Archive for June, 2006
Australia are into the round of sixteen, justifiably but horrendously traumatically so.
It was a really bad start to the game, with Croatia scoring a very early goal. I think even from there we knew that Kalac wasn’t the right man for the game. I think he was totally out of position to deal with the free kick.
Not a couple of minutes later, Viduka was rugby tackled by Tomas, and I just knew it was going to be another one of those refs. I see Graham Poll every week in the EPL and he seems pretty decent. Not in this crucial game…
A pretty good first half from Australia, saw them constantly pressing the Croatians, who seemed to slip into a deep defensive mode. Tomas was in the thick of it again, giving away a penalty after a blatant hand-ball. Thankfully Viduka stepped aside for the ole veteran Craig Moore; who was gifted the goal when Pletikosa made a move too early.
Going into the break I was pretty happy with the Aussie’s performance especially in attack.
Fears about Kalac were confirmed as Kovac’s weak shot ten minutes into the second half was horribly fumbled and found it’s way into the goal.
I love Guus Hiddink; Australia’s Jesus Christ of Football. But when selecting a goalkeeper for a crucial game, possibly the most important in Australian history in any sport, height and language skills should not be given precedence over match fitness and recent form. Schwarzer was the obvious choice to play in goals.
Croatia, again to their discredit, after taking the lead fell back into their negative, defensive mode of football, and Australia completely dominated for long periods of time.
Tomas, whom is a defensive Maradonna, committed another blatant ‘hand-of-god’ clearance to deny Josh Kennedy a chance at the ball. Somehow while picking up the hard to see first offence, Poll managed to miss this even more obvious one.
Harry Kewell had a chance to level things when he had a free shot at goal from less than 10 yards out. Pletikosa made an exceptional save to deny him. We should have had him in our goals. Kewell more than made up for it when he put home the equaliser from an obvious offside position. Seriously though, after all the shit we’ve put up with refs over the group games, I really didn’t give a flying … well you know what.
Sadly, in the last quarter the game decended into the seventh level of soccer hell.
I was on the verge of praising Emerton for a pretty solid game, when he got his first yellow card for a stupid time-wasting offence. It didn’t achieve anything, and it came back to bite him, when he was caught for a deliberate handball. So stupid.
Simic saw red, for a second poor tackle, and somehow Simunic after receiving an earlier yellow card, committed in my mind two more yellow card offenses, and was shown a second yellow but not the red card by Poll.
Don’t we have five officials now? You telling me that not one noticed this? Not one decided to tell the ref that Simunic should be off? That Poll after being asked by the Australians if it was his second yellow card, wouldn’t check his notes?
Give me a break and give Poll his plane ticket home.
That not enough, in the dying seconds of the game; well I will probably have to watch this several times to actually grasp what happened. We had an obvious penalty (Simunic again), which may have been played on with a decent advantage, which we used to score the match-winning goal. Poll then pointed to the penalty spot, then somehow it was full-time, then Simunic mouths him off, finally getting sent off after a world first third booking. A simultaneous WTF was echoed throughout Australia I think.
So we made it to the next round, but talk about an anti-climax. I felt Australia deserved to go through, but the manner of the game in which we did was a bit of a let-down.
As for Italy, the guys sound confident, and I am too. After a gutsy win against Japan, a game where we really tested Brazil, and a game where we were superior to Croatia; bring ‘em on.
I saw an orthopaedic surgeon on Monday, who had a look at my X ray films, and my shoulder in the flesh, as well as moving my arm around.
It is so damn weak. The muscle mass is there, but it has absolutely no strength after three weeks in a sling. I find it pretty much impossible to raise my arm past my chest height.
He wasn’t too concerned with the new X ray, and still believes, as my GP does, that the fracture isn’t bad enough that it would require intervention and/or surgery.
Apparently the bump at the fracture will smooth itself out over the next 18 months to two years. Crazy. I should also start trying to use my arm out of the sling too, as in his opinion it is stable enough to do day-to-day things. Like cutting my steak, or tying my shoelace. Things I took for granted, and now rely on others to do.
I’m still not convinced about the look of my clavicle, but it has gotten better in the last couple of days, as I’ve started rolling my shoulder back, instead of slouching. I’m pushing it occasionally too, in my own stupid attempt at orthopaedics. If I snap it, be sure to jeer.
Finally some good news from a professional.
World Cup Day 10,11 and 12 (so far behind and can’t count)
Published Wednesday June 21, 2006 World Cup Leave a CommentAi… I can’t keep up this furious blogging pace! I just can’t find time to do anything… this is what happens when you actually have a life! I used to be home all the time, now never get a spare minute…
And we are at Day 12, not Day 11… idiot.
I tried so hard to watch this game. I woke up at 1:50am, 2:00am, 2:10am, 2:20am and finally 2:30am then realised it just wasn’t happening. It was a classic football giant vs football minnow, which saw some heavy bias from the referee. We did so well in the first half, I was confident there was something in it for us. Brazil still look very fragile. I can’t seem them defend their title at any rate. In my mind they will either face the Czechs or Italians in the round of 16, and that’s where it will end for Brazil, unless things change dramatically.
I like doom-saying teams in this group!
Wasn’t anywhere near this one. How the hell did I think Korea could score three goals. Still, forgetting the prediction, I was very pleased to see them take this draw against France. France should beat Tog, so Korea need a good result against the Swiss to progress. Another group that should provide some great final matches.
