I thought the Italian was sent off because of a second yellow - it was no way a straight red.
Not really sure if the penalty was a penalty, but it was soft and have seen worse waved on in this tournament.
The difference between the Italian/Brazil and Australia is everytime they (Italy/Brazil) went in attack they looked capable of scoring, where as Australia didn’t.
Personally I think Aust would of played better 11 v 11.
Even though I am upset with the result - Australia well done, you showed if you go and play the game and not the team you can do okay
[quote]DMA wrote:
I’m an upset Aussie so if I’m biased sorry.
I thought the Italian was sent off because of a second yellow - it was no way a straight red.
Not really sure if the penalty was a penalty, but it was soft and have seen worse waved on in this tournament.
The difference between the Italian/Brazil and Australia is everytime they (Italy/Brazil) went in attack they looked capable of scoring, where as Australia didn’t.
Personally I think Aust would of played better 11 v 11.
Even though I am upset with the result - Australia well done, you showed if you go and play the game and not the team you can do okay[/quote]
It WAS a straight red but it shoudn’t have been.
You would definitely have benefitted from a full strength Italy side that would have thought they could beat you and so would have opened up a bit more.
The penalty was never in a millions years a penalty. If a player falls over another one that’s just unfortunate, not a penalty. Absurd.
Aussie fans can feel justifiably hard done by tonight. My tuppence worth…
[quote]BFBullpup wrote:
Great post, Big100. So true.[/quote]
Thanks, my comments about players diving became a lot more true than I would have liked!!
Even as a one-eyed Aussie supporter I think Italy can be congratulated on their defence, we controlled the ball beautifully (59-41% possession) but didn’t do enough in attack. If it went to extra time it would have been Australia to win no doubt as our superior fitness would have let us walk all over them in the end, especially with a man down, plus I think they had made all of their substitutions and we still had two left.
I just can’t help but think what a difference Harry Kewell would have made by flying down the left flank and stretching the Italians out a bit more with his pace, not to mention better quality crosses into the box. We played too much down the centre of the field. It was very sad seeing Harry sitting on the bench. Ironically it wasn’t his troublesome groin muscles that were injured, he had a case of gout (inflamation) in his ankle!
There’s always next time though. If the Aussies can go this far with only 10 months under Hiddink’s control and learning to play a new style of football, imagine how good we could be now that we are in the Asian confederation and can finally play regular matches against top quality opposition in the Asian cup and of course a much longer WC qualifying process instead of thrashing the minnows in Oceania and then coming up against the 5th placed South American side where if you don’t perform in only 2 matches every 4 years you don’t make it. At least in Asia we can afford to have one bad game and still qualify.
Cheers,
Ben
PS: Did you here that officials from the Italian Olympic diving team have approached Fabio Grossi to see if he is interested in swapping sports and having a go at the 10m platform in Beijing 2008? Apparently they are quite impressed with his ability to perform flawless dives under enormous pressure and in front of huge crowds. It also helps that officials seem to score his efforts quite highly, especially in the last dive of the competition…
Oh, and they have also approached the Spanish ref to see if he would like to become a diving judge…
[quote]DMA wrote:
I’m an upset Aussie so if I’m biased sorry.
I thought the Italian was sent off because of a second yellow - it was no way a straight red.
[/quote]
I thought this as well, but I just checked the FIFA match report and he hadn’t been booked before the red card, only Grossi had for the Italians (Maybe for diving? LOL!).
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
Aussie fans can feel justifiably hard done by tonight. My tuppence worth…[/quote]
Thanks for your sympathy, we in Australia are all new to this World Cup heartbreak (except when it comes to qualifying), now we know how England supporters have felt every four years when some sort of dramatic moment loses them the game!
By the way, this even hurt a lot more than Wilkinson’s field goal in the 2003 RWC final, and I’m a big rugby fan! At least England earned their chance at that field goal…
[quote]bg100 wrote:
By the way, this even hurt a lot more than Wilkinson’s field goal in the 2003 RWC final, and I’m a big rugby fan! At least England earned their chance at that field goal…[/quote]
Are you kidding me?
