So who got up early and watched the match?

Australia 1 - South Africa 0

Bresciano, 19'


It was a pretty entertaining game in my opinion, and it was good to see the Aussies winning. Bresciano scored the winner off a little Mark Viduka flick pass, with a nice volley from about 12m out.

I thought Bresciano, Schwarzer, Lazaridis, Viduka and Emerton were the top performers for Australia. What the hell was Harry Kewell doing? He looked like he didn't even want to be there.....not a very good performance from him, although he made a few nice passes and runs in the second half.

South Africa played pretty well as well, better than i expected. South Africa was quite dynamic in the midfield, and they were given a lot of space to run, mainly because Australia's midfield was probably a bit too attacking and wasn't marking up enough. South Africa did all the hard work in midfield, but they were really let down by poor finishing. They had several clear-cut oppurtunities that they failed to put away.

Top perfomers for South Africa were two midfielders, but i can't remember their names. I just know that one sounded like penOr and the other one sounded like that Mazda commercial (Zoom Zoom Zoom! ) Maybe it was Zuma........

Anyway what did you guys think of the game?

Discuss.....

Good victory for us, given that they're ranked 30-something and we're 80-something..

Though we still have a long way before having any sort of confidence in making Germany 06...

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webby....
those rankings are bullshit indications....australia is quite comfortably in the top 25 teams in the world...even top 20...

Yeah Farina is doing well! Kewell has been struggling all season in my opinion. He isn't half the player he was at Leeds and I could name about a thousand better midfielders in the league at the moment, which could probably explain his poor performance.

However in saying that, he is still fcuking class and if Australia is to have any hope of Germany 06, they are surely going to rest on the shoulders of Kewell and to a lesser extent Viduka, Emerton etc.

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cbf

quote:

Originally posted by $tip$y webby.... those rankings are bullshit indications....australia is quite comfortably in the top 25 teams in the world...even top 20...

Agree that the rankings are bullshit, but I still think we're one of the most over-rated teams in the world...

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overated? tell me how so

by not making it to a world cup...



Nice report mate, will have to watch the review on sunday arvo

Last edited by TiksA on Mar-31-2004 at 07:52

quote:

Originally posted by $tip$y overated? tell me how so

We have a couple of players who do extremely well at high-level clubs, along with dependable players. However, I don't think they play together often enough to even warrant being called a "team."

Even the matches against Uruguay (which were admittedly a while ago), Uruguay had the style and smooth play that to me defines what a World Cup calibre team should look like. We didn't have it, and our play looked scrappy and disorganised.

I also think Brett Emerton is quite over-rated. He has good skills, but he doesn't pass the ball well enough (or often enough). Again in the Uruguay matches they kept channeling his "brilliant solo efforts" straight towards the corners, and once he got there and ran out of room he couldn't find any option other than a throw-in (or corner if we were lucky).

We seem to be on the right track, but I think we have a long way to go until we are truly recognised as a football power.

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i like how nz beat australia
that was dame shameful

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i like you

at this level a win is a win, but i don't think australia can take too much out of this one. They gave the ball away carelessly a lot, well both teams did. Also consider that the aussie team was full of european based players in the middle of the season, a good part of the sth african team still plays at home, and the PSL season only starts this weekend. That may explain the terrible finishing, which really is the only thing that saved Aus. If either of the strikers were in form SA would have won this game.
Pienaar was the midfielder of form here, he was all over the aussies. Ajax have invested a fair bit in local talent, and the results are starting to show.
SA is also in a transition phase, just appointing a new coach (Stuart Who? as all the newpapers here have had their headlines) and a pretty poor run of form recently. They are now only ranked 7th in africa. this is especially bad with the decision on the 2010 WC due in May.
most important though, the 1st string teams of both countries got together and played good opposition, which can only be a good thing.

tubby

omg yayness

quote:

Originally posted by webmeister We have a couple of players who do extremely well at high-level clubs, along with dependable players. However, I don't think they play together often enough to even warrant being called a "team." Even the matches against Uruguay (which were admittedly a while ago), Uruguay had the style and smooth play that to me defines what a World Cup calibre team should look like. We didn't have it, and our play looked scrappy and disorganised. I also think Brett Emerton is quite over-rated. He has good skills, but he doesn't pass the ball well enough (or often enough). Again in the Uruguay matches they kept channeling his "brilliant solo efforts" straight towards the corners, and once he got there and ran out of room he couldn't find any option other than a throw-in (or corner if we were lucky). We seem to be on the right track, but I think we have a long way to go until we are truly recognised as a football power.

LoL get a fkn clue...

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Oh, life is bigger ,It's bigger than you,And you are not me,The lengths that I will go to, The distance in your eyes ,Oh no, I've said too much, I set it up

That's me in the corner, That's me in the spotlight, I'm Losing my religion, Trying to keep up with you ,And I don't know if I can do it, Oh no, I've said too much,I haven't said enough, I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing, I think I thought I saw you try.

But that was just a dream, That was just a dream, But that was just a dream, Try, cry, why try? That was just a dream ,Just a dream, just a dream, Dream