At least the Croatians didn’t get three points from Japan. That would have made things very difficult.
These were my predictions for the games on day 10 and 11 of the World Cup. I am falling so far behind in Cathy’s tipping comp, I don’t know why I bother, it’s becoming embarrissing.
Togo 0-2 Switzerland, I thought Togo might scrap one goal, but the Swiss performed as predicted.
Spain 3-1 Tunisia, I was surprised that Spain let Tunisia in, especially first, but I actually picked Spain’s goals. For me Fabregas looked great.
Saudi Arabia 0-4 Ukraine, I picked a 0-2 win. Ukraine turned around their embarrissing defeat to Spain.
Sweden 2-2 England, I went Sweden to win 2-1, but it seems that you just can’t keep Gerrard out of the game. Even when he gets less than 30 minutes to play. Joe Cole’s goal was spectacular. I really felt for Owen, his fall looked so bad. I guess the question is asked all the time; why take two injury in-doubt strikers? Where is Defoe? I really wanted England to lose, then play Germany in the next round and get smashed.
Paraguay 2-0 Trinidad and Tobago, I thought this would end in victory for the Carribeans, I really would have liked to see that. They were unlucky with the own goal, but Paredes was lurking at the far post if it’s any consolation to poor Sancho.
Ecuador 0-3 Germany, I picked a 3-1 win for Germany, but Ecuador weren’t really there in this game to score that goal. Klose’s first goal was very well taken and his second at first looked like he bumbled it. On the second look, it was all class. Beautiful control using his knee to shrug off a defender and beat the keeper.
Costa Rica 1-2 Poland, I picked a 2-0 win for Poland, so I was pretty close again. 10 yellow cards? I didn’t see that though.
Ok, so I’ve made my predictions for all the games this week, while Cathy is away. I don’t think there will be too many revisions. I’ll do as many as I can.
Holland vs Argentina – I met a guy from the Netherlands last night, and he was already admitting defeat against the Argentinians. I think I’d rate them a little higher than he did, and I remember fondly when they beat Agentina in ‘98 from a classic Bergkamp goal, but I’m pretty confident Argentina will win this time. I told Cathy it would be 3-2 to the South Americans. Now I think 2-1 would be more appropriate.
Ivory Coast vs Serbia and Motenegro – Another inconsequential game, but one Serbia must win. After impressing in qualification, they will want to save some face and get some points. I still tipped Ivory Coast to win 2-0.
Iran vs Angola – It’s all over for Iran, but Angola must hold on to the hope that Portugal could upset Mexico. They must play for the win. I think Iran might hold onto a 1-1 draw.
Finally Portugal vs Mexico – Portugal are through, but Mexico will want to make sure they go too. A point is enough to see them leave the group, but both teams will face tough knock-out games against Argentina and Holland. The only question is who plays who?
Alright that’s enough.
So I didn’t make my wrap up of day 8 in time, neither post any game predictions. I had worked out who I thought would win all the games this weekend; I am helping Cathy with her work tipping competition, and they needed all the weekends games done by Friday 3pm.
I was pretty let down by the results.
Czech Republic 0-2 Ghana – WTF? I was very disappointed by the Czechs in this game. After promising so much against the USA, they just weren’t in the same mode. The referee was pretty useless in my opinion, allowing too much to go unpunished, inlcuding a lot of impressive diving from Ghana, then deciding to clamp down on stupid things like carding Gyan for rushing his penalty. Just like many a ref I see on the weekend matchups, too busy stroking their ego to keep tabs on the game.
This is setup for a cracking final round. If Czech draw Italy, Ghan could top the group, If Italy lose they need Ghana to draw the USA, or they don’t make it at all. Even USA could still take the runner’s up spot, if both they and Italy win. Can’t wait.
Italy 1-1 USA – Yay red cards! Masteroni’s looked a little harsh. Nice own goal by Zaccardo.
Portugal 2-0 Iran – Well I got this one spot on, but on the highlights there didn’t look like much to see. It took Portugal a very long time to break down Iran, but they are in the next round so…
So if you believe I was honest, I got two results perfect, but blundered the Czech result…
So on tonight’s games, once again just in time.
Japan vs Croatia – Despite wanting the Japanese to be totalled by Croatia (they want to see a ‘dirty’ team), formy grand masterplan, I need Japan to win this, but be beaten by Brazil next week. Then we are set to beat Croatia in the final round. With no real strikers in the team, I’m not sure how Japan will do it in a few minutes seconds time. They will require some help from the referee, and probably play for a set piece. Croatia on the other hand, show us how weak Brazil look right now, and I know in my heart of heart that they should win this game.
I’m still going to take one for the team and say Japan 1-0 Croatia.
Brazil vs Australia – biggest match in Australian sporting history. <– That was a full stop btw. If we can get a point, I think we could be looking at leaving this very tough group. Brazil looked pretty poor last time vs Croatia, but I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps they will pull their heads, and bellies in the case of Ronaldo, and thrash us. Perhaps not.
History is against us. I say stuff it. Australia all the way 1-0 Brazil.
France vs South Korea – my fondness for Korea (Guus’ old team) will show again in this match in a pretty mediocre group (Korea aside). Korea will be through as winners when they grab three points from France. South Korea 3-1 France.
