Ever
wondered why so many Australian footballers (Socceroos) play overseas?
Haile Gebrselassie, Eusébio and
Archbishop Desmond Tutu were at the dazzling draw to see Australia put into a
group of death. Australia plays Germany, Ghana and Serbia.
This
is a difficult draw but it is possible for the Socceroos
to progress and perhaps take on England.
We played Germany (East and West) way back in 1974 and failed to score
in those games. The coach and the team
were semi-professional and relied solely on defence
after key striker Baartz was injured and unable to
make the Finals. The coach of that team
was by the way a Serbian immigrant who fled the poverty and despair of
Yugoslavia during the post-WWII cold war to seek fame and fortune in Australia
the land of opportunity.
This time however, we have a team of
professional players and Germany will need to be on top of their game if they
are to beat the Socceroos in the opening group
game. With luck we’ll get a draw or even
a win out of the game. Then comes Serbia
and Ghana and they are no mugs. We have matched it recently with Serbia at the
Olympic level with Carney setting up a goal in Shanghai for a 1-1 result. Our Socceroo players are capable of an upset
against the Serbs. Ghana will always be
strong and slick but are also beatable.
The key will lie in strong defence and
clinical finishing. This time also the Socceroos have come through a grueling Asian qualifying
campaign and we know our capabilities.
So the planning begins with the
logistics the first port of call.
The draw is:
13/6/10 |
Germany |
v |
Australia |
Durban |
|
|
|
13/6/10 |
Serbia |
v |
Ghana |
Pretoria |
|
|
|
18/6/10 |
Germany |
v |
Serbia |
Port Elizabeth |
|
|
|
19/6/10 |
Ghana |
v |
Australia |
Rustenburg |
|
|
|
23/6/10 |
Australia |
v |
Serbia |
Nelspruit |
|
|
|
23/6/10 |
Ghana |
v |
Germany |
The tiddleywimp
brigade is at it again at the Ignorance.
Where Franny not Mae the government paid radio
compare claims she is opposed to turning the Melbourne Cricket Ground into a
square seated venue for the World Cup.
Is the official ABC policy to carry out an anti-football campaign and
stop the world’s biggest sporting competition being
held on Australian shores? Or is it
merely that of National Radio (sic) a very myopic WASPy
organisation where nepotism and anti-football
rhetoric is the first criteria of the job description for its employees who
receive big fat guaranteed pensions as consideration for promoting the tiddleywimp ethic from their dugouts? Are they so afraid of football that they go
to any extent to harass and denigrate the world’s greatest sport? Really, why is the public forced to fund
these ignorant troglodytes from South Australia? No attempt is made to report the ‘concerns’
of the minor sports but rather a very simple out and out personal campaign to
discredit football. There is no objectivity
in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (government corporation lol- they are funded by money forced out of the pockets of
the public). This is the extent of
support for the World Cup bid in Australia, a media monopoly run by shady and
dubious characters intent on stopping the sport being shown in Australia. ACCC
is a sham.
The
big game is on this Saturday with Sydney FC travelling to Melbourne in what
will be FC’s last chance to win the automatic spot in Asia next year and win
the Championship. A Melbourne win will
all but ensure that Victory go Asia back to back. On the line up front, Bridge is back and
hopefully on full throttle at Etihad Stadium.
Melbourne is a very beatable side and still lacks striking power and
science. A few back to back wins put
them on top but with scappy football and mainly
grunts, unpunished dangerous sliding tackles and no finesse. FC by contrast is an exciting attacking
machine that is at least attempting to lift the standard of play in the
competition.
Meanwhile plummeting crowds continue
to plague the league. Long term
followers of football in this country have seen this before. Northern Spirit went from 15k crowds to just
one away supporter at Wolves way back in the 90s before the inevitable
collapse. This time the teams are
professional usually play entertaining football but are continually subject to
disparaging ignorant monopoly media coverage.
