The Official 2006 FIFA World Cup thread. (5 Viewers)

[iambored]

That ending was such an anticlimatic-ending. But if we had to lose, I think that is one of the best ways to do it (because of course the Italians in Italy would have thought they had the game in the bag against little old Australia, but they didn't). More than anything it was luck - italy were lucky they they got a foul and they were lucky it was in the last few seconds rather than a few seconds later.

Like you said swisstruffles, Italy's defense was awesome and they had some great opportunites to score, we had most of the ball possession but didn't do a lot with it. Who knows what the outcome would have been but it should have been more exciting than a penalty.

 

[tasha1188]

i agree with whoever said the referring sucked...like srsly...that penalty shot wouldnt of happened if the stupid ref saw that australia shouldve got that free throw...kah...we shouldve won last nite...that was soooo unfair

 

[darkroomgirl]

Sigh.

I feel so... down.

SO who's everyone going for now?

 

[Jiga]

I feel gutted... not becuase we lost, but the way we lost . The thought of what could of been, what could have happened in extra time if the ref didnt decide the game etc

Our downfall was playing for extra time. It's always extremely dangerous. We did lack a little creativity and I have no doubt that the presence of Kennedy would have helped, and Im pretty sure Guus was waiting for extra time to introduce him. So cruel.

Yeah, personally I dont care what anyone says but Guus contributed to that loss. Sure if we got through to extra time he could have been a hero... but blind freddy could see our chance was late in that second half when we were on the attack, but tired legs cost us. We were all out in attack, we needed some fresh legs, that could have been the difference, especially someone like Kennedy who not only would add alot to attack but abit to defence. And on the flip side, it was obvious that their counter-attacks were becoming more dangerous and that they could sneak a goal in... and they did. And its not just this, he put Aloisi on with like 10mins remaining.. once again playing for extra time.... he should have shoved Kennedy and Aloisi on together with at least 15mins remaining, they would have had a massive impact role off the bench IMO and that would have given them time to do something! I just dont understand Guus' reasoning, we should have had a goal on them but it wasnt to be becuase we left fresh legs on the bench wasting away!!!!!

As for the foul, that was crap..... he slipped on the ground while attempting to make the tackle, then lay on the ground without trying to hinder the Italian... who then virtually ran into him on purpose. It was summed up by german supporting australia:

"the italians now how to play their cards, with their theatrics, to get what they want, including penalties"

Meanwhile another 50/50 decision, that Italian handball, wasnt spotted. You'd think with 10secs left on the clock the 50/50's would go in favour of taking the game into extra time... but the refs at this world cup are f*cked and have influenced to many games... alot of countries have reason to feel disaappointed (australia especially, we have had one decent ref)

And what reall sh*ts me is how cocky the Italians are, reading some of their aftermatch quotes..... suggesting prity much that they were in control and that they werent lucky at all. BULLSHIT! We totally dominated, and if it had gone into extra time, our fitness and fresh leg, we would have WON!!

As for who I support, Ukraine, I said previously they would go alrite against the Swiss..... but I dont think they will trouble Italy, nowhere near as much as Ausrtalia did. Their best bet is a penalty shoot out, their defence is their greatest asset, like Italy, but attack is very poor.

[/RANT]

 

[go_swans]

fuck im pissed off. What a great way to knock the aussies out, Italy, BY TRIPPING LUCAS, THEN FALLING OVER LUCAS'S ARSE and pretending he fouled you.

Poor Neill. Poor Swarscher. POor Aussies. what a fucking shit way to go out.


Well i still <3 lucas neill. IF we didnt have a shit ref he would have saved the aussies arse even more

 

[Mountain.Dew]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QRO626ImQ...%2 0diving%20

brilliance.

