Soccer…Oops Football: Australia vs Greece

Firstly the whole soccer versus football debate. I’ll just weigh into to it and say, why not call it football like the rest of the world. Yes we already have a “football” code in Australia, but that’s referred to as Australian Rules football or Aussie Rules or AFL. If you live the New South Wales or Queensland, football probably means Rugby League. Even then the Rugby Union purists say that Rugby League shouldn’t even be called rugby, its an insult to the name. Since all the other football codes have another more accurate name, why shouldn’t the game of soccer be called football in Australia like the rest of the world.

Secondly the game yesterday between Australia and Greece was heavily publicised in the media, but when it came down to it, really didn’t mean much. The fact that Australia won 1-0 is great (too bad Emmanuel and John) but had Australia lost, there would have been excuses that they were using the game as a World Cup preparation. Greece having stunningly and unbelievably (I gave my work mate John odds of 1-100 at the time, thankfully he declined or I would have been broke) won the European Championships, do not have that aura of a great team yet. Their win in the Euro Champs was great for them and sport, a rags to riches tale, but they have been unable to back that up by qualifying for the World Cup. The real test for Australia will be when they play a “friendly” with the Netherlands. The Dutch team have also made it into the World Cup and will be taking the game very seriously as well. They will be using it as a full scale dress rehearsal for matches in the World Cup. You don’t want to take losing form into such a big tournament. You want to start using these friendlies to get as match tough as possible.

Australia is a much improved team under the guidance of Guus Hiddink and will give the Dutch team a good challenge I think. Hiddink has done great work previously having taken the Netherlands and South Korea to the final stages of the World Cup. With his first attempt guiding Australia, he has done what no other coach has been able to do for Australian football for more than 30 years and guided the team to the World Cup. The Aussie team has become much more disciplined and that has paid off. Unless you are ultra talented like the Brazilian team and have so much skill and flair, you have to play tight and look for your opportunities. And as they say, attack always starts from defence. So if you can get your defence right, you can play on from there.

Realistically, Australia is in a pretty tough group in the World Cup. They will most likely lose to Brazil, but if they can get away with a 1-0 or 2-0 loss, they are still a chance at advancing into the next stage. They will either have to beat Japan or Croatia, which is no easy feat, and at least get a draw from the match that they don’t win. However, being the optimist, I will predict (and hope) that Australia will make it into the second stage of the World Cup.

Go the Aussie Football Team...the Socceroos hehehe :-). Looks like the team may have to change their nickname if they want soccer to be known as football. But the Footballroos just doesn’t sound right.

Above: The joyous Socceroos after John Aloisi scored the penalty to get Australia into the World Cup.