Somebody help me, I have just sat through 45 mins of A league football between the Mariners and the Wanderers, our two best teams. Man oh man, I am one heck of a proud Australian, I would die for my country. But our football (coupled with our national teams two 6-0 doughnut results in our most recent matches) in the a league is not on par with league one or two in your land of the Pie and Pea dish ! Tonight atleast I will have some respite in that I can watch Plymouth V Portsmouth on cable tv, I am genuinely looking forward to it. It is embarrassing how excited the media and those close to the game get when we have the dinosaurs like del piero and heskey, pushed as though they are scoops in the world game. Am I a disgrace to my home nation to bag in such a way ? Does this deserve it's own thread ? Or has too much Laphroaig passed through my inner core ? Trev,
Trev, Every Nation/Club have its ups and downs look at Russia, based on population, they should be fighting it out to win World Cups but they are lucky to be in the world's top ten. A few years ago Australia had a competent International team who could spring a surprise or two and who regularly made it to World Cups with ease. Youth is the key! Keep the faith and don't bin the green and gold just yet AllHell
Earlier today I went to watch Concord Rangers beat Histon 2-1 in the FA Cup. Good crowd - plenty of passion from both players and supporters. Nice burger and chips, and a decent coffee. Real earthy football.
Bit surprising Australia are'nt better at football. I'm told that if you divide olympic medals by poulation, Australia would waltz away from the likes of USA, Russia and China. They've always been a bit up for it where Sport is concerned, so I guess they're day will come. Maybe if they met England on a regular basis, the chance to smite the Poms would give them the push they need.
Yes we have done well in world football, but the last year and looking forward is showing signs of a dim era. Maybe that's too deep a forecast, but we don't have two or three major stars at this time like we usually have had in the past. By all means it is good as we are in the world cup etc, just to see 6-0 in two consecutive games that are friendlies is a bit hard to excuse. We have some good youth, spattered throughout the world leagues, but it doesn't seem to trickle onto the international stage at all times performance wise.
Some very good supporter bases have and are being established here, the recently created club Western Sydney Wanderers have a fanatical fan base in the space of one season. The atmosphere at their matches is quite raucous. The frustrating part is our major league (A League) where teams and players consistently take the safe path over any sort of ball promotion upfield, I understand trying to establish a passing game, but so so many times you cannot fathom why a little forward passing was more prominent.
Yes we do have a lot of passion in our sporting teams, and have often batted above our average on many occasions internationally.
Do you think the loss of Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka (and surely soon Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer).. have greatly hindered the Australian National Team with no one really replacing them, or are there players coming through who could emulate these guys? Surely being part of the AFC rather than the OFC these days is a huge benefit for you?
Yes for sure, it creates a path that looks easy on paper, we have done the job albeit sometimes making it harder than it should be. Those type of players are exactly it, we need a few more prominent ones coming through.. don't see it at the moment. Cahill is great still, but his days are numbered. Duke is a good youngster, but will he or won't he.....
Its crazy because with the big names (Kewell, Neill, Schwarzer, Viduka and Cahill) it took an age to reach your first World Cup in however many years. Now I look at the current squad on Wiki and hardly recognise anyone (Kennedy, Jedinak, Holman and Rhys Williams) yet I'd be surprised if in the AFC Zone there was many a WC you didnt qualify for. I know we all saw how Tahiti did in the Confederations Cup yet do you think that Oceania should have an automatic place in the WC (after all New Zealand were undefeated (albeit two draws) in South Africa) Just seems a joke that some countries such as Africa get 5 places every time yet only Ghana got out of the Group Stages in the last WC and North America have 4 spots when you can only realistically look at the USA and Mexico (who still may not qualify themselves) getting out of the Groups i.e. you could say an OFC team wouldnt stand a chance but it would certainly give them experience for future competitions and as stated above, they cant do much worse than the likes of mighty Cameroon or Nigeria
So at the moment Australia are rubbish at football. They're also rubbish at cricket. And they're rubbish at rugby.
Yeah yeah have a crack, remember we are all descendants of convicts here, so our expectations are very low I genuinely don't like rugby union, my fave contact sport is Rugby League. As for cricket, we have had so much success and great history that I am not yet annoyed at our present downturn in form, we have had our turn more than enough in my eyes. I honestly don't have it in me to jibe the English or kiwi's that much, like most do. The casual banter is ok and goes on, but for me, i think it is because deep down I feel very close to the English for example, on more levels than just because of sporting history. I feel brits/aussies can relate more than a lot of other countries. Tissue anyone ?
We do make the world cups nowadays because of the easier path, and it is only the last year or two that some results have started to show a bit of frailty. You make a very good case mate, for an auto and perhaps one qualifier. Those places are historically very hard to budge, CHANGE is very scary for FIFA.
Yeah Osieck was sacked within 6 hours of the game I think, swift indeed. I am not sure a coaching change is what is needed, but that's what football does - sack and try again.
Yes, 'twas only in jest. You're right, we do have a lot in common (a monarch, for one thing), and I certainly don't hate the Aussies. But to suffer 18 years of constant hammerings in cricket hurts, and that's why the 2005 Ashes will always be the most special for me. Being able to watch the 2010/11 series was amazing as well, as for each of our 3 test wins the game was over before about 1am our time, so we didn't have to ruin our sleeping patterns. I think the coming series will be closer than the last one - 3-0 probably wasn't an accurate reflection of the relative abilities of the 2 teams, and in the 2 tests you dominated, at Old Trafford and the Oval, the rain put the kybosh on your hopes of victory). It's a bit strange how all Australian sport seems to be at a low ebb right now.
