Ever
wondered why so many Australian footballers (Socceroos) play overseas?
The
Socceroo squad has been narrowed down to 31 players. Galekovic is named as
the emergency goalkeeper if needed but after his last minute near post miss
that cost the game for Adelaide against Jeonbuk, one
has to question his inclusion at the expense of Langerak. Be that as it may, the squad is as follows:
Michael Beachamp, Marco Bresciano, Tim
Cahill, Nick Carle, David Carney, Scott Chipperfield,
Jason Culina, Brett Emerton,
Adam Federici, Eugene Galekovic,
Richard Garcia, Vincenzo Grella, James Holland, Brett
Holman, Mile Jedinak, Brad Jones, Joshua Kennedy,
Harry Kewell, Shane Lowry, Scott McDonald, Mark Milligan, Craig Moore, Lucas
Neill, Jade North, Thomas Oar, Nikita Rukavytsya,
Mark Schwarzer, Carl Valeri,
Dario Vidosic, Luke Wilkshire,
Rhys Williams
The
squad lacks height at the back and if we finish second in the group and play
England and we’ll be up against the Crouch.
Pim the Great may not have looked beyond the
group stage as it will be very difficult to get through. Germany are
impressive and have excellent goalkeepers so it will be very difficult to
breach their defence. The best we can
hope for is a draw. Ghana are virtually
at home and have great speed and technical ability, but are likely to drop
their heads if they go behind and the Serbia game will be the decider if the
Socceroos manage a draw and win in the first two games. The Socceroos defence is well-organised but
the lack of height will make it difficult against the tall pacey mobile
Serbs. If the Socceroos do get through
a 0-0 against England would be the best result we could hope for against an
excellent English team. Going to penalties is our only hope. We have the better goalkeeper. England are unlikely
to get too far in the World Cup this year because of their lack of a decent
goalkeeper. No team can win a World Cup
without a world class goalkeeper. So we
do have slim chance to get further this time around.
Meanwhile
the tiddleywimp brigade has officially admitted they
are” not a game of any significance or
international status” and that the World Cup is much bigger than their random punies. Well, so
what is new? In typical style, the tiddlewimps go hat in hand seeking unearned monies from
taxpayers because they still get to play but only on cow paddocks that real
football has put up with for well over a century. The realisation that their game is
insignificant must have choked the Melbourne establishment given their
pee-in-the-pocket of the government bureaucrats approach. Crony capitalism is
after all the key feature of the Australian anti-football psyche where for
years the government banned foreign football to be shown on television.
Australia’s football team win 2-1 against New Zealand
with a last gasp goal from Holman.
Australia played well enough for the result and save face against a
determined New Zealand. Germany looking on feel they
have little to fear from the Socceroos.
Let’s hope they are wrong. A few wild early challenges resulted in a
stop start game. A poor crowd of just 55000
turn out on a windswept rainy Monday night to farewell the Socceroos at an
antiquated oval venue where no sport of any significance is ever played. The Melbourne Cricket Ground is a hack ground
and it would be a tragedy if this poor quality venue is ever used as a World
Cup football venue. The tiddleywimps who control the
ground even refused the Socceroos the opportunity to train on the venue before
their final game before departing for the World Cup! The empty stands testify to the mentality of
the ‘bash the wog chink whatsos’ that typifies this
city. Melbourne is a city where foreign
student live in fear every time they travel on public transport. Fear not only of the mad tiddlewimp
thugs but also the police with tasers and guns used
to subdue even the slightly noisy football fan.
If a football fan from the world would ever make a noise or consumed
more than two glasses of beer they would be immediately threatened with
repeated electric shocks from an overzealous tiddleywimp
constabulary from the Nanny State. Poor
show Melbourne but one that revealed your mentality.
It
appears that the tiddleywimp brigade have succeeded
in halting the World Cup bid with their ongoing arrogance and anti-world
contact mentality. A pole of World Cup
bidders shows Australia slipping alarmingly in the rankings. They are citing the antiethnic
views of the AFL tiddlewimps brigade. The World Cup after all is about global
cooperation and friendship. The AFL tiddleywimps are more aligned to the old White South Africa
movement with KKK factions that attack ‘foreigners’.
Meanwhile,
the Socceroos have arrived in South Africa and have begun their training at
altitude. The critics and detractors of
the team and the sport continue to have a field day complaining that the
Socceroos beat New Zealand 2-1 in Melbourne and point to the fact that the
Socceroos only beat Indonesia 1-0 in the World Cup qualifiers. The fact that it was in 35C heat and 100 per
cent humidity appears to be forgotten.
