Australia World Cup Team Blog » Asia Cup 2007

The war against Iraq

Rayed Mamun — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:49:38 +0000

Iraq may not have a blog on this website, but I’m going in to bat for them (even though they beat Australia in the Asian Cup, dammit).

Why the hell was Nashat Akram refused a work permit required for his impending signing to Manchester City? Apparently Iraq isn’t in the top 70 ranked teams in the world. If this is the Premier League’s “rule” then somebody PLEASE answer me these questions:

- How did Gudjohnsen play for Chelsea?
- How is Benjani (one of the top scorers this season) playing for Portsmouth?
- What about Lua Lua?
- Benny McCarthy?
- DWIGHT YORKE for crying out loud
- What about that Angolan Man United just signed?

All these players come from National teams with ranks below 70. Iraq is clearly being discriminated against, just because of that stupid war going on there. Makes me sick.

Its the little things that count

Rayed Mamun — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:42:20 +0000

Who remembers who won the Women’s 100m at the Sydney Olympics? Many of you may know that it was Marion Jones, but can any of you tell me who came second in that race? Didn’t think so. The person that came second was just as good as her, but for only a few hundredths of a second. Why does Marion Jones get remembered? Why does she get all the accolades? Its because the little things in life are what counts, and I think the Socceroos have displayed that in this Asian Cup. Their overall tournament was below their best, but it was the little, fundamental things they did wrong that cost them ultimately. A new coach is definitely needed.

Against Iraq the first goal was an embarrassing, fundamental, miscommunication between keeper and defender. I still blame Kisnorbo though. It can be argued that the last two goals in that game were directly as a result of sloppy defending, losing the ball in our own half. The same can be said for the Oman goal.

Against Thailand, we weren’t our best, but we didn’t make any silly errors. The way the Thais were playing, even the slightest mistake could have meant the game would end 1-1. Eventually we ran away with the game, and scrapped into the Quarters.

Against Japan, again, we were below our best. In a real dogfight, Aloisi finally broke the deadlock in the 70th minute. This late-ish goal should have given us the momentum to win the match. Instead, Milligan, after having such a great tournament, kicked thin air in the box, and Takahara helped himself. Yet another little mistake. Although Grella’s red card was the wrong decision, he may not have had to make such a challenge if the score was 1-0. Besides the game would have been won in the 90 minutes anyway. And so it went into penalties. Kewell with all his experience, (mis)kicked a soft penalty, and Kawaguchi had no troubles saving it. Neill’s penalty was a bit soft too, kicking it in the same direction as he always does, and at a height that was perfect for the keeper to save easily. At 2-0 down, not even Schwarzer or a Takahara howler could save us.

Little mistakes everywhere. With all due respect, we were the best team at the tournament on paper, and should be in the semi finals, despite not being in the best form. This isn’t Oceania anymore, and we were severely punished for our mistakes by Asia.

Fune tuning is required, and there is no-one better to do this than Guus Hiddink. I just hope the FFA waits until the end of EURO 2008, after his contract finished rather than hire the ‘poor man’s Hiddink’ Dick Advocaat. With no major qualifiers, or international tournaments until June, Guus is definitely worth the wait.

Through to the quarter finals

Rayed Mamun — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 02:39:20 +0000

After a week from hell, we are finally through to the quarter finals with a quite flattering 4-0 victory over hosts Thailand. Although we played better, the 4-0 scoreline is a bit misleading. After leading 1-0 at halftime, Thailand dominated the early periods of the second half. Viduka then showed his class, scoring against the run of play. From then, Thailand had nothing, they got tired, lost momentum, and two more goals were added. Defence was much better, but was still poor, as we struggled to get the ball out of our half, until Viduka’s goal. Milligan and Beauchamp were great, stepping up to the plate at a crucial game such as this. Its going to be difficult to drop one of them for Lucas Neill against Japan. There is still work to be done, but this is a start. The attack wasn’t bad, but it had more potential. Japan aren’t going to be easy beats, and, although we have improved a lot, these areas need to be fine tuned to beat a red-hot and vengeful Japan in Hanoi. The re-match from Kaiserlautern, should be an epic.

Australia plants suicide bomb on Iraq

Rayed Mamun — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 03:53:50 +0000

Strange huh? It’s the last thing you’d ever expect in the war in Iraq, that, some of the coalition forces themselves, would be suicide bombers. Apparently there is something similar, and its called the Australian football team. I thought the Oman game was bad, this was much worse. Poor attack, poor defence, and poor discipline. All three goals were rubbish, each time, silly errors and just giving the ball away. 1st one, lack of communication between defender and goalkeeper. 2nd and 3rd, just lazy defence. Neill, supposedly our best defender, gets sent off. He had an awful game anyway, I hold him personally responsible for the 2nd, and possibly, 3rd goal. So disappointing, I hold him in such a high regard, but now, I really don’t know. What about Kisnorbo? He had a shocker against Oman, and how does he repay Arnold’s faith in him? Unbelieveable, the way he missed the ball when he should have got it, and gave the ball away so easily, it was school boy stuff. A team that has made me so proud the last year or two, is now playing such shocking football. I don’t even know where to begin, every other part of their game sucked as well, although not as bad as the defence.

