Football world cup draw.

[cool65]

and reply by ghana - not kewell

[TheInterceptor]

What the hell just happend ahh!

time to put on Kennedy

[FGX-351]

I call bull####!

[TheInterceptor]

It would all be different if they actually ran for the ball instead of standing around their half....couple of good crosses into Ghana's box, and no socceroos in there to follow it through.

[DJR-351]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

It would all be different if they actually ran for the ball instead of standing around their half....couple of good crosses into Ghana's box, and no socceroos in there to follow it through.

Agreed, also after looking at the red card again i have to agree with the commentators, i was legit...

It's not over yet but with 10 men it just got a lot harder dammit...

[ST]

Worst ref ever. Serious influence on the game. Australia pulled together well in the end with 10 men and outplayed Ghana with a full team.

Australia will be lucky to beat Serbia let alone with multiple goals on board. Disappointing that the end of our world cup could be completely decided by poor decisions on the referees part.

[ED Classic]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

It would all be different if they actually ran for the ball instead of standing around their half....couple of good crosses into Ghana's box, and no socceroos in there to follow it through.

Easy to say from this end,

It was there yellow that should have been red (clear red) that decided it

[Bucknaked]

Originally Posted by ST

Australia will be lucky to beat Serbia let alone with multiple goals on board. Disappointing that the end of our world cup could be completely decided by poor decisions on the referees part.

Looking at the ladder Ghana are on 4, Germany and Serbia on 3 and us on 1. If Ghana beat Germany, and we beat Serbia, we finish on 4 and 2nd in our pool to go through. Sure it's going to be hard, but we can still get there. Or am I reading this wrong?

[DJR-351]

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

Looking at the ladder Ghana are on 4, Germany and Serbia on 3 and us on 1. If Ghana beat Germany, and we beat Serbia, we finish on 4 and 2nd in our pool to go through. Sure it's going to be hard, but we can still get there. Or am I reading this wrong?

Our goal count will let us down, we need to smash Serbia by at least 3 goals and Germany need to do a similar number on Ghana....

[prydey]

Originally Posted by DJR-351

Our goal count will let us down, we need to smash Serbia by at least 3 goals and Germany need to do a similar number on Ghana....

i think bucknaked is correct. most people will assume germany will beat ghana though which means australia need to score 4 points and superior goal count. if ghana beat germany, germany stay on 3 points which means if aussies win they will be ahead by 1. maybe i'm reading it wrong also.

as for the game itself, on another day, a lot of the calls could've been different, with ghana definitely deserving a red as well but otherwise i didn't think the aussies outplayed anyone. after watching teams like argentina etc, our ball handling skills seem well inferior. maybe its just me. i'm not really a patriot. i just watch sport for what it is.

[DJR-351]

Originally Posted by prydey

i think bucknaked is correct. most people will assume germany will beat ghana though which means australia need to score 4 points and superior goal count. if ghana beat germany, germany stay on 3 points which means if aussies win they will be ahead by 1. maybe i'm reading it wrong also.

as for the game itself, on another day, a lot of the calls could've been different, with ghana definitely deserving a red as well but otherwise i didn't think the aussies outplayed anyone. after watching teams like argentina etc, our ball handling skills seem well inferior. maybe its just me. i'm not really a patriot. i just watch sport for what it is.

I was not disagreeing, I was just pointing out that our low goal count just adds to the degree of difficulty and reduced our options....

- If both games end in draws, Ghana finish top and Germany second.

- If Germany beat Ghana and Serbia beat Australia, Germany finish top and Serbia second.*

- If Germany beat Ghana and Australia beat Serbia, Germany finish top and Ghana or Australia second.**

- If Ghana beat Germany and Serbia beat Australia, Ghana finish top and Serbia second.

- If Ghana beat Germany and Australia beat Serbia, Ghana finish top and Australia second.

- If Germany and Ghana draw and Serbia beat Australia, Serbia finish top and Ghana second.

- If Germany and Ghana draw and Australia beat Serbia, Ghana finish top and Germany or Australia second.**

- If Ghana beat Germany and Australia and Serbia draw, Ghana finish top and Serbia second.

- If Germany beat Ghana and Australia and Serbia draw, Germany finish top and Ghana or Serbia second.**

* First place will be determined by overall goal difference.
**Second place will be determined by overall goal difference.

