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2009 Preview

January 6th, 2009 | By: Pat | 11 Comments »

Happy New Year everyone, hope your holiday season was safe and fun (contradiction?!). Now that the celebrations are out of the way, let’s get to the important things in life… football!

The Socceroos have seven games scheduled for 2009, and these are a conglomerate of World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers. The FFA has not, as yet, scheduled any friendlies.

Our first game will be in three weeks time (28th Jan) against Indonesia in Jakarta, and this will be the first step in our march towards the next Asian Cup. The 139th ranked nation is not expected to cause us any problems, and the humid weather is really the only foreseeable obstacle. It’ll be interesting to see whether Pim picks a full strength side, or if he’s going to experiment with fringe players (keep in mind that it’s still winter in Europe, whereas A-League players would already be acclimatised with our summer).

socceroos-celebrate_edited-11 The following game is the much anticipated clash against our nemesis Japan. This isn’t necessarily the ‘make or break’ game which some people suggest. Of course, a result in Yokohama would be a great effort, but even if we stumble it wouldn’t be a massive problem. Besides, the pressure is firmly on the Japanese. A surprising home draw against Uzbekistan has left Takeshi Okada’s men two points off the pace, and another slip up would be a disastrous result for them. We, on the other hand, will be looking to bury the group with this potential six pointer. I’m a big fan of the Japanese game, from their national side to the J-League (the best matrix for FFA to model the A-League on, in my humble opinion) so I’m looking forward to this game. Disappointingly, the return leg will not live up the first game’s billing, as by mid-June, both teams SHOULD have secured qualification already (fingers crossed).

With all due respect to the other teams, the remaining games shouldn’t cause us any problems. Previous matches against Uzbekistan and Bahrain had been close encounters, but playing at home should nullify this problem. If all things go to plan, we should book our spot in South Africa with either the Qatar match in Doha, or the following Bahrain match in Sydney (which I’ve got tickets for, high five!).

So 2009 should be a good year for the Socceroos, with World Cup qualification looking imminent. However, I would like to see the FFA schedule some friendlies with tougher opponents, as the Japanese games (on paper anyway) looks to be the only real challenges for us. Hopefully the FFA can pull off some magic and we get to see the Socceroos clashing with the likes of the Dutch and the Argies again.

Tags: Asian Cup, Group F, Japan, Socceroos, World Cup Qualifying

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Comments

By Tomek | January 8th, 2009 at 5:22 am

Hey I like the Australian national team! Though I only know a few players (Mark Schwarzer, Scott McDonald, Viduka, Archie Thompson).
I saw the epic match where you won like 31-0 or something :P.
Well, good luck to you!

By andak | January 8th, 2009 at 10:59 am

Team jersey colour.. better change… not happening..

Posted from Malaysia

By Pat | January 8th, 2009 at 6:31 pm

Hi Tomek, glad to hear you think highly of the Socceroos! Yeah we won 31-0 in 2001 against the might of American Samoa, with Archie Thompson scoring 13 goals!

Andak, what’s wrong with our current jersey?! I actually quite like it!It’s better than this anyway…!

http://api.photoshop.com/home_c8f751904f3f4b4ca868df1fca2a4058/adobe-px-assets/1ee79b32467447408333dfa9a2d6c02c

By marco | January 9th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

wow did we really look that bad! i think that jersey beats the holland one when they won euro 1988

ps is that tomek from the poland site? if so hi mate.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Tomek | January 9th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

Yup it’s me Marco, hi there!

Those jersey’s look wicked.

By Tomek | January 10th, 2009 at 8:12 am

BTW what’s up with all the spamming lately :/ Constantly blogs are affected by advertisements, or just lists of curse words. I’ve
even seen a porn pic posted on this blog Really annoying.