The average sports follower in
Australia has no knowledge or exposure to the world of competitive sport. They remain blinkered by a monopoly media and
believe football is for wogs and tiddleywimps
(so-called Australian Football League which is really a quaint Victorian
adaptation of Irish football) is a competitive world class sport. These cave dwellers are unlikely change their
views while the media is dominated by a small number of moguls who control all
they see and think.
Being isolated from the world has
some but very few advantages. It is the
reasons that Australia is a laggard in the arts and sports. The only thing of real significance that
comes out of the country continues to be developed by the new migrants who have
a vision and global outlook. On the
positive side of isolation and ignorance, Ross Garnaut
says Australia missed out on the big banking collapse because the banks were
five years behind the CDO derivatives market.
In that case it saved our banking industry now dominated by only four
government backed banks. At times there
may be an advantage to being backward but in a modern world being backward
means going backwards. Eventually the big holes in the ground that back our
living standards will become valueless and the ignorant citizen will find life
a struggle in the new world order. But
like all things this will take time and go unnoticed until too late. Imagine there is even a call not to stage
the World Cup because of all those wogs it will
attract.
Where to now for football in this
country? Stabilisation of the world’s number one
sport in Australia requires money and a free media. The sport has neither. So maybe we are heading back to a
semi-professional set up of the past as clubs go out backwards and red all over
the their P/L accounts.
Pim the Great for the important Asian Cup qualifier against
Kuwait will be giving new players the opportunity to shine. The element of surprise will be with the Socceroos.
Alex
Brosque (Sydney FC), Jacob Burns (Perth Glory), Nick
Carle (Crystal Palace FC, England), Simon Colosimo
(Sydney FC), Jason Culina (Gold Coast United) Bruce Djite (Genclerbirligi SK,
Turkey), Eugene Galekovic (Adelaide United FC), Scott
Jamieson (Adelaide United FC), Mile Jedinak (Antalyaspor Kulubu, Turkey),
Matthew Kemp (Melbourne Victory FC), Shane Lowry (Aston Villa FC, England),
Matthew McKay (Brisbane Roar), Craig Moore (Brisbane Roar), Tommy Oar (Brisbane
Roar), Nikita Rukavytsya (FC Twente,
Netherlands), Matthew Spiranovic (FC Nurnberg,
Germany), Mile Sterjovski (Perth Glory), Archie
Thompson (Melbourne Victory), Matthew Thompson (Newcastle Jets), Tando Velaphi (Perth Glory),
Dario Vidosic (FC Nurnberg, Germany), Danny Vukovic (Central Coast Mariners), Luke Wilkshire
(FK Dinamo Moscow, Russia).
This squad has plenty
of pace and attacking players but may lack a little on the defensive side. It is clear from the squad that Pim will be going for an all out
attack and seeking to overwhelm the opposition with pace and slick
passing. Hopefully the defence will hold firm and we can finish off our
chances. Simon Colosimo
is a risk in the defence as he has not been in top
form lately. When playing well he is of
international standard but has gone off the boil for FC in recent games. Zulo is missing
from the squad and has been outstanding as an overlapping full back and
deserves a chance at this level. Jacob
Burns has been unimpressive for Perth and is really a hard man midfielder that
may be punished by a referee who takes a dim view of his incessant reckless
challenges. Craig Moore shores up the defence but will need to be surrounded by pace. Overall we have a highly competitive squad of
players who hopefully will jell into a technically proficient team.
The 2-2 draw on a dumpy
pitch and laser wielding Kuwaiti fans meant that the Socceroos
emerged with an important point needing only a draw against Indonesia to qualify
for 2011. It could have been a win had Galekovic anticipated a near-post shot which all
goalkeepers are trained to expect. The
MMs are as usual continue to denigrate the efforts of
the team and doctor comments on the Telemoron sites
understating the number of comments by football fans. Brosque
unfortunately was injured and he would have added that extra edge to the team
up front had he been available. Archie
was well marked and well-known by the Kuwaitis from the encounter during the
Canberra game and was marked out of the game.
