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Australia In The World Cup

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I found this article on www.footballaustralia.com.au

Its about what Australia's squad will look like in 2010

Once you have the taste for it, it

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oh man, you're dreaming to much for Australia.

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In fact it is excellent to see your interest in football go beyond this world cup :thbup:

My interest in Football in general has gone up 1000% since we qualifyed for the World Cup. Ive also just found a website which talks about Australia's future Socceroos players which is quite interesting.

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yeah fifa should crack down on divers, its always the spanish, italian and south american teams that play dirty. Seems like england are 1 of the few countries that play clean

Yeah like your beloved Rooney and his kick to the balls :mf_tongue:

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In fact it is excellent to see your interest in football go beyond this world cup
Indeed. Great to see.
The Italians might dive, the English and the Portuguese prefer assualt.

You do remember Totti's spitting episode at Euro 2004??? No team plays 100% cleanly, some just play dirtier than others.

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Yeah. He has got a dodgy heart. You shouldn't touch him with a barge pole.

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Sorry to be so naive, and yes I AM OPENING AND READING the thread, but i don't understand how a topic about Australia can run to 11 pages on totalf1 forums! There's 32 countries that "starred" in the World Cup?

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Good question. I don't have the foggiest idea. I don't even know why I posted - I loathe football with every fibre of my being, and the same goes for the overpaid show ponies who "play" the game.

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I think the first 4 or 5 pages are predictions from alot of totalf1 forum members. Most of them said the Socceroos didnt have a chance of reaching the second round. Then there is at least 1 page for every match played by Australia and then there are at least 2 pages debating weather the Italian player dived or not.

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I think the first 4 or 5 pages are predictions from alot of totalf1 forum members. Most of them said the Socceroos didnt have a chance of reaching the second round. Then there is at least 1 page for every match played by Australia and then there are at least 2 pages debating weather the Italian player dived or not.

Yeah, although i back Italy, he certainly DIVED, Australia did well mate....

see, now he's even got ME posting! :( But i suppose it's as short and simple like that to me...

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i think that Australia's chances have become zero, since they lost in the world cup, and they went home, shouldn't we close this topic forever? or your going to leave it open for the next 4 years, if Australia "qualifies"

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Its about what Australia's squad will look like in 2010

Forget forwards and defenders with 32+ years old, they just dont have the stamina needed for the position. They can play some time but not a full modern high level match.

Goalkeepers are ok, and 1 or 2 midfielders also may be useful, Zidane anyone?

Keep the faith on young players, surprises happened often, and is the best bet for building a winning team from scratch.

Australia like USA needs 2 or 3 exceptional players as a source of inspiration for younger ones, football (soccer in this case) is a cultural thing, young players watch older ones playing on the street/field and then they learn the tricks.

Many of the best players ever and many, many playing today, learned the game not with normal balls but with some quasi-spherical thing, tennis balls, stones, they play in strange angles fields, with cars parked in between, with holes, trees, windows, people walking.

Some fields dont have net or bars, just two stones one step away because there is no goalkeeper (nobody wants the position), for scoring a goal the ball must go clearly on the ground, long distance kicks dont work, in many places you must enter the goal with the ball.

This way they develop amazing skills.

Then in countrys like Brazil, France and others, soccer schools pick the best kids and then and only then they play in regular fields with high quality balls. They already have the skill, in clubs they get stronger, learn tactics, discipline and strategy.

USA have a strange method to teach soccer, kids start playing with official balls in high quality centers, like a player factory. They dance and make funny games with the ball. Dont know if this work, but they will be good athletes for sure.

But as I said before keep faith on young players

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Can anyone tell me about Gerard Houllier. Apparently he is the favourite to become Australia's next coach.

french bloke who managed liverpool for a few years, and did quite well

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This outlines my sentiments so well I cannot help but post it.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/worldcup2006/features/italy.html

IN DEFENCE OF ITALY

By John F. Molinaro

Things are not always as they appear at first glance

Or at second glance. Or third. Or fourth.

Or 50th.

That's how many times I pressed the rewind button on my VCR last night to watch Lucas Neill's foul on Fabio Grosso that led to Francesco Totti's injury time goal from the penalty spot in Italy's dramatic 1-0 win over Australia in the World Cup on Monday.

Turns out that after watching the controversial incident 50 times, I realized I should have trusted my initial instinct: it was a foul and the referee was correct to reward Italy with a penalty shot.

First, allow me to lay my cards on the table. With a last name such as "Molinaro," it would be foolish of me to deny where my allegiances lie.

Continue Article

I am not, however, your typical Italian soccer fan. I bleed Azzurri blue, yes, but that has never precluded me from reporting and commenting in an objective, dispassionate and fair manner on Italian soccer in my duties as a reporter for CBC Sports Online.

