Ever wondered why so many Australian footballers (Socceroos) play overseas?

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Update

 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.

Update page 24