----------------

first of all, australia played extremely well against the behemoth that was italy. we could not be prouder of our socceroos. they played their hearts out, played to the true spirit and traditions of the game. and for that, i am honoured that an important part of my identity is that i am australian. im sure that many ethnic migrants and their generations would feel the same thing as well.

might as well get the referee thing out: that was a poor decision. we all know that. the referee even knew that. fair enuff, we hate the ref. but this is human nature. we are fated to make mistakes, whether it be minimal or astronomically significant. our leaving was a symptom of that mistake. just as long as FIFA will learn from this mistake and hopefully the qualify of world soccer refereeing would be better, not from 2010, but from this day onwards.

on the contrary, i didnt feel that Australia dominated the game. maintaining most of the possession of the ball doesnt mean that u dominate the game. creating GOOD opportunities to score more than ur opponent is what is known as dominating the game. and no, i am not saying the azzuri dominated the game either. i felt that australia lacked that 'something' in attack that would get the italians running for their money. that 'something' could be kewell, but im not prepared to make that judgement. there are a few reasons why i thought australia had very slim chances at getting the ball behind the net.

- Italian defence was superb. on their half, THEY outnumbered us in their half. 10-11 italian players hung back on defence, while we only maintained 8 or 9 in attack. even when they where down to 10. notice that all of Australia's through balls and penetrations where covered by more than 1 italian. there was very little chances for crossing the ball. the italians marked the flanks extremely well. where ever the ball went, the italians followed. i felt that the italian's tactic was simple. maintain a defensive fort, capitalise on australia's mistake, counterattack, score. wash, rinse, repeat. if it came to a penalty shootout, statistically speaking, the italians have the advantage - the most expensive (implying the best) goalie in the world. theoretically, we would lose in the penalty shootouts.

- we werent fast enough in attack. we tried to mimic the brazilians in taking our time to build up our attack, but really, we where playing the italian's game. thats what they want. an attack that is slow, steady and systematic. their defense met that perfectly. if the australians where a bit faster, they might of had more chances at scoring. we didnt capitalise enough on the red card either. bring at least one defender into attack. we needed to take that risk. our domination of possession (not the match) meant that we could take that risk. more of our numbers on their side might of shifted the balance in our favour. but, we still hung back on 3 defenders.

- the aussies gotta learn to strike the ball at the 'right direction'. there was a superb chance by chipperfield when he cracked the ball straight at the italian goalie. straight at him. we gotta learn to kick it so that it is out of reach of the goalie's hands. thats how kewell scored the 2nd goal against croatia. to the sides of the goal, not the centre. bresciano attempted to do exactly that with his 'flying saucer' balls (a bit like argentina's 2nd goal against Mexico) but couldnt get enough spin to get the back of the net. this i felt was an indication that the aussie offence was a little bit struggling and wavering against the azzuri full on.

those are my thoughts so far. more of my waffle will come later as i conjure up my thoughts a little more.

 

[Mountain.Dew]

Yeah, personally I dont care what anyone says but Guus contributed to that loss. Sure if we got through to extra time he could have been a hero... but blind freddy could see our chance was late in that second half when we were on the attack, but tired legs cost us. We were all out in attack, we needed some fresh legs, that could have been the difference, especially someone like Kennedy who not only would add alot to attack but abit to defence. And on the flip side, it was obvious that their counter-attacks were becoming more dangerous and that they could sneak a goal in... and they did. And its not just this, he put Aloisi on with like 10mins remaining.. once again playing for extra time.... he should have shoved Kennedy and Aloisi on together with at least 15mins remaining, they would have had a massive impact role off the bench IMO and that would have given them time to do something! I just dont understand Guus' reasoning, we should have had a goal on them but it wasnt to be becuase we left fresh legs on the bench wasting away!!!!!

agreed wholeheartedly. i was waiting for guus to bring something up his sleeve, but it didnt come. the magic didn't happen.

