Socceroos and Australian Football

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Haha, it's amazing how short it was before some Englishman came in here and started putting the boot in. It's bloody sad.

EDIT: Focus on qualifying for Euro.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Haha, it's amazing how short it was before some Englishman came in here and started putting the boot in. It's bloody sad.

EDIT: Focus on qualifying for Euro.

What, you're moving Confederations again?

 

[NUFAN]

What a shocking performance, where was the defence!

 

[Dr_Brad]

Fu-king disgrace
Australia let me down
3-1 to Iraq PATHETIC

Iraqie Football team and Graham Arnold have just entered my hit list

 

[Salamuddin]

Well done Iraq, boy do they have some skilled footballers or what. They look to have a superb team in the making.

Australia were down right shocking. Graham Arnold had an absolute serve at the players in the post match interview.

Well at least someone is gracious enough to give Iraq some credit.
Their boys may not play in the best leagues in the world but they have plenty of skill and plenty of passion and it showed yesterday.

Would not surprise me if Nashat Akram is snapped up by some big Premier League club though.

 

[Salamuddin]

LOL.

Surely this must go down as one of the worst results in the 'Socceroos' history? Considering the players they have and the opposition is composed of merely Middle-Eastern footballers with the exception of a few ‘star’ players, who feature in the footballing ‘hotbed’ which is Limassol, Southern Cyprus.

And Australia must really be in the mire if they are missing Craig Moore - There are men in Northern Ireland who have been knee-capped whose knees are in a better state than Moore’s.

The Iraqis are a much better team than you give them credit for....open your eyes man, they were good enough to knock over Italy at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

 

[Salamuddin]

I've said this before and I'll say it again , I think the Socceroos are a bit overrated.

Yeah well done to them on getting to the 2nd round of the WC, but let's take a closer look at the results:
Aus drew with Uruguay 1-1 over 2 legs and won in the lottery of a penalty shootout.
And let's face it....Recoba had a great chance to score in that 2nd leg which would have meant the Aussies wouldn't have gone thru.
And in the WC, Aus were well beaten by a Brazil side in 2nd gear, scraped past Japan and could only hold Croatia.
And despite having Italy down to ten men for 30 mins, AUs couldn't even get a clear cut chance at the Italian goal in the 2nd round match.
And this was with one of the world's best coaches at the helm.
And yet, everyone was going on about how well we did, what a great team we are and how unlucky we were to be robbed by the Italians.

After the WC, Australia have lost matches to the likes of Kuwait and Uruguay (at home).

It amused me that a lot of people though Australia were gonna walk into Asia and just cream all these Asian sides....you know these boys can actually play. It's gonna take more than mere reputation to win over them.

 

[Matteh]

The thing with the Australian national side is that there's effectively 3 teams that play. There's the A team with all the stars, a B team with players based in Europe that aren't stars and the C team which is based domestically. Would be fair to say that it doesn't lend itself to consistency.

 

[chaminda_00]

The Iraqis are a much better team than you give them credit for....open your eyes man, they were good enough to knock over Italy at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

Yeah that Under 23 side is starting filter into the national team quite nicely now. I would be suprised if a few of their top players don't move to higher profile European clubs, like a couple Iran players.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Heh gotta love Pickup torturing the Aussies on here after the loss to Iraq.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

He's not doing much of a torturing job. More like embarassing himself.

 

[Craig]

I see Juventus and recently relegated from Serie B, Hellas Verona (now in Serie C) are going to war over Australian goal keeper Jess vanStrattan who left Verona citing personal reasons and went back to Australia, only to return and was signed by Juventus and which Verona are questioning the legality of the transfer.

If vanStrattan is allowed to join Juve, he would be the first Australian to play for the Bianconeri. And that would be in name only as he would have to tamper with Buffon's car brakes and anybody else in front of him to get any game.

 

[chaminda_00]

Wasn't Max Veri in Juve's books for a while?

 

[Craig]

Wasn't Max Veri in Juve's books for a while?

He was the youth team but spent all of his team football out on loan with clubs like Ancona and Verona, before Napoli brought him in a co-ownership, and then moved onto clubs like Ternana and Triestina before now at Novara in C1/A.

 

[Johnners]

I've said this before and I'll say it again , I think the Socceroos are a bit overrated.

Yeah well done to them on getting to the 2nd round of the WC, but let's take a closer look at the results:
Aus drew with Uruguay 1-1 over 2 legs and won in the lottery of a penalty shootout.
And let's face it....Recoba had a great chance to score in that 2nd leg which would have meant the Aussies wouldn't have gone thru.
And in the WC, Aus were well beaten by a Brazil side in 2nd gear, scraped past Japan and could only hold Croatia.
And despite having Italy down to ten men for 30 mins, AUs couldn't even get a clear cut chance at the Italian goal in the 2nd round match.
And this was with one of the world's best coaches at the helm.
And yet, everyone was going on about how well we did, what a great team we are and how unlucky we were to be robbed by the Italians.

After the WC, Australia have lost matches to the likes of Kuwait and Uruguay (at home).

It amused me that a lot of people though Australia were gonna walk into Asia and just cream all these Asian sides....you know these boys can actually play. It's gonna take more than mere reputation to win over them.

I don't think anybody with a sane mind expected Australia to cream all the Asian teams, we do/did expect them to make the semi's, as they're undoubtedly one of the top teams in the Asian Cup, but it was never ever going to be a walk in the park to make the final, let alone win it.

