We1402's View of the Campaign
Oh, don't walk away from the game because this world cup would have been so much duller... without the Soccoroos and as you have guessed people around the world are gutted with your loss. You definitely can be proud. You played attractive football and showed spirit and there are not a lot of teams which can say that.Having said this I don't think I am going to watch any world cup game anymore because I have had it with the cheating, diving and bad referee decisions that played such a highlight in this contest...
Italy is famous for cat and mouse play. What they basically do (and I call this anti football) is that they hang around their own goal and wait for one counter attack and then they score and there is not much you can do about it and Hiddink knows this... [and his tactic was] to wait [until] they get tired. And Australia was ready to score in the extra time until [Italy] did what they do second and that is dive with passion in the hope that the ref is fooled by this (Portugal is in the same school like this). While watching the game I was afraid that something like this will happen.
I am not sure if I agree with the best team wins the world cup theory, perhaps the smartest team but not the best team. I mean Germany wasn't the best team in 1974 and I am sure there are other examples. The four that are left aren't actually that good but then again in the beautiful game department this tournament is rather a let down. It seems that more and more teams go for 'ah the stakes are too high' approach and hide in defensive football and don't attack.
I think if we are fair... all teams use not so cool tactics to progress and perhaps some teams are better then others... I do think that there are teams that use them more then others but that is also perhaps due to the characters they have.
I mean we [the Netherlands] have also an Oscar nominee at our team but somehow we are not very skilled at using those tactics. Is my frustration with Portugal fair or is it just because they were able to get away with it and progress further whereas the NL got an anonymous exit? I mean wouldn't every team take the opportunity of a defender who is lying on the ground? I would like to think not but I am not entirely sure.
I am saddened that the diving and the cheating and trying to let the team not play football get so much attention and that they get away with it... that sometimes the motto is Fight, fight, fight instead of play, play, play. But perhaps that is the result if there is so much at stake also commercial wise?
Before I am going to sound like Jerry Macquire before he made a lot of money with his star player and went the same route (AND I really, really dislike this movie. O, why is Cameron Crowe considered as a good screenwriter), I wish that there was some more joy in the games and less commercialization.
But lets's return to happier things...
Bellm's View of the Campaign
It’s not bribery or rigging or anything like that, just unfair... Football has no video replay, no hindsight.The fact that Italy got a "soft" red card during the game made it more likely that we wouldn’t be given the benefit of the doubt in a close decision. One yellow is often followed closely by another a red card for one team makes it more likely that the opposing team will get one too. I know this doesn’t seem to make sense, and even sounds perverse, but I see it happen time and time again in football games. Perhaps it’s human nature? When you take something away from one team you are then predisposed, however unconsciously, to take something away from the other. In rigged games with a dodgy, corrupt ref there’s no such inclination to "even it out" between the teams, there’s just a series of bad decisions against one team.
[Ukraine going through] does make it a little more painful for us. I saw some of the Ukraine-Switzerland game and both teams were very, very poor. It was probably the lowest-quality, most tedious football I’d seen at this WC - even the penalty shootout was incompetent! But the Ukraine are through to the quarters and we’re flying home. Italy will walk all over them and straight into the semis. If we’d won, that might have been us - but we didn’t. Ouch!
Italy probably won’t win the WC... and I hope they don't...
I’m still sad but surprisingly philosophical.
Like most people I would have preferred to lose 2-0 because Italy scored a couple of brilliant goals. It wouldn’t have felt so cruel, we would have been sad but not bitter. But at the same time, we had our chances and couldn’t capitalise playing against 10 men. Italy, for all their propensity to resort to tricks, do have the best defence in the world. The last-minute penalty is tough to take but in the end we HAD to score and we couldn’t.
[Australia are] already are part of this game and we have been for a long time, perhaps without realising it? I don’t want to go back into our shell.
We need to build on this rather than retreat into cricket or AFL, sports we like, frankly, because we’re really good at them and don’t have much competition! I don’t want to turn into the US, who stage "world championship" basketball and baseball competitions with no other countries competing and think it’s something to celebrate. That’s just too easy for me, too comfortable and a bit insular.
Sure there are "elite" countries in football but there are elite countries in the world at large. We just aren’t the elite in this, aren’t one of the traditional powers. Yes, there’s too much money and commercialism but somewhere, hidden underneath, there’s still the original idea of the world game. Fantastic things can happen. I mean Ghana... knocked out the No.2 ranked team in the world, the Czech Republic, and the most powerful country in the world, the USA. Ghana!!