Meanwhile another 50/50 decision, that Italian handball, wasnt spotted. You'd think with 10secs left on the clock the 50/50's would go in favour of taking the game into extra time... but the refs at this world cup are f*cked and have influenced to many games... alot of countries have reason to feel disaappointed (australia especially, we have had one decent ref)

FIFA reallly need to look into the standard of refereeing so this world cup is never repeated. Bring in Video refs or something

again, another human error. even though the assistant ref might have spotted it, it is the centre ref's decision that is final. and also, it was FIFA's fault for not implementing a 'video ref' procedure like they do for the rugby codes, because they argued it disrupted the 'flow of the game'. have a look at the TIME article "Technophobia", June 26 2006 edition. Have a look here: http://www.time.com/time/europe/2006/wcup/technophobia.html

 

[katietheskatie]

fuck im pissed off. What a great way to knock the aussies out, Italy, BY TRIPPING LUCAS, THEN FALLING OVER LUCAS'S ARSE and pretending he fouled you.

Poor Neill. Poor Swarscher. POor Aussies. what a fucking shit way to go out.


Well i still <3 lucas neill. IF we didnt have a shit ref he would have saved the aussies arse even more

:uhhuh: i still love lucas

Sigh.

I feel so... down.

SO who's everyone going for now?

argentina .. i've been going for them since the start of the world cup (although of course i've been supporting the socceroos in their games wholeheartedly and would still do so if australia played argentina. was sad to see them beat mexico though, i thought mexico deserved a place in the quarters.

 

[go_swans]

:uhhuh: i still love lucas

awesome. <333 man i nearly drowned in my own tears when he was crying at the refs' decision


and from now on go Beckham and his men

 

[katietheskatie]

awesome. <333 man i nearly drowned in my own tears when he was crying at the refs' decision


and from now on go Beckham and his men

dude, so did i .. i cried a bit when the goal went in, but when they showed him crying, i was fucking gone haha.

but england dude? no! sacrilege.

 

[go_swans]

dude, so did i .. i cried a bit when the goal went in, but when they showed him crying, i was fucking gone haha.

but england dude? no! sacrilege.

well now that the hottest piece of arse is out, i have to go for the next hottest.

 

[sunjet]

Go france now.

 

[darkroomgirl]

I was going for Brazil in the beginning... but they're not really dazzling anyone at the moment, at least not to the extent that we all expected them to.

Might go for England, Argentina or Portugal now... Cristiano Ronaldo sizzlesssss...

 

[Italian Hotshot]

Guus have to take some of the blame, Australia was looking flat footed for a large period of the game yet made his sub so late in the match.

Although I may be criticized surely not using Skoko, Archie Thompson or Lazaridis all cup was a mistake?

 

[Kabeio]

sigh

 

[theone123]

the refereeing standard of this Cup has been appalling..is there anything anyone can do about it, to pressure FIFA to look into it? as other ppl have said, this level shouldn't be tolerated in this biggest football tournament in the world. one bad judgement can make or break teams and maybe even their chance of winning the trophy. with so many controversial incidences of bad refereeing so far, i hope that FIFA will put their act together for 2010. maybe all the refs should be isolated before each match so they aren't influenced by any media claims disparaging any team's behaviour. ie. all the badgering about australia being a 'dirty team'.

on another issue, all the talk has been so far mostly about that one penalty decision. but as hiddink suggested, the whole game, or the result may not just come down to that one goal. did we really have a decent chance of scoring, even if it came down to extra time? from the past 90 mins, it seemed to me that while italy had several huge chances to score, we maybe only had 1 or 2 chances which were in themselves not as clearcut an opportunity as italy's chances. even down to 10 men, italy were rock solid in defense which objectively, i thought was very impressive. while a couple of looping balls to italy's frontmen gave them big chances to score. maybe we would have had a better chance of winning the match during the penalties instead of extra time, is my thought.

overall for those who will still be around come 2010 and for all the up and coming youngsters, this will be a valuable learning experience for playing at the highest level. i hope we can take this on board and mount an equally if not higher campaign for the next WC. for now, i just hope that argentina will beat germany so they can SMASH THE ITALIAN DIVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

watch australia dominate the Asian Cup... muahahah!!!

 

[acmilan]

fuck im pissed off. What a great way to knock the aussies out, Italy, BY TRIPPING LUCAS, THEN FALLING OVER LUCAS'S ARSE and pretending he fouled you.

Poor Neill. Poor Swarscher. POor Aussies. what a fucking shit way to go out.


