LG Socceroo and Birmingham City defender Stan Lazaridis has a big year coming up. His club side has just qualified for the League Cup Final in England ... his country is preparing for a big World Cup Qualification year ... and on the home front, his family has just expanded by one - more than enough to keep this big hearted crowd favourite on his toes.

Stan, you and Birmingham City are through to the League Cup Final, with the game deemed as Birmingham's biggest since winning the League Cup in 1963 - would you agree?
I'd have to - I mean if you had seen the scenes afterwards - our pitch was covered with the fans running on, we couldn't get to the dressing rooms for ages because we were being mobbed, and then into the next day, it was almost like a public holiday with people taking the day off work - so yes, I'd agree that this is the biggest thing to happen to the club for a long, long time. We haven't had an easy run at all, having beaten the likes of Spurs, Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday and now Ipswich, so I'd say the scenes were pretty much right on target, having got past three Premiership sides.

Extra time was needed to finally get past Ipswich in the semi final ... did you have your doubts at any stage of the match?
The main problem that we were facing was the goal rule over here, and knowing that we had to score first or we could be in trouble, that put a lot of pressure on with the away goal counting as double. We scored the first, then the second, then they pulled one back and we were even, it was just like the Iran game, and had that been the end of the game, we would have lost on the away goals rule, but as it was, we scored two more and took it out. Through the whole match, all I kept thinking was we have to score. It's one of the longest matches I've ever played - at the 110th minute your legs are crying and screaming, and you're just trying to push yourself through it - and then we scored in the 112th minute I think, and that sent us through. The thing is that three minutes was added on each half, so it was an extra 11 minutes on top of all of that, then with the fans running on and the rest of it, we didn't get to the dressing room until after midnight, and then had to play a league game a couple of days later - but we did it, and the manager has given us a couple of days off - well earned I'd say, just to have a breather.

The match-up will be against Liverpool, who, as opposed to Birmingham, has a lot of silverware in the cupboard. Is there much talk amongst the team about your opponents yet .. and do you have some words for the Merseysiders?
I don't think you can really have too many tactics against a side like Liverpool - they've got 20 players who could play, so the thing is we have to play to our own best ability. I can't say I'm going to mark Fowler or Owen or Heskey, we don't have enough players to cater for that, but what we can do is go out and give the best we've got, to play to our strengths and hopefully score against them - and you never know what can happen, you never know in a final - we've been underdogs all the way through this competition, and they will start as favourites, but who knows, because it's a game of football, and we'll be giving it our best shot. It's a great achievement to get to where we are now, but don't get me wrong, we want to win it, for ourselves, for the club, for the fans, for the whole area. It's so passionate here, and our lot hasn't had success to cheer about for so long, and then this happens - it was funny, because when we played on Saturday, the fans didn't have enough energy to scream because they did it all on Wednesday. This is a great feeling as a professional footballer - it's times like these that you look back and know this is what it's all about ... when you're running around in the snow and in minus 10 degree temperatures, this is what makes it really complete.

Stan, you're game seems to improve with every week - what do you put it down to?
If I'm fit, then I think I'll always play well. Previously I've carried injuries, and if you're not settled and playing catch up football, it takes its toll. Last year I suffered a horrible knee injury that put me out in the middle of the season for 2 months, and I lost a lot of fitness. It's really hard when everyone else is at 100% and you're only at 60% - the fans know what can do and you're just not doing it, and I'm probably my own worst critic, so it makes it worse. This season I'm a lot fitter and stronger and you can see the results. Basically since being with the Australian team where we've had some good matches, as well as playing at the Olympics where I felt I did well, then right through the season here, physically and mentally my attitude has been to get on with it, to forget the bad, and to look forward to the future. Birmingham is a massive club which is very capable of making it to the Premier League, and that would be brilliant for me.

It's also a big year for Australia on the international scene ... do you think about that much during the week-to-week goings on at Birmingham City?
Very much so. I keep in contact with a lot the boys over here, and I'm always on the phone to Shaun Murphy and Kevin Muscat, asking them about what's coming up, what's pencilled in, waiting for news on the web, waiting for the phone call - so yes, I'm always thinking of the next game for the LG Socceroos. Our last game in Scotland was excellent, it really was a great win there and we have to march on - with the spirit that we have among the guys, it's hard to see us not doing that, so hopefully that - and our football - will get us through.

Finally Stan, you've recently become a father for the first time ... how are you and your wife adapting to the arrival of baby Dior - and is she going to follow in dad's footsteps?
Dior's arrival was unbelievable - as it happens, I got the call 15 minutes after a football match and rushed to the hospital and there she was. Being a dad is brilliant, it's hard to explain but it's an experience every day. My in-laws are over here at the moment, taking the weight off me, because I still have to sleep before the games and train and the rest of it, and Mary is doing most of the work, but I do the roster during the day - feeding, burping, that takes about half an hour, changing the nappies - she actually yells a lot when I do that so I don't know if I've got it right or wrong - but it's brilliant, it's given me a different look on life as to before she was here. As for my footsteps I don't think so - she'll probably watch me, but I won't get her into football - and I'll definitely be keeping her away from footballers!!

Copyright Soccer Australia, 2001. Interview and photograph reproduced with the permission of Soccer Australia.