The Straya "Hopping into History" thread

Pre World Cup friendly tonight against Bafana Bafana... only chance the have between now and the end of the World Cup of winning a game.

Searching for stream at the moment.

http://www.hahabar.com/20140526/v-haha_sport_1_name-828611-538300b230a2f4.54802060.html

1 all at the moment

Straya let a guy who plays for AFC Bournemouth waltz through their defence and set up a goal... Then Cahill equalises straight away. 1-1.

Looks like a good game for the neutrals, lots of space.

Hopefully Rojas, Thomas etc can exploit this Friday

Even I refuse to watch this one. What a shite fixture!

Yeah... This is a crap watch.

Warm-up friendlies can be rubbish at the best of times, this sounds like the runt of a dud litter.

Ends 1-1

So, should the AWs be afraid of the Bafana Bafana next Friday, or were the Roos just crap?

"Socceroos dazzle but held to draw." - www.footballaustralia.com.au

Socceroos were decent in the first 13 minutes, looked pretty good. Then the two goals happened and they were crap for the rest of the game. Bafana were decent though, definitely beatable but we will need to play at our best to beat them with our squad.

Mark Bosnich says (in Syd Morning Herald) that Australia is paying the price for playing an old squad in 2010 and not rejuvenating earlier.

I have to agree with Boso and its pretty much what was said about the last team and why they failed in SA. They were aging and lacking fresh talent.

Squad has been finalised. Some interesting exclusions.

Squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Eugene Galekovic (Adelaide United), Mitch Langerak (Borussia Dortmund), Mat Ryan (Club Brugge)

Defenders: Jason Davidson (Heracles), Ivan Franjic (Brisbane Roar), Ryan McGowan (Shandong Luneng), Matthew Spiranovic (Western Sydney Wanderers), Alex Wilkinson (Jeonbuk Motors), Bailey Wright (Preston North End).

Midfielders: Oliver Bozanic (Luzern), Mark Bresciano (Al Gharafa), James Holland (Austria Vienna), Mile Jedinak (Crystal Palace), Massimo Luongo (Swindon Town), Matt McKay (Brisbane Roar), Mark Milligan (Melbourne Victory), Dario Vidosic (Sion)

Forwards: Tim Cahill (New York Red Bulls), Ben Halloran (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Mathew Leckie (FSV Frankfurt), Tommy Oar (Utrecht), Adam Taggart (Newcastle Jets), James Troisi (Atalanta)

Playing Croatia in about 15 mins.

[Edit: non english commentry stream http://gofirstrow.eu/watch/263986/2/watch-australia-vs-croatia.html ]

schadenfreude

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/upshot/australia-finds-itself-in-bad-spot-in-world-cup.html?_r=1

Croatia learning why you shouldn't play the Aussies before a World Cup. 

Nasty ankle knock for one of their fullbacks who is helped off the field. Imagine that blokes WC is in doubt.

Was there any contact? I think the poor bloke just rolled his ankle. A bit suspect the way Franjic flew in there though.

Fair suck of the sav !!!!

It's ESPN's "Aussies Abroad" Socceroos World Cup Special 11pm - 1 am Tuesday

Get the good oil on the Ocker soccer codgers playing with their balls in the back-of-beyonds of Europe.

Are they flamin' Figjams : (Aussie slang = "F*ck I'm good; just ask me". Nickname for people who have a high opinion of themselves)

or grouse Aussie Battlers?

Are we in for an Ocker Soccer Shocker in the World Cup?

Repeated Thursday ESPN 5 pm ("Aussies Abroad Socceroos European Adventure") and 6 pm "Socceroos World Cup Special")

Turned out to be a good show (two shows actually)

First was a one hour  special on Socceroos currently playing in Europe focusing on Tommy Oar and Adam Sarota at Utecht in the Netherlands, Jason Davidson at Heracles in the Netherlands, Mathew Leckie at FSV Frankfurt, Matt Ryan at FC Bruges and Dario Vidosic at FC Sion. Only Sarota has missed the World Cup squad.

Really well done with lengthy interviews with all six who proved quite articulate.

This would be a good one to watch for any young Kiwis contemplating playing overseas.

FC Utrecht were very obliging and manager Jan Wouters (70 cap Dutch international ex-Ajax and Bayern) gave some honest insights into his Aussie charges and the progress they had made.

Second program was a "Socceroos World Cup Special" made in recent weeks with some good interviews with Ange Postecoglou, players etc.

Worth watching if you missed it - will probably screen again...

(First program is called "Aussies Abroad Socceroos European Adventure"; second is "Aussies Abroad Socceroos World Cup Special")

Check out the guy in the sunnies when he realities whats happening in front of him

After a few defensive lapses in their first game, I thought our Aussie cousins did good vs. the Oranje.

Some of the best attacking football seen from a Down Under team at a World Cup ever.

Cahill's volley clearly the best World Cup goal by an Australasian team too....

After the Chile game, I thought the Socceroos might have been stronger with some of the veterans like Lucas Neill and Brett Holman in the side.

The very inexperienced defence looked shaky at times in both games- but has been improving. Young Davidson much better vs. Netherlands.

Good Aussie record vs. Holland: one win, two draws, one loss in their history.

And the guy next to her who turns his attention and his camera. 

tee hee hee. Great spotting both of you.

Taggart picked up by Fulham (big pun potential right there .. "Really, I thought he was a Charlton Taggart". Ker-tish)

Always talk of World Cup being a shop window, and so often, nothing happens. So well done. Hope he does well; good for A-league.

That's when Australia lost any chance of winning the WC - a classic loss of concentration.

Is she a feverite?

I hope there is room in the Nix for her under the salary cup!

Ahem, I mean "cap"

The Socceroos' performance has been mostly praised by Australian football commentators, but the game against Spain showed where some of Australia's weaknesses lie: for example, the central defence of Wilkinson and Spiranovic were poor.

Someone on another thread (Big Pete?) suggested that NZ's pairing of Smith and Reid are much better, and I think that's right. To cut Wilkinson and Spiranovic some slack though, they weren't helped much by either Davidson (whose poor positional awareness allowed two goals, but whose attacking play is loved by Craig Foster so all is forgiven!), or McGowan. The absence of Milligan and Besciano in the middle also put more pressure on them.

I think Ange and the boys were lucky that everyone had such low expectations. Looking back, it now seems pretty unfair how the 2010 squad were panned following their win/draw/loss in South Africa... but looking ahead... there are high expectations now regarding the Asian Cup, so the Aussie media and public may well turn on the team again if they don't deliver.

I don't think Reid or Smith would've done any better than those two, to be fair.

I think I was fair in pointing out that Wilkinson and Spiranovic faced extra pressure due to the players around them. It also doesn't help that they were a new-ish combination whereas Reid and Smith have been in the All Whites setup for 4 years. Due to this you'd expect Reid and Smith to work together better.

It's a purely theoretical exercise, but I still think if Reid and Smith had been in the Socceroos' central defence they would have copped one or two less goals. It's nice actually to think that the All Whites might be stronger than the Socceroos somewhere on the park.