OT: Socceroos v Germany Tonight

[strider]

:lol:

what the hell was with travolta jumping on our bandwagon anyway? - damnit, he put us off

 

[Belly in Brisvegas]

Is it the Qantas alliance?

 

[Ray Martins Hair]

Jesus christ. That was rubbish by the Socceroos. I'm glad Verbeek is headed to Morocco because the bloke is average. This time lets pick up a good manager- someone like Frank Rijkaard would do wonders for this team. Hell, pay Turkey out and get Guus back in the picture. I mean blokes of their calibre are hard to get, the majority of great managers will reject our advances. But that doesn't mean we have to settle for second best.

 

[Parra]

No idea.

Historically, FIFA has done everything they could to pretty much make sure we DIDN'T qualify. They hate Australia.

And failed to make it past the early stages? Mate, four years ago we went deep into the comp.

I agree about the old and injured brigade.

I know that 'FIFA don't like us' is the company line but I'm not buying it.

The soccer team has choked at crucial stages trying to qualify in the past - losing home legs, unable to score. This is not FIFA's fault. From what I can see since 2006 they have taken us out of a too-difficult-for-us qualifying path and invented a soft option for us.

Our soccer team are media darlings who are allowed to trot out ready made excuses and be lauded for weak performances.

They are in the same category as tennis players and commonwealth games athletes. Protected species.

Those competing in other sports are expected to perform - rugby league, union, cricket, golf, motor sport - our athletes do not get praised for turning up. It's win or cop it. And these aren't all sports we dominate. Golf and motorsport are notoriously tough - yet we still expect champions.

 

[fish eel]

I know that 'FIFA don't like us' is the company line but I'm not buying it.

The soccer team has choked at crucial stages trying to qualify in the past - losing home legs, unable to score. This is not FIFA's fault. From what I can see since 2006 they have taken us out of a too-difficult-for-us qualifying path and invented a soft option for us.

Our soccer team are media darlings who are allowed to trot out ready made excuses and be lauded for weak performances.

They are in the same category as tennis players and commonwealth games athletes. Protected species.

Those competing in other sports are expected to perform - rugby league, union, cricket, golf, motor sport - our athletes do not get praised for turning up. It's win or cop it. And these aren't all sports we dominate. Golf and motorsport are notoriously tough - yet we still expect champions.

we lost a world cup qualifier to china that was a dead rubber and our Olympic team was played.

Prior to that, it was around 30 years since we last last a home wc qualifier.

 

[Jake the snake]

We were def found out this morning. We were found out in every facet of the game.

2006 was great, we did very well.

But this team is devoid of any idea or skill. They could not manage to string two decent passes.
It seems like we are behind by 20 years in our skills dept.

And with no decent players coming through, the future looks very bleak.

 

[Stagger eel]

We were def found out this morning. We were found out in every facet of the game.

2006 was great, we did very well.

But this team is devoid of any idea or skill. They could not manage to string two decent passes.
It seems like we are behind by 20 years in our skills dept.

And with no decent players coming through, the future looks very bleak.

it was about 90% of the 2006 squad only 4 years older...

it will be a very very long time before we come close to that 2006 squad at it's peak again..

 

[WA Eel]

I'm not inclined to blame Verbeek. He simply doesn't have the cattle. Four years ago, a guy like Viduka wouldn't have looked out of place playing in a Brazilian jersey. I mean, up until about a month ago, the Socceroos were still trying to beg him out of retirement!

There simply hasn't been anyone knocking down the door for selection - particularly up front. Other than maybe Cahill and Emerton, the rest of them have been slowly moving backwards / down the leagues since 2006. If Viduka was to suddenly come out of retirement tomorrow, he probably would still easily be our best striker!

If anything, I reackon Verbeek overachieved with this squad getting it through qualification. Finally, I reackon they need to replace Lucas Neill as captain. While he's "media friendly" his captaincy was a disaster in the Asian Cup and I'm not really sure he's the inspirational, respected leader that a guy like Mark Viduka was. I would give the captaincy it to Brett Emerton.

 

[Parra]

we lost a world cup qualifier to china that was a dead rubber and our Olympic team was played.

Prior to that, it was around 30 years since we last last a home wc qualifier.

I obviously don't watch the soccer closely.

What about the Iran game a few years back - another example of us getting a leg-up from FIFA and choking. In soccer there is some rule about goals away being worth double. So a draw can a loss, particularly when 0-0 will do.

Maybe I am wrong - but I recall Iran knocking us out against all expectations at a home game.

 

[strider]

yep - I remember the Iran game - people were very dissapointed after it

i actually thought there was a game against argentina years earlier too :-k ... or maybe that was teh first leg

 

[Ray Martins Hair]

I'm not inclined to blame Verbeek. He simply doesn't have the cattle. Four years ago, a guy like Viduka wouldn't have looked out of place playing in a Brazilian jersey. I mean, up until about a month ago, the Socceroos were still trying to beg him out of retirement!