This naïve tiddleywimps brigade has no
comprehension of what is required in competitive sport. Football is a great leveller and all teams at
international level are difficult.
National governments plough huge funds worldwide into their national
teams so they can receive recognition in the only truly global sport. The colonial mentality of the tiddleywimps is the belief that they are superior and their
faeces stinks not. They believe all
people around the world are inferior and that Indonesians could not possibly be
good at sport and have a decent football team for they are only wogs and boat
people. Nevertheless, there are many
followers of football in Australia and we will all be cheering on our great
team of great players. The players in
the green and gold are truly courageous and talented and have developed into
world class players despite the ongoing harassment and ridicule from a moronic
media monopoly with none so ignorant as News Ltd and its twin the government
controlled ABC.
Australia
defeat Denmark 1-0 in a high altitude workout and Pim
the Great’s team win again against expectations. The old argument rages over striking power
and attacking prowess. The facts are
that the Socceroos have a well organised team with many attacking options all over
the field. Bosnich
on Fox shows his hazy reasoning and intense jealousy about the achievements of
the Socceroos. This jealousy is probably the result of the 2-2 loss to Iran in
the World Cup many years ago. Bozza was a great goalkeeper even though he struggled to
kick afoot ball off the ground under pressure. Bozza
now claims the Socceroos cannot play football and yet the results say
otherwise. He has that typical
goalkeeper syndrome where his analysis is theoretical and not based on the
practicality of real outfield play. Be
that as it may, Australia has goal scorer potential all over the park. Chipperfield,
Cahill, Kewell, Kennedy, Wilkshire, Moore (set pieces),
and Bresciano. True, Pim
the Great does not use a 4-4-2 and relies on solid defence using a modern style
of play. The Socceroos play within their
limits and this avoids the brain explosions and wishful thinking low
probability attempts that waste possession of the football. The Socceroos may yet surprise the detractors
in the ignorant Australian media. It
took a 16 year old Matilda to point out the lack of education of Australia’s
sports media after the Matildas won the Asian Nations Cup for Women in
China.
The final Socceroo squad has been set in stone
for the World Cup. Rhys Williams is left
out of the squad due to Strachan’s incompetence forcing Rhys to play with a
serious hip injury. Rhys should get out
of Middlesbrough as soon as possible and find a club that will treat him as a
quality player, and a club with decent medical facilities. A better coach would help also develop his
skill levels. Or it may be the poor
training of English medical staff due to the nationalisation of medicine there
in Britain. Strachan claims, “ He only ever had two injections into the problem area, both
of which were taken on the advice of a surgeon for the player's long-term
benefit.” Looks like the surgeon erred
and should have sought the advice of other medical practitioners. The final
squad is:
Goalkeepers: Mark Schwarzer, Adam Federici, Brad
Jones.
Defenders: Scott Chipperfield, David Carney,
Lucas Neill, Michael Beauchamp, Craig Moore, Mark Milligan, Luke Wilkshire.
Midfielders: Vince Grella, Carl Valeri, Jason Culina, Mile Jedinak, Tim Cahill, Brett Holman, Dario Vidosic, Mark Bresciano, Brett
Emerton, Richard Garcia.
Strikers: Nikita Rukavytsya, Josh Kennedy,
Harry Kewell.
Meanwhile,
Shady Sheedy, a tiddleywimp
guru comments on the Ignornance further demonstrate
the convict mentality of its followers.
When asked if he thought that basketball players from California would
want to come to Australia to play tiddleywimps, he
replies, “Of course, look at all those leaky boats wanting to get to our
shores.” Now is
that ignorance and a throw-back to the hulks of Ole England or what? What a typical piece of Neanderthal mentality
from the Melbourne Club. No wonder
people from around the world are fearful to walk the streets of Melbourne. They
may be zapped by moron rays. This low
quality non-event of a sport called tiddleywimps aka afl (sic) continues its public
denigration of all things international.
Not content to force football out of the country, and destroy any chance
Australia has of hosting the World Cup, they also seek to attack the most
vulnerable in the community. Victimising
the poor and vulnerable is the sport of these cowardly tiddlewimp
brigades. It is they who are fearful of real competition and aggressive to
anyone slightly different from themselves. What a non-competitive, myopic head
in the sand, gutter licking sport! Shame on Toyota for
sponsoring such as sport. It also
boils down to a game anyone can play because it really only requires
athleticism and is devoid of skill where height is the only criteria for
success.
