The Aftermath

Welcome back Matt, hope you had a good time. Very hopefully the new site will keep football alive and it won’t contain all the obscene language that many have had to resort to. Also just read that Kewell is to be ousted from Liverpool as a Brit this makes me feel quite sick Kewell earned his place at the kop and unless he wants to leave should remain insitu. Don’t think the supporters at Liverpool will be to happy with the managers decision.

Posted from  Japan

well at least you wanna keep up with the football .. as i siad as soon as autralia go out of the WC no one will care about football in australia any mor (except for the die hard fans) in the paper they normally have like 10 pages on the WC and aftter they stoped talking about australias disapointing exis they have gone down to like 2 pages max .. australia has a long time to go before it becomes a football super power (maybe like 30 or 40 yrs)

Posted from  Australia

Kewell may have done well eventually at Anfield BUT most Liverpool fans (I amongst them) wished we could get more than half a season out of him every year. With Mark Gonzalves on the way in (dependent on work permit) then I think we will see Kewell on the way out while the manager seeks to generate more cash for transfers. I dont think the manager has anything against Kewell other than the fact that he needs someone he can rely on week in week out. Personally I hope he stays as he wont have to bear as high a load with the new signing.

As for news in the paper the West Australian had 5 pages today on 2 semi finals game (albeit one of those involving England). I dont think we have that long way to being a Football Super Power, if the football academy system they want to put in place starts in the next few years then you will only need to wait 15 years or so before we win our first U17 World Cup. I’m certain that with our already decent skill level of juniors increased to an outstanding level by a new academy system and continued growth in the game and the usual lets win everything atitude of Australians we will one day be a super power.

Posted from  Australia

The aftermath of Australia’s participation in this WC is the game’s positive reaction within Australia has been immeasurable, but if this will be an ongoing significant and increasing support for the game, only time will tell. Already, since Australia’s elimination, World Cup reports in newspapers, TV and radio are being relegated behind the true-blue games of rugby league, aussie rules, union and Hewitt’s participation at Wimbledon, and if an Australian golfer was doing well that would also be ahead of the World Cup. The World Cup final will bring the game back to the main sports page, but once the WC has ended, Football Australia has a job to do from the ground up. We must not rely only on the national team to keep people interested in football, Australia’s A-league must be a success otherwise football in this country will remain in limbo.

Posted from  Australia

Matt, welcome back. I was afraid that there wouldn’t be much of this football fever, passion, whatever you call it, after our shocking, mind-numbing exit. Glad to know you are rigging up a site to try and keep it alive. Keep at it mate, and let us know the progress.

As for now mates, there is only one thing left to do… And that’s to pray fervently as i’m doing, that the divers get knocked out by the Germans. Never have been a fan of the Germans, but until tuesday i’m getting behind them.

The first thing we need to do is get ourselves a good coach… What abt Scolari..? Isn’t he out of jobs after this WC…!!!

Posted from  India

Simon … Dont you remember that italy beat Germany 4-1 not long ago … just think about it

Posted from  Australia

I don’t bother watching this sport as a whole yet I find myself watching the finals of most of the premier cups, and of course the world cup. Also any Australia vs _________: games. On that note we have had teams like the last world cup contenders more than worthy of admission. Yet bad ref’n and FIFA demands on our region have been the most to blame when it comes down to wheather OZ gets in or not. So…… finaly we get to the cup again and it’s the same old story with a twist. This time every one got the same treatment, yet Australia can still easily claim the biggest of all time WC ref gaffs. (Is this the blinding subcouncious of The World Cup body. From officals down to the Ref’s. Namely “Keep Australia Out!” Why dont some of these so called international refs be made too spend some time in Australia and every other playing nation, so they can learn how to ref a game where sportsmanship is expected, and observed, but more importantly as AUstralians how we play the game. Sure we play by the same rules, but we play competitive sport like any game in Australia it’s the same. We play to win. Not win at any cost. If football wants to remain calling itself the beautiful game???? it will need to weed out the bullshit with diving, interference, bad sportsmanship and still no video ref! These minor irritations compound Aussies to see the game as an uncontrollable wankfest for a sport brading followers as wankers, and are turned off by it. If you think all the support that the Socceroo’s got was indicitive of the support for the game in this country I think your mistaken! As a sporting nation we will follow any of our teams from any code into world cup games. Because that’s what we do. It’s a collective thing we do, so we can prove to ourselves and the world as a whole, that we are as good as any other country. And when it comes to sport more offten than not we are better. It just maybe so, that as we hold, or have held just about every sporting cup on offer. This is one the football world would view it seems, as a deathnell! If a so called non-football nation like Australia can waltz up and takes their precious cup it would GUT THEM. This I know to be a left field impression, yet why do we never get a fair go in this game. At the risk of losing our Australian style of playing sport as a whole, should we start teaching future Socceroo’s how to pull penalties. I think not. Out of the 22 matches I viewed over the World Cup. Australian players again showed the scoccer world how champagne football is played, and where did it get us? Was it 5 or 6 places up the ladder from 43. After dominating the Italians for the full 90mins. The eventual winners of the tournament move from 12 to numero uno. Do you recall back in mid 2003 having won the world cup. France played Australia? Well they LOST, and lost badly. FFS!! even Ghana and a stack of others who didnt qualify moved beyond us. What does this tell you about FIFA. I for one feel cheated for the last time. With just a few small changes like red carding diving and a video ref for line calls on penalties, so the flow of the game can continue which will help to prevent fans rioting either following a bad call or after the wistle is blown. I’ve read people bitch’n about how it would hold up a game. (video ref). Then how’s this for a familiar time waster…
…after a dive, or so-called contact, then the feigned injury and a few minutes of acting. Then the stretcher comming on and off the field only to have the player walk back on after 10sec’s REALLY sucks!@#$%^&!!!) As an unlikley fan I’m back to believing…and I am sorry to say this, but Soccer’s a mugs game!

Posted from  Australia