Harry Kewell put Australia through to the knockout stage of the tournament with a 79th minute miracle strike against Croatia.
In probably the most bizarre game of the tournament, almost every step was influenced by poor refereeing decisions. Australia were denied two obvious penalties, but Kewell scored from an offside position to draw the game anyway. Siminic became the first player to recieve three yellow cards in a world cup match (and quite possibly any match), and a late winner for Australia was disallowed for no apparent reason as the game fell into a shambles.
Brett Emerton was also sent off after the ball was kicked directly at him and brushed his forearm.
Nonetheless, Australia prevailed and it’s back to Kaiserslautern for the big clash with the Azzurri next Tuesday morning (Sydney time). As I’ve mentioned before, I’ll be in Gladstone, so hopefully there will be a pub open for the game. I think they’re a bit league crazy up that way…
We’re in the last 16!!!
A predictable evening’s play, with Sweden ensuring that they’ll go through to face Germany in Munich Sunday morning (Sydney time). England will face Ecuador, who were steam-rolled by the Chermans, on Monday morning in Stuttgart. Both England and Germany will start short-priced favourites, but hopefully Ecuador can pull off an upset and spare the poms the trouble of being knocked out by Argentina/Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
Speaking of which, tonight’s match up between the South Americans and the Dutch will be interesting, with the winner destined to face Germany in the quarter-finals, and the loser going on to knock out old England. I’d say Portugal and Mexico are stuffed whatever happens, as they’ll be the round of 16 opponents for Argentina and The Netherlands. Angola will be playing for an outside chance to hop into second place against Iran, but will need to get lucky for Mexico to lose to Portugal, who have qualified comfortably and will probably rest key players.
Match to watch – Argentina vs Netherlands. Look for Hernan Crespo to try and catch up to Miroslav Klose on the golden boot tally, while Arjen Robben could be the key player for The Oranje.
All the teams have now played two games in the group stage, and it’s now crunch time, as 17 teams vie for the remaining 8 positions in the knockout stage. Spain joined the elite last night, while Togo were sent packing by Switzerland. We are treated to an epic 4 games per evening for the next 4 nights, starting tonight when Sweden needs a point from England to guarantee their progress. If they lose, Dwight Yorke and his men can storm through with a decent win over Paraguay. Go Trinidad & Tobago!
Tomorrow night will see a similar situation, with Mexico needing the point from Portugal, and Angola hoping to march on through. All the action however starts on Friday morning (Sydney time), with 3 positions up for grabs. First off the virtually sudden-death encounter between the Czech Republic and Italy should be a blinder. Simultaneously, Ghana can blitz their way in to the second round with a win over the USA. The yanks are also in with an outside chance if the other game goes their way.
Then, all eyes on the biggest clash of the world cup between Croatia and Australia. The Socceroos need a win to ensure their place in the knockout stage next week, but a draw should also see them through. Croatia will be hungry for victory, as they have a good chance of going through if they win. Japan needs the result in that game to go their way, plus they will need to score a big victory over Brazil’s B-team to get their goal difference up.
The final night of group games sees another must win encounter between the Ukraine and Tunisia. Saudi Arabia are also in with the remotest of chances – if the Ukraine don’t win, they will need to thrash Spain to go through. In the group G clashes, France can ensure their passage with a 2 goal victory over Togo, and the Switzerland vs South Korea game will become a battle to decide the last team to progress, with Switzerland just needing a draw to ensure their passage.
So, the half-way point has been reached – 32 games played, 32 to come. If Australia go through we have a return to Kaiserslautern next Tuesday morning. I’ll be in Gladstone, but I’ll sure as hell be hanging out in the nearest pub when that game kicks off. Only two more sleeps until our fate is decided. Once again, go Socceroos!
The Socceroos put up a valiant fight against the South Americans, but it simply wasn’t to be. The evenly balanced encounter was blown apart when the Aussies lost concentration for five minutes after the halftime break, allowing Adriano in to open the scoring. Super-sub Fred later sealed the victory with an 89th minutes strike.
The fight is not over yet by a long way. A draw against Croatia would ensure that the Japanese need to win by at least 3-1 over Brazil to progress. The Croats looked shaky at times during their encounter with the Japs, and while they have the discipline to frustrate our midfield, I can’t see them keeping us goalless for 90 minutes, especially with the likes of Cahill and Kewell on the field.