Australia
are beaten by the USA in the final warm-up game
3-1. The Socceroo defence was asleep in
the first half and two gift goals allowed the USA to dominate the game and win
on the counter attack. Beauchamp’s
height may have averted the second goal and he must be in consideration for a
spot. Socceroos defensive frailty to the
short swift ground incisive passing was also evident. The US attacking force at
times occasionally displayed Brazil like passing around the penalty area. Grella’s hard
tackling was a feature of the game as well as his lapse in concentration at the
beginning of the game. The Socceroos
appeared tired and off colour, although they dominated possession throughout
the game. They misses
a few sitters so the result was perhaps flattering for the USA.
So what was learned?
Fitness
after gruelling training sessions remains an issue for many of the players who
were slow out of the blocks. This has
become a habit of the team and was also evident in the Asian qualification
stages. Many pundits put this down to
jet lag and the gruelling travel regime. Perhaps this has become a habit etched
into the psyche of the players at some unconscious level. Overconfidence could be another
explanation. The Grella
attempt to dribble through two USA players in the centre of the field in front
of the goal then losing the ball that resulted in the goal smacked of a lack of
respect for the USA attacking duo. Every
coach at junior level emphasises that playing safe out of defence is critical
to the success of a team. Football is
first about not conceding goals, then about scoring. The reason is that one goal and solid defence
wins a very high proportion of games. With only three games in the group stage,
conceding early can be minefield and blow out the goal difference.
The
ability of the Socceroos to come back from behind was evident, with Cahill
ghosting to the back post despite being heavily marked and kicked around by the
US defence force. Unfortunately a soft
second goal to the USA put us behind again almost immediately. Cahill was taken off at half time to avoid
injury and this of course affected the attacking options for the team. Nikita
showed limited promise and maybe Scot Macdonald would have twinned better with
Kennedy. Overconfidence has now
evaporated and the players can have no illusions about the magnitude of the
task before them. How Pim will use Kewell is anybody’s guess. Kewell will add attacking verve but match
fitness as usual remains a great concern. Kewell’s heart still beats for the
Socceroos. Emerton may also add further
attacking flair and pace down the flanks to complement Chipperfield’s
raids that were highly impressive against USA.
Chipperfield’s accurate crossing shows that the new ball can be pin-pointed and that
it has a true
trajectory at lower velocities. The
second goal by the USA was another case in point. At higher velocity and hit slightly off
centre the ball swerves and dips. This serve and dip helped Cahill who is the
master of the world of the intuitive run.
The biggest problem faced by Cahill will be the illegal obstruction
tactics of defences to stop these runs.
The USA constantly held him, obstructed
him, and pushed him as he began runs to stop his ghosting. How referees handle these constant
infringements of the obstruction rule will be an important factor. This new ball however should favour the
highly skilled player with the true touch and the attacker with the intelligent
intuitive runs.
As
for the USA, they may be capable of beating England so there could be a rematch
with the Socceroos.
Serbia
is a must win for the Socceroos to progress and another two points will be
required. Serbia’s poor form coming into
the tournament must be of concern for their coach. But beware the slow starter. Italy does this well, starting slow and then
building momentum. We can only hope the
inexperience of the Serb’s and their poor temperament will affect their
game and their competitiveness at the group stages. The group is difficult but possible for the
Socceroos. Needing to beat the Serbs even if they are mathematically eliminated
in the last round may prove very difficult for the Socceroos. Once the pressure is off the young guns often
shine. The Socceroos will need to be at
their best to progress in all three games.
Consistency and concentration is the name of
the game. Only eight days before the
greatest show on Earth begins. The
players should now be reaching peak fitness and the
butterflies will begin
to set in. Soon all will be
revealed. A magnificent opening ceremony
symbolising one of international hope and cooperation characterised the
beginning to the South African World Cup.
South African music and fantastic play by their football team resulted
in a very successful start of a new era for Africa. One could not help but notice the difference
in the crowd and on the field compared to the rugby in South Africa.
Meanwhile,
in Main Street in the Land of the Crappielackey,
racial slurs by the hero of the game Andrew ‘I can’t put a sentence together’
Johns against other players
“ANDREW Johns last night quit the NSW Origin
(sic) team after he admitted a racist sledge towards Queensland superstar(they must be kidding!) Greg Inglis.”
How
stupid can a Crappielackey get?
Then
again this has always been the “State of the Moron” game.
Pim the Great’s Socceroos are crushed by Germany 4-0 and they were never in
the game. The German’s beat the offside
trap with ease and this combined with sub-standard refereeing meant doom for
the Socceroos. The referee from Mexico
had less than a good grasp of the laws of the game. He allowed the German’s to run outside the
field play and re-enter without issuing the mandatory yellow card, missed a
clear handball in the penalty area, missed a push on Cahill on the edge of the
penalty area and then straight redded Cahill for an
innocuous tackle. With 10 men on the
field against a controlled German outfit we were lucky to limit the damage to
four nil. It will now be difficult even
if we beat Ghana who only need to limit the damage
against Australia to go through if they can get a result against what will be
the second string German outfit. Kewell
and Kennedy were absent and no Bresciano all being
saved for the next games. Pim obviously thought the best we could do against Germany
was to draw and doubted the ability of the team to take on the Germans.