The only time that people in Australia give a shit about soccer is when the world cup is on. It will become the forgotten sport again for the next 4 years. The A-League may get a little bit more support next season, but eventually it will rejoin its rightful place next to basketball as the least supported sports in Australia (from a professional point of view)
[quote]CC wrote:
IRoNStaLLion wrote:
how can you say that australia deserved to win??
ok ASSuming that the PK was a bad call (which IMO opinion it is not since, the Aus defender did impede the ITA players progress) You can’t say that the red card to matterazzi was deserved… AT most that should have been a yellow.
So italy played a man down for most of the second period but still won… and they deserved to lose??
i don’;t get that.
Read my post again. Where did I say Italy deserved to lose? Where did I say Australia deserved to win? That’s right, I didn’t.
My only issue is that I don’t think anyone wants to see an otherwise pretty good game decided in the 90th minute on a bush league call like that.
I’m a fan of soccer and of the World Cup, not Italy or Australia. I like to see good soccer. That was not good soccer.
[quote]helga wrote:
bg100 wrote:
By the way, this even hurt a lot more than Wilkinson’s field goal in the 2003 RWC final, and I’m a big rugby fan! At least England earned their chance at that field goal…
Are you kidding me?
The only time that people in Australia give a shit about soccer is when the world cup is on. It will become the forgotten sport again for the next 4 years. The A-League may get a little bit more support next season, but eventually it will rejoin its rightful place next to basketball as the least supported sports in Australia (from a professional point of view)[/quote]
I’m not saying that soccer is now going to be the no. 1 sport in Oz after this WC, but my point was that it is not going to go away and hide for 4 years like it has in the past. We have an Asian Cup qualifier in Sydney in August. I don’t know how many of these matches there are, but soon after will be the Asian Cup itself, not to mention the fact that a lot of other nations will probably want to play Australia in friendlies now that we have earned some respect at the highest level.
The Socceroos will remain in the national spotlight and that will lead to greater crowd participation and thus greater sponsorship dollars etc etc. When kids see that they can actually have a viable sporting career because the money is there we will see more of the huge junior soccer population sticking with the game until their 20’s and entering the A-league ranks. It’s the same answer to the problem facing Australian athletics, why haven’t we produced more top class sprinters over the years? It’s because most of the best runners opt to go to league/union/AFL, where the money is!
Yes, there is of course heaps of money in soccer in Europe where the current team all play, but the problem we have is lack of depth and only a select few will make it in to Europe. By having a stronger A-league more of the national team can be drawn from the local player ranks, which can only help when it comes to surviving the marathon that is a World Cup. E.g. where was the other Harry Kewell that we needed on the left wing today? He wasn’t there because we need more players of the same talent level.
Also, rugby is my favourite sport, just in case you think I’m some one-eyed soccer fan!
Also, rugby is my favourite sport, just in case you think I’m some one-eyed soccer fan!
Cheers,
Ben[/quote]
I don’t understand this mentality that is prevalent in the US, (and judging by your quote - apparently in Australia as well) that for some reason you cannot enjoy soccer and football (or rugby or what have you ) at the same time. That it has to be this hard line one or the other.
Fucking sad and limited I think.
Granted there are a lot of pretentious, academic types here in the US that love to wank about the beautiful game (basically weenie poseur types who usually root for England - yet can’t name anyone in the first XI other than Beckham and Rooney - LOL ) and deride the barbaric nature of the NFL (and rugby for that matter) - but I think there are many of us here in the states that love soccer just as much as we love the NFL/college football.
[quote]helga wrote:
Thank God that Australia got knocked out of the Cup.[/quote]
What kind of a fucking aussie are you?
Similar shit like that was being bandied about in the US when they got ousted - and it fucking sickens me.
Aussie or American it’s fucking reprehensible.
Even if you don’t like the sport support your damn countrymen - it’s the very least you can do.
That shirt they’re wearing represents your country - same as the Wallabies when they take the pitch. Take pride in what they’ve accomplished, and don’t gloat like a smug bastard when they lose, sorry, robbed. You should be outraged, not happy.
Just because you think less of the sport does not lessen what they are doing. And just because they may not be as accomplished as their rugger cousins does not make them any less worthy of your admiration or support.
[quote]
Now we can go back to being a nation of people that hate soccer again.
