? And what is he really like?
It's no use asking Popovic - he hates this sort of stuff.
Popovic always shifts uneasily when the limelight is trained on him.
For the Western Sydney Wanderers coach, it's never about him, it's always about the team.
"I just never see it as `I did this, I did that'," Popovic has said.
"I think of it as a club, a group of players, as a staff."
Take a look at him from the outside, study his touchline persona.
He's intense. A tad forbidding. Cool. Calm. Calculating.
He's the same in media appearances. Honest yet measured, cards always close to chest.
So to search for the real Tony Popovic, to seek the man behind the mask, leads to the thoughts of others.
Scour the opinions of Popovic's players and themes emerge: honesty, respect, motivated, shrewd, inspiring.
The Wanderers' former marquee player, Japanese star Shinji Ono, rates Popovic his best-ever coach; the club's inaugural captain Michael Beauchamp says he's the most dedicated.
"He only wants players who have the hunger, who want to win and want to work hard for each other," Beauchamp has said.
The seemingly simple creed defines Popovic the coach: an ambitious, relentless and meticulous boss who has taken the Wanderers from a derisive initial tag as a team of rejects to their current lofty heights.
"He set the tone from day one ... he has got an aura about him and a drive that not too many people have," goalkeeper Ante Covic has said.
Inner drive has been a Popovic hallmark since he was a boy growing up in Fairfield in Sydney's west.
Popovic's love for the game stemmed from his dad Bratislav, who migrated with his wife Rada from Croatia to Australia in the early 1970s.
His father's disciplinary traits rubbed off early - dad didn't allow his soccer-mad son, who was also a junior tennis talent, to play until all studies were completed.
"Whatever I did, he pushed me to do it to the best of my ability," Popovic said earlier this year.
"If studies weren't done, I would be punished with not being able to play.
"My parents had a real belief you have to do everything to the best of your ability."
That belief has become a trademark of Popovic, who as kid would would traverse Sydney with Bratislav seeking a game - any game, often just park standard - to watch.
Popovic chose soccer over tennis because the former allowed him to play, and then hang out with, his mates.
His innate playing ability, coupled with that self-motivation and leadership qualities, were soon obvious.
Popovic rapidly rose through Sydney United's ranks - he was made captain when aged just 20; played 162 matches for the club between 1989-97.
He made Australian under-17, under-20 and under-23 teams; won the first of 61 senior international caps in 1994.
The no-nonsense defender moved to Japan in 1997 and spent four years playing for Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
And then the big move: to Crystal Palace in England, where he played 123 games between 2001-06.
A season in Qatar followed before returning to Australia and Sydney FC for two A-League seasons.
On retirement, Popovic immediately was appointed an assistant coach at the Sky Blues before Crystal Palace again came calling and he returned to England as their assistant coach in 2011-2012.
But when the A-League formed a second Sydney club, in Popovic's western Sydney heartland, Australia wanted him back.
The new club's chief executive Lyall Gorman spearheaded the hunt.
"From day one, I knew who had to be coach of this team," Gorman said when Popovic was announced as Western Sydney's coach in May 2012.
"I had a lot of names come across my desk but I only ever interviewed one person for the job.
"Tony is a local boy. He was born in Fairfield. He played all his junior football in this area.
"And he epitomises the values of this club. He is raw and real."
The Wanderers played their first A-League game on October 6, 2012 with Popovic promising one thing: competitiveness.
They won the Premier's Plate in their first season; have been grand finalists in their first two campaigns.
And now, just over two remarkable years since that first competitive game, Popovic and his club are a win away from being crowned Asian Champions League champions.
POPOVIC'S CAREER
The player
Socceroos: 61 caps (1994 to 2006)
Clubs:
1989-1997 Sydney United (Australia) 162 appearances
1997-2001 Sanfrecce Hiroshima (Japan) 87 appearances
2001-2006 Crystal Palace (England) 123 appearances
2006 Al Arabi (Qatar) 17 appearances
2007-2008 Sydney FC (Australia) 27 appearances
The coach
2008-2011 Sydney FC (Australia) assistant
2011-2012 Crystal Palace (England) assistant
2012-current Western Sydney Wanders (Australia) head coach