Australia 1-0 Greece

May 25th, 2006 | by: Matt |

Last night, Australia deserved to win. Greece were almost non-existent out on the pitch, and barely registered a shot on target the whole game. Australia completely dominated the match.

The goal was a great strike from Skoko, I was very impressed. We know he can score long range goals and hopefully he can keep it up.
Viduka didn’t get into the game as much as I would have liked. While we were very attacking last night, I don’t know whether the one man up front option suits us best. However, if Kewell and Cahill were playing last night I think we could have easily won 2-0 or 3-0.
Australia made good runs up the wings, Emerton, Sterjovski and Bresciano were constantly pushing forward, and we looked dangerous.
I’m a fan of the midfield Hiddink has in place. Grella had a solid game.
The defence, although they had little to do, didn’t look too shabby either. I think we have proved that our defence can hold up, having done so against Uruguay, but it will be interesting to see how they perform against the likes of Van Nistelerooy and Robben when we play Holland.
A number of flares were let off in true Greek style much to the amusement of the crowd, as well as two pitch invaders at the end of the game. Quite hilarious. One of my mates who I met up with after the game said they were sitting next to them, and they were two German backpackers. Haha.

Anyway, a good result but I think the true test will come against Holland in a weeks time. Greece just didn’t look interested last night, and we really should have beaten them by more.

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[...] The Socceroos had a successful send off match in Melbourne, beating Greece 1-0 in front of 95,000 or so fans. Josip Skoko’s goal in the 16th minute proved to be the game winner for Guus Hiddink’s boys. If you are like me and you missed the game, you can read the blow-by-blow account from our mate Chris who stayed up all night watching the Chinese bootleg version on his computer. That’s dedication. Our blogger Matt was at the game and offers his views. The Socceroos now fly to Europe where they will face the Netherlands on June 4 and Liechtenstein on June 7. Could Australia be a surprise team this World Cup? It will be fun to find out. Video of the goal below. [...]
Bigone

Australia played very well in the first half. Very well structured and organised. The passing was crisp and movement off the ball was great. Great goal by Skoko.
Greece were very disappointing in the 1st half. They didnt seem interested at all. A far cry from their Euro days. Although, they did pick up their game in the second half, which they probably had the better of. The Aussies didnt like being pressured, but they did cope with it well.
What do you guys think of Sterjovski? To me he seems really slow, every time he was in space they seemed to catch him easily. Cant wait for Kewell to get back, a 3/4 fit Kewell is better than a fully fit Sterjovski.
Just on our midfield, I thought they were great, Grella, Skoko and Culina combined well.
Lets hope that Kewell & Aloisi make it to the Japan game, we definitely need them. Playing one upfront worked OK, but we need goals at the world cup to get to the round of 16.
Martin

I’ve only seen the goal by Skoko – what a cracker! From what I have read, their has been mixed reviews from Sterjovski. Personally, I can’t believe this guy even made it overseas cause when he was at Parra Power he was a so-so and next thing you know, he is playing overseas. Everytime he has played for Oz, he always seems a half step behind at international level. Even a half fit Kewell would proved a better lift and performance than a 100% Sterjovksi. As I keep saying, our midfield is super strong and defense looks better with Moore (instead of Poppa). Does Schwarzer keep his place or will Kalac get his chance? Dukes and Aloisi will be key as we need to score goals to progress!
Tomislav

Schwarzer is a lot more solid than Kalac. Depending on how his face has healed up I would say Kalac would start against Japan and than Schwarzer will take over from there. i.e. Brazil and Croatia.
http://www.aresthetics.ch/trav Adrian W.

Sorry guys, but what I have seen will not be enough to beat Croatia or Japan – let alone come away with dignity from the Brazil game.
The only reason why the Socceroos looked halfway ok yesterday was because the Greek were worringly bad. It’s easy to control the midfield with short passes when the opponent falls back to the box and makes no attempt of coming out. The offence look everything but convincing. The goal was beautiful but coincidential and with quite a bit of luck as well (look at it in replay, I doubt he wanted to hit it this way).

Yes, Australia has some key players missing – and they need to be fit, if the Socceroos want to have honorable results at the WC. The Croatians and the Japanese will be much more aggressive in the midfield…and at the moment I don’t see anybody who can hurt them. And we don’t even want to think of the pain Brazil will inflict if they find the Aussies in the state they are in now.

But then, maybe it was just adjusting to Greece’s low standards. The Holland test will show it!
marco

Man kalac is so baddd .. i mean swarzer is not to good either but hes better (and even if kalac playes for AC Milan he was the 3rd GK until the 2nd one left and he never playes- so how can you playe some one who sits on the bench???… Any way i can see croatia toping the group if all goes well .. and if australia has a huge amount of luck will fin second but i donno .. after the greece game i really donno … i mean they are euro champs but it was the biggest fluke and there players are so bad .. i mean they all play in the greek league and if they play in italy or spain or germany they sit on the bench (so over all australias team was much better) .. wanna know what will kill australia .. playing Holland .. coz if they get pumped 4-0 it will kill there spirits … i really think they should have played the US or gana .. at least it would have been close
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http://www.dinkumdigs.com/2006/05/27/australia-1-0-greece/ dinkum digs » Australia 1-0 Greece

[...] Australia 1-0 Greece World Cup Blog, Oregon - 23 hours ago Australia made good runs up the wings, Emerton, Sterjovski and Bresciano were constantly they were sitting next to them, and they were two German backpackers. [...]
Tomislav

Adrian,

I agree. I was expecting to see better from Australia.

This makes the Holland game all the more interesting despite it just being a friendly.
JeZ

Ha, Ha, we beat the Japs…

Thanks for talking them up, I won more on my bet.

The biggest advantage us Aussies have is wombats like you blokes who underestimate us.

Sucked in.