Well i still <3 lucas neill. IF we didnt have a shit ref he would have saved the aussies arse even more

He didnt trip lucas? Lucas slid for the ball

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3TGmaGPLFSU&search=italy australia for the goal and numerous highlights of the challenge

 

[Constip8edSkunk]

yes australia did dominate in possession but we unfortunately did not dominate the game, even with 1 man down, they outnumbered us and out marshalled us in their third. we lacked direction in that final part of the attack, too many crosses were misplaced and easily cleared. for all his selfishness, inconsistency, etc we missed harry kewell for that creative edge. in the end, the situation that led to the penalty was inexperience i think form out players who pushed up too far at the death of the game and left our defence with acres of space. certainly, guus should probably brought some subs on but i can see what he was trying to achieve.

onto the penalty:
diving can be thought of in 2 ways, one is to fall down without any(or minimal) contact to fake being fouled, (think pires) that wasnt the case last night.
the other is to deliberately looking for contact and using that to exaggerate your appearance of being fouled, that is certainly what grosso did. fair enough lucas should have stayed on his feet but he was way too early and was already prone on the ground when grosso shifted his weight and dragged his trailing leg deilberately towards neill and dived forward. At the very worst that was obstruction, and if that is the case, it still would not be a penalty, but an indirect freekick inside the box.

You just do not give uncertain calls like that in the final 30 seconds of the match. As people have said earlier, i wouldnt have cared as much or be as pissed off even if totti scored a hattrick in extra time. its the way the game was handed to the italians on a silver platter, tied with a ribbon...

the red card should have been a yellow, the studs werent up, he wasnt the last man and the contact wasnt that heavy. HOWEVER, i completely agree with whoever that said that while it changed the flow of the game it did not decide the game.

italy was my second team before, fuck that. forca portugal

 

[withoutaface]

Arse.

The team was reaching its collective peak - many of them will not be back in four years time.

And I'm sure we'll also have many new players, and many of the youth in the squad will have developed their skills further.

We will have fuck knows who coaching us.

In terms of the draw we will be faced with a completely different situation. (Judging by the standard of this match, semi finals would of been very very possible. Once we are in a semi-final, winning the World fucking Cup is a very distinct possibility.)

We got dealt a reasonably difficult group stage this time, so the draw was hardly favourable. And even if we got to the semis we'd still have to face Argentina and Brazil to get the cup.

This opportunity may never come again.

But hey, sure, let's accept the generic lines of how we did ourselves proud and competed in a great spirit, and whatever other bullshit is fed to us.

The Australian team played above itself. A lot of the teams we played against had an immense amount more class than us, but through discipline and commitment to the cause we managed to run around with them as equals for the whole 90 minutes, with finishing of a few chances the difference between the two teams. I don't know about you, but I'm damn fucking proud to be an Australian today, and you're a cunt.

 

[Constip8edSkunk]

The Australian team played above itself. A lot of the teams we played against had an immense amount more class than us, but through discipline and commitment to the cause we managed to run around with them as equals for the whole 90 minutes, with finishing of a few chances the difference between the two teams. I don't know about you, but I'm damn fucking proud to be an Australian today, and you're a cunt.

i keep thinking back to how shit we were in the confederations cup. yes guus might have made a couple of mistakes but he has completely transformed the team, he instilled a new sense of confidence, teamwork, organisation, and tactical awareness. what he has done in the short time he had and PART-TIME is nothing short of amazing. with korea, he spent 2 yrs doing intensive planning and training, with us he conducted periodic training camps in between his work at PSV for a few months before the world cup.

lets hope that this initiative is not lost, and the football in this country may improve further. really we didnt progress though this world cup because of individual brilliance, it was a collective passion and toil from the whole team... lets not let a dubious penalty prematurely kill off the accelerated progress we have just made.

We should all be fucking proud of the socceroos for what they achieved, and furthermore we should aim to exceed that next time round, in thw owrds of johhny warren we should be aiming to win the world cup, not merely be content with qualifying.