I have to laugh at all the earlier dribble about the WC as well. Yes we did scrape past Japan, lose to Brazil and draw with Croatia, but you also failed to mention the fact that Australia was (correct me if i'm wrong) the lowest ranked nation in the group, coming up against the no.1 ranked nation Brazil, and the 15th & 20th ranked nations in Japan & Croatia respectively.

The team certainly did well, and under Guus they were a good, combative team. Yes they probably should have beaten a 10 man Italy, but it's worth noting that they're a footballing giant, had a fantastic backline, and were in the end the world cup winners, so it's not like they had Samoa down to 10 men and lost like you're making it sound.

As for the crap about 'Recoba had a chance to knock us out', so what if he did have a chance, he didn't take it so i hardly see how it's relevant. We also had a clear handball decision go against us in the Croatia game that could've knocked us out, but it's also irrelevant as in the end it didn't prevent us from making the 2nd round.

 

[Son Of Coco]

The thing with the Australian national side is that there's effectively 3 teams that play. There's the A team with all the stars, a B team with players based in Europe that aren't stars and the C team which is based domestically. Would be fair to say that it doesn't lend itself to consistency.

I think that's a fair comment...it's a problem that's always existed as any of our good players have to play in Europe to make a living. It's only recently that we've been playing friendlies in the UK, which allow them to at least play some games together as the Australian team.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Heh gotta love Pickup torturing the Aussies on here after the loss to Iraq.

I'm not feeling tortured personally...I still haven't heard back from him regarding your performance in the World Cup, although do we just take that as a given?

 

[Salamuddin]

I don't think anybody with a sane mind expected Australia to cream all the Asian teams, we do/did expect them to make the semi's, as they're undoubtedly one of the top teams in the Asian Cup, but it was never ever going to be a walk in the park to make the final, let alone win it.

I have to laugh at all the earlier dribble about the WC as well. Yes we did scrape past Japan, lose to Brazil and draw with Croatia, but you also failed to mention the fact that Australia was (correct me if i'm wrong) the lowest ranked nation in the group, coming up against the no.1 ranked nation Brazil, and the 15th & 20th ranked nations in Japan & Croatia respectively.

The team certainly did well, and under Guus they were a good, combative team. Yes they probably should have beaten a 10 man Italy, but it's worth noting that they're a footballing giant, had a fantastic backline, and were in the end the world cup winners, so it's not like they had Samoa down to 10 men and lost like you're making it sound.

As for the crap about 'Recoba had a chance to knock us out', so what if he did have a chance, he didn't take it so i hardly see how it's relevant. We also had a clear handball decision go against us in the Croatia game that could've knocked us out, but it's also irrelevant as in the end it didn't prevent us from making the 2nd round.

Australia didn't even create a single bloody chance on the Italian goal when they were 10 men down. For team with supposed superstars like Viduka, Kewell and Bresciano, that's very poor.

Australia needed a huge slick of luck to get past Uruguay - they didn't prove they were better than the Uruguayans over two legs....which Uruguay did in 2001.

Ok I accept they took their chances but I think the fact they got thru to the 2nd round made a lot of Aussies think their team was better than it really was. - ....Once Hiddink left, they got shown up by Kuwait and Uruguay at home. If the Shockeroos were really that good they wouldn't have lost 2-0 away to Kuwait, a team that's not even in the Asia Cup.

Under Hiddink the team played a good structure and was relatively succesful but it didn't mask the fact that AUstralia don't have particularly technically gifted players .
Once Hiddink goes, they are shown up for what they really are.

 

[Salamuddin]

I think that's a fair comment...it's a problem that's always existed as any of our good players have to play in Europe to make a living. It's only recently that we've been playing friendlies in the UK, which allow them to at least play some games together as the Australian team.

The team that is playing poorly in the Asia cup has all the 'big names' like Kewell, Viduka etc... though....

 

[Johnners]

Australia didn't even create a single bloody chance on the Italian goal when they were 10 men down. For team with supposed superstars like Viduka, Kewell and Bresciano, that's very poor.

Australia needed a huge slick of luck to get past Uruguay - they didn't prove they were better than the Uruguayans over two legs....which Uruguay did in 2001.

Ok I accept they took their chances but I think the fact they got thru to the 2nd round made a lot of Aussies think their team was better than it really was. - ....Once Hiddink left, they got shown up by Kuwait and Uruguay at home. If the Shockeroos were really that good they wouldn't have lost 2-0 away to Kuwait, a team that's not even in the Asia Cup.

Under Hiddink the team played a good structure and was relatively succesful but it didn't mask the fact that AUstralia don't have particularly technically gifted players .
Once Hiddink goes, they are shown up for what they really are.

No the Kuwait loss wasn't acceptable, but neither that team, or the team that played Uruguay was anything close to our strongest line-up.

As for 'requiring a slice of luck' to make the 06 WC finals, all i can do is . No we weren't clearly better than Uruguay as they were better than us in 01, and no-one expected us to be, if anything, Australia were the underdogs. However the fact that we more than matched Uruguay, a country with a far more prestigious footballing history than Australia, and a team that boasts a hell of a lot more footballing talent, and quality players to choose from, shows that the team has come on in leaps and bounds since 2001.

I fail to see how your point with Hiddink helps your argument. I'd say the vast majority of teams in world football are going to suffer if they lose the services of one of the worlds top coaches. If anything, Hiddink showed that we have a more than capable football teamed if it's coached/managed properly.

Whatever the case, it's clear to me you're not going to give the 'roos any credit no matter what they do, so it's pointless arguing with your one-eyed self.