[prydey]

yeah its all cool mate, wasn't having a go.

obviously when you list it out like that there are a lot of variables.

[naddis01]

Originally Posted by DJR-351

- If Ghana beat Germany and Australia beat Serbia, Ghana finish top and Australia second.

Really this is our only hope now. Unfortunately I think it will be unlikely but I hope I am proven wrong.

[rodderz]

Given up on soccer. Socceroos played well, but in a so called "world game", refs and cheating players shouldn't determine who wins. It should be who plays the best and scores the most goals fairly. It's disgraceful and I can't see how the players who do such acts can be proud of the way they play. A lot of players do it (even a couple of the aussies) but FIFA don't seem to have the balls to fix it or the crap refs.

Ah well, back to footy and cricket and V8's and see how they do in another 4 years time

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by naddis01

Really this is our only hope now. Unfortunately I think it will be unlikely but I hope I am proven wrong.

ghana winning is not as far fetched as it may seem. germany have five guys on yellow and their best 2 strikers out (fair enough ballack has not been there at all). i would still expect germany to win or at least draw, but many stranger things have happened all ready


for what it is worth, i think the australian's have done very well. i have never barracked for them and probably never will, but their fans should be proud of them. this is only the 3rd time they have made finals. the first with consecutive apprearances. the culture in the team is no where near where brazil, italy, germany etc. are and the financial constraints do not help either
i may be proved totally wrong on this, but the competition australia face is not as tough as the european and south american teams. at least in those continents you are likely to face germany, italy, england, france, spain, brazil, argentina etc. at some time in a real event. when australians face those teams they are friendlies. the asian competition while impressive certainly does not seem to stack up against the euro and south american teams
for sustained success there is no point in doing what turkey did in 2002 or even greece in 2004. for sure, winning a major tournament is worth more than just making finals, but to me, consistently making the finals is better than a one off semi final appearance - for the long haul anyway
i would think in a best case secenario, that to consistently expect to make the 2nd round, will take 16-20 years
many of australia's fans may think about what may have been, but so far what has been is amazing enough - and something to be proud of

[saber]

Originally Posted by rodderz

Given up on soccer. Socceroos played well, but in a so called "world game", refs and cheating players shouldn't determine who wins. It should be who plays the best and scores the most goals fairly. It's disgraceful and I can't see how the players who do such acts can be proud of the way they play. A lot of players do it (even a couple of the aussies) but FIFA don't seem to have the balls to fix it or the crap refs.

Did you have a specific incident or incidents in mind??

I watched last nights match, and for what its worth:

* Harry did deserve the red. The ball hit him or the upper part of his arm (bicep area), and his arms wasn't pinned to the side of his body. If he didn't have his arm there, it would have been a certain goal to Ghana.

* The tackle (now the names escape me at the moment) laid by the Ghana player, from which he recieved a yellow card, should have been a red. The tackle was late, crude, and from behind.

[rodderz]

The inconsistencies within the whole tournament. There have been yellows handed out worse than Cahill's red, penalties not awarded have been worse than Kewell's "arm ball" lol. It seems the refs are crapping about a decision that hasn't been called therefore they are trigger happy about everything. The replay shows the ball hitting kewell on the upper forearm, arms pinned to the side, eyes shut and he offered no attempt to hit the ball with his hand.

[Ross-b]

that replay looks very different from each point of view
from one it looks like your sort of right
but from 2 others i saw his arms are out
i think the one thing ive picked up on is that the refs dont want to hand out too many reds
theres 1 red every now and then and after that the refs settle down and over look alot of things
the germany and serbia game should have seen at least 1 more red from 2 yellows and last nights should have also seen another red
but if most of the crowd frown upon 1 red imagine if they gor trigger happy with them
i for one wouldnt like to see the riots if a game is ended early because of too many reds

and in my opinion the germany serbia game could have ended like that

ps the australian team really need to pull it together
they are all over the place
ive seen them run into each other too many times
pass to the wrong player in bad spots too many times
and just plain not going for the ball
its not a bomb guys

[prydey]

Originally Posted by gtxb67

i may be proved totally wrong on this, but the competition australia face is not as tough as the european and south american teams. at least in those continents you are likely to face germany, italy, england, france, spain, brazil, argentina etc. at some time in a real event. when australians face those teams they are friendlies. the asian competition while impressive certainly does not seem to stack up against the euro and south american teams

this was the whole point of them switching out of the australaisian to oceanic group wasn't it? its a fair point though. even though the competition is now more than before, its still not to the standard of the european nations.

bit like aussie cricket team playing bangladesh or zimbabwe in the lead up to an indian game.