Of
course the Telemorons aka Daily Telegraph deadheads are
out in force and doctoring their website for comments about the game. News
Limited in Australia is ruled by a racist establishment that seeks to belittle
anyone who has slightly different interest and appearance than themselves. Who wants to look like a Neanderthal nitwit
anyway? Only the AFL and ARL fan base.
The Telemoron administration are using their comments
section in their web pages to belittle the Socceroos and football fans around
the world generally and are censoring any comments that are even slightly
positive about football. The MMs are
real wimps because in true colonial style they are about stopping competition
and creating an nth rate sport where all teams are deemed to be equally weak.
After the World Cup they will no doubt go out and on a rampage attacking and
humiliating minority groups with the support of the government. A government which locks up people who refuse
to vote for them. Imagine you are an Australian citizen and you decide to not vote
because both candidates are about humiliating the poor. You are fined and jailed if you refuse to
cooperate with these low-lifes. The convict mentality
is alive and well in Australia. In
breaking news, it appears Melbourne police have perverted the course of justice
by allegedly concealing evidence and underinvesting rape case involving a tiddleywimp he-man.
Yet the Melbourne police are quick to attack football fans. Crony capitalism and police corruption claims
are continually starved of oxygen by the media moguls but this does not mean
there is not a major problem of government administration in Australia.
Things
continue to go badly for the Socceroos and the send offs continues. This time Kewell is red carded for stopping
an obvious goal scoring opportunity as a ball struck his arm on the goal
line. A very harsh call by the referee
and was not what the rule intended. A
penalty was sufficient as Kewell had no opportunity to move his arm out of the
way of the ball. So with ten men the
Socceroos manage to draw against Ghana at altitude and were very unlucky not to
win.
This
basically puts them out of contention for the next round as they will need a
big win against Serbia and Ghana to lose big time against Germany. A possible but highly
improbably scenario. The whole of
Australia’s football fraternity are in mourning from the loss. The Socceroos did play well but the thrashing
by Germany will prove too costly. Poor
refereeing standards and confusion about how to interpret the handball rule and
the denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity resulted in a 10 man Australia
with their backs against the wall. The
shot by Ghana hit Kewell’s arm on the goal line. The advice to referees is that a handball in
a penalty area would not normally constitute a booking because the penalty is sufficient
punishment. This rule conflicts with
denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity which is a red card. In the Kewell instance, he was on the line
and put his body on the line to prevent the goal. The ball hits his arm which is by his
side. There was no deliberate attempt to
deny a goal scoring opportunity as would be the case if a player moved his hand
to tip the ball over the bar. This harsh
decision shows two things that have become apparent at the World Cup about the
referees. Firstly they have difficulty
interpreting rules when there are conflicting rules and directions in the
official laws of the game. Secondly, if
it comes to a decision the bigger nation is favoured over the smaller nation. This second aspect may be because of the appointment
system where bigger nations have a say while smaller nations are ignored. The result was unfair treatment of the
Socceroos.
The
Australian football team go on to defeat Serbia 2-1 in a thrilling second-half
of all or nothing swash buckling attacks and counter thrusts. Four points prove insufficient and Ghana and
Germany progress on goal difference. If
it is any consolation Germany crush England 4-1 and England had 11 men on the
park not 10 as Australia had against both Germany and Ghana. Ghana wins also.
So the Socceroos performed well, but as
happens in football many random events intervene. In this case very poor refereeing and Pim the Great’s decision to go defensive against the
Germans and to seek a point back fired.
This is followed by two games with 10 men on the park. A huge assignment and the performance of the
Socceroos can be viewed with pride.
As far as Foster “I couldn’t score against
Iran or anyone except the Solomon’s “ derision of our national team shows what
a jealous off the mark lacking Australian spirit commentator he has revealed
himself to be. His derision of Asian
teams (both South Korea and Japan make the next round) stems from his lack of
understanding of the basic struggle that is football. Remember that Foster couldn’t score against
an Asian club to save his life and his misses in front could have been scored
by his grandmother. His criticism of the
Socceroos is unjustified and the players in our current team are one hundred
per cent better players with greater ticker than Foster ever was or will
be. Well done the Socceroos and unlucky Pim the Great.
Now for the Asian Nations
Cup and the new generation of players.