As usual Archie was off-side too often and in positions where he should
have known better.
FC manages to draw in Melbourne and is still within
striking distance of an automatic place in the Champions Cup. It could now boil down to the last game of
the season where FC takes on Victory at home.
FC win over Central Coast to top the league puts pressure on Victory who
is likely to collapse at any moment with their shaky defence. Sydney qualify for Asian with a convincing last
round win 2-0 and Aloisi comes good with a
spectacular goal to put FC 2-0 up.
Disappointing was the appalling condition of the surface of
the football ground. The southern end
was a bumpy patch of sand not suitable or safe for football. This was even outdone by the terrible
condition the following Thursday for the Finals at the Telstra Dome. The ground could only be described as a moon
pitted surface where to run was to risk the threat of injury.
The lack of ability and skills of ground staff in Australia
will make hosting the World Cup if selected a huge challenge. The government run grounds have staff with no
knowledge of the requirements of football and lack even the most basic skills
in surface preparation or management.
Australian companies that have laid turf overseas all have needed to be
replacement and have been substandard.
To what extent the media moguls from the anti-football codes are
responsible is uncertain for the latest fiasco from ground staff. The television images coming from the ground
shows pitted, brown multi-lined fields for a show-piece event of the Finals
Series in the A-League that has excerpts shown throughout the world.
The Telemoron and other news
media limited the coverage of the football event to small sections buried
deeply in back pages. This is despite 28
000 attending the Sydney game in Sydney.
Meanwhile the MMs maximised coverage of their
owned sports which drew far less spectators despite their saturation
coverage. It has now been revealed that
the Australian government has been offering tax rebates of hundreds of millions
of dollars to these MM moguls and protection from competition to gain political
support for the upcoming elections.
Corruption in Australian government makes corruption in the crony
capitalist states look minimal. At least
in the crony capitalist states they are honest about their corruption. There is no free media in Australia and the
government backs the Penguin and Joker’s control of media. It is now attempting to stop free media over
the Internet as the level of corruption amongst the government and its
bureaucracy grows to unprecedented levels only matched by the early convict
days.
The ABC of bottom dwellers are at it
again this time completely ignoring the Socceroo match against Indonesia in the
Asian qualifiers. The ABC of Ignorance
is perhaps the most overtly racist organization promoted and paid for by the
government anywhere in the world outside of Zimbabwe. These overpaid unproductive bureaucrats hire
personnel on the basis of their prejudice against our Asian neigbours
and football. Their aim is to seek to
denigrate Asian football and sport in general at any opportunity. This is despite football being the first
sport in Australia! The reason is that
the game is played by people who also come from countries outside of
Australia. This is all done with
government populist monies. The ARL and
AFL racist taunts have long been documented in Australia and this racist ethic
is the official government policy by the current demagogue. How ignorant can programs such as the Offsiders on the Australian government TV be?
Meanwhile, the Asian
Champions League got on the way despite the media blackout here in Australia.
Victory played creditably to go down in Beijing and Adelaide surprised with a
win at home. A brilliant Matthew Leckie goal was enough for Adelaide to secure the
points. It was all hands to the pump as
wave after wave of Pohang attacks broke down with desperate defending and
clears off the line. Vidmar
appreciates the need to win at home and take some points away to progress.
The Socceroos
prepare for the vital Australia v Indonesia match in Brisbane on the Gold
Coast. This is hardly a notable football
area where only 4700 turned out for the knockout semi-final last weekend. However, it is close to Brisbane and is the
only thing going for this ultra red-neck area of
Queensland where giant rips and high-rise buildings dominate the
landscape. Speculation begins to mount
of the future of Pim who is widely tipped to return
to Europe and pick up a club team after many years in Asia. His choice of players for the game has raised
some eyebrows with the notable omission of some key players in the A-League
such as Aloisi who has gathered some form and the
Griffiths who ply their trade in China.