There simply hasn't been anyone knocking down the door for selection - particularly up front. Other than maybe Cahill and Emerton, the rest of them have been slowly moving backwards / down the leagues since 2006. If Viduka was to suddenly come out of retirement tomorrow, he probably would still easily be our best striker!

If anything, I reackon Verbeek overachieved with this squad getting it through qualification. Finally, I reackon they need to replace Lucas Neill as captain. While he's "media friendly" his captaincy was a disaster in the Asian Cup and I'm not really sure he's the inspirational, respected leader that a guy like Mark Viduka was. I would give the captaincy it to Brett Emerton.

I agree with you about Viduka. Hell of a player and he is sorely missed this campaign. However, the lack of Viduka has nothing to do with our defence last night. Viduka did not result in our holding midfielders playing out of position. Viduka's absence didn't make us play the offside trap (of which Moore and Neill didn't play well). Viduka's absence didn't result in Australia fielding a formation we have never played before. These are the manager's responsibility. Yes, Australia is aging and do not have the quality of the 2006 campaign and yes, we were problay going to lose last night anyway. But he should have been able to turn out a respectable performance. Very little play from the Soccoroos last night was of a World Cup standard. Hopefully he can salvage some creditability because Pim and the players haven't covered themselves in glory.

 

[fish eel]

yeah, we lost to Iran on away goals. A game infamous for the peter hoare pitch invasion where he pulled a net down when we were 2-0 up.

We were the only team for the 1998 world cup not to lose a qualifying match but not to qualify for the wc. Thats they way the cookier crumbles.

 

[Twizzle]

it was about 90% of the 2006 squad only 4 years older...

it will be a very very long time before we come close to that 2006 squad at it's peak again..

the 2006 team had strikers

apparently Pym thinks they are surplus to our needs this time around

 

[noosa-eel]

I was up at 4.30 this morning to watch the game & after 30mins was very dissapointed in our performance, don't get me wrong I honestly didn't think we would win the game but we were totally outplayed all over the park.

The sending off of Cahill was a joke there is no way that was an red card offence (thoughts came flooding back of 4yrs ago when we got penalised against the Italians & he clearly dived ) thinking they don't want us here & they are going to make it as hard as possible from here on out.

 

[spartan2153]

Last nights game is squarly on the shoulders of Verbeek & lucas neil. I am so glad bosnich mentioned this after the game.

As a captain & coach to come out & say Germany are much more superior in all the interviews they done before the game is a utter disgrace. Neil should have the captaincy stripped off him straight away. Could you imagin cayless sayng before a semi final we are playing a much more superior team. It is unheard of.

Hiddink said this a few weeks ago. Do not show your opposition any respect at all. Respect them but dont tell them you do.

Neil should be banned from wearing that C next to his name. Plus on Kewell does the coaching staff think he is above the team. He has trained separately the whole time at camp. He is another guy that should be shown the door. If his name was not Kewell & was ethnic we wouldnt waste our time with him but because of that he is a media darling.

 

[fish eel]

Last nights game is squarly on the shoulders of Verbeek & lucas neil. I am so glad bosnich mentioned this after the game.

As a captain & coach to come out & say Germany are much more superior in all the interviews they done before the game is a utter disgrace. Neil should have the captaincy stripped off him straight away. Could you imagin cayless sayng before a semi final we are playing a much more superior team. It is unheard of.

Hiddink said this a few weeks ago. Do not show your opposition any respect at all. Respect them but dont tell them you do.

As I said before, we were beaten before we took the field. We over hyped Germany and built up the challenge way to much

Neil should be banned from wearing that C next to his name. Plus on Kewell does the coaching staff think he is above the team. He has trained separately the whole time at camp. He is another guy that should be shown the door. If his name was not Kewell & was ethnic we wouldnt waste our time with him but because of that he is a media darling.

Umm, thats because he wasnt fit enough to partake in the full training sessions until this past week - which he did. Just like Tim Cahill didnt train with the side this week because of a knock to the neck he copped against the USA.

 

[Ray Martins Hair]

Neil should be banned from wearing that C next to his name. Plus on Kewell does the coaching staff think he is above the team. He has trained separately the whole time at camp. He is another guy that should be shown the door. If his name was not Kewell & was ethnic we wouldnt waste our time with him but because of that he is a media darling.

Are you a f**king space cadet? Kewell has been training seperately because he is injured. Because of his groin they had to ease him into training. Start training 100% and he could seriously injure his groin. Both the physio and assistant coaches worked him through rehabilitation to make sure his fully fit.

Haha Spartan. WTF Dude.

 

[WA Eel]

the 2006 team had strikers

apparently Pym thinks they are surplus to our needs this time around

Not sure the Pim thinks strikersare surplus to requirements - more that he thinks the strikers available to us this time around would simply be making up numbers. Other than say Kewell was expected to come on in the second half, which of our "strikers" would have been worth picking?

 

[domstrama78]

regarding Tim Cahill, does anyone have Geoff Bellews number???? Hello? anybody after a QC?

 

[Avenger]

We were never going to get close to Germany.