Van Gogh, Rieu, Hartog, Hauer? Your boys took a beating!
Roar Pro
By Con Stamocostas, 7 Sep 2008 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- football, Graham Arnold, Socceroos
So what if it was a friendly. So what if the Dutch goalkeeper was wrongly sent off. So what if Graham Arnold is still involved with the national team. We beat the Dutch!
Australian football fans will dine out on this victory for years.
Like the famous 3-1 friendly victory over England in 2003 (which I had tickets to and missed because I went to a Sigur Ros concert instead, which the football gods will punish me for eternity), this win will become famous in the years to come.
We have a Dutch coach for our national team and our youth team, we have a Dutch referee boss, we had four players that were or are playing in Holland.
The Dutch are ranked fourth and we are in the late 30s. You know they aren’t going to be happy.
While the victory against the Dutch is great, the most important game to come is on Wednesday against Uzbekistan in Tashkent.
Hopefully the boys can take the confidence through to their next game and secure another famous victory.
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dasilva said | September 7th 2008 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
Look at our scalps – quite impressive, Argentina 4-1, England 3-1, Brazil 1-0, France 1-0 and now Netherlands 2-1. Hopefully we will add Italy, Germany and Spain to that list in the future.
What a fantastic match. The first half was the most impressive performance by the soccerroos since the world cup and you could argue that we outplayed the dutch when it was 11 vs 11. Dutch may edge us in possession but we created the much better chances and if it wasn’t for Holman we should have been winning at half time. Honestly that performance in the first half put Arnie to shame for that dour olyroos performance.
We did go off the rails in the second half and we played quite poorly. The passing was off and Lucas Neill had a shocker gaving away the ball on number of times as well as giving away the first goal and we were lucky not to have conceded a goal but we scrape a victory in the second half.
+ve – Emerton, culina, Valeri, Schwarzer (awesome save against Kuyt)
So-so – Kewell, Wilkshire, Kennedy, Holman
-ve – Neill, Carney
The red card was a correct decision. He was the last man. Either no foul or a penalty and a send off. The only reason why someone could argue he should stay on the pitch is because it was a friendly and the referee should be lenient. However to the laws of the game it was a correct decision.
dasilva said | September 7th 2008 @ 1:28pm | Report comment
Jamie Coyne wasn’t bad as well – he gets lots of stick for playing in the english 3rd division but in all honestly he outplayed both North and Neill in the last two matches.
Midfielder said | September 7th 2008 @ 1:33pm | Report comment
Just hope the first half form is reproduced for the WCQ.
dasilva said | September 7th 2008 @ 1:43pm | Report comment
the thing about Australia is that we can go and beat hollond, brazil, france etc and then lose to iraq and the uzbeks.
Qatar thrash the Uzbeks 3-0. Maybe the Uzbeks are overated and we should beat them confortably or maybe they come at us as a wounded tiger and fight for their lives in a do or die clash. If Uzbeks lose the first two match they can pretty much give up top 2 positions.
Alan Nicolea said | September 7th 2008 @ 6:35pm | Report comment
It’s a step in the right direction, but it is just a step nonetheless. You guys beat England 3-1 in a friendly years ago but they will always have more chance of winning a world cup than Australia ever will. If Australia loses to Uzbekistan, the result against the dutch will mean nothing. Consolidation is the key.
cosmos forever said | September 7th 2008 @ 7:56pm | Report comment
Alan – in the history of world cup competition, how many have England won. I reckon it’s a pretty big call to say they will always have a better chance. Australia in team sports has an outstanding record in tournament play – England does not.
In a few years England will be lucky to have 11 players even playing in it’s own home league first division
Alan Nicolea said | September 7th 2008 @ 8:49pm | Report comment
Cosmos
At least they have consistently been in World Cups let alone winning it once. Australia consider qualifying for the damn thing a success. You can’t compare mate. In recent team tournaments for england – 2003 rugby world cup champions, 2007 rugby world cup finalists, 2005 ashes series, quarter finalists in 2006 world cup.
Australia – finalists in 2003 rugby world cup, quarter finalists in 2007 rugby world cup, last 16 of Football world cup in germany, ashes triumph in 2006/07.
Yeh, I think England has a case in team sports my friend. A big call? whatever mate.
jimbo said | September 7th 2008 @ 8:58pm | Report comment
Good result no matter the circumstances.
It could be a confidence booster and a false sense of security for the Footballroos, especially as the Uzbeks got thrashed by Qatar and will be looking for a big big improvement at home.
Different referees would have interpreted the goalkeeper send off in different ways but the referee was well within the rules sending him off.
Often playing against 10 or even 9 men doesn’t give the big advantage it should.
Holman played well and will probably start against the Uzbeks, but he still hasn’t got that touch in front of goal. He should have converted one of his chances and needs a bit more confidence in scoring.
Kennedy did well and hopefully we now have a striker who can score goals no matter the circumstances. His scoring average per game for Australia is a lot better than most strikers, including Dukes.
BTW New Zealand beat New Caledonia 3-1 in New Caledonia to sew up top spot in the Oceania Qualifiers and will face off against the fifth placed Asian team. They now have a 4 point lead over New Caledonia who only have one game left to play against New Zealand in NZ.
Fingers crossed both Australia and New Zealand both make it to the FIFA WC Finals!
Alan Nicolea said | September 7th 2008 @ 9:20pm | Report comment
Can New Zealand do a Haka in football if they wanted to or not?
dasilva said | September 7th 2008 @ 9:33pm | Report comment
I guess the penalty could be interpreted as a back pass ot the keeper and since kennedy didn’t touch the ball – therefore the last man rule doesn’t apply.
What’s the official rule in that matter. Is simply denying a goal scoring opportunity a red card or the player has to be in possession of the ball for the red card for the last man to apply.
Anyone knows any referrees