10:30pm on SBS.

Australia for the emphatic victory against the worlds' #3 side.

Big call especially with Netherlands apparently going in full strength and a few of Australia's best only set to make cameos off the bench.

Well I never say that Australia will lose.

I am constantly saying to the Brazillians at work that we will beat them and all they do is laugh at me :(

That's because while not impossible, us beating Brazil will probably take an act of God and Brazillians are more religious than Australians so they figure they've got that avenue covered.

if Australia beets Brazil then it deservs nothing less than to win the worl cup.

but we all no there isn't a chance in hell of that happening..as for tonights game will watch it and hope for the best..

should be a good game, can't wait :)

I think we'll go down 2-1

1-0 the dutch already :/

Missed 30 mins of the first half and the score so far doesn't suprise me.

What was suprising was somehow missing out on last world cup qualifications.

s*** ! did you see that save by the dutch keeper ? so unlucky for vaduka....

Well, we've been outclassed (not a surprise) but only being 1 goal down with some fairly poor defense is encouraging.

1000 forum posts?

Not a bad half by the Aussies, the Dutch are a much classier side and it shows...but it will be interesting to see how we go in the second. We've had a few chances, just need to convert.

Our keeper is a fkn ninja. Defence is shocking though...

I wanted Kewell to be playing:(

another spot missed by viduka :/

1-1

omg one players got red card

Game over its draw 1-1

very lucky for a 1 all draw.

schwatzer saved our ass!! ninja skillz

last 30mins down to 10 men, good effort by the boys to hold them out

Much better second half, especially in terms of passing completion but the Dutch still looked better when they made opportunities.

we injured 3 of their players too
but was enjoyable to watch still

No doubt the dutch was the better team and australia was lucky to come out with a 1-1 draw at the end. They might have survived but only due to holland's misfortune. Hopefully some lessons learnt from playing a world class team though.

Also vaduka is over rated.

The team still doesn't seem to be gelling together very well. Defence was just as scary as it was when playing Greece - way too many bad touches and loose balls. Several times we made plays that set up easy scoring opportunities for the Dutch which you just can't afford to do at that level.

We barely have any attack and during the few plays we made up the field there was no chance we were going to finish off.

Fitness didn't seem to be an issue like it did against Greece.

All in all though, what matters is the score at the end of the game, and regardless of all else we DID draw with the #3 team. If we keep our s*** together and tighten up our defence we will be competitive against Brazil. If we play like we did last night, Brazil will walk all over us.

Anyone found the offical soccer jerseys for less than $120???

The defence was bad but some of the midfield changes in the second half made a massive difference in ball retention. Having said that a lot of the movement was too slow and it was obvious the Dutch worked together much better than we did. They used that time we wasted to shut down the space up front much better than we did when they were attacking.

can someone clarify..

germany = dutch = netherlands?

how the hell many more names do they have?


last edited by niklaos at 12:14:28 05/Jun/06

Huh? 2 of the three you listed...

Nah... Deustchland = Germany, Deustchlander = german
Dutch = someone from the netherlands
holland = just 1 part part of the netherlands, but is often referred to as the whole country by outsiders

lol niklaos


deutschland = germany

dutch = netherlands = holland

idiot

no wonder you failed highschool

well ive got a damn magazine at home with an article on Afganistan, and its talking about the "Dutch" troops, and how they are all from Germany.

damn well confusing.

ill try and get a scan of it.

i failed Math in highschool, math != geography/social studies

I once thought that Sweeden was the Capital of Switzerland, turns out it isn't. I did fail school, before you ask.

ye average aussie aint the best at geography thas for sure, this dude i once knew thought philipines was an island deep inland of china

Deep inland island?

ye average aussie aint the best at geography thas for sure

It must be cause we're so far away from the rest of the world.

We really started picking up our game towards the end of the first half. I'm not much of a fan of his but I thought when Viduka came off we really lost some steam in the second half. I can't wait to see Kewell in action, because I think he'll really help to tie the team together.

If Schwarzer can maintain the standard he played at last night, he should captain the side.

last edited by Hardball, Billy at 13:02:37 05/Jun/06

If Schwarzer can maintain the standard he played at last night, he should captain the side.

I'm not sure having a keeper as captain is a great idea. I would have thought they'd be better off thinking about their own game and defensive marking rather than having other distractions. Also wouldn't it be better to have your captain up in the thick of the action (hopefully at the other end) so he can talk to the players and ref if need be. Sure he performed extremely impressively but I think there are too many drawbacks to having the leader anchored in the goal mouth.

Actually the keeper can see a lot of whats going on pretty well back there, especially his defence and its management. I think Schwarzer would make a great captain and a keeper at the same time. I mean he was just about the only one that kept australia in the game last night.

Yeah, but managing defence is the keeper's job anyway. The problems would come in attacking corners and free kicks. With a team that plays together so little I would imagine leadership would be important for those plays, especially in terms of structure.

No doubt. I guess at the end of the day its up to the manager to decide a suitable captain and his respective position in the team. Besides most of the time it's the managers getting involved screaming out instructions on the sideline.

Yeah, in the end the manager has a much bigger role in football than many other sports so more is riding on "Aussie Guus" than the captain.

keepers make great captains, take king kahn former german captain/keeper.