Posted from Netherlands

By marco | January 10th, 2009 at 3:25 pm

i know what u mean tomek i was on the polish site today an was wondering what was going on. did it happen on other blogs you visit besides the polish one and the australia one? if you don’t mind me asking how are you linked to poland u said on the other site that you were born in the netherlands, were your parents polish? and do u follow the netherlands to?

btw pat what has happened to my aussie team queensland roar? i was thinking that this could be there year but melbourne victory seem hard to beat now.

next question is how many game are left in the season.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Tomek | January 10th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

^Yes my parents are Polish, but they fled to the Netherlands during the communistic regime. My brother and I were born in Poland.
And yes, I also support the Netherlands, unless they’re playing against Poland, then it’s Polska all the way!

By Pat | January 10th, 2009 at 6:03 pm

Yeah the swearing has been annoying, some people obviously have too much time on their hands

Marco, the Roar are third after a thrilling 4-3 win at Gosford over the Coast last night. Frankie’s done a good job with them, and they have some very talented and exciting youngsters such as Robbie Kruse, Michael Zullo, Mitch Nichols and Tahj Minniecon (who has unfortunately signed for another A-League club next year, Gold Coast i think). Thrown into the mix are a handful of solid veterans (Craig Moore, Danny Tiatto, Matty Mackay), and two of the best imports in the league (Charlie Miller and Sergio van Dijk).

Thier only problem, as always, is the fact that they can’t win at home! The Roar have only won three out of eight home games this year, which ironically is their best home record in the four seasons of the A-League…. This frailty at home will definitely be a problem come finals time.

Melbourne are annoyingly good, someone always seems to step up for them every game and they get the results. But i think Adelaide are the team to beat. They struggled earlier on in the season with the heavy schedule (their run in the ACL was magical), but have looked to have found some really good rythm lately. Plus, Travis Dodd is a king, and he ruleth the right flank with pace and skillz. Since my impotent Sydney FC has fallen by the wayside (Worse. Season. EVER), I’m tipping Adelaide all the way.

Finally, the Roar have three games left in the season, against Adelaide (away), Sydney (home), and Perth (home).

By marco | January 11th, 2009 at 11:16 am

thanks pat for your info. i do try to visit the world game website as much as i can but i am so out of touch with the game in oz. the kids at queensland along with dodd sound great is there much hope of them moving to europe in the years to come? i think that this is the bit of football info that i lack the most (who are the players of the future) eg player of the next two world cups. we seem to have an old but strong team at this point in time, but who do you think can replace Mark Schwarzer ( as other euro based goalkeepers are only back up ones) or who can be our next centre backs. i know there is a lad in germany i think at nurmberg who is a chance. but i hope we have more cover then that.

i hope we don’t crash a bit like our cricket team when schwarzer, Moore, viduka ( if he has not already) and kewell hang up their boots.

my other team poland seems to be on the other side and have a mostly young team on the way up but i guess the kids will get a chance in the asia cup games.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Pat | January 13th, 2009 at 2:26 am

I doubt Travis Dodd will move to Europe, he’s 29 now and there’s been no rumours of anyone being interested in him. Plus, he looks really comfortable at Adelaide, and the way they’re going this season they’re going to have another crack at Asia pretty soon so I’d think he’d want to stay for that. A more likely possibility would be for him to move within Asia to the J-League or K-League.
In regards to the youth players, I’m sure there are always opportunities of them moving abroad. The A-League is a vast improving league and growing in stature amongst the football community, so foreign clubs are now taking more notice of our players (James Holland recently moved to AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch league).
In goals I think Reading’s Adam Federici is doing very well and will be the number two behind Schwarz. Federici had a decent Olympics, went on loan to Southend for a couple of months, and now thanks to the injury to Hahnemann has been a regular at the Madjeski (he even scored a goal recently!)
This season was meant to be Boro keeper Brad Jone’s breakthrough year, but injuries and poor form has seen him play second fiddle (again) at the Riverside.
Adelaide’s Eugene Galekovic is also worth a mention. Even though he’s not as young as the others (he’s 27), he’s still a baby in terms of a goal keeper, and he had a blinder in the Red’s ACL run.
The German based defender you’re thinking of is Matt Spiranovic, again a highly rated player who did well in Beijing. I’m a big fan of his so hopefully he gets a chance with the full squad soon.
That’s actually a pretty good question Marco, keep your eye out for a post on promising young Socceroos in the near future!

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