Is Sepp Blatter the biggest hero in Australian football?

Absolutely shocking article get it off

I get the impression he's the kinda guy who talks really loudly on his phone on a bus/train.

Beardan's Malcolm Conn in disguise I betcha...and his namedropping Marshall Soper impresses me not a jot. Any old fool can Google themselves the Cliff's Notes treatment on Oz football history.

A bit like comnebol.. or concacaf... The end result doesn't make it less of a challenge.

Gotta say Bearden has done quite well for himself. Two essentially troll articles on football and UFC yet a tonne of comments and views on both. Good stuff!

If the same 3 teams consistently finish in the automatic top 4 spots, then talk of challenges sounds pretty hollow compared to what all the European teams have to go through.

Two points: Firstly, it should be considered that the nature of the two legged playoff was much more difficult than attaining an automatic spot, not just who we played in the play off (remember, Iran beat us in a playoff and they're from Asia). We'll play 18 games to reach an automatic spot. In no way am I saying playing Uruguay are easier to beat than Jordan, but for perspective we have the same qualifying record against both nations: 2 wins at home, 2 losses away. Secondly, Asia is mapping out qualification to mirror the marathon qualification CONMEBOL uses. It's been consistently highlighted that the South American league structure for qualification is probably the toughest route to a World Cup. They play 18 matches against top quality opposition, 5/10 are usually ranked inside the top 20 nations in the world. The remaining 5 are of the same level as the top AFC nations. Guess how many Australia will play in qualifying for this World Cup? 18. Now of course the quality of the AFC isn't that of CONMEBOL, but then neither is the OFC comparable to the AFC. We know what a true walkover is, it's 31-0 against American Samoa. 93rd minute winners to beat Bahrain? Nil all draws away to Qatar and Japan? Nil all draws against Oman away, 2-2 draws to Oman at home? Narrow wins over Iraq and the first of our losses to Jordan? They're a sample of our results front 2010 and 2014. Surely that doesn't paint a picture of easy, or walkover. If anything I'd say our qualification is fairer now. Playing six walkover matches in the OFC and thenr fronting up against World Cupp winning nations over two legs was very difficult and pretty unfair. Playing 18 matches against a spectrum of soft to strong nations is probably somewhere in between dominating Oceania and battling for our lives against CONMEBOL. It's important that AFC continues to expose these easier nations against the more accomplished ones, and that includes the expansion of the Asian Cup. The only way any of them will get better is to be exposed to consistent high level internationals. It's why South American Nations are consistently strong and it's why UEFA are organizing their Nations League. So yes, I agree with you that it's definitely easier to qualify through Aisa, but 'easier' doesn't mean there's no challenge, in fact that challenge will keep growing with every Cup to come. I also agree that the last few campaigns were boring but that's because of the way we played. And of course, we could very well find ourselves up against CONMEBOL opposition this very qualification campaign, but that will only be after navigating 20 games. Hard argue there's no challenge in that.

I think your on to something Juan. Have the Socceroos performances dipped since we've been given our free rides to world cups?, i don't think so. I think how we perform at the actual tournament means more than how we managed to get there and apart from the disaster against Germany( a side that whacked England and Argentina 4-0 also)we have shown without question we deserved to be

How many have Bolivia and Venezuela appeared in?

Reality? More like poor coaching was found wanting. Compare that horrible performance against Germany in 2010 to the wonderful effort against the Netherlands in 2014. In both cases the team we faced eventually finished 3rd, and yet in 2010, with a clean qualification we ended up getting destroyed, while in 2014, with a messy lead up and a half-regenerated squad (remember Brazil 6-0 and France 6-0?) we were unlucky not win or at the very least draw with the Dutch. Two losses to two similar quality teams with remarkably different circumstances on the field in both. It wasn't so much as reality hitting home in 2010 as it was the need for a good coach and a good style of play.

Well said

What happened in the 2nd half then ??

On top of all that, how fascinating is the path now as well. We're playing in some very interesting places, some teams with some real unknowns, in terms of players and style and conditions and atmosphere - something that is relatively rare in modern football. Yet it seems the attitude of many so called sports fans is to say, they're pushovers so why should we care, or what a joke. Even aside from the disrespect.... i don't understand how people can fail to be captured by contests like tonights steamy encounter in front of a big crowd clearly enjoying every pass their heroes make. This is the world cup. The finals are the pointy end - but every contest is part of the journey.

But not Victoria!!!!!!

Shouldnt you be sledging every single person with the opposite opinion to yours who has commented on this ridiculous 'article' ...oh wait Your extremely defensive comments show a massive amount of insecurity

I think the premise of this article is so wrong I dont know where to begin. For a start we have been through various qualification routes in the past and for a long time we failed every one of them. We were complaining that the road was too tough and now its too easy. You just cant win. For whats it worth I will be willing to go through any qualification route with Ange at the helm and the way we are playing our football. I cant remember a time when I have been more proud of following the socceroos and how they play. This football represents us in every single way - its tough, fast, aggressive and skillful. Their is a lot of thought and tactical know how that goes into our preparations these days. Something I couldn't have said for a long time, and Guus Hiddink was probably the first one to bring that total professionalism to our set up, Ange has taken it to another level and expanded on it. It is so disrespectful of other nations to say our qualification is easy. Since when has getting to a world cup been easy. Its never easy even when ignorant "football fans" like you think it is. IT IS NEVER EASY. We need to drop this arrogance from our fans because it stinks to high heaven. The fact that you think we should be able to roll over these nations like they are nothing...........really. I don't think you pay enough attention to world football these days and how many close matches we get between nations. Did you watch the last world cup when super powers like Italy, Spain, England, Portugal and Russia couldn't get out of the group. Look at the Sth American qualifiers these days with Argentina being a real threat of not making it because "lesser nations" are getting on top of them. As a football nation the thing we need to do is go out and play nations like Bangladesh and play our absolute best. By doing so you are respecting the opposition and at the same time they will find improvement at a quicker rate than if we "took it easy". You seem to forget the travel that we need to do, the conditions we need to face, the hostile places we need to play, but sure, qualification is easy.

Find me anyone who would rather the lottery playoff vs our current path through Asia. What you are saying, if that's it, is nothing original or new... except for the sepp angle... which is very very simplistic. But while we *should* qualify it doesn't mean we shouldn't take our opponents seriously. Jordan have caused us plenty of trouble. Iran are a heavyweight. China are pouring energy into development. The travel is lengthy and sometimes dangerous. Last time it was the last game before we made it. But nah. It's a doddle. Let's make fun of the developing nations we now play in the early part of the path.

You're taking the mickey out of how easy it is to qualify against the kyrgz and yet the fact that we now play lower ranked teams in the first round is irrelevant? Why talk about them and their funny spelling (guffaw!) at all if the focus of your article is on the ease of the previous two paths? Which you got wrong anyway?

In all seriousness, the blatter gravy train is about to run into a dead end, and all things going well, a new track will be laid for the governing body of the world game. With each passing day, just when we thought we had heard it all, there's a new revelation more shocking than the last. We have a whole generation of national administrative bodies, raised on the blatter method, who all think that it's quite normal to line your pockets, take a cut of the action, give the broadcast rights or stadium work to relatives, put your own family in positions of authority, etc, etc - it's a never-ending litany... Thankfully, we in Australia did not catch the bug - we can be thankful that we are part of a nation where nepotism would never be practiced within our own governing body. Thankfully, we live in a country where upon receiving some heat in relation to how he handled the public money earmarked for the world cup bid, he would never go to such lengths as placing a trusted family member in his old position to protect him from prying eyes once he leaves. Thank goodness we live in Australia.