Bring back the rugby![/quote]
I hope the English rape you fuckers again !! If the majority of your countrymen share that attitude - well seriously, fuck the Wallabies!!
italy have played well all tourney but have gotten by on dubious calls the entire tournament…de rossi easily could have had two penalties called against him against ghana. The italy US game was a farce for referring, and both those calls in the italy australia game were suspect at best…
[quote]OARSMAN wrote:
A whole lot of crap
[/quote]
I am sorry if I offended you with my earlier comments. I would suggest that as well as not understanding Australia’s attitude to soccer you also do not understand our sense of humour.
I will passionately support any Australian sporting team, regardless of whether it is the Wallabies, the socceroos or our synchronised swimming team.
I will also make jokes about losing the Ashes to the poms, losing the Bledisloe cup to the kiwis and not having a shot of winning whatever the fuck it is you can win in synchronised swimming. It is just the way that we do things here. It doesnt mean that I actually want to see a single one of my nations teams lose.
I am glad that you are passionate about football (I will use your term for the sport) and out of respect for that I will make this my last post in this or any other soccer related thread.
I am sorry if I offended you with my earlier comments. I would suggest that as well as not understanding Australia’s attitude to soccer you also do not understand our sense of humour.
I will passionately support any Australian sporting team, regardless of whether it is the Wallabies, the socceroos or our synchronised swimming team.
I will also make jokes about losing the Ashes to the poms, losing the Bledisloe cup to the kiwis and not having a shot of winning whatever the fuck it is you can win in synchronised swimming. It is just the way that we do things here. It doesnt mean that I actually want to see a single one of my nations teams lose.
I am glad that you are passionate about football (I will use your term for the sport) and out of respect for that I will make this my last post in this or any other soccer related thread.[/quote]
My bad if I sounded a little heated.
But the Aussies should be ridiculously proud of that team - they went balls out toe-to-toe with two of the world’s soccer titans and almost beat them both.
Which is a lot more than I can say for the US boys…oh well, back to the drawing board.
The Socceroos have earned mad respect from the soccer world after this WC, that’s for sure = and they can most definitely lay claim to the best team from the far side of the world.
Apologies if you took offense - but people with that attitude (legitimately and not joking ) should get lit up.
I am from AFL country (Tasmania) and a lot of people don’t understand soccer. I like the skill of soccer, except for the diving skill, and the planning part of the game.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around union and league, which I sort of understand. I know AFL, which supporters hate at the moment because funnily enough the Aust v Italy the way Aust played in attack is similar to how a lot of teams are playing AFL at the moment.
Aussies have an ability of supporting their country but in the same breath bagging it.
I am from AFL country (Tasmania) and a lot of people don’t understand soccer. I like the skill of soccer, except for the diving skill, and the planning part of the game.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around union and league, which I sort of understand. I know AFL, which supporters hate at the moment because funnily enough the Aust v Italy the way Aust played in attack is similar to how a lot of teams are playing AFL at the moment.
Aussies have an ability of supporting their country but in the same breath bagging it.
Strange but true.[/quote]
Good post, and very true. I actually think where you live in Oz can determine how accepting the population is of other sports apart from the main sport for that area, and it’s all got to do with media coverage. For example, here in Sydney we obviously concentrate on the rugby codes. However with the rise of the Sydney AFL team there is now much more coverage and there are probably 2-3 AFL stories in the sport pages every day. I would say that Brisbane is very similar in its attitude towards other aports.
I personally love supporting all 4 football codes and don’t feel I have to lock myself in to one sport.
In contrast the AFL-centric states make it very difficult for other sports to get any coverage, and thus any fan base. For example, my uncle, who is a league and union fan, lives in Melbourne, and he always rants about the fact that you are lucky to get 1-2 stories about rugby codes per week in the Melbourne papers and the games are all shown in the early hours of the morning, if they show them at all on TV!
Although Italy’s group was arguably one of the toughest, it seems they’re going to have a fairly easy, (relatively speaking) route to the semi’s. No offence to the Ukraine but if they failed to score against the Swiss, they’ll also struggle against the Italians. Haven’t worked out who they would play, but if it was and England Vs Italy semi, or worse still, final, then there is surely one of the least mouth-watering prospects ever, (barring a change of form from England).
Anyway, today I will mostly be cheering on Ghana in honour of my Ghanaian brother-in-law. Plus the fact that the nauseating commentators masturbating over everything Ronaldinho & co do is really starting to rile me.