Be that as it may, only qualification will be satisfactory and the proof
will be in the pudding. And the Socceroos qualify for the Asian Nations Cup with a highly
professional display against Indonesia winning 1-0 and never looking threated
at any point in the game. Leckie was the outstanding player and tore sheds off the
Indonesia defence.
Meanwhile
as another AFL star bashes an Indian taxi driver in Melbourne, the real
football heroes i.e. the A-league players Melbourne Victory win a controversial
game against Sydney FC to progress to the Grand Final which will now be played
in Melbourne. A comedy of errors from
the referee culminated in a direct for handball (which clearly came of the face
and not the hand) that was duly converted in extra time by Arch Villain
Thompson. Melbourne then lose their second Asian Cup match that all put them out of
the race.
Sydney
play Wellington and this time they won’t have their 33 000 backers in Sydney
for a place in the Grand Final. A game
of winner takes all. Herbert has put
together a highly competitive and amazingly, an attacking team so it will be
difficult for FC even with the home ground advantage. The home ground may actually suit Wellington,
as it is likely to be a cow paddock and hacked about by the rugby match on the
Friday before the game.
Sydney
easily takes care of Wellington to progress to the Grand Final in front of a
small crowd on the cow paddock they call a football ground. Can Victory hold out a rampant FC in the
Melbourne Grand Final? The usual
blackout exists in the media and the Ignorance chokes on its spittle even to
mention the word football. However,
given it is impossible to get a ticket from the ticket website it appears that
there may be a full house in Melbourne.
Will the referees pull up the hacking and wild charges of the Victory in
this last game of the season? Or will
there be a repeat of last season where the referee gifted the Victory a win by
sending a player off who hadn’t even looked like committing a foul? In any event, Sydney FC are
the better side and are the premiers.
They are also most likely win the Great Toilet Seat to add to the
Premier’s Plate. The design of the
trophy leaves a lot to be desired.
Unique no, it resembles a Dunedoo Showground dunny lid painted gold.
Perhaps if the trophy looked more like a football it might pass in the
design stakes. One can only imagine what
FFA were thinking when they voted for this
design. Despite the stodgy terd design it is the prestige of winning that it is all
about. Three losses in a row will prove
the place of Victory in the global game.
Sydney
do the double as Victory tumble from grace.
Meanwhile with an
election looming in the distance the xenophobes are again out in force and
establishing the true nature of the political culture in Australia of
small-minded racist demagogues with all parties equally culpable. The great
threat of poor people in boats is met with incarceration behind razor wire and
the systematic dehumanization and bashing of the poor goes on at the urging of
the packielackey-tiddlewimp brigade.
The World Cup is just
about upon us.
Melbourne
is unceremoniously dumped out of the Asian Champions League as Beijing is
snubbed by the Melbourne media and public.
While the Melbourne Mining Club was spruiking
the virtues of a rapidly growing Asian region for our exports and the region’s
benefits for Australia, the media was promulgating the anti-foreigner ethic and
demonstrating the lack of sporting knowledge of the small-minded Melbourne
public. There were more Beijing
supporters at the Champions League match in Melbourne than Victory
supporters. This is a sad indictment of
the mentality of the Victorians who continue to be frightened by anyone who is
not of appropriate national background.
Then Muscat in a hissy fit blames all and sundry for the lack of
commitment of his team in a crucial game played before less than 5000 in
Melbourne. His crude tackle at the end of the game went unpunished but he
deserved a red card. The fans for
Victory who did turn up to the game created a reasonable atmosphere given their
sparse numbers. There remains
some educated sporting fans in Melbourne but these are far and few between as
the rest succumb to the barrage of denigrating media coverage of football in
this country. Melbourne still thrives on
the wog bashing (now literally) of those that follow the global game. The ground was multi-lined and in poor
condition but Beijing outperformed Victory and thoroughly deserved their probable
progression through to the knockout phase of the competition. Meanwhile,
Adelaide remain the standard bearers for the A-League and have progressed with
a match in hand to the next phase.