For me, there’s still something really compelling about football. Its highs are higher than other sport’s highs and its lows are lower than other sport’s lows. Bloody opera is what it is! Or life?
But what’s a football post without a big rave about Mr World Cup? Lucas Neill was just about our best player and one of the best defenders in the tournament. (The fact that our strongest, most in-form player was involved made it even more horribly dramatic! Arghhhh) I doubt he’ll be at Blackburn Rovers much longer, unless he really wants to stay. I feel very, very sorry for him at the moment but everyone has rallied round and the fans know we got this far in the WC thanks in a big part to his excellence.
The poor guy apparently had to be helped to the dressing room at the end of the game. They replayed the penalty decision over and over and some players cried but he just sat quietly in the corner, totally inconsolable and devastated. He hasn’t had the heart to do an interview - because it’s a bit broken at the moment.
The membership still loves you! In fact, trying not to cry on the pitch in front of millions of people was more moving to me than taking off your shirt and jumping all over your teammates like He-Man Of The Universe. The pain will hopefully knock off the occasionally cocky edge Wr World Cup has and bring out the mature future captain Socceroo side of him even more.
One day he’ll feel like playing ball with all the kids at his old primary school again.
He’ll smile again too, but it will take a while. Those teeth are too fine to waste anyway!
Winam's View of the Campaign
What a long, sad day it’s been. I really, really need to get all my emotions out because as my workmates and those on the message board could testify, I was very upset by the result of this morning’s game against Italy. The result may be the same as a week ago against Brazil – a defeat – but the emotions it evoked was the antithesis of last week’s match.My overwhelming response for the day was that we were robbed - robbed by a penalty that should never have been, robbed by a team who were very far from models of fair play.
Yes, Italy has skill and experience. Yes, both teams were hungry for a win, but in a fair world the Italians would have gone for a win by fair means – a goal, or in the worse case, the penalty shootout. But obviously it was not to be and the fair team lost.
And at the centre of all this is, unbelievably, Lucas Neill. He fell, Grosso rolled over the top of him and it was all over. I really, really feel for him. His expression of disbelief and anguish said it all.
That it happened to him of all people was too cruel. He had, in my humble opinion and the opinion of many others more knowledgeable than me, been Australia’s player of the tournament, who had before the penalty been the man pacifying the best attackers in football.
It may sound stupid, but I feel the overwhelming need to console him, but what can I do? What can I do to console a team who had worked their hearts out, who had been truly inspiring? The only thing to do is to support them in my own little way. Support the Socceroos when they compete in the Asian Cup (which I’m sure they’ll do brilliantly in), support the individuals as they play for their clubs.
I’ve learned today just how cruel sport can be, but despite the obvious injustices in the game the Socceroos truly embodied how football is meant to be played – with enthusiasm and hunger, with skill that entertains, with fairness and great team spirit. Were we naïve to go in with this attitude? Perhaps, but it’s teams like Australia that keep the game vital and exciting, and unfortunately it’s teams like Italy that kill it.
We may have to work harder than other nations to succeed, and there’s certainly plenty of work to be done on all levels, but what Guus Hiddink had shown us in 11 short months was that we’re not useless, in fact, we’re not behind at all. Success is possible, and what greater achievement could there be in world sport than to show the world that success and fair play can go hand-in-hand in football?
So you might have guessed that I had gone through all 5 stages of grief in the last 24 hours, and in the last 2 weeks experienced all the highs and lows that come from passionately following a team, my national football team. In the end there was a lot to be proud of – the team’s tenacity, their truly attractive brand of play, their positively infectious attitude, and their graciousness in defeat.
All of the above qualities were displayed by all of the team, but particularly in Lucas Neill. Although you very well know that it was not his talent that first attracted me, it’s his talent and sense of self that won out in the end. He is no doubt a gifted and intelligent player, but he is also a leader and the perfect role model for a sport professional – competitive, fair and humble.
I hope that he goes back to Blackburn spurned and not disheartened. I hope that he will soon go to a big team like Barcelona, that he will one day captain the Socceroos, so he can show the world just what he and Australian football is really made of. Recognition has already started and finally the world as well as Australia knows that football is strong and here to stay.
So thank you Lucas, thank you Socceroos, and thank you Guus for showing Australia the way.
