Congrats on your World Cup Win

[Charlie Chalk]

Sometimes we need to let go of sporting rivalries between us brits and you ausies and just come out and offer genuine praise for a job well done. Cracking game of footie this afternoon, thought you did well to come back after going 1-0 down. Thought the ref should have booked the Japanese player for taking out Schwarzer.

Mind you, if it wasn't for our Premier League teaching most of your players how to do the job properly.....

CC

[Alpha_7]

Thanks! It's great to finally get a Win in the World Cup Finals.

[Link]

It was a nice start... Scoring 3 goals in almost 5 mins, not bad at all!!! Now if we can beat Croatia, we're likely to reach the second round of the tournament!

Link.

[kipper]

Totally agree Charlie, the Jap player should of been booked big time. Basically Australia was a goal down but it wasn't a goal that was deserved to the Japs it was just a bad decision by the refs.

[losfp]

Bleah... At work with not enough sleep. Game finished at 1am, had to wake up at 5am to get to the airport.

Worth it? But of course

Though FWIW, we need to sharpen up big time if we are a chance of beating Croatia. We dominated possession, but couldn't finish off chances, and I am still waiting for Mark Viduka to finally deliver for his country (I think he ended up with roughly a thousand offside calls, which is impressive). Bresciano is way off his game, and Kewell is clearly unfit (though equally clearly the classiest player on the pitch).

Good roll of the dice from Hiddink to bring on the attacking options in Kennedy, Cahill and Aloisi, but that won't always work.

We are a chance to snatch a point from Brazil, but will have to play much better...

[leek]

Never mind about the soccer... What about the 34-3 win by the Wallabies over England??? You didn't mention that one Charlie

[sirhc55]

I watched the match on SBS until 10 minutes before the end and decided bed was beckoning - what a mistake

[huynhie]

Never mind about the soccer... What about the 34-3 win by the Wallabies over England??? You didn't mention that one Charlie

Yes what a great sporting long weekend results wise.

[Alpha_7]

I watched the match on SBS until 10 minutes before the end and decided bed was beckoning - what a mistake

Your not the only one, a few people at work did the same thing and woke up kicking themselves.

[gstark]

Chris,

I watched the match on SBS until 10 minutes before the end and decided bed was beckoning - what a mistake

SBS arereplaying the match at 5 this afternoon.

[Grev]

Me and my Deutschland friend thought Japan would win too.

[Zeeke]

I was cheering for Japan to win... not because I wanted to see Australia lose... I was just sick of the media having a major fit over it... id rather see it finished in 1 go then have to put up with 4 weeks on how bloody good they are.. rarr rarr rarr.... I can handle the sport.. but i dont like it being crammed down my throat 24/7

Tim

[rookie2]

lofsp wrote

I am still waiting for Mark Viduka to finally deliver for his country

FWIW (and I'm an AFL fan but love all sport) I thought Viduka as a stand alone forward in first half was critical in the win - he kept us in it - he worked really hard to keep ball in the area but had no one at his feet to pass off to til cahill & co came on.

I think he has really matured - far less volatile and a more level headed leader.

go the Roos and Wallabies..  BTW do we have an Emus team doing well internationally?

[losfp]

I think he has really matured - far less volatile and a more level headed leader.

Absolutely, I think he is a class player. However, I think my comment really comes from the expectation that one day, some day, he is really going to rip games apart and score goals.... and I wish that day would come!

Not a bad weekend for the aussies.

Another lousy weekend for my club sides (stupid Swans and Eels)

I was THIS close to switching it off with 10 minutes to go. Luckily I was too lazy to get up off the couch

[redline]

i wonder what the match against brazil will bring

[PiroStitch]

It was a great match but Aust. really need to work on their defence and blunting the counter attacks. Brazil is reknowned for their lighting counter attacks and will eat Australia alive if we don't do anything. There were a few moments where Japan would have been up 3-0 if they had the ability to finish off their counter attacks. Having 4 Socceroos on one player and leaving another unmarked is just stupid.

[Charlie Chalk]

If it's any conciliation to you guys, I've been watching Viduka all season and his performance yesterday eclipsed by far anything he has achieved all season long in the premiership.

Don't know who does the game commentary on your TV, but it was the Middlesbrough manager doing the analysis over here on ITV, he was amazed at how well Viduka was playing and how motivated he looked!

I guess in a way things were evened up over the clear foul in your penalty area by the Japanese with Carhill not being booked/sent off/giving a penalty away for his challenge from behind in the area a little later on.

Looking forward to another typically nerve racking game on Thursday as our boys take on that mighty footballing nation Trinidad & Tobago. It wouldn't be England if we didn't make it hard for ourselves.

I can't wait until we play some of the stringer teams - we always seem to make a pigs ear of it when we're up against teams we *Should* beat.

CC

[rokkstar]

I

Looking forward to another typically nerve racking game on Thursday as our boys take on that mighty footballing nation Trinidad & Tobago. It wouldn't be England if we didn't make it hard for ourselves.

I can't wait until we play some of the stringer teams - we always seem to make a pigs ear of it when we're up against teams we *Should* beat.

CC

You're not wrong there Charlie. I was so bored with our lads that night and then to see England demolished on Saturday - it was just depressing. We had bloody better pick our game up.

And congrats to the Aussies, I also almost went to bed but could see the pressure they were putting on so decided to wait it out. 3 in 8 minutes....unreal!!

[Grev]

I was cheering for Japan to win... not because I wanted to see Australia lose... I was just sick of the media having a major fit over it... id rather see it finished in 1 go then have to put up with 4 weeks on how bloody good they are.. rarr rarr rarr.... I can handle the sport.. but i dont like it being crammed down my throat 24/7

Tim

We just thought that Japan's team is better than Australia's, that's all, I hated the media trying to say the Japanese are stirring stuff up before the game, get over it...

And my German-Australian friend cheered for Japan cos he's going there for a year at the end of this month and likes that place much more than here.

[MATT]

Sometimes we need to let go of sporting rivalries between us brits and you ausies and just come out and offer genuine praise for a job well done. Cracking game of footie this afternoon, thought you did well to come back after going 1-0 down. Thought the ref should have booked the Japanese player for taking out Schwarzer.

Mind you, if it wasn't for our Premier League teaching most of your players how to do the job properly.....

CC

What trying to cover the fact we smashed England in the Rugby????

MATT

[cordy]

I was cheering for Japan to win... not because I wanted to see Australia lose... I was just sick of the media having a major fit over it... id rather see it finished in 1 go then have to put up with 4 weeks on how bloody good they are.. rarr rarr rarr.... I can handle the sport.. but i dont like it being crammed down my throat 24/7

Tim

We just thought that Japan's team is better than Australia's, that's all, I hated the media trying to say the Japanese are stirring stuff up before the game, get over it...

Umm yeah but thats what they *were* doing. You could see it clearly worked in favour of the Japanese as well, the ref was making some pretty harsh calls at times. Ah well, all's well that ends well

[Grev]

Umm yeah but thats what they *were* doing. You could see it clearly worked in favour of the Japanese as well, the ref was making some pretty harsh calls at times. Ah well, all's well that ends well

Well in the SBS documentaries about the nations and history about the world cup, everybody does it.