TOPIC:

We just lack the flair and natural one touch brilliance of international players where soccer is as important to them as their religion. Those two goals they scored was absolute skill and brilliance, one touch, no hesitation pure class. We don't have that. We were too predictable, opposition teams are happy to let us dominate possession because we are not threatening.

I can't ever see Australia coming close to being a contender for a world cup. Progressing out of the group stage and maybe pinching a win at the next stage is the best we could hope for.

That performance was the Australia of old.
Too negative no-one wanted possession and we don't have the skills.
Too easily possession taken away from us.
It was obvious 5 minutes into the game that we were never going to win.
We were easily the 4th best team in that group.
Didn't matter anyway as Denmark drew with France.
Can't see France or Denmark winning the Cup.

Demons Forever wrote: That performance was the Australia of old.
Too negative no-one wanted possession and we don't have the skills.
Too easily possession taken away from us.
It was obvious 5 minutes into the game that we were never going to win.
We were easily the 4th best team in that group.
Didn't matter anyway as Denmark drew with France.
Can't see France or Denmark winning the Cup.

Yes at the end it all made no difference. As France went into their match not at full strength by resting several players and basically had a run. Their match being the first 0-0 full time score in the tournament thus far.
Is interesting to note Australia had a total of 33 Shots on Goal in their three games for a return of 2 goals

westaussieguy wrote:

Demons Forever wrote: That performance was the Australia of old.
Too negative no-one wanted possession and we don't have the skills.
Too easily possession taken away from us.
It was obvious 5 minutes into the game that we were never going to win.
We were easily the 4th best team in that group.
Didn't matter anyway as Denmark drew with France.
Can't see France or Denmark winning the Cup.

Yes at the end it all made no difference. As France went into their match not at full strength by resting several players and basically had a run. Their match being the first 0-0 full time score in the tournament thus far.
Is interesting to note Australia had a total of 33 Shots on Goal in their three games for a return of 2 goals

And they were 2 lucky penalties. in summary, they scored 0 in general play.

all good posts people

in the end we lacked the three things you need to have a good side:

skill
pace
physical presence

to be honest it was the absence of physical presence which suprissed the most, because that is one thing Australian sides have traditionally had over time. No Kennedy, No Viduka, No Aliosi, whom could have held the ball up to create link up with mid field or throw their weight around at corners or to draw free kicks from defenders.

Our side looked like a well managed Blue Collor side.Worked hard but couldn't open up the opponents defense in any of the 3 games.Lack of class up front and Rojic needs a play mate up front with him.Just look at both of Peru's goals there where world class.We attacked into a congested goal front all game.
Have to be honest here where made the last 4 world cups.Holland and Italy arnt even there.Where very lucky to be there.

gtr: which of course is the real reason why Australia campaigned to join the Asian Football Federation in the first place, despite their denials at the soccer federation of Australia and SBS.

gtrxuone wrote: Our side looked like a well managed Blue Collor side.Worked hard but couldn't open up the opponents defense in any of the 3 games.Lack of class up front and Rojic needs a play mate up front with him.Just look at both of Peru's goals there where world class.We attacked into a congested goal front all game.
Have to be honest here where made the last 4 world cups.Holland and Italy arnt even there.Where very lucky to be there.

Spot on gtr we really get a leg up in qualifying through the weakest continent region being Asia....think of all the strong European, South American & African countries who would cream it through undefeated in that region instead of not qualifying for the WC after being in far tougher zones!

BH+ Ark
To my knowledge theres only 6 country's on the planet where indigenous sports are larger than Soccer.
1.Republic Of Ireland
2.Canada.
3.USA.
4.New Zealand
5.Australia
6.South Africa.
That's one of the reasons we get this FIFA gift of qualifying.Have England missed 3 of the last 7 world cups.Australia don't beat Holland,Italy or England in a two match playoff.In the early 90's we ran into Argentina in a similar playoff.

gtr; yep, our friend Foster forgets about a lot of things in relation to Australian soccer -- nobody, least of all us have a god given right to be in the world cup. I think only Brazil and the Prussians have made it to all cups, but even for them, at least in part, they have a perfect record because both countries have held the finals twice; and, therefore, naturally, qualified automatically as the host nation.

We will see what happens to the Germans -- the defending champions no less -- tonight.