I have won few friends in Toronto's Italian community over the last four years. I have been chastised for writing, on more than one occasion, about the cancerous scourge of Italian soccer: its racist and anti-Semitic fans known as the Ultras. "Why are you making such a big deal over nothing" was the all-too often refrain I heard from some people.

I have gone on record as saying Italy's poor play against South Korea - and not the referees - led to its second-round exit at the 2002 World Cup and that there was no Nordic agreement between Sweden and Denmark that knocked Italy out of the first round at Euro 2004. (Again, Italy had only itself to blame.)

"Italians have never heard a conspiracy theory they didn't like" was how I responded, in print, after both shocking Italian exits, again, leading to a flood of outraged e-mails in my inbox.

Arm-flinging makes it a penalty, folks

But looking at Neill-Grosso incident, I can only come to the conclusion that the Australian defender brought the Italian player down illegally, albeit unintentionally.

Of course, that's not what some in the media would have us believe, foremost among them John Helm, the British television commentator who described Grosso as falling over Neill's "prostrate body."

Ahh. A "prostrate body." If only it were that simple.

What Mr. Helm and the rest of Australian fans conveniently overlooked was that Neill's body was anything but "prostate" - as Neill fell to the ground, anticipating a cross, he slid across the small patch of grass and nonchalantly threw out his left elbow just as Grosso attempted to jump over him.

If Neill hadn't slung out his arm, there would have been no justification for a penalty. But he did, causing Grosso to trip over him - claims that Grosso "dove" are exaggerated - while impeding his direct path towards the goal.

That's a penalty, folks.

Racism tinges stereotype of Italians as cheats, divers

I realize that rational thinking disturbs the common prejudices that most soccer fans have against the Italian players (they're cheats, they dive, they roll around on the ground whenever they are fouled) but let's try to looks at things objectively here.

This was not a decision made by a referee some 30 yards away from the play or made after consulting with the assistant referee. The Spanish official was no more than five yards away and had a clear and unobstructed view of the incident.

When he saw Grosso brought down, Senor Benjamin Medina called for the foul without hesitation and without prodding - he immediately pointed to the penalty spot before the Italian players even had a chance to protest and urge him to make the call.

Grosso is not a diver. I've watched him for the better part of the past two years while playing for Palermo in Serie A and he has always played the game with skill and honour. His dignity and integrity is beyond reproach. But because his name ends in a vowel, he is painted with same stereotypical brush that all Italian players are unfairly painted with - that of a "diver" and a "cheat."

It's the same old story, one that I have heard far too many times and one that continues to wear increasingly thin, especially in light of recent events at this World Cup.

In the first round, after Trinidad and Tobago and Angola defended in great numbers and put 11 bodies behind the ball to earn a result, they were described as "heroic," "brave" and "fearless." Italy does it against Australia - after having one of their players unfairly sent off, I might add - and they are branded "cowards," "timid" and "fearful."

It's this the level of hypocrisy, laced with an ever so-subtle undertone of racism, that is particularly appalling because, truth be told, there was one controversial call in Monday's game that unfairly tipped the balance in one team's favour - and that team was Australia.

Italy deserved this victory

Italy dominated the opening 45 minutes but the game turned in an instant when the Spanish referee gave a red card to Marco Materazzi for a rash tackle early in the second half. Replays showed Materazzi's offence was hardly worth a yellow card, let alone a red.

True, after the Italian defender's dismissal, it was Australia who dominated possession - playing with an extra man tends to allow you do that - but the shame for the Socceroos was that they could only produce neat and tidy passes, which, while pretty to watch, were ultimately toothless and barely troubled the Italian defence, expertly marshalled by Fabio Cannavaro.

Did Australia dominate when the contest was 11 vs. 11 in the first half? Hardly. Italy called the tune. Did they cause any serious problems for Italy in the second half when it was 11 vs. 10? The Aussies swarmed, but try as they did, they could not break down the Italian defence.

With that in mind, can anyone honestly begrudge the Italians their victory?

The bottom line is that Italy deserved to win. The Azzurri clearly outplayed Australia in the first half and put on a textbook display of how to defend and counter-attack in the final 45 minutes, and to suggest they somehow robbed their opponents of the victory is pure fantasy.

End of story.

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That was a Italian fan who wrote that. I didnt even look at either the Italian news stories or the Australian news. To get the most unbias perspective it is best to look at news from other countries such as England. Ive have looked at many news stories from various English news websites and most of them believe it was a dubious decision and could have gone both ways.

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That guy is Canadian working for a Canadian sports site.

Oh and if it is a decision that could have gone both ways, it is not a dubious decision. A dubious decision is one that is clearly wrong.

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Oh and if it is a decision that could have gone both ways, it is not a dubious decision. A dubious decision is one that is clearly wrong.

I was just quoting a article i saw on one of the English news sites.

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you know the Australia v Italy game ended 2 or 3 weeks ago, and still your discussing about the penalty, you know referees make mistakes, but not in this case.

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