Countdown for Germany 2006

[johnny]

Holland under 21 just won the European championship by defeating Ukraine 3-0 in the finals. Maybe we should sent our young ones to Germany.

[Sever]

Schwarzer for man of the match in yesterday's game vs the Dutch. The final scoreline probably should've looked more like 5-1 if it weren't for his efforts in goal.

I honestly thought we were going to get trounced. [img]graemlins/happydance.gif[/img]

[Memnoch]

Finally got a chance to watch the game in full. Here are my thoughts:

- Seemed like the referee was very generous w/ a lot of his decisions, giving the ball to Australia. He missed a hand ball by Vince Grella in the first half, and there were some very cynical challenges by the Australians. Having said that, I felt Wilkshire's straight red was harsh? I felt he was going for the ball. I'm sure all my Dutch friends (Johnny, etc) will disagree with me though. But other that that the Socceroos seemed to get the rub of the green throughout the clash, so the red is fair enough I suppose.

- The Australian defence was at times shambolic. Whilst the scoreline shows a draw, the Dutch could possibly have won by five were it not for the desperation of Schwarzer. Australia cannot afford to give teams the space that they did. The backs looked sluggish and out of sorts. Hiddink needs to fix this ASAP as we are going to get exposed against Brazil and maybe a speedy Japan.

- That said, a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands as an away game is an excellent result. And one Australia could only dream of years gone by. The Dutch were playing their First XI too, with Australia keeping Kewell on ice, and Cahill on the bench until the second half. Could Australia have done better with Kewell starting? We'll never know.

*Sterjovski does nothing on the right hand side, or indeed, on any side. I do not know what Hiddink sees in him. I'm guessing he's just warming the spot for Harry Cool. Wilkshire should be excused from duty too, although it was a deft chip to Viduka that saw him earn a penalty.

- Speaking of which, Viduka should be banned from taking penalties. I don't mind if Guus takes them himself. Just keep the V Bomber away.

- MOM for Australia was easily Schwarzer despite his f-up, but Chipperfield also had a fantastic game. Chipperfield is evidence of the Dutch Total Football ethic being taken up by Australia, as the Basel based striker/attacking mid is playing as a left back forAustralia. The former Wollongong bus driver was on a hiding to nothing trying to contain Robin Van Persie, but came through the match with colours intact.

- I love the Dutch as a playing nation and I've a lot of time for Arjen Robben as a player but gee he's a bit of a tool. I don't know if it's because I'm a rugby fan, or if it's his propensity to fall to the ground in a heap when the opposition so much as glances at him, but I can't stand his performances every time he gets tackled. Stop behaving like a wuss and get on with the game. You were awarded the free-kick, Oscar season is over, geez! It's this kind of stuff that gives football it's nancyboy image.


- Viduka does very well holding the ball up as a striker waiting for the midfield to come through, but Aloisi should get more game time. At times our attack looked muted, although that could be attributed to the loss of Kewell.

- 1-1 to the Dutch a few days before the World Cup is a good result, and perhaps the Australians may just be able to make it out of the group. It's certainly a better result than Croatia have been mustering of late.

- Were it not for Schwarzer, it could have been a hiding.

[Davros]

Well I agree with most of what you said - except Wilkshire didn't get a straight red - he got a yellow a couple of minutes earlier for a foul on Van Bommel - the ref pulled a yellow then a red when he sent him off. I thought it was a fair enough send off but not a complete howler of a foul.

Kewell and Cahill for Sterjo and Wilks - Skoko Aloisi and Thompson warming the bench. I would agree with giving Aloisi more game time too - we look better with him getting his head on the ball.

[johnny]

Well, i only hope those injuries aren't as bad as they seem, with the exception of one player, our entire midfield is now literally crippled, and we can't afford to lose anyone of them indefinitely, simply because we don't have backups that are half as good as Cocu, Sneijder, or vd. Vaart.

[wellard]

Johnny, was the game against Australia taken seriously by the fans in the Netherlands? I'm guessing the players had proper respect for Australia but I sometimes wonder if the public in Europe still considers us a joke? How is the result being viewed?

In England over the last few weeks I was there no one was taking Australia seriously.

[johnny]

Well, since Hiddink is coach there, they take Australia more serious than they did before, since he always gets the best out of a team, but nobody gives them much of a chance of making it through the first round. Let's face it, if your goalie didn't play the game of his life it would have been 3 or 4-1. Australia had a good result, but i wouldn't go crazy over it either. Ít's going to take a complete offday from the Croats if you want to be succesfull against them, and Japan is still underestimated by most people, but those who've seen em play against Germany last week know better by now. Australia might think they have a good chance against Japan, but the Japanese think pretty much the same about their chances against you. I'm not even going to bring up Brazil, because they are above each and every other team, and they can only lose from themselves. All in all Australia is considered the least of your group, but of course that means nothing in football, Greece proved every so called expert totally wrong two years ago. Of all our testmatches, Australia was also considered the easiest opponent, Cameroun and Mexico have a much more respected status than Australia, but we beat both Cameroun and Mexico, and couldn't get past Australia, so what's wisdom eh ?

Btw...did you notice how well the fans of both sides got along ? They were sitting right next to eachother and everything was friendly, that would have been impossible if it were Germans, English, or most other European fans. The only ones we've ever been so friendly with in the past are the Irish and the Scottish.

[wellard]

That was a good point about the fans Johnny. At major sporting events in Australia (of which soccer is too small to be counted) there is no fan segregation at all which can seem a bit strange at first to those from Europe but it works very well. One week you can be surrounded by opposition fans and get a serve of funny comments or friendly abuse and next week it can be reversed with no worries. The only time there is trouble is at the small state based soccer games when ethnic (Croation/greek/serbian) tensions rise. And that has been one of the reasons that soccer has never been accepted by mainstream 'Australian' public and gets dismissed as 'wogball'.

Hopefully this world cup along with some recent major changes to our national soccer league will help break that "its just a game for ethnics" mindset and bring soccer into the hearts of all Australians.

[johnny]

Yeah, it would be nice to see more of Australia in the future, at least they bring the right spirit to the game, and a pure fighters mentality. I guess that's why Australian players are swarming out all over Europe at the moment, and also have an impact on the teams they play for. Jason Culina is such a player for PSV Eindhoven at the moment.

[ 06-06-2006, 12:30 PM: Message edited by: johnny ]

[Sever]

Originally posted by johnny: Well, i only hope those injuries aren't as bad as they seem,

Of course not. It's Soccer isn't it? As soon as they've stopped crying and been awarded a free kick (or something, i dunno) they get up and act all normal and stuff. Don't they?

Erm. I'm outtahere. [img]graemlins/outtahere.gif[/img]

[img]tongue.gif[/img]

Seriously though johnny, i too hope the injuries aren't bad enough to keep your players out of the Cup proper. I know it was a friendly, but it seemed to me to be a rough sort of friendly (well, players went down, and stayed down. [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] I can't say i've ever seen that in Football, though i'll be the first to admit that i don't watch much.) And so close to the start of competition..