[Mickxr8]

not sure if this has been done here yet but..
who loves the vuvuzella ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8JGh...&feature=email

[anto]

reality is fellas, that we just arent that good ! Determination and good ol' Aussie spirit can only get you so far, which it did in actually qualifying. Some people are continually looking for excuses instead of being honest,....not good enough enough to beat the germans and not good enough to beat ghana, simple as that. I fear the same will apply with the serbs, but there is no disgrace in that,..it is what it is.
lets hope we can at least go out on a high with a win.

[ST]

Not good enough to beat Ghana you have to be joking? The reality is most people are settling for Australia being a 3rd rate team when they can be much more.

[rodderz]

Kiwi's draw 1-1 with Italy. Italian fans in the crowd weren't happy

[ST]

Phenomenal performance by NZ. I will go ahead and say they are playing better than Australia right now. Strong defending right to the last second, the NZ goalkeeper Paston was exceptionally solid and they just had Italy completely frustrated.

Can't wait to see their next (and possibly not final) match against Paraguay. Tough match up but even with their 2:0 win Paraguay played fairly lacklustre against a very lazy Slovakia, if they are playing like that against NZ then we might be seeing another surprise upset.

[ED Classic]

Yeah good effort to hold Italy out, cant pretend NZ had the play and did get lucky with an offside goal (how frustrated would US be feeling right now?) but it all counted just the same

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by ST

Phenomenal performance by NZ. I will go ahead and say they are playing better than Australia right now

i am not sure why i am defending australia so much, because in truth it may look like i should not. however australia won their first recent world cup finals match 3-1 and were not disgraced against brazil in their second. to compare australia with new zealand, you would need to compare aus-2006 to nz-2010. the first time in a world cup seems to be relatively successful for most teams. the second time just like in most sports is harder to back up


new zealand has been very impressive so far - simply because no one probably expected that much from them, except in nz maybe




maybe it is time i tell the world i am quarter nz - however without trying to bring another code into it, after being 110% loyal to the western bulldogs for 37 years, i would be a fool to jump off brazil's bandwagon now (after 16 years), just because there are more popular options at present

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by ED Classic

cant pretend NZ had the play and did get lucky with an offside goal

i guess it is like most sports - you win some, you lose some
in my opinion, there are two top line players who should not have been given red cards so far - one should not have been given two yellows and the other should not have given the second yellow, but at least one of those sides was lucky with another decision. there are many decisions that could help to win or lose and in the end they probably go close to evening out - sometimes though the evening out takes more than one game or even tournament

[rodderz]

Originally Posted by ED Classic

Yeah good effort to hold Italy out, cant pretend NZ had the play and did get lucky with an offside goal (how frustrated would US be feeling right now?) but it all counted just the same

Italy's goal came from another quite lame sook effort for a penalty shot. In fairness the penalty was there with the holding of the jersey....but still, the usual Oscar nominated acting went on straight afterwards

[XR8putts]

Originally Posted by gtxb67

however australia won their first recent world cup finals match 3-1 and were not disgraced against brazil in their second. to compare australia with new zealand, you would need to compare aus-2006 to nz-2010. the first time in a world cup seems to be relatively successful for most teams. the second time just like in most sports is harder to back up

What rubbish! NZ deserves all the praise they're getting and then some!

And this isn't our first time at the world cup either, so there goes that theory. Italy were very lucky not to lose this morning, and the Kiwis were playing against 12 men for almost the entire game.. the Hollywood theatrics got the Italians a long way.

If the current world champions can't beat a team ranked 70-something places below them, we're doing something right!

[anto]

Originally Posted by ST

Not good enough to beat Ghana you have to be joking? The reality is most people are settling for Australia being a 3rd rate team when they can be much more.

no I am not joking and Im not "settling" for anything. Facts are facts, they were not good enough to beat Ghana, that is idisputable because they couldnt and didnt beat them..right ? anything else is making excuses and fantasy.They are a 2nd rate team atm and the results and play show it, hopefully the next generation will change that.

just my opinion of course

Congrats to the Kiwis, they are playing to their strengths and its getting them results !