“I just find it hard to get worked up over that one.”

You apparently find it hard to get worked up over a lot of things, but point taken.

Thanks for your post on the media

I wasn’t being serious (which I stated), but having said that, the importance of a game can come from the occasion (knockout stage of a major tournament, one point away from WC qualification, etc.) as well as the opposition and our history with them. Or are you saying that the cricket World Cup final would not be important if Australia was playing the Netherlands as opposed to a traditional rival like England?

And you seem not to rate the importance of the Asian Cup, which is the Socceroos’ only realistic chance to win a tournament, so it seems pretty important. I just find it weird that you would only care if we played Japan or Korea at sometime during the tournament. (What about Iraq? That’s a legitimate rivalry, surely.)

You accept the Japan game is important because of the past, but does that mean that the match at the World Cup was not important because we hadn’t played them before?

Of course the Qatar game didn’t get the ratings of SoO, it was on pay-TV at 2:00 in the morning.

“For the soccer fraternity the Qatar match may have been exciting and important, but I doubt it got anything like the ratings of last week’s state of Origin; a game that is only ever between the same 2 states but is fuelled by mutual hatred and history.”

Just reminding you Dan that the SOO was played in prime time for TV whilst The Socceroos – Qatar started at 2am, so yeh SOO may have won the ratings!!!!!!!!
When the Socceroos played Uruguay in 2005 on FTA in prime time they beat the SOO ratings. The Socceroos are the number 1 national team of any of the Oz football codes in terms of interest and popularity.

You need to take my comment in context. I was responding to Sheek’s assertion that the media ignore soccer internationals “because they can’t grasp how important ever single game is”. I was simply trying point out that for the mainstream population games against countries they’ve no knowledge of or connection with in often obscure time slots is much harder to market than say the game against Japan in Melbourne in a couple weeks time. For the soccer fraternity the Qatar match may have been exciting and important, but I doubt it got anything like the ratings of last week’s state of Origin; a game that is only ever between the same 2 states but is fuelled by mutual hatred and history.
Not having a dig at soccer in general, just making the point that the mamoth international scope of the game can actually some times work against it in my opinion.

Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’ll be serious now. If soccer can’t provide you with what you want, that’s fine. But it’s really a matter of personal taste.

“Our media fails to appreciate that in such a highly competitive sport as football, even if Qatar was ranked 100th in the world, that would be roughly the equivalent of about 10th in rugby union, 5th in cricket & rugby league, & 2nd in Australian football, since there’s not much else.”

To interject here may I make the point that soccer’s problem is actually exemplified within this statement. Qatar, a country with a population that is smaller than most small cities, is our opposition in a WC qualifier… It is apparently important, yet most people in Australia know nothing of the people, language or culture of the country’s inhabitants and more than likely have never met anyone from there. What does this mean? Well it means that it’s hard to garner interest… The match was mentioned where I work the other day by our local socceroos superfan and the general response was “Qatar? Who?”. That Qatar is ranked 100 in the world and is “relevant” to us is precisely the problem… They’re all bloody relevant apparently and there’s over 240 countries in the world. There are too many countries with no tangible connection, let alone sporting rivalry, with Australia that we seem to be playing for “important matches” and not enough people care. For interest to be garnered there needs to be a relationship, an understanding, a history. Just look at our rivalry with England; in some sports it’s almost all we have, but people love it because we hate the poms! The Socceroos problem is too much product, but with very little history and often even less relevance (lets face it, outside of the WC very few matches mean anything). I’m not a soccer fan, but I always watch the socceroos when they play Japan because I’ve lived there, speak the language and ever since that world cup loss they really don’t like us in the sport so it’s interesting! Apart from that I honestly couldn’t care how well we play against the other countries in the Asian Championship (well, maybe Korea).

Just my two cents as a non-soccer fan about the lack of media attention.

I’ve posted an article that hopefully will appear on Roar in the next 24 hours or so – ‘Australian rugby union is talentless’.

You might be interested in it. I guess it’s fairly self-explanatory. In the meantime, let’s hope the Socceroos do us proud.

As for the media. At the moment no media outlets apart from SBS and Fox have any involvement with the A-League or Soccer in general. Until they do the reception the game recieves will be deciding cold.

I guess so – exaggerating things to prove a point.

But the purpose of the exercise remains relevant to football. The Australian media generally don’t appreciate how tough an environment it is in football.

Qatar might not be an international pushover, but they are neither ‘easybeats’. There is also the international structure that makes life so much more difficult for Australians (Socceroos).

They fly to Qatar from many points on the earth – mostly Europe, certainly different countries, also Asia & even back in Australia. They have maybe less than a week to acclimatise & rework combinations, then it’s ‘game on’.

That’s a tough gig in itself.

I agree with you in regards to the competitiveness of Soccer. But your being a little harsh on Rugby. Really only the top 50 or so in Soccer are regularly competitive in internationals. Outside that there is a pretty big gap. Yes Rugby may only really have ten Top Tier nations but its alot smaller than Soccer. Plus, alot of the smaller Nations are very even.

In our other ‘high profile’ sports, what is the opposition??????????

Take Australian football – who’s the opposition? Well, no-one actually, except maybe Ireland when we play them in convoluted so-called International rules.

Take rugby league – who’s the opposition? New Zealand & Great Britain, & that’s about it. Hardly anything to get excited about.

Take rugby union – who’s the opposition? Realistically, New Zealand, South Africa, England & France. And less occasionally, Argentina, Wales, Ireland, Scotland & Italy. Forget the Pacific Islanders.

Take cricket – who’s the opposition? These days it’s India, South Africa, Sri Lanka & to a lesser extent England, Pakistan, West Indies & New Zealand. Seven countries… hardly a true world sport.

Take aquatics (swimming) – who’s the opposition? After the USA, it’s the affluent countries of Europe who can afford to have swimming pools. Seriously, maybe a dozen or so countries.

My point is? Our media has grown up on the concept of most of our high profile sports being “big fishes in small ponds”. We’ve totally lost the ability of perspective.

Our media fails to appreciate that in such a highly competitive sport as football, even if Qatar was ranked 100th in the world, that would be roughly the equivalent of about 10th in rugby union, 5th in cricket & rugby league, & 2nd in Australian football, since there’s not much else.

That, dear folks, is the truth of it. The media, when it comes to football, continues to display a gross macho ignorance. They will learn, but albeit, very slowly.

back when oz was playing argentina, playing iran for a ticket to the world cup, i think there was a sense that we had some good players … but were we good enough? really? there was that win against brazil, but …

but with the media saturation we have nowadays … expectations have changed. our heroes play in the EPL! or in the major leagues of europe! they should be in the world cup! they should be playing better!

i think that with greater media saturation, comes higher expectation.

ps. pim is a pragmatist. i expect no change. the national team will continue to play beautiful, attacking football only when i am playing FIFA 09, or in my dreams. and that is fine with me, cos our pragmatic bunch is heading to our 3rd world cup finals.

I disagreed with Kossies selections and tactics at SFC but still went to as many games as I could.

Pimbo could get his one point by playing 10 defenders and kicking the ball upfield every time it comes near them – how enthralling.

Mike……Thanks for your comment.

Papa … good to hear from you … you should post more, I am missing you.

……… Work calls will add more latter.

Spot on – I had to check Wikipedia to confirm…he was fined by FIFA for his disgraceful display…I wonder if Brazilian fans considered it clever gamesmanship???

I was so used to the concept of barracking for another team at the World Cup that in 06 I found myself also cheering on Ghana despite Australia’s participation.

good comments Ben, I cant see the Japanese ever (willingly) playing for “nothing” and will always want to win (especially against us, korea, china… whoever in fact) but the same will go for any australian playing for the roos i would wager. but that’s not to say we cannot have one or two guys in there. IMO I dont think people are saying lets give a hopeles guy a start and play “ardiles style spurs” formations- for the most part they are all well paid, euro-professionals and whoever from the squad plays should be able to perform. or so we hope. Its better to find out in a dead rubber, one wewant to win still, than in 12 months time when a first 11 player is injured etc.

If Qatar can sort out their shambolic defense then they may be in with a chance. It is not easy playing in the Gulf States and our previous efforts are a testimony to the amount of preparation and thought the FFA has put in. Their existing defense gets the shakes every time we play them, hence Metsu’s changes to bring in players who haven’t had their confidence bruised by the green and gold.

Mike also has an interesting point which appears partially lost on most pundits at the moment (though this may be partly due to the focus on the Qatar game). That is the fact that the Japanese really, and I mean really (I’m married to one so can assure you that many more “reallys” need to be placed in that statement), want to win the group. They will throw everything at Australia at the MCG, dead rubber or no. It will not be a game to wheel out the ‘B’ team by any stretch of the imagination. One or two changes may be fine (give Jedinak and Carle a start, play two up front etc) however anything too dramatic and we will be in for a pasting in front of far too many fans. Expect a great match at the “G”.

SJ, I think that it is a good point re: China as I was disappointed that Carle didn’t take the opportunity. I suspect he has come to regret that now and his training with Sydney was an effort to show how sincere he was in wanting to be a part of the team. I’m willing to give him a go on that basis however I do not believe that anyone has a “right” to be in the team so he will need to take the chance he is given to show what he can add to the squad. Personally I’d like him in as he provides us with greater tactical depth.