“Their national team owes its nickname to the combination of two words: ‘soccer’, as they and the North Americans call football, and ‘kangaroo’, the symbol of the country.
“For years, they have been the ugly ducklings of sport in their country. This is the land where cricket abounds, a game like baseball but played closer to the ground and with matches that can last for days. It also has ‘Australian football’, a very violent hybrid of football and rugby.”
Yes, it’s been another totally normal day in the Argentine media, as they try to get to grips with what a Socceroo is and what they can do about it.
Those were the words of A24, a TV channel in Argentina as they attempted to get to the bottom of this Australian sports landscape. Don’t worry, we don’t quite understand it either.
Even more confusing was our beloved green and gold, with several outlets running stories to the effect of “que?” about the national sporting colours of Australia, which, as we all know, bear no relation to our flag.
“The uniform is inspired by the Australian acacia, the floral emblem of the country,” read La Nacion, a fact that, I’ll admit, I didn’t know myself.
“The large shrub, very popular in Australia, has green leaves and yellow flowers, the same hues as the national sports uniforms. The rugby team, known as the ‘Wallabies’ wear the same colours as the soccer team and are one of the most competitive rugby teams in the world.”
Well, La Nacion clearly tuned in to the victory over Wales last week, though maybe skipped a few of the other games before that, including the one where they lost 48-17 to the Pumas.
After running the rule over the team that defeated Denmark yesterday, the papers in Buenos Aires seem to have given their mates in Lima a call, because they are suddenly all over Andrew Redmayne, hero of Australia’s shootout win over Peru that got them into Qatar 2022.
Redmayne is yet to feature at the World Cup, but might get a run if the knockout clash ends up in a shootout, which caught the attention of the Argentinian journos.
“A goalkeeper who saves penalties is not a great novelty, but Redmayne’s hallmark is the dances and jumps that he does before being kicked,” wrote Ole, one of the biggest sports newspapers in Argentina.
“In fact, he copied the line from an Australian children’s show, The Wiggles, because “they’re on my TV at home all day because of my little girl.”
“Although it was the moment of greatest worldwide repercussion of the “Redmayne style”, it has also been repeated in the local league – with the addition that the rival kicker on that occasion was his national team colleague, Jason Cummings, who encouraged him to dance. He did it again and imagine what the result was: he was right, his team went through.”
Yep, Ole were watching the Australia Cup tie between Sydney FC and the Mariners back in July, where Redmayne saved from the Cumdog in a shootout.
Daily La Prensa went big, quite literally, on the size advantage that the Socceroos will have over the Argentinians on Sunday morning (AEDT), referred to the ‘fortress of the Kangaroos’.
“If Australia has anything going for it, it’s muscle and height,” they wrote. “All of Graham Arnold’s players average 1.80m, at least. (Milos) Degenek is 1.87m. And Harry Soutar, the first central defender…1.98m. The keeper? The quite short Mat Ryan stands at 1.84m.”
La Prensa did have the tactical breakdown handy, though you don’t have to be Pep Guardiola to work it out.
“The proposals made by the coach are flexible. Flexible to sit back, at least when they know they are inferior to their rival: 4-1-4-1, 4-2-3-1 or the more classic 4-4-2.
“It will be seen which one he resorts to on Saturday, or which ones. Surely it will vary with how the game goes and the team’s needs.
“Australia knows that, up to now, it has reached a dream stage. But they will try to stretch that dream. They have no fear.”
Fair dinkum, che.
Even though St.Pauli ultimately lost a high-scoring affair, Jackson Irvine was a standout, as well as scoring a late goal.
What if we celebrated all of the achievements big and small, and weeded out those hell-bent on bringing down a game that is doing a hell of a lot right?
A good performance from Michael Ruhs, scoring twice to beat Macarthur and doubling his season goal tally in the process.
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