This week’s Roar and Against debate is about how much emphasis we should place on friendly results 13-years after the Socceroos famously defeated England.
Each week two writers will go head-to-head, and will only have 250 words to get their point across in the debate.
It will be up to you, in the comments section, to decide the winner. That winner will stay on and take on a new challenger and new topic. That challenger can be anyone, including any commenters who throw their hat in the ring.
To debate this week’s topic, Roar guru Riley Pettigrew stays on as winner of last week’s debate and is up against new challenger and fellow Roar guru Brendon Vella.
AGREE
Riley Pettigrew (Roar Guru)
Football friendlies are meaningless. It’s in the name.
There is nothing on the line and there has been no big lead-up to this match.
Despite being host to the best football competition in the world, England are the perennial chokers of world football.
Roy Hodgson’s side should be focusing on testing themselves against football powerhouses such as Argentina, Brazil and Chile rather than the 50th best team in the world.
Yes, we may be the champions of Asia but what does that mean when the likes of Senegal and the Cape Verde Islands are ranked higher than us? Not much.
Australia should be focusing on qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, England should be aiming for Euro 2016 glory.
The world has changed in the past few decades, England are not the Socceroos’ biggest rival in football. It is Japan, South Korea and China – our neighbours.
The FA have even defined just how meaningless this fixture is.
The fixture will not be played at Wembley but rather at Stadium of Light in Sunderland.
To the FA this is just a low-key football friendly between two nations who may have plenty of history off the field but won’t attract nearly enough to fill the 90,000 capacity home of English football.
Unfortunately for Australian football, the Socceroos’ rivalry with England isn’t nearly as important as tests between the two nations in cricket, rugby league, rugby union or netball.
No matter the result come Saturday morning, Australia’s clash with England won’t mean anything.
DISAGREE
Brendon Vella (Roar Guru)
Whatever the sport, the rivalry is always fierce when the English and the Australians face off against each other.
In football the two nations have clashed just six times in the past, with Australia having only tasted success on one of those occasions; the famous 3-1 over the old enemy at the Boleyn Ground in 2003.
History between the two nations aside, I would still not call this game meaningless.
England are preparing for the European Championships and will be looking to continue on from their 2-1 win over Turkey last weekend with a similar result against the Socceroos tomorrow morning.
A slip up against ‘lowly’ ranked opposition would not do their preparation any favours. For Australia, this is a massive game to show once again on the world stage that we can match it with the top nations in the world.
Having won the Asian Cup in early 2015, it will be another test of the team’s capabilities, and Ange Postecogolu’s ability to shut down the more renowned nations.
The last time the Australians played a world class opposition was when they took a two-all draw against Germany over a year ago.
With just over two years until the next World Cup, the young players like Jamie McClaren will want to impress to make sure they are involved in the national squad on a permanent basis.
There are no meaningless games, whatever the opposition but especially with the cultural significance of these two nations going up against each other.
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