Now, we need Iraq to top the group (by beating or drawing with Oman) and then beat Thailand convincingly to go through ahead of them on head to head record. Believe it or not we can still top the group if we hammer Thailand and Oman beats Iraq. At this rate neither of these scenarios seems appealing, as at the rate we’re going, I’ll be surprised if we can even get one point from the hosts. The team that was favourite to take out the tournament is now staring down the barrel at first round elimination. I’ll watch keenly on Monday, only because I have nothing to lose. Whatever happens, I want to see Arnold gone. I couldn’t imagine this sort of a display if Hiddink was in charge. Sign the petition to have him sacked: www.sackarnold.com.

O-Man!

Rayed Mamun — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:17:28 +0000

What the hell was that? By the time the final whistle arrived I was so happy that we got one point. 90 minutes before, I was absolutely sure we’d come back with three.

Our defence was dreadful, I can’t believe how naive we were on the counter. Not only this, but our ability to defend the set pieces wasn’t that great either. A team that is obviously less skilled than us, would obviously look to exploit these two areas. Not only did they do this, but we let them gain more confidence, and they, really were the better team. If it wasn’t for the brilliance of Schwarzer, we would have been 2-0 maybe 3-0 down.

Attack was good, but it lacked the intensity, the killer punch. It fell away in the second half, but Tim Cahill did it again. He saved us like he did against Japan at Kaiserlautern. We cannot be in this position again if we are going to be serious about winning the tournament. Teams like Japan and Iran will cream us at this rate. We have to get used to the conditions better. I expect a stronger showing against a tougher Iraq side on Friday. I get the feeling though that if we don’t pick it up, we could get eliminated in the quarters or semis, if not before that.

Asian Cup opener

Rayed Mamun — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 01:56:54 +0000

Thailand and Iraq played a scrappy 1-all draw in Bangkok last night. I really thought Iraq were the better side in the first half, and were surprised they didn’t finish it off in the second half. They sort of fell away a bit, and Thailand were actually decent on the counter. Judging by this I think Iraq could test us if they play well on the day. I don’t see Thailand causing us many problems, although you never know with the home crowd behind them.

This is the first time that an Asian Cup has introduced a new ball. The ‘Mercurial Veloci’ will be used throughout the tournament. It looks like a nice design:

So to our opening game tonight. I don’t know much about Oman, but they’ve come out firing saying they won’t lay down just defend, and counter. They said they would be looking to attack as well. This could play into our hands, because our attacking strength doesn’t need a reason to even go on the counter. This could also pose a problem for our defence which struggled against Singapore. Either way we should win it, we might let in a goal, as it is early in the tournament, but our attack will just be too strong. I’m sayin 2-1 or 3-1.

Steve Waugh to mentor team

Rayed Mamun — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:00:28 +0000

Steve Waugh is best known for being one of Australia’s most successful cricket captains. His attitude, mental strength and leadership ability were what made the Australian team such a dominant force, which it continues to be today. It’s these qualities that Graham Arnold wants to invest in. He wants Waugh to mentor the senior players about the pressures of being favourites in a big tournament, as well as various other mental challenges that may lie ahead. I’m all for this move. Without King Hiddink, Steve Waugh’s inspiration may be the ‘X-Factor’ that we need.

Meanwhile, Graham Arnold has rubbished rumours of a new coach claiming: “The comments attributed to me (by a Korean publication) are total bull***t, I don’t even want to react to it.” Whether or not its true, he said he’s not reacting to it, which is the main thing, don’t want the team to get distracted.

Graham Arnold gone

Rayed Mamun — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:23:17 +0000

Its been the worst kept secret in world football. Ever since King Hiddink took Australian football to new heights at last year’s World Cup, Australia have been desperate to find a foriegn coach. It has finally been revealed today, that Australia will indeed have a “big name” coach at the end of the Asia Cup regardless of Arnold’s performance at the tournament. While I don’t mind a foreign coach, the timing of this announcement is very poor. I am very concerned that this will be an unnecessary distraction to the players and Arnold especially. I’m dying to know the name of this “big-name” mystery coach. Will it be Dick Advocaat? Gerard Houllier? Maybe Jurgen Klinsmann? We’re going to have to wait to find out.

Interviews with Graham Arnold and Harry Kewell

Rayed Mamun — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:19:15 +0000

The coach and our playmaker have their say about the upcoming Asia Cup:

Harry Kewell:

Graham Arnold: