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Socceroos vs Iraq: The golden grass of home

16th June, 2013
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Roar Guru
16th June, 2013
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“If God had meant football to be played in the air he would have put grass in the sky.” – Brian Clough

Not quite grass in the sky, but we do have something special to witness this week in Sydney.

After two solid results of an away draw to group leaders and rising sons Japan and a foursome thrashing of Jordan, the Socceroos are just two halves of a football match away from qualifying for their third straight World Cup finals appearance if they can beat Iraq at ANZ Stadium in Sydney tomorrow night.

Remember Argentina 1993, Iran 1997 and Uruguay 2001. Australia had been in a World Cup finals wilderness for 32 years and now is set to play its final 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualification game against Iraq to make it to our fourth.

A win against Iraq would make it a certainty to appear at Brazil 2014, a draw would mean we rely on Oman’s result and goal difference and a loss is not worth thinking about.

After a disappointing home draw against Oman a few weeks back, the Australian team is finally relishing the green, green grass of home and making the home ground advantage pay.

There were complaints about the state of the grass at Docklands Etihad Stadium last Tuesday, but the team put that aside and brushed away the Jordanian threat with four well taken goals and a clean sheet at Schwarzer’s end.

There’s usually the odd complaint about the surface and the lack of atmosphere at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. But this time the ANZ Stadium has not had a rugby league game played there since the June 5 State of Origin game and the surface should be good.

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Let’s hope that the grass becomes nothing more than a footnote in the match report.

South Sydney even moved their weekend home game from ANZ all the way up to Cairns in North Queensland. I’m not sure if that was at any request – or just coincidence – to keep the surface at its best for football. The NRL have always been very cooperative in assisting the FFA, so we must be thankful.

The match was announced as a sell out over the weekend and the Socceroos will be greeted by a packed stadium, so if the atmosphere is even as half as uplifting as the Uruguay game of 2005, then Lucas Neill and the boys should have nothing to complain about.

Initially a modest crowd was predicted, but the historic significance of the match following the Saitama and Melbourne results, has made this Socceroos fixture the hottest ticket in Sydney on Tuesday night.

Yours truly missed out after leaving my run late, and will be at a pub.

Holger resisted playing the ball in the air too much against Jordan and left players like Josh Kennedy and Brosque on the bench.

On the other hand you wouldn’t call Tim cahill an out and out striker, something that the Socceroos desperately lack at the moment. He played Tim as a lone striker but still got the results he wanted against Japan and Jordan.

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I’m not sure how Brian Clough would have approached the next game against Iraq, but I can’t see Holger making any wholesale changes for the game and expect the same XI to line up for the kickoff.

Maybe you could give us all a little treat there Der Kaiser’s former assistant and let Tommy Rogic have more than five minutes game time.

Whatever the team selection, tactical formation or attacking options, we’re all very confident Australia is going to win and we’re going to Brazil in 2014.

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