The last couple of nights has seen Argentina, The Netherlands, Portugal and Brazil join the first three teams to qualify for the knockout stage. Our opponent, should we go through, is yet to be decided, with group E locked up tight thanks to a Ghana victory over the Czech Republic. It is now probable that either the Czechs or the Italians will miss out, with the remaining spot to be filled by the US or Ghana. After Brazil, none of these teams should be a worry for us. In fact, there’s no real big name opposition (excluding France, who are not a worry in my opinion) until the semi-finals, when the bottom half of the draw comes up against the two best teams from the top half – containing Argentina, Germany, The Netherlands, and Portugal.
All eyes now are on 5am Friday. I think we can go through. Let’s hope that the boys put in 100% and crush the Czechs.
It was all happening last night as Germany, Ecuador and England qualified for the next phase of the world cup, leaving Poland, Costa Rica and Paraguay free to book their flights home. Sweden need to get a point out of their final match against the Poms – if they lose, Trinidad and Tobago can steal their spot on goal difference with a win over Paraguay. Another two positions could be decided tonight if both Argentina and The Netherlands win their games. Match of the evening should be Mexico vs Angola – I’m predicting a high scoring affair. Unfortunately I’ve been given the premier league clash between Forest and Pittwater to referee tomorrow, so I’ll need a good night’s sleep if I’m to survive.
2 nights to go before the big match up – Australia vs Brazil. If Ronaldo “Big Mac” Luís Nazário de Lima starts, we could be in with a chance. The tubby man is going to struggle to score any goals this tournament unless he spends the next week or so on a treadmill.
On the 25th of May we beat the European champions 1-0.
On the 12th of June we beat the Asian champions 3-1.
We are the Oceanian champions.
On the 18th of June, we have a chance to beat the South American champions.
After that, all that remains is to beat Egypt and the yanks, and we are officially the greatest team in the world!
Australia have brushed aside the Japs in a thoroughly entertaining opening encounter. Despite controlling the game for almost the entire duration, the Australians trailed by a goal, thanks to a dubious decision from referee Essam Abd El Fatah, right up until the 84th minute. Super-sub Tim Cahill then banged in the equaliser, followed by a second only five minutes later. John Aloisi then wrapped it all up with a third in the 92nd minute.
Cahill is now sitting on top of the top scorers list, alongside Miroslav Klose, Paolo Wanchope and Omar Bravo. He was also named “Budweiser man of the match”, but thankfully they won’t force him to drink the weak excuse for a beer.
Next week: Brazil!
After a shaky start, Ecuador took control of another entertaining match and gave themselves a great chance of getting into the second round. Poland attack was ineffective, their defence was at times absent, and they were simply outclassed on the day. A late comeback saw them hit the woodwork twice in the last 10 minutes, but it wasn’t to be.
Ecuador now only need to beat Costa Rica next week to practially secure a spot in the second round. Poland meanwhile, have to win against Germany next week or they will surely be knocked out. It doesn’t look good for the boys in the red and white.
Let the tournament commence! I’ll give the opening ceremony about 3/10 – 1 point for Pele, 1 point for Claudia, and 1 point for the lederhosen.
As expected, Germany easily won through over Costa Rica, but some serious questions have to be asked about their defence, after lettting the Central Americans through on goal on several occasions. The Germans have a long way to go if they want to be there on July 9th.
The German goals were absolutely superb – Miroslav Klose scoring two, Lahm one, and Frings a phenomenal strike from way outside the box. With Ballack back in the team, they are really going to cause problems for any defence. I have a feeling that Germany is going to be involved in a few more high-scoring encounters before this tournament is over.
The plan was to stay up all night doing thesis work, and then watch the game at 3am. Unfortunately, I fell asleep at midnight without actually getting anything done. I got 76% for my presentation, so the pressure is off for the progress report anyway.
Back to the game. Australia’s defence was pretty atrocious for the duration of the match. In fact, the whole game was pretty poorly played. Credit to Lichtenstein though, they only have 9 professional players in the whole country and they managed to not only hold Australia out for most of the match, but they also created many chances. The coverage was an improvement on the Dutch fiasco, but still not up to world cup standard.
Anyway, I really think we need Schwarzer in the starting lineup. Kalac is good, but he just hasn’t played enough games. Schwarzer would have saved that own goal.
Just one more sleep until the world cup starts. Gotta get down to the TAB and place some bets.
Croatia 2 – 2 Australia
Sport | stu | 
June 23